City 1-1 Villa - Post Match

[SixtiesFox]

Battered them and all to play for. Hamza and Nacho great substitutions. Will they come out on their own patch? If they do we'll murder them. Still can't understand what Chilwell offers going forward. Hardly put a cross in. He just plays it backwards or square. Pointless! 

Edited 8 January 2020 by SixtiesFox

[chrishlcfc]

Also not just speaking in hindsight I thought before the game that Choudhury should have played tonight. He was superb but it released the shackles on our more creative players. A rare mistake on team selection by Rodgers 

[Fox85]

We need to make signings and ASAP. Individual so called key players getting comfortable knowing they will be picked.

 

Get that money withdrawn and spend some.

[peterborofox]

Poor performance. Rodgers cost us that game.

 

Formation wrong, I don't know why he likes to keep changing away from the 4141. 

 

Chilwell is strongly being shown for what he is. Decent at best. He gets the ball out wide and then turns around and slows everything down. He was woeful today. 

 

Tielmans very poor again too I thought. He hasn't hit the heights of last season consistently if at all. Just doesn't look right 

 

Hamza looked hungry and helped get the equaliser. Would like to see him play more now Ndidi is out.

 

Quite worried about this Saturday. Southampton have been decent away from home and picked up form recently. Theyve also been tough for us to beat at home. Let's get it right it's not the same team that we put nine by. If we play the slow, no movement off the ball football we did today, we won't win.

[tylesta]

5 minutes ago, StriderHiryu said:

This is why it's good the semi finals are over 2 legs. We couldn't have done much more, we created enough opportunities and they basically had just the one which they scored from. Some players off form and an overall disapointing result, but I think we were decent enough and if we do that again we should still get through. 

One?? Could of been two nil down!

[Manwell Pablo]

The whole midfield was shit especially in the first half but then I don’t know what we expect playing three attack minded midfielders from the start. Hamza coming on sorted us right out not only because he’s played well but because it’s balanced the side better. Ndidi getting injured is a hammer blow but let’s give this lad his chance now instead of replacing him with dissimilar players.

 

They took their opportunity and did a good job of holding onto it until they completely fcked up but we are back in it now. Hopefully Brendan fine tunes the lineup because I’m not sure about Chillwells role at the moment, have never been happy with how we use Perez and  in Ndidis abense Choudhurry needs to play. On Choudhurry, time out seems to have done him the world of good, still tenacious and winning the ball but the feeling he could break someone’s legs at any moment seems to have gone since his reintroduction to the side.

 

Finally fair play Tyrone Mings fantastic performance.

 

 

[shade]

5 minutes ago, maynefox said:

Rodgers got it horribly wrong, once again in a big game.

 

2 LBs on the pitch and 5 defenders trying to beat Villa at home. It's embarrassing. Nacho sub should have been earlier and the formation needed changing. Thank god for Hamza.

 

Tielemans woeful once again. Looks unfit, overweight and docile. His passing was piss poor.

 

Chilwell: cash in next summer. He did zero take ons down the left wing in the second half. It was painful watching him. That's his job as a wing back. Too many times he played it backwards or cut inside.

 

Fear that our Wembley chance may go. That was a massive opportunity.

harsher than I would be, but I agree on all the points 

[The Guvnor]

Mings was outstanding and we struggled to play over him, around him, or past him  their keeper played a blinder as wel.

How Nacho doesn't play more often partnering Vardy is a mystery, what does the lad have to do.

 

[Dahnsouff]

Barnes.

[oxtonfox]

Villa at their place will be difficult wth the atmosphere. We will need to be right on it all over the pitch to get past them and it will not be easy as some people are making out. A few players are not playing a tune for some reason and they're in a flat spot (Chilwell, Youri, Praet) and we can't afford to carry that many as we have been. Leave Brendan to earn his stripes...

[Kitchandro]

3 minutes ago, maynefox said:

Rodgers got it horribly wrong, once again in a big game.

 

2 LBs on the pitch and 5 defenders trying to beat Villa at home. It's embarrassing. Nacho sub should have been earlier and the formation needed changing. Thank god for Hamza.

 

Tielemans woeful once again. Looks unfit, overweight and docile. His passing was piss poor.

 

Chilwell: cash in next summer. He did zero take ons down the left wing in the second half. It was painful watching him. That's his job as a wing back. Too many times he played it backwards or cut inside.

 

Fear that our Wembley chance may go. That was a massive opportunity.

First post I've read where someone has been honest instead of just saying Villa did well.

 

Villa didn't do well, they just dived all game. We should be taking responsibility for our poor performance and team selection.

[Dahnsouff]

Come on, Villa were superb in defence. Their game plan worked 

[Finnegan]

Can we play 433 again now please? 

[wokinghamfox]

14 minutes ago, Tazfox said:

Chilwell not a wing back. Horribly negative from him. 

 

Tielemans turning in one of the worst performances I've seen in recent times. 

 

Frustrating game

Tielemans raised the bar so high at the end of last season that he had created a rod for his own back. We almost looked on him as a demi god, desperate to sign him with massive expectations.

 

You can see the frustration in his face. It just isnt happening for him. I didnt think he did that badly apart from too many wayward passes. He will get it back. 

