LCFC 0-2 Man City - Post-Match Thread

[Ricey]

No one was whinging about negative tactics when we set up like that against Man City away, Arsenal away, Spurs away, Liverpool at home and Man Utd in the cup and won them all.

 

It’s not always going to work but it’s been fruitful for us this season.

 

We weren’t bad today, we just need really got going and City played well.

 

Onwards.

[trabuch]

I blame Turkey.

[inckley fox]

1 minute ago, Ricey said:

No one was whinging about negative tactics when we set up like that against Man City away, Arsenal away, Spurs away, Liverpool at home and Man Utd in the cup and won them all.

 

It’s not always going to work but it’s been fruitful for us this season.

 

We weren’t bad today, we just need really got going and City played well.

 

Onwards.

There was always an outlet in those games. We didn't have it today. And didn't react soon enough to find another way round.

 

But, like you say, onwards.

[Col city fan]

9 minutes ago, Jaspa said:

Also wouldn't be surprised if they were heavily interested in Ndidi when Fernandinho goes.

Ideal replacement to be fair although Fernandinho is a better ball player

[PAULCFC]

42 minutes ago, Paninistickers said:

Did anyone else feel that de bruyne had a little kick at Big Dan .....and the clutching of the head was to try and throw VAR off the scent? And how de bruyne left one in kn tielemans. Cnt.

 

Appalling how the ref let de bruyne inform him of what decisions to make. That free kick in the first half being the worst. 

 

And I've booked that cnt fernadihnho for the little waist pull on tielmans to prevent a quick free kick. 

 

Why don't refs stamp on this shite? If Burnley did it refs would be all over it.

 

 

I thought De Bruyne deserved the Yellow more than Dan for his holding of his face.

[Col city fan]

2 minutes ago, PAULCFC said:

I thought De Bruyne deserved the Yellow more than Dan for his holding of his face.

DeBruyne was incredibly embarrassing there

But fookin Hell, he’s a top player 

Hard to look past Belgium in the Euros with him and Youri in the middle 

Edited 3 April 2021 by Col city fan

[Corky]

5 minutes ago, inckley fox said:

We haven't helped ourselves though. I've been bombarded, justifiably, with lovely chaps sending the standard 'well you lot didn't bother turning up, did you?' message. Fair enough, in truth. I thought we were meek, passive, never truly competitive. If we'd been a League One side enjoying our FA Cup day in the sun against the big boys, and that had been the display, I'd have felt like we never really gave ourselves a chance.

 

It was god awful crap. A massive gulf between two sides, and we can either buy into the favoured narrative that we just accept our inability to compete, or say - look, if we want to end this season well, then the bar has to be set a lot higher than that. Many poorer sides than us will give Man City a better game than that, regardless of whether Pep's men are at their best. And, unless we wake ourselves up, we'll drop points to sides way worse than Man City with performances as passive and negative as that.

 

I'm fairly confident that we'll raise our levels after today, and be way more positive against other teams. But it'd be way too easy to buy into the 'well, what can you do against such other-worldly class?' narrative, and thus kid ourselves that today's performance was something better than a straightforward no-show. We can give any side in the world a better contest than was offered up today.

 

As for Col singling out Amartey - I agree that he wasn't up to it, but I see no reason to focus on his performance. It was, from a tactical viewpoint, a textbook case of 'this is how you set up against a superior team and give yourself absolutely no chance of getting a result', so - as big a fan as I am of BR - I'd prefer to look at that before scapegoating anyone else.

After 35 minutes of the away game this place was probably wondering what the hell was going on as barely ventured out of our own half. An hour later it was clear why. The way we set up is the right way to play against them- what you need is everyone to be on their game, at their best and the opposition to have an off-day. Unfortunately, neither of those things happened.

 

Maybe they wised up to our style? Maybe we struggled more without Barnes carrying the ball with him?

