We were playing Stoke not Real Madrid!! If you can't judge the manager after games against Bournemouth and Stoke when can you? What you fail to mention is these are the players Phelan has coached for a long time now. If they can't complete a ten yard pass the buck stops with him.
Stoke were decent. City are regressing to the mean, or more specifically regressing to pre-Leicester expectations. If anyone thought this would be anything other than a massive relegation struggle then they are deluded. I was briefly deluded post-Swansea.
I think starting a striker who can actually score goals would probably have made a difference, as Burnsy said to Phelan 'why are you overlooking last season's top scorer and preferring a player who's scored just one goal in fifty professional football matches?' We should have started 3-5-2, when it obviously wasn't working today we should have gone 3-5-2 much earlier and if we don't start 3-5-2 in the next game, it should be Phelan's last.
What a load of **** that line is ...... I can't believe that anyone with more than one braincell thinks that it's Phelans fault when highly paid, seasoned pro's **** up a 10 yard pass. I can see it now ''right lads, today we're gonna practice passing 10 yards to each other, I know you learnt this technique when you were in Sunday league but, some of the terrace coaches think I should be spending time on it'' God ****in' help us ....
A lack of a goalscorer wasn't the problem today. Keane didn't touch the ball enough for that to matter. Hernandez has obviously been pissing him off with his attitude but dropping him seems to have worked because he was fighting for a place again today. He'll start next game and will hopefully be out to prove a point.
Are you on drugs?, Phelan started the game with both strikers on the bench, against Stoke at home! That is a sacking offence in my book, 2nd game in row Phelan ****ed it up, poor poor poor.
I don't agree with that. Stoke were dreadful, they were in the bottom 3 after 8 games before today's game for a reason. Our tactics of employing an ineffective striker on his own up front at home was frankly one of the worst managerial decisions I can remember. There was no pressing, no decisive passing, no tackling, no desire. You can accept a defeat if the players have applied themselves and put in maximum effort, today a lack of effort was evident. Effort applied correctly can often bridge the ability gap. It is what teams like ours need to do in this league to survive. Sadly, there's a severe lack of effort. We looked at times like we had entered a team in the walking league. How many players could come off that pitch and genuinely say they could have done no more? I'd say Clucas is the only player that came off that pitch with any credit. We also played much better when Diomande and Hernandez came on. I am questioning whether Phelan is the right man for the job. Based on these recent performances, I consider them completely unacceptable.
I think I've already said this in the post you quoted, but it really obviously isn't as simple as just playing plenty of strikers and automatically winning. We have a **** squad. Hernandez was on the bench for a reason. He'll be back in next game after proving he's up for the battle today.
It is beyond a joke that we are starting Keane, he brought nothing to the game. Hernadez should have started end of.
Keane was out muscled by Shawcross, when he did try to fight back, Shawcross toppled over and won free kicks. No it was'nt a good performance, Meyler was confused which side he was on, giving the ball away, nothing new. Elmo, was as bad, when he crosses the ball its either too long or doesn't beat the first defender, he will still get recognised as making the most crosses, but there's no end result.I can not see how 1 up front will ever work, the defence drops far to deep, and when we are defending corners why don't we leave an attacker on the half way line, 2 of there defenders would need to drop off to mark him, instead they become a goal threat in our box. If we do not have any fullbacks play 352, its not rocket science.
GLP - I thought all of them played alright. Meyler got his usual grief from the boo boys but as always kept asking for the ball and yes, lost it a lot but he can't help being a player of little technical ability. That line about no effort irritates me l because people say it whenever their team lose. They all tried today and none of them deserved the comprehensive beating they were given. They're just out of their depth. Look at the amount Stoke have spent on that squad and continue to pay in wages. And we've got an average Championship striker at the other end. We simply can't compete. It doesn't always have to be a massive disgrace, no effort, no urgency, no plan B, gerrit forward City! every time we lose.
Mate come on it was a shambles today. Snodgrass should give his ****ing wages back - head down moping all day. Keane up front by himself against a gigantic back four? Come off it.
PLT just admit it , your blaming the allams ,,, its the only thing that you could lead to , we have a manager who is way out of his depth but has a nice paid contract .,.. we have players who know they are "safe" and comfortable now until January .... it surely has to be the Allams , just admit it , you were on it from the first post lol
IMO Stoke were not good today, they were just better than us. They didn't create loads of chances, they controlled the midfield, but we let them do it. Our main problem is lack of movement, and wanting to take an extra touch on the ball. We need to play the ball quicker, one touch football and get players to move into space when they have made a pass, we are too static.
No, there was a distinct lack of effort today. I have no issue with the ability level of our players - except Keane. Effort is evident in how we as a team press the opposition when we don't have the ball - that's effort. We were just shrugging shoulders if we lost the ball and passing responsibility to the next player. The manager started with the wrong formation, wrong team selection and I'm not even sure what they have worked on this week in training? It's what the team do out of possession that is key. None of our players worked hard enough to recover the ball when it was lost (often through a sloppy pass). I'd have played: Jak Elmo Maguire Davies Dawson Tymon Hudd Clucas Livermore Hernandez Diomande/Snodgrass We also have some of the lowest running stats and average team distance covered so far this season. Guess who has the most? Liverpool - Where are they in the league? Effort, effort, effort.
