'Bust' and 'chest'? Are these Freudian slips of your fantasies about our glorious leader, DD? Tut-tut, wash your mind out with soap.
"Suspended animation" rather than "lethargic"? It's as though everyone is waiting for the "real team" to get on the pitch, i.e. the one with a midfield three that actually provides a beating heart and can give Pukki and Rashica the penetrative balls they can do something with. No excuse for Hanley getting himself sent off. Even given that his first Yellow should have gone to Omobamidele, having got it he should have made sure he didn't get another. There was no need to come in from behind as he did, especially given where it was on the pitch. Not exactly setting a captain's example.
My snap ratings. Krul - 4. Nothing to do except distribute the ball, which he is terrible at. Aarons - 6. Tenacious in attack and defensively sound. Omobimadele - 6. Our best performer with several surging runs and good defence. Hanley - 5. Unlucky red. Competent mostly without starring. Gianoulis - 4. Not at the races offensively or defensively. Sorensen - 6. Covered and defended well. A few good forward runs and passes. MacLean - 5. Would be a 4 but for his crossbar effort. Did little else of note. Rashica - 5. Some good runs with little end product unfortunately. Cantwell - 6. Getting back to his best but other than shot saved as above. Pukki - 4. Maybe not his fault. Set piece coach - 1. Corners were dire. Management team - 4. No comment.
I'd generally agree with these, except I'd give Rashica a 4 and maybe up McLean to 6. Btw, you left out Sargent, which wasn't difficult to do since he was invisible - a definite 4 IMO.
Perhaps a bit early to criticise, after all I think that in both promotion seasons we amassed five points from our first four games. Pukki looked to get no more service than he did in the Premiership though.
Actually I didn't, but for some reason it has not appeared. I have him a ? And said that when his name was mentioned in substitutions I thought he was coming on.
Have to at least partially disagree here. We were beaten because our midfield was too weak and poor in possession. We ran the game, but rarely looked to go forward, and when we did it was pretty aimless or without the skill to pull off the move. Sorensen was OK at breaking play up, but isn't good on the ball. Basic passes are OK, but he lacked creativity. He looked afraid of making a mistake and instead passed sideways and backwards. Mclean was the same as always, all huff and puff. Decent chance to score, but other than that was poor in the attacking third. Other than that- Sargent still cant remember he is a footballer and Rashica- see Mclean Omobamidele, Cantwell and Aarons were the only standouts for real positivity. I know one game in etc, and we did control most of the game, but we looked so devoid of a game plan going forward. The number of runs Pukki and even Sargent made that just weren't spotted was incredible. Hopefully, the new lads can fulfil that missing link between defence and attack. Cardiff were well organised, but we hardly laid a glove on them.
This will be a test. Tomkinson is said to be our 4th CB and should play if Hanley and Gibson are out. He's older than Omobamidele was when he got his first team chance, so why deprive us of a DM to play Sorenson at CB, which would also mean playing Gibbs in midfield to replace Sørensen. Tomkinson is 20, Gibbs is 19.
I totally agree, just feel thats what he will do. He might also play Mclean as our DM and put Sara in at no.8? Who knows?! Hopefully we will have Nunez by then as well.
Yes, that would work, but it still means replacing a DM with a CM. I suggested Gibbs as he's a CM who can also play as a DM. I certainly hope that Sara starts against Wigan.
I thought Gibbs did ok in his first appearance in the first team, as did Sinani and McCullum. Certainly did not look out of place.
Disappointing start to the season, but let's not forget City ususally are slow starters, and last time out in the championship we only had 4 points from our first 4 games with a record of W1 D1 L2 and went on to win the title, so all is not lost, it is just an inconvenience. If we beat Wigan next week by 2 or 3 this result will soon be forgotten
