That was Bruce to blame - My thoughts on the Man City game

For the 2 days leading up to this game, discussing it with family and thinking to myself, I prayed we wouldn't do what I thought we were gonna do and that's player 5 at the back, and wait for city to score....

.... we played 5 at the back.... and watched city score...

City were a side obviously vulnerable at the back, they were gaping for a probing. We sit back with a 5 man defence you're basically giving City what they want.

We should have played 4-4-2 or 4-5-1, flooded their midfield and pressured them.

Bruce's tactics were to blame here mainly.

Ratings -

Dubravka - 5 - Couldn't really do much about their goals, 1 decent stop. Nothing much he could have done.

Yedlin - 3 - Out of his depth at this level when asked to defend. Should only be played in an attacking line up.

Krafth - 3

Fernandez - 3

Shar - 4 - Meh. Some decent pressure in the middle field at times, but mostly pants.

Rose - 4.5

Ritchie - 3 - His worst game for a while. Gave the ball away too often, and not the same level of work rate you'd expect.

Shelvey - 5 - Tried his best, worked hard.

Bentaleb - 4 - Didn't seem to make any real impact, but he didn't really make any big mistakes that I could see.

Lazaro - 5.5 - Our best player in my opinion. His defending wasn't that good, but I think he made some good runs forward and seemed to work hard, he was our best route forward in the first half.

Joelinton - 5 - He couldn't really do much but at times he seemed to control and distribute the ball pretty well, didn't have much of a chance.

Subs - I'm not going to rate any of the subs because the game was already well and truly lost they were there to get some game time.

Bruce - 2 - Crap tactics, exactly the opposite of what we should have done. WE WERE ALREADY SAFE WHY PLAY DAMAGED LIMITATION FROM THE BEGINNING? If we're playing defensive we need pace up top, so playing Joelinton and Shelvey up top means we're going no where on counter attacks.

It should have probably been Joelinton and Gayle up top.

 

the other team are just better imo

much$$$ better

 

Didn’t see the game so can’t comment on the ratings but good to see the “Thoughts” thread back.



One thing teams like us need to do against teams like Citeh is “fight”. It doesn’t seem from everyone’s comments that we did that. If true then that’s the fault of Brucie AND the players. Nothing to do with money.

 

it's because they have better players first and foremost.. fight all you want but that's the secondary issue

 

No, it’s the first issue. Once you win the fight you win the right to play.

Problem by the sound of it is that Citeh didn’t have to win the fight as we didn’t turn up and because we didn’t turn up they could play the football that their money has bought right from the start.

If we had turned up and fought then Citeh would have had to win that fight first before they could have played their football. They probably would have won that fight but they didn’t against Southampton. Money is important but it’s not everything.

 

WTF is this retarded dribble?

It’s not a ****ing football forum ffs

 

if the other teams worth 1 billion more that's the first and largest problem ..

sorry it just is

fighting is the minimum requirement tbough

 

Tell Hereford that.

 

Everytime I hear the name Hereford mentioned, I stop what I'm doing, close my eyes for a moment and shudder!

 

****in place has gone to the pits hasnt it

people flouncing like faggots and now football chat. get to ****

 

Jizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz


It’s been a long time baby!
Bentaleb was a 2 though. He was embarrassing and gave zero ****s. Lazaro would be a 4 max.

 

Oh and Yedlin is dog **** too.
Never once rated him.
He’s like forest gump with worse ball control.

 

I haven't watched any game since the restart,after earlier games results on that day we were safe,SKY and PL wanted it back for money, nothing else.

 

Tash I'm sorry but you'll have to explain any mark above 0.5 for Bentaleb. He gets half a mark for simply being on the pitch.Thats his max the lazy cockeyed ****.

 

Am I the only one who thinks the whole game was a fix? I put on us to lose by minus 3 but honestly thought we would give it a go.

If that isn’t match fixing I don’t know what is. Our tactics where sit back and keep it to a minimum.

Disgusting!

 

This was down to the players. Simple as. I won't even blame the Gump Bruce. Without Almiron and ASM we have nothing.

The players on the pitch are solely to blame. They could not be arsed.

Schar had undone all his good work under Rafa and has become a player not worthy of being in a black and white shirt.

Bentalab again not playing and fighting to sign for us.

People saying about Lazaro being OK, well he's supposedly meant to be a player worth signing for £20m yet really had nothing again. Just another Jacob Murphy.

I don't mind losing 5-0 but zero pride shown by the players. Heads down.
Shelvey gave up almost immediately. He literally plays OK against the lesser teams otherwise the game by passes him.

 

Pretty sure we beat them 2-1 under Rafa last season.

 

Absolutely bang on I am afraid.

Or have they been told something. It’s hard to motivate a team of players who know they have no futures at the club?

 

Pass me a straw, mate.

On City, I find it astonishing. They are currently guilty of cheating and banned from the CL. That same cheating has made them who they are in the league, and widened the gap to absurd proportions. It's like egging on Ben Johnson (drugs cheat 100m sprinter, for the young 'uns), then lauding his superiority when he wins in a WR time of 7.5 secs and looking at the sprinter finishing last with pity, as though they should be grateful being on the same track.

 

Bang on the money. I'm reluctant to relieve Bruce of some responsibility, but largely it was a set of players not fit to wear the shirt. We say every time, minimum requirement is 100%. We didn't get that and its ****house behaviour.