Edited 8 January 2020 by wokinghamfox

[Nalis]

If anyone is wondering....

 

'If scores are level after the two legs of the semi-final then the game goes straight to penalties. No away goal law, no extra-time.'

[sishades]

Matty Piper criticising Chillwell for playing safe. 

[MPH]

11 minutes ago, FIF said:

Defend him as much as you want but he was horrific today and he's been rubbish most of the season.

 

He's our record signing, yet he's done less since we bought him than slimani did for us.

 

Time he was dropped. He isn't even in our top 6 midfielders.

 

 

 

 

you just love making yourself look daft don’t you?

[vanity]

We have to play someone who can score goals on our left. Neither Chilwell nor Fuchs give us any sort of goal-scoring presence, and it makes life much easier on opposing defenses, who can then pay more attention to Ricardo and Maddison. It's a subtle thing, but just being able to play an extra step or two off our left side close down a lot of the nifty, intricate passing we do. 

 

Fuchs seemed poor defensively (could've kept a clean sheet if he'd not flubbed the ball up near midfield that allowed their attack down our left side that led to their goal). He also was beaten on the header that went off the crossbar, though I am less concerned about that, that was Kasper's ball all day.

 

Tielemans is ponderous and careless on the ball. Is he unfit? I cannot tell but he seems an entirely different player than last season. Or an indifferent player, perhaps.

 

Pulling Tielemans was fine but what exactly does Marc Albrighton bring other than defense? His only attacking contribution is his crossing, and when we have him do that, it just wastes possession that could be utilized by more attacking players who can create goals in a variety of ways. He is typically an solid defensive substitution, but we don't have the attacking players to make use of his crosses really. We were at home, we were dominant, we needed an attacking player. Marc is not an attacking player. He has one trick oon the opponent's side of the field, his crossing, but we don't have players who attack the ball in the air. Would be curious to know what the gaffer was thinking. He probably had a good reason for that, but unless it was defensive, IDK what it was

 

We are going to acutely feel Ndidi's absence this month. Our defense is only excellent when he is on the field. I wonder whether Ndidi is more of an attacking catalyst than we realize. It may be that his takeaways lead to more advantageous breaks than we realize. Not sure if there is a stat that tracks this though.

 

Iheanacho looked very good, even without the goal. The goal though was beautiful. Maddison had some great opportunities to score, but was unlucky in that everything he smashed right at the keeper. 

 

We had poor energy the 1H, looked like we expected to dominate and overlooked Villa. Probably cost us the win. 

 

I assume we want to play Hamza at DM this month, but Mendy may be better playing the deeper DM than Ndidi does. Worth keeping an eye on. 

 

The lads played hard AF 2H, they deserved better than a draw in the end, but this tie is still winnable. Let's see it. WEMBLEY PLEASE! 

Edited 8 January 2020 by vanity

[foxes_rule1978]

Villa played for a draw and just about got it, we were far from our best but nothing from villa should concern us second leg 

[Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo]

Hard one to judge, let's be fair we were all over them until their goal. All over them last 20 minutes too - much better we go into the 2nd leg level rather than behind as they'll have to attack and that'll benefit us no end

 

Shame Vardy didn't score, well happy for Iheanacho - hopefully he starts next leg over Perez. Chilwell had a stinker, and I don't think Tielemans did anything positive whatsoever and is so slow off the mark (add that to a string of recent concerning performances). Quality from Choudhury again

[Dr The Singh]

2 minutes ago, Dahnsouff said:

Come on, Villa were superb in defence. Their game plan worked 

That means Brendon's failed?

[TWUKO]

Villa sucked all the football out the game. Defended well but you can do that when you put 11 men behind the ball, they let us have it and when they had it just went to ground!

 

What did kasper have to do all game? Pick the ball out the net and dive on one ball across the face of goal, that's it!!!

 

I absolutely hate teams like this that have no intention of playing, they dont even have a striker, they are a garbage team!

 

Just hope they try to play a bit more in front of their home fans and we open them up like we did before!

 

We played well and had a good work ethic despite a few poor performances.

 

Chillwell in particular is really starting to annoy me, can barley cross a ball, can't beat anyone in a one v one unless it's by accident and doesn't defend the far post very well. His best attribute is probably a good first touch, fairly quick and not bad at passing but compare him to Ricardo on the other side he's poor! Seeing him laughing and joking with his best mate grealish at the end topped it off for me!!!

[Sunbury Fox]

11 minutes ago, ScouseFox said:

not too upset about that, said in the pre match thread they will obviously be here to defend. as long as we didn’t lose they cannot just defend at home. they have to try and score and then we can make mugs of them. 

 

hamza was excellent. if wilf isn’t back then he has to start next time seen as nobody else on our team seemed to have any idea how to tackle jack grealish. 

Most of those so-called 'fouls' on Grealish were a joke. Goes down so easily and Kavanagh fell for it every single time.

[Guest ttfn]

Enough with giving referees responsibility for managing the clock.

 

3 minutes of stoppage time at the end of the game is absolutely absurd. Whether we looked like scoring or not is irrelevant, we’re being short-changed.

[Lambert09]

Personally thought Pérez was our best player up to his substitution. Hamza really made the difference. Brendan May have got the line up wrong but his tinkering saved the day. Glad he’s not stubborn like puel