 

The facts are, this Manchester City team are a nightmare to play against, currently. They've won every game bar one since mid-December. They've torn apart Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham in that run. Nobody except Manchester United has managed to stop them, however they've set up. The likelihood of us turning up and doing much different was slim. The away match was a freak where we lured them in and robbed them. The way they press and harry, as well as foul, makes it very tough to get a rhythm going.

 

This match won't define our season.

[Col city fan]

1 minute ago, Corky said:

After 35 minutes of the away game this place was probably wondering what the hell was going on as barely ventured out of our own half. An hour later it was clear why. The way we set up is the right way to play against them- what you need is everyone to be on their game, at their best and the opposition to have an off-day. Unfortunately, neither of those things happened.

 

Maybe they wised up to our style? Maybe we struggled more without Barnes carrying the ball with him?

 

The facts are, this Manchester City team are a nightmare to play against, currently. They've won every game bar one since mid-December. They've torn apart Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham in that run. Nobody except Manchester United has managed to stop them, however they've set up. The likelihood of us turning up and doing much different was slim. The away match was a freak where we lured them in and robbed them. The way they press and harry, as well as foul, makes it very tough to get a rhythm going.

 

This match won't define our season.

I think they’ve simply sorted out their defence. When we whacked em they were defensively all over the place

Now they aren’t 

[Gazi Giray]

10 minutes ago, trabuch said:

I blame Turkey.

Why ? We did not do Covid . Blame the country where happened and arise of  this ilness.  

[stretch1965]

Lost a lot of respect for de bruyne today, a world class midfielder doesn't need to drop to man United style tactics to gain free kicks and opposition bookings. He is better than that. I will accept the loss as we were beaten by the better team and think man city are great to watch. I'd written this off and hoped for a point at best but like said he doesn't need to cheat.

[st albans fox]

11 minutes ago, Gazi Giray said:

Why ? We did not do Covid . Blame the country where happened and arise of  this ilness.  

Sarcasm buddy ........  it’s a very British trait .....

[KFS]

How dare we have the audacity to try and win the game eh Kevin? 
 

knob.

[martyn]

32 minutes ago, Col city fan said:

Absolute gubbins

You wouldn’t know a defensive formation if it smacked you in the boat race!

Rather than resorting to this, are you actually capable of offering a rebuttal to the point made?

[Col city fan]

4 minutes ago, martyn said:

Rather than resorting to this, are you actually capable of offering a rebuttal to the point made?

Absolutely not! I’m not wasting my bloody time with ya.. Where he found himself, Amartey was serving no purpose whatsoever and this left a huge gap for Mendy to have the time to control the ball, take his time, and just pick his spot.

A defensive shambles! 
You don’t have to be a student of the defensive formation to see what’s staring you in the face! Over and bloody out

😉

[maddog]

4 hours ago, kingfox said:

The guy is starting to get more offside than DJ Campbell.

 

Face facts mate, he is never scoring for us again.

Not even a penalty? I remember you when you were just a prince 😂 

[Poiseuille]

I’ve noted a few people praising Perez’s game today. I just don’t get it.

Watch that game back. 
First half he lost the ball or didn’t make the best use of an opportunity at least 3 times. Even the commentator touched on the lack of quality here. It’s moments like that which can make or break a game. 
2nd half was much better but I still feel overall in the higher reaches of this premier league you need the very best of players who make the most of every opportunity. Maddison needs to come straight back in IMO 

[CosbehFox]

58 minutes ago, Ricey said:

No one was whinging about negative tactics when we set up like that against Man City away, Arsenal away, Spurs away, Liverpool at home and Man Utd in the cup and won them all.

 

It’s not always going to work but it’s been fruitful for us this season.

 

We weren’t bad today, we just need really got going and City played well.

 

Onwards.

Said elsewhere it’s a tactic and a shape what’s worked well against Man City for the teams whom have taken points from them this season - us, Chelsea, West Brom and Man U. 
 

