Thespence Posted September 30, 2007 Share Posted September 30, 2007 The point is people are happy to rave about Allardyce's backroom team, his scouting network that helped him spot the likes of Enrique Enrique people contacted us. Source:C.Mort in The Mag Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baggio Posted September 30, 2007 Share Posted September 30, 2007 The point is people are happy to rave about Allardyce's backroom team, his scouting network that helped him spot the likes of Enrique Enrique people contacted us. Source:C.Mort in The Mag Had Allardyce seen him play before then? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChezGiven Posted September 30, 2007 Share Posted September 30, 2007 I dont think we were awful, think thats maybe a bit harsh. We were second best on the day, that doesnt make us awful. Some of Man city's football was superb, not 'just good'. It was excellent football played by some excellent players. We had our moments in that game and i agree with the general sentiment that getting the ball on the deck and passing it about would be preferable. Its diappointing that we couldnt apply more pressure or convert the chances we had in the second half. Could have easily been 2-2 but then again, that may have just meant more papering over the cracks. One other thing about Sven, he didnt accept the Man city job and then think about which players he wanted. He has had all the players he signed on his radar for months beforehand. Allardyce has had as much time as Sven has to find players. Allardyce was in full time employment for all but 2 games of last season. Sven has been off all year, not working for anyone at all. To think the two situations are comparable is not right. A good manager should know what good players are out there, Sven himself said he hadn't watched some of his signings live and only on video but it's the risk he took, people were happy to praise Allardyce for some of his bargain signings at Bolton saying how great his scouting team was yet now people are saying he didn't have enough time to identify targets? Sven had more time on his hands last season, that is beyond argument. Did he spend this time planning his return to English football, or sunning himself in Barbados? At least 90% of Allardyce's time would have been spent preparing Bolton for their games. Cant believe this is a point of discussion. My point, and it is more than valid, is that he spent this window trying to sort the defence out. We were desperate to land Beye in the last week. His midfield signings havent really solved any of our problems and is a fair criticism of his difficult summer. Sven may have signed players having not seen them play (i did think this was media talk but that was just an assumption) but i dont see how this adds to your argument? I doubt very much Sven spent every minute planning for his return to football, in fact most of the players he bought are pretty well known in World football anyway. The point is people are happy to rave about Allardyce's backroom team, his scouting network that helped him spot the likes of Enrique and this supposed prozone network that HTT bangs on about that gives him stats of every player yet he couldn't come up with one creative player out of that lot. The reason we didn't sign one creative player is because Allardyce was happy not to sign one, not because he's been too busy signing Beye, lets not forget he's signed Barton, Smith, Geremi and Faye who he see's as midfield players. We have to wait and see what Barton will add to this midfield. We were both impressed with Geremi in pre-season and so was Sam as he made him captain. However, he has been a disappointment for most fans and to Sam too as he keeps substituting him. I thought we would get more creativity from him than we got. Nice ball to Martins yesterday though. I suppose if your philosophy is based on zones and putting balls into dangerous areas this is the sort of midfield you get. I think if you asked Sam if the team is finished and if not, where do we need to improve, he would say attacking mid. Its clear to everyone now, wasnt that clear in the summer though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thespence Posted September 30, 2007 Share Posted September 30, 2007 Sam says: Gezza had to stop Johnson, Butty had to stop Elano & then someone had to stop Hamman as he feeds Petrov & basically we didn't do that job well enough out of possession. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PCW1983 Posted September 30, 2007 Share Posted September 30, 2007 A very poor away day all round, Man City simply had too much for us on the day and we seemed to be content on using only Milner as our only outlet. Not to worry though im pretty sure better teams then us will go there this year and get beat too. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest newcastle4life Posted September 30, 2007 Share Posted September 30, 2007 Very disappointed with the performance especially since we scored first hope for better next game. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cronky Posted September 30, 2007 Share Posted September 30, 2007 I didn't think either full back was given a lot of protection, and I wondered if there's a bit of a problem with the 4-3-3 when players are new to it. In a 4-4-2, it's clearly the responsibility of the wide midfield player to help the full back, but in a 4-3-3 does that job fall to the wide player in the midfield or the wide player in the front line? Sometimes against Man City and West Ham, it looked like the opposition was getting too much space out wide and I wondered whether the players were a bit unsure of who was doing what. In my playing days, no-one was trying anything but 4-4-2, so I genuinely don't know the answer here. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SLK Posted October 1, 2007 Share Posted October 1, 2007 We didn't play too badly in the first half, but City's pace and quick passing made us look like dinosaurs by the end. Sven won every battle with Allardyce today. Better, cuter football, and players used far more effectively in their positions. Milner was too slow, and N'Zogbia was played at LB which robbed us of the width needed to get much from Viduka. A triumph for Sven in an important battle. Another game for us where we got passed to death which isn't encouraging. Winning ugly is ok by me but losing ugly and watching other teams dance waltzes round us like Arsenal and City sricks in the craw. Exactly...WE LOST TO A BETTER MANAGER... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Decky Posted October 1, 2007 Share Posted October 1, 2007 Spurs in 3 weeks, not looking forward to it. The last team id want to repeat what City and Arsenal did to us. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SLK Posted October 1, 2007 Share Posted October 1, 2007 does anyone think we would have won if Emre came on with 20 minutes left? We blatantly wouldn't have He would have done a better job than Butt and created more chances for our strikers... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsunami Posted October 1, 2007 Share Posted October 1, 2007 Haven't read any of the post; for my money MC played well on the day & deserved to win. We had a fantastic start (great goal) but BS will be very disappointed with their first 2 goals. We took up a high line and our midfield failed to close the ball down for the first goal. The time given to pick the pass was unbelievable. The second goal was down to a poor header from Zog & then a missed header from Roz. Zog again showed that he isn't a LB. Enrique has got to be given a start. In a game where you score first you have to be disappointed to lose. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paully Posted October 1, 2007 Share Posted October 1, 2007 Waffle of a buffon nature! http://www.true-faith.co.uk/html/Features/0708report_mancity_a.htm Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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