Trying to give Thudd the benefit of the doubt, however he doesn't need to play against Villa, Delph will make him look stupid and run rings round him. Quinny for me.
Yes villa is a totally different game where we has the home team are expected to attack, they have very quick forwards who will counter attack, pace will be needed at the back
A great performance, a great point, please stick to 3 centre halves between now and the end of the season. Bruce and Macca may not be the best technical players in the PL, but they have guts and balls for a battle royal. Well done City.
Not read all the posts but 100% spot on Lammy Man. Great Effort today. Thought we had no chance but ended up nearly grabbing 3 points. Had a great day .as usual .
Top effort by all the lads, and slap on the back for Brucie and getting some fighting quality back into the team with his selection, but I have the sneaky feeling that Phelans coaching techniques and training regime may have had more then a bit to do with it, interview before the game suggested that they are now training more intensely and for sets of 90 mins. More of the same please for the rest of the season.
Sets of 95 minutes might be better, or at least 90 minutes with a random amount added at the end to see if they can spot anything changing in the mindset.
I hope he sticks by those three defenders, Davies has been an issue for us this season, not sure if his heads right or whatever. I bet Alex Bruce will get stick off people no matter what but for me he is very dependable and I rate him higher than Davies now
Tuesday will be the time that we see just how much of an effect Mike Phelan is having, although I think we've witnessed the beginnings of it today, we will see from the team selected for the Villa match how much input Phelan's having, as Brucey would undoubtedly go with the same again due to a good performance today. I think there'll be several changes to suit the differing opposition.
Any manager worth his salt would make several changes, it has to be done. Today's team did its job admirably but it was a team built with one thing in mind and that was to keep it tight and possibly snack something against a bare defence with minimal numbers pushed forwards. It's a totally different game on Tuesday and as such the game plan needs to be totally different, a way that today's personnel just won't suit. If Brucey sticks with the same team on Tuesday it would be akin to riding your bike into a pond in a triathlon on account of it served you well in the cycling stage. And he would prove once again that he's a ****ing moron, not that he hasn't already proved that enough.
I think it's pretty obvious Jelavic and probably N'Doye will start Tuesday regardless of the result yesterday.
Not read the other posts, but I think we need a bit of context. I'd said before the game we could relax as a team as there was no pressure of expectation. Man City would struggle for focus as they'd see us as an easy 3 points. We need to focus hard on Villa, as it's a far more important game and they'l be up for it and we'l both be nervy.
Great result and point for the lads. It could quite easily have been a loss and just highlights even more so just how bad we were in the final 30 mins against Newcastle. Davies can have no complaints about being dropped and it could be a while before he plays again - capt or not. McShane Bruce and Dawson were superb. Phelan now in situ and the bar has been set. NO EXCUSES for slipping under that standard again. Play like that and we shall beat Villa with ease. At least Villa managed to score and against Chelsea on saturday. But just one goal in well over 11 hours of football says it all. Well done to to one and all.
Good and it showed. Just makes a nonsense of the Saints, Burnley, Swansea, and Wba games for starters.