Just read De Bruyne’ bad winner comments about ‘only one team playing football’. In some way that’s reaffirming because it means they dislike playing us. He did a great comparison performance to that of Fernandes on Boxing Day. We are being taken as such a threat now that teams are not giving us that pat on the head. 
 

Didn’t say it earlier but that Amartey and De Bruyne is caused by the ref. A minute before De Bruyne lost the ball and started moaning to the ref. He then followed that up by pushing Youri from behind after the ball was played. Now the ref has two moments there to stop the play. Seconds later, we have an incident what nearly ends up in a red card. I see it all the time at local levels where the ref failing to punish the first moment leads to challenges getting stronger and stronger until we have a naughty one go in. 

[CosbehFox]

10 minutes ago, Col city fan said:

Absolutely not! I’m not wasting my bloody time with ya.. Where he found himself, Amartey was serving no purpose whatsoever and this left a huge gap for Mendy to have the time to control the ball, take his time, and just pick his spot.

A defensive shambles! 
You don’t have to be a student of the defensive formation to see what’s staring you in the face! Over and bloody out

😉

Did Amartey play right wing back today? 
 

 

[Corky]

Amartey was marking Jesus when the original shot came in. if he'd decided to run over to mark Mendy from the next passage of play that would've left Jesus completely free and our defence completely confused.

 

We had enough players to stop the goal.

[Col city fan]

3 minutes ago, Corky said:

Amartey was marking Jesus when the original shot came in. if he'd decided to run over to mark Mendy from the next passage of play that would've left Jesus completely free and our defence completely confused.

 

We had enough players to stop the goal.

But we didn’t. And the time afforded to Mendy to casually pick his spot was criminal. His beaming smile when he scored said it all. We had at least three or four players to the left in the the penalty area, and a couple to the right. The marking and positioning was atrocious. 

[Steve_Walsh5]

Amartey wasn’t at fault for the first goal. If anyone was it was Albrighton rushing out and committing himself 

[Corky]

1 minute ago, Col city fan said:

But we didn’t. And the time afforded to Mendy to casually pick his spot was criminal. His beaming smile when he scored said it all. We had at least three or four players to the left in the the penalty area, and a couple to the right. The marking and positioning was atrocious. 

We had more over that side because the ball only came over to Albrighton/Amartey's side when the cross came over.

 

By your counting we had six in the box so we clearly could've dealt with it better.

[TonyN11]

4 hours ago, Pliskin said:

Beaten by a much better side, stood a slim chance of getting something anyway.
 

However, to finish in the top four we can’t lose any of our next five league games. We have to win at least three and can afford a couple of draws. 

We will win our last 3 anyway 

[CosbehFox]

4 minutes ago, Col city fan said:

But we didn’t. And the time afforded to Mendy to casually pick his spot was criminal. His beaming smile when he scored said it all. We had at least three or four players to the left in the the penalty area, and a couple to the right. The marking and positioning was atrocious. 

Yeah and no one is challenge that it was atrocious defending. 
 

However you decided to pinpoint Amartey being completely at fault. It was a disaster from the moment KDB picked up the ball on the edge of the box with no midfield marker and two of our central defenders decided to break position to close him down. So there’s two failures already. 
 

Then you question where has Albrighton gone covering his position as a right wing back? Or where’s the pressure on the cross from the left wing. All whilst Amartey tucks inside marking the immediate danger. 

[Col city fan]

6 minutes ago, Corky said:

We had more over that side because the ball only came over to Albrighton/Amartey's side when the cross came over.

 

By your counting we had six in the box so we clearly could've dealt with it better.

We’re going round in circles and it’s tedious. I’ve looked back again at the stills and remain having no idea why Amartey was where he was when the ball came across. There was no need to be, Evans was right be his side. 
Mendy must have thought it was his birthday. Utterly crap positioning 

The irony is that these last few pages are making my point for me. Which is the point I’m making. Albrighton gets blamed whilst Dan gets away with no blame. 
‘Bizarre stuff, as I said. 

Edited 3 April 2021 by Col city fan