mozy Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 Krul - 6 Could have saved both goals on another day but it isn't right to blame him. Janmaat - 6 Lost Silva for the opener, solid otherwise. Willo - 7 Epitome of solid Colo - 6 Shaky at times Dummett - 6 As above Anita - 7 Kept us ticking well from his best position Sissoko - 7 Should have scored but lively Colback -8 Excellent on the ball and defensively Cabella - 8 Biggest fret to Man City, going to be a good one. Gouff - 6 Ran around, tried hard, offered little, ronseal performance. Rivere - 6 Chill out with the finishing bro Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 Aye, pace on the break with two (max three) players going forward. We wasted so many opportunities because the midfield has clearly been told to be careful. The two breaks in the first half were disgraceful. Could have easily had an overload but only 2 players broke. This was at 0-1 too. Game couldn't have gone more predictably, they score early after mounting pressure from us sitting back and then try to do as little as possible to get over the line. We have the inevitable bit of bluster where we create a couple of half chances before falling to the inevitable sucker punch. Same as last season but with less bluster. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Belfast Mags Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 Thought was looked like a side with 3 or 4 new players as some of the passing/movement was a bit off but overall I think there's enough to suggest that we've the making of a reasonable side. de Jong is going to be the key to this side IMO Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sugoinufc Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 some thoughts: First - fairly positive. Biggest concern is how our striker AGAIN is being left alone in the box. I know we are playing City but we should have a go - not acceptable to have one man in the box (first half)!!! This has been my main criticism for a looooong time now! Fix it Pardew - rather play attacking stuff - then try to steal a point at home and still loose 0-2!!! Janmaat: so so today - but will come good. Mike / Colo: like both - but we should replace at least one of them. Dummet: prefer Santon Colback: free transfer - what a great signing. When all fit probably not a starter but good to have. Looking forward to see more of him. Gouffran: bench him Cabella. Exciting wow - also teammates have to play him right. He likes to play 1-2! Obertan: poor Aarons: Looked raw Riviere: difficult conditions - did ok - but concerned about his end product Ayose: still thinking about that chance - what a debut that could have been. Interesting to follow him. Sissoko: i like him - does many good things. poor passer. Our bench was shit: i know we were missing key players like: De Jong, Cisse, Yanga, Ferreyra, Tiote, Santon (ben arfa) Still would like us to buy following: Proven goalscorer Quality CB AMC/AMR/AML - a AMC who also can play on the wing(s) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robster Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 Many of the best (missed) goal scoring chances are shots off target. Obviously, a shot on target is required to win with the exception of a own goal, but the statistic does not really tell you about the amount of threat a team carried in a match. The statistic is a handy way of expressing the fact that during 90 minutes, we offered very little genuine threat. I'm sure that if we'd had 5,6,7 very near misses, the fact that none were 'on target' would barely get mentioned. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 Those first half highlights. :lol: Must have edited out a shitload of us being decent. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
triggs Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 Only saw the highlights now as I was at a different game today. Colback set pieces looked good. We didn't look bad, Perez was really unlucky with that chance. Cabella very lively Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.S.R. Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 That second is so annoying. Shouldn't have been a chance there. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 Those first half highlights. :lol: Must have edited out a shitload of us being decent. We were bang average first half like, second half was noticably better as we actually looked like creating a chance and got more than one player in to the box. Saying that, even when Perez goes through look at the City players busting a gut to get back while not one of ours is following up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 Who's Cabillah btw? Is it not just Cabella? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeyt Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 Pards :lol: Singling out their left back as their star player Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pedro111 Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 Why show Dzeko praising the Man City fans? Its fucking easy to support a team like that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.S.R. Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 Why the hell was Colo standing that close to goal in relation to the rest of the defence? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 Dzeko was ace today, best I've seen play in ages. Held everything up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jordan Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 City didn't leave second gear and we couldn't get a shot on target. I wouldn't count this as a promising performance. Dummett is worse than shit, shouldn't be anywhere near the first team. How he started ahead of Haidara stuns me, then I remember who our manager is. Colback MOTM Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeyt Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 Dzeko was ace today, best I've seen play in ages. Held everything up. Yeah was very good, Jovetic on the other hand looked a bit rubbish imo Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deuce Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 Overall, I thought we moved the ball pretty well. First City goal was well-taken, great touch by Dzeko to find Silva. Second was Colo being a bit hard done by, but he didn't have a great match overall either. Janmaat was our weakest player on the backline imo, but deserves time to settle into the league (remember how poor Debuchy was over the first few weeks of last season?). Willo was typically unspectacular. Wasn't Dummett's worst performance, but that's about his ceiling as a Premier League fullback. Just, meh. Midfield 3 played well, but as expected, they fell short on creativity. Colback and Anita are far too similar to have both in the