I tend to agree, but the notion of run forward when we have the ball and offer options shouldn't be that hard to follow. The top teams quickly regroup their shape, because they track back quickly, too often when our players have moved forward they don't track back, there were multiple examples yesterday and there have been all season. Olson and Martin run like **** when there is a chance of an overlap to create the option and space- pretty simple! then if we lose the ball, run like **** back into position, seems straightforward
So yesterday CH "moved Elmander to the wing"? Do you mean Elmander was the player who came on to replace the injured Pilkington?
Robbie, I've agonised for weeks about what I think (God knows why, since what I think obviously doesn't make the slightest difference), and at last I know where I stand. I think we'll get relegated if we stick with him, so we may as well risk someone else. I'm happy to have that clarity at last.
Elmander has played on the wing before, and Hughton's options for wide players were severely limited yesterday. IMO, that was a better solution than bringing on Murphy with 35-40 minutes to go and it allowed Fer and Howson to continue to press forward. Fer had an easier header before he scored, and had that been on target, City might well have drawn the match.
We should pick up enough points at home to narrowly avoid the drop but i am seriously considering canceling all away day trips this season as i can`t justify wasting money watching limp toothless displays . We were awful again and look like we will win a maximum of 3 out of 19 on the road this season.
So he opts to play a player with fairly restricted mobility out wide when in Josh Murphy, he has a ready made like for like replacement with the pace to give the tiring Santon a bit of a torrid second half? Don't follow the rationale there at all, sorry?
As is your right. It's certainly not a clear cut issue with me either. It is crucial that City stay in touch with mid-table positions and the Palace game will be crucial for that. City need to win that, with Liverpool and WBA away following. After that is Swansea and Fulham at home and Sunderland away. Those will be the games that will decide where City will be at mid-season, when 19-20 points will be the minimum required.
Well, that hardly answers my question As for agonising, what is the point of getting yourself wound up about any of this? Being emotionally enslaved, as many on here appear to be, affects nothing except your own state of mind, and in the worst case, your health. Being out there you can't even make a difference either way on match days, so my advice is the same as I gave Thai earlier -- sit down with a glass of something (other than hemlock) and let the matches unfold as they will. Who knows, come the end of the season you might be pleasantly surprised, but if not, at least you won't have spent the months up to next May fraught and freaked out.
People agonise week after week about how they will pay their bills or whether there will be food on the table or if they will still have a job! If you spend your weeks agonising over the state of your football club then you are a very lucky fella indeed!
Are you saying that when Elmander came on for Pilkington, we continued to play with the same shape as before? In the match I was watching, the formation also changed when the substitution was made. If CH had decided the priority was to keep the same formation, he would have replaced Pilkington with Murphy. But he didn't. He did what carrabuh wants him to do against Palace, and what we have seen on several occasions already this season, i.e. play 4:3:3. People criticise CH for rigidity, but in reality it is they who are rigid and simply don't notice what has been changed.
I can't stand it when people write this rubbish. Have you been hanging around with Beef? Its not clever or insightful and works for both arguments.
I am not getting wound up, nor stressed, but am getting fed up with watching limp away games and being told that all will come good by the end of the season. I assess each and every game as fairly as I can, acknowledging the good stuff when it happens, and criticise the rubbish too, and so far I see very little to encourage me to want to wake at 3:30 am to watch our game at Anfield. If we start that game as we did yesterday, and seem to most weeks, Suarez is going to think all of his birthday's have come at once, and quite frankly it is not a prospect that fills me with any glee. No, it's not anger or stress, it is a sadness that I feel at this moment in time, and away games are becoming less attractive a proposition each fortnight. I sit here will my Leo on hand, and go through the misery of watching 11 professionals not working together, as they could reasonably be expected to (for whatever reason).
Too bad. Whatever you happen to think of it, it is at least true. And I didn't point the finger at anybody or anybody arguing one way or the other. It was simply a general observation.
Stress, wound up, anger, sad, frustrated, whatever, the point holds for all such emotional baggage. Give yourself a break!
That's a false dichotomy. Emotional responses to events and circumstances can be more or less rational, just like actions as responses to events and circumstances. I'm suggesting you take control of your emotions rather than being controlled by them.
As expressed above, I enjoy the genuine discussion on here when it is based on actual performances. Too often it becomes an expression of opinion based on expectation perception (ie. seeing what you want to see). Consider a Newcastle view of the match: http://www.themag.co.uk/the-mag-art...r-newcastle-united-fans-newcastle-v-norwich/? I think he's right to be concerned that City had 51% of the possession (a key factor in PL survival, IMO). Could we have done more with it? Yes, we could, but we were hardly played off the park on the day. Had Redmond taken either of his reasonable chances, or Fer with the easier of his two headers, it might have been a different story. But to listen to some City fans, it was absolute rubbish. I'm sorry, but it was not. Away wins (or draws) will always be hard to come by in the PL, especially when a goal is given away in the second minute of the match. Some expectations are more than a bit unrealistic. Consider Fulham, who had 37% of the possession playing at home. Palace next week will be the test, but let's not prejudge that. The Stoke away win wasn't a one off, but it won't happen every week either. Let's get real here.
