We're conceding late goals because of his decisions. Even when bringing on Naughton could've been useful, he didn't send him over to the left to play in front of Vertonghen and switch Bale, who could've caused problems cutting in on the break. He got all of his changes wrong and we lost because of it.
I disagree as well that the subs were silly. Walker wasn't playing well and was right to be replaced. Adebayor was at risk of getting sent off (temperament anyone?!) so that was not surprising. Nothing really to say about Naughton, maybe just to be a bit more defensive. I really think he should have taken off Dempsey who was completely anonymous for the entire game. I can't even remember him having more than two touches of the ball. That being said, Spurs were poor today and fully deserved to lose. Our defense were poor, our tactics were poor and our passing was awful. I've never seen Spurs have so many mis-placed passes. It was shocking. The only thing we can do is pick up the team and move on.
anticipation. He made no attempt to bear down on the striker. there was only a small area of the goal dzeko could have aimed for and friedel stood there with his hands by his sides. I think Lloris would have saved it as shot stopping is one of his strong points. I just dont see what friedel offers that means he should be ahead. Yeh he is more consistent than gomes, so that is why he replaced him, but his record wasnt better than gomes' and his ability is not greater then lloris. there is a reason he has spent most of his career at teams like blackburn and villa.
If only Dempsey, Bale and Huddlestone had shown the level of commitment of Ade then we would have been fine. Trouble is that apart from Sandro there was a distinct lack of bottle - and skill. And he may have picked up a knock, but Walker again was poor. His distribution and decision-making were both suspect defensively and he added nothing going forwards. We desperately need Benny and Dembele back ASAP.
City deserved to win, but we helped that. Had we spotted sooner that Dempsey was providing nothing again and put someone different into the middle of the 3, we could have posed some sort of danger in the second half and perhaps got a result. Instead, hudd and sandro had no link up support and city's change of tactics completely ****ed us over. - credit to Mancini for that. That's what's annoying me at the moment, we aren't helping ourselves. The personnel what we are opting for, hasn't been working and we repeat it over and over again, getting the same outcome. When is AVB going to try something else? Yes we've got injuries, but it can't get any worse. Ade was quality today. He held the ball up brilliantly and always found someone. We'd have been better of leaving him on, at risk of getting sent off for the last 15 mins, than leaving Dempsey on who'd not been on the pitch for 75 mins anyway!
I find it hard to abide with people who are irrationally stubborn. I live with one - caled the wife, and AVB strikes me as being another. How many more times does he need to be shown the simplest things before he accepts that he's got it wrong? Gallas is PAST his sell by date. Huddlestone is TOO SLOW. Dempsey is just NOT GOOD ENOUGH. Why are Defoe and Ade not given a chance to try and develop an understanding? I could go on. What really worries me is that Levy will probably prove just as stubborn in finally admitting that he's got it wrong. By that time we'll be back in mid-table obscurity, with half our top players looking for the exit.
I think the starting line up made sense. Gallas is the obvious captain in the absence of Parker. Dempsey and Adebayor makes sense, even if just to give us the option of Defoe and Adebayor pairing later in the game. Defoe is great off of the bench. Adebayor is the one player with the exception of Sandro who was up for the fight to keep the ball. Leaving Dempsey on and taking Adebayor of didn't make sense to me at all. With no real threat up front (Defoe solo doesn't work for me.) Man City were given free reign to attack fully with little chance of consequence. This is how we lose matches late in games. We do really miss Parker and Dembele who as a middle pair would have given us a different result in a game like this one I think.
I also think we really miss Kaboul!!! Kaboul and Caulker OR Kaboul and Vertongen will be an excellent CB pairing when Kaboul comes back.
I think AVB knows that Hudd is too slow. Hence trying to offload him. Who would you have put in his place today though with Dembele injured? Carroll?
Maybe Carroll wouldn't have lasted the whole 90 mins after Thursday, but yes, I would have given him some time on the pitch. My main beef is with Gallas, he's way past the sell by date. I know he doesn't rate Dawson, but at least he's mobile. As I put in my posting, people who are too stupid, or too stubborn, to learn from making the same mistakes over and over again, I have trouble understanding.