side simultaneously. Sissoko looked much better centrally (of course) and moved the ball well through central midfield. His play was lacking the further forward he got, however. Hopefully de Jong's return will introduce a little attacking verve from midfield and close the gap with the forwards. Cabella was great fun to watch, I'm excited to have him in the squad. Also put in the Alan Pardew-obligatory defensive shift, tracking back well beyond where he probably should have. So hopefully that means he won't be Ben Arfa'd anytime soon. Only real creative player in the squad though (save HBA), which is troubling. Riviere had great movement up-top and fought hard to hold-up play. Finishing was dreadful though. Didn't look like a goal threat in the slightest. Having de Jong nearby will hopefully give him an outlet and allow us to put some shots on target. Aarons and Ayoze looked lively when they came on...refreshing to see some young players given a shot in the first team. Ayoze was unlucky not to have the equalizer. Obertan was alright. A performance like this probably gives us points against lesser teams, but there are still a lot of question marks. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pilko Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 Why the hell was Colo standing that close to goal in relation to the rest of the defence? I wondered why none of the pundits today on either the Sky coverage or MOTD2 noticed that. He was about four or five yards behind the rest of the line and playing Aguero on; all this before Aguero made him look like an old carthorse. The little extra step Aguero takes before shooting is exactly the same thing he did at the Etihad against Taylor last year to make it 2-0, when Taylor looked fairly in control. Proof that we don't ever learn. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest firetotheworks Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 Pardew praising their left back and saying that spark and magic was the difference. "Tonight Matthew, I'm going to be myself." Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Banaloona Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 Plenty of positives to be taken from the game. We looked more energetic, seemed better in possession of the ball and overall stronger than the second part of last season but how much of this is to do with the influx of the new players and their individual eagerness to show well (something that overtime will diminish which is when expert coaching and management takes over) rather than what has been delivered on the training ground over the summer? Still concerning that we didn't commit the required numbers forward at the appropriate times in the first half today. We only committed more in the second half because we "was" 1-0 down. Had it been 0-0 there is no way he would have told them to make more of a "fret". I will give them the benefit of the doubt but anything less than victory at Villa next week coupled with a similar type of performance will mean AP is under considerable pressure immediately. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stifler Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 City didn't leave second gear and we couldn't get a shot on target. I wouldn't count this as a promising performance. Dummett is worse than shit, shouldn't be anywhere near the first team. How he started ahead of Haidara stuns me, then I remember who our manager is. Colback MOTM I think they key point is that we didn't let them leave 2nd gear. Today we were all over them, always closing down, always ready to make a tackle, numbers back to make it a brick wall to get passed us for the most part. Sure we could have done more in attack, basically we lacked pace in our attacks. But to say Man City never left 2nd gear is kind of taking away from our performance. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
merlin Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 Unfortunately, we had a severe storm here in WA last night and that led to a power cut for several hours which meant I missed the game and couldn't even record it. Maybe I was lucky... However, everything seems to have been very predictable and proceeded much as I would have expected before the game. I NEVER predict scorelines seriously, but my wife asked me what I thought it would be and I was spot-on with the guess. City would never have to seriously get into top gear to beat the current side and especially when managed by Pardew. The weaknesses we knew existed before the season started(Colo's loss of pace etc and he was never the quickest, Williamson's limitations plus no proven top class striker signed)were capitalized on by City and they obviously just did enough to win comfortably. Undoubtedly, some of the players will get better as they adjust to the PL, but under this manager they are never going to realise their potential and we will never do that as a club either whilst the ship is spoiled for want of a ha'porth of tar. On to Villa Park and the REAL examination begins.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taylor Swift Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 For everyone talking about the lack of shots on target, did we not create two of the three biggest chances of the game? Silva scored the easiest chance, Perez and Sissoko missed ours. Krul didn't have much to do besides that apart from a couple of long rangers. It was a tight game and their quality shone through. The difference isn't as wide or glaring as expected, which is positive stuff for us. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 For everyone talking about the lack of shots on target, did we not create two of the three biggest chances of the game? Silva scored the easiest chance, Perez and Sissoko missed ours. Krul didn't have much to do besides that apart from a couple of long rangers. It was a tight game and their quality shone through. The difference isn't as wide or glaring as expected, which is positive stuff for us. All of the hope for tomorrow from today seem to rely on the new players maintaining this level of ability, despite every player seemingly getting worse as the season goes on. It also assumes that Pardew won't switch it up because he's fucking clueless. Nothing that happened today means anything other than the loss. Also, don't forget that we're a fucking stepping stone for half the squad, and we were playing one of the biggest teams in Europe. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taylor Swift Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 I know, I know. I don't want the first game of the season to be doom and gloom. Give me ten games of hope then I'm good. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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