Man City Post Match Thread - first defeat in 12

[Mark 'expert' Lawrenson]

Fair result we were poor, still second know need for the upcoming meltdown, I wonder who the scapegoats will be? 

[Mike Oxlong]

We didn’t turn up save for Vardy 

 

To be honest I couldn’t tell you what our tactics were unless the players were instructed to chase shadows 

 

Don’t expect much from Wednesday to be honest, especially with Soy out,  but still optimistic for the rest of the season 

[Guest Manini]

Can’t even be arsed. Off for a beer. 

[Sly]

Let’s look at the positives.

 

Liverpool are still drawing and VAR has gone against them.

[don_danbury]

1 minute ago, ttfn said:

Manchester City were excellent, comfortably the best team we’ve played by a distance and we didn’t turn up.

 

As I said in the match thread it’s absolutely ridiculous that you can get a penalty for a minimal clip of the foot but absolutely nothing for being totally wiped out to the extent that you somersault and end up going off injured.

did VAR even look at that? 

[Guest Kopfkino]

Man City were absolutely fantastic, the intensity and quality they played with would have been a joy to watch against anyone but us, and very few teams in the world could live with it. Wasn't too dissimilar to the performance under Puel there. We were battered and fair play to them, the league table lies in terms of the relative strength of both teams. 

 

But we did everything we could to make it harder for ourselves. It was actually really easy for them in the end. 
 

Why are we playing a Number 10 in the Number 8 position up against De Bruyne? Maddison didn't get near him once which dragged Chilwell out.
Why when this is so blatantly ****ing obvious very early on do we continue with it for the whole game? Drop Chilwell into the centre and drag Barnes in to sit at left back to take away Mahrez's space and sit deep for a bit. Chilwell can then go out to De Bruyne if needs be
 

Why when Perez stinks out the whole of the North West with his first half performance does he return for the second half to extend the stink to the whole of the country?

Why when you consistently can't beat the press and give it away 25 yards from your own goal umpteen times do you keep pissing around with it to do exactly the same and keep the pressure on you
 

Why the **** is Ricardo diving in like that? 

 

Hopefully on Thursday we can be happy with our part in the game whatever the result. Let's just make sure we get that Top 4 spot

[KingKoala]

Cup game affected today's performance.

Everyone looked slow at everything.

[LC/FC]

Away to reigning champions that have quality throughout... Disappointing but fair result.

Wasn't good enough today. 

Our press hasn't been as good last few weeks.

Also definitely need some more top class attackers to get the goals and not just rely on Vardy. That's probably all our game needs, a better attacking force. 

Roll on Liverpool. 

[filbertway]

Very disappointing how we basically bent over. We showed no fight or belief that we had a chance.

Nice finish by Vardy but we barely left our half. Made a great team look even better by turning up and shitting ourselves.

[AyewJoking]

Man city were on it. We were disappointing but 3-1 was respectable considering their chances.

 

Mind you, we could have had 3.

 

 

 

[Nick]

 

 

The best team has won. And won convincingly.

 

End of.

 

It doesn’t mean we can’t finish top four but the Man City performance tonight oozed class and did so in the blueprint of what we are aiming for. Kinda tough to swallow but they are the better side with the better players which is why our players will want to play for them eventually and why we are beginners in the top four total football world. But if we spend right we might get there.

[Suffolk exile]

As usual, complete FT meltdown after defeat.

Honestly we've never had it so good. Get a a grip. We are second in the league at Christmas with a team brimming with young, hungry and talented players. 

 

[StriderHiryu]

2 minutes ago, urban.spaceman said:

Were Man City better than us?

 

Obviously.

 

Would the scoreline be the same if VAR was actually competent?

 

Obviously not. 
 

Pathetic. 

Come on we can't blame VAR for that one, they completely outclassed us start to finish even when we took the lead against the run of play. The way they stopped us from playing out was magnificent, just look at the amount of no hope long balls Evans had to play in the first half for example.

 

Losing to Man City away is no shame, but that was probably our worst performance of the season. Disappointing to see a lack of fight or bravery to play with the ball. We have a young team so it's perhaps to be expected, but to get any better, we have to learn to improve in that area. Only Maddison of the midfielders and fullbacks I felt showed the confidence to try and play.

 

Anyway, it's just one game. Let's put it behind us and move on. A top 4 finish and potential cup final would still be an incredible season.

 

 

 

[TheSomersetFox]

Well played Man City. Didn't expect much from this one so at least it's out the way now

[MC Prussian]

Ok, third wake-up call in a row now.

When will we finally react?

 

I mean, one can always expect a dip in form. But look whom we're playing next, at home...

 

All in all, a deserved defeat against a superb team vastly better than us. De Bruyne running the show, at his peak.

 

Our midfield has put in a very timid showing today. Maddison (gone in the second half), Perez (should've been taken off earlier after the clash), Tielemans (anonymous for the entire game!), Ndidi (not up to speed), Barnes (one fantastic pass, otherwise wasteful). Sorry, but you need to do A LOT better.

 

Still think Ederson should've been sent off for that tackle on Barnes or at least it should've been a yellow and a penalty.

And Pereira did touch Sterling, even though contact was minimal. Just can't do that in your own box, silly boy.

[foxinsox]

On the bright side, Liverpool having to play extra time, they may be leggier than us on Boxing Day.

[oxtonfox]

We didn't hit the heights today and Man City deserved to win for sure. But I'm happy about where we are in the league. 2nd in the league is no fluke, we deserve it and I hope we learn positively from today rather than it triggering the start of a slide. 

[Cadno'r Cymoedd]

Hats off to Manchester City for a highly deserved win. Their press and general play was excellent. 

 

From our perspective, it was a very painful watch. We were slow in comparison and tactically poor, Brendan was too slow himself to react.

 

It was undoubtedly a bad day at the office for almost all, Vardy and Kasper excepted, and hopefully one we can shrug off and learn from. However, we have had signs in the last few games this was coming. 

 

Need to bounce back on Boxing Day. 

 

 

[kingston_fox]

Haven't lost for a while... Bring on the FT meltdown!

[Happy Fox]

Merry Christmas everyone, we are second in the league! We do need better wingers but that’s a given hopefully Top splashes the cash in January.

 

 

[NaijaFox]

Real DOWNER! They are a better team, but disappointed that we went out like a lamb... Bah humbug  

[Sampson]

In other news, Vardy is still good and just a step above.

 

Still cant believe there were people voting Soyunchu or Ndidi as our player of the season so far.

 

If Vardy doesn't win it this season it will be daylight robbery.

[jonthefox]

Lost to a better team. Lets move on. 

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

ONLY ONE CITY. 

[EastAnglianFox]

Not going to dwell to much on that one. 

 

Tielemans is starting to become a concern though