Iwould have put Sigg in.I know he hasn't lloked the player he was last season,but prehaps given a run of games might bring out his form.you don't become a bad player overnight,and some player's do need run's of games to get thier confidence going
My second time in successive seasons where I've gone to the Etihad and witness City score a late winner Though it's fair to say this time I wasn't surprised nor aggrieved at the manner in how they got it. City were the better team for 95% of the game. It was depressing and I'm sick of it to be honest. After 11 league games now, you'd think AVB would've mixed things up after the sh*t performances we've witnessed in most of our games this season. On Thursday, we saw one of the better performances of the season, yes it was against Maribor but none the less we looked the Spurs of the past few seasons in terms of dominating play in a stylish fashion and managing to finish chances. Yesterday we reverted back to the 4-5-1 with the underperforming, Dempsey, Walker, Gallas and Friedel back in the side. Yet again we looked flat, Walker was a non-entity in the game, Dempsey I think had a hologram of himself on the pitch, Gallas was OK at best and Friedel looked easily beaten for the first goal. When will AVB learn that a bunch of the players in this team just aren't performing? You don't have to be a football manager being paid £30K a week or what ever he's on to notice how poor some of our players have been. Why aren't the likes of Naughton, Lloris, Dawson etc getting chances in the league bar the odd 5 minute cameo which does no one any good? Tommy Carroll played a blinder Thursday night. Why not give him a chance when it was clear our creativity (or non-creativity) was massively effecting the amount of time the likes of Lennon and Bale were seeing of the ball. Most of the time, the pair were having to come back into our own half to collect the ball, by the time they had it City had 2 or 3 players on them. I know he has the luxury of calling upon world class strikers from the bench and having near enough unlimited resources but for me, Mancini showed just how far advanced he is as a manager than AVB. Selections, tactics and substitutions were all far superior.
i think it's very difficult to tell how good mancini is to be honest. yesterday he got it correct, but on many occasions in the past he's been bailed out by the "luxury of a world class bench". The quality available at his fingertips masks how advanced he is as a manager, so it's difficult and unfair to compare him to AVB. But i do agree, we're getting tactics and subs wrong. But it's not easy with all these injuries, as we all keep saying. who'd have thought Demps and Sig would have been so poor? - it's like they are on the injury list too. How we can help ourselves: Don't let Gallas anywhere near the team. - how he can install confidence to the goalkeeper, 3 other defenders and the 2 dm's sat in front, I will never know. From the comfort of my own home, he scares the **** out of me. - let alone being on the pitch. Dawson to play there alongside caulker, for now. potentially even drop walker for naughton. solve the creativity issue in the centre. - what options do we have? probably only carroll. - give him a game alongside sandro. or even 45 mins. we're currently losing and not playing well either. let's start by using a player who'll knock the ball around patiently and create something. when you're losing at home to the likes of wigan who should be beatable on your own turf, you need to start thinking of trying something different. it can't get any worse. Dempsey - needs to be dropped. IMO, replaced by Ade. he looks like he can fill the role well, at least until injuries sort themselves out. If Ade doesn't work, try Sig later in the game. At the moment, sig has been as ineffective as Dempsey. Not had as much game time, but again, he's not been in the game or showing positive signs. therefore i'd say it's risky starting him as we'll be as null and void with him as we have been with Dempsey. that's 3 very different areas of the pitch, from defence to attack. the changes might not work, but daws, carroll and ade deserve to play. perhaps that passion from the 3 of them might actually start getting us playing well, even if we don't pick up the points straight away? it might even help us establish a 4231 that works reasonably well? - at the moment, it's looking like the worst formation we could possibly use.
Nobody has said yet, but JV had a bollox of a game, both goals came from a passage of play coming down our left side, he was not in position for either goal, first one Hudd had to cover and couldn't keep up, while JV strolled...yes STROLLED!! back. Second goal, the ball comes from the City half over the top of the out of position JV again down the left flank, Caulker has to leave his position this time to cover. He pretty much gave Maicon 10 yds of space when he came on aswell, and generally seemed off the pace of the game yesterday. It was also Silva's first game after missing the last 5, and I didn't expect him to do that well, they are a much better side with him playing well as he did and deserved their win because of it.
I can deal with JV having a bad game, if that's the case Notso. perhaps if he wasn't forced to play every game at the moment, he wouldn't look as knackered as he did yesterday and the positional mistakes might not have occured.
So can I Roo, but its a point of debate with more than one angle, why has he played every game? We have 3 fit FB's, and 4 fit CB's, JV could have missed the odd cup game? Having said that, in contrast, Chelsea's everpresents for example Mata and Hazard have played 2 more games than JV and don't look in need of a rest.
