It's always interesting to see the teamsheets of visiting teams and try to work out the formation,wondering whether the at times obvious weaknesses have picked up on by the visiting management and how they will go about exploiting them. Presumably AVB decided to not use the international break to watch the countless videos of City home games that must be at his disposal,otherwise I'm fairly certain the starting 4-2-3-1 formation which has never been successful by any premier league team in at least 3 seasons,would've been swiftly altered to the 4-4-2 which Man Utd,Arsenal,Sunderland,Norwich,Liverpool,Everton etc have successfully employed and deservedly come away with points from the Etihad in the last couple of years.As always the devil is in the detail,City are a team that want opposing teams to either park the bus or play very high allowing us to play on the break against them The teamsheet gave cause for optimism with the excellent centre back Vertonghen wasted by occupying the left back birth Assou-Ekottu should be a fixture in and bringing back the ponderous pairing of Kaboul & Dawson,who we remember fondly of from the 1-5 white hart lane thumping of a couple of seasons ago.For City it was good to see Fernandinho back from injury to partner Yaya to shield our porous defence from the mistakes that being uncomfortable with Pellegrinis defensive set ups have caused without Kompanys calming influence. Within 20 seconds a poor defensive error had handed City the initiative,Navas curling in for his first City goal and that allowed City to sit back and concede possession as Tottenham passed aimless sideways passes in front of City's defensive midfield pairing without looking to supply anything for the increasingly isolated Soldado to feed off. Spurs were having plenty of the ball but City were looking increasingly likely to pick them off and 2 more goals before half time,highlighting the lack of awareness from the centre back pairing against the movement of strikers like Aguero & Negredo,killed the game as a contest. Leaving the field for the interval,only Sandro could hold his head high as it felt like he was on his own trying to stave off the attacks,his goal saving tackle against Nasri when clean through was particularly impressive. The introduction of the petulant Adebeyor rather than Defoe must be of a man management master class that's beyond us mere mortals,I thought it stunk personally One gets his head down and scores in the Europa games he's given while the other is a self absorbed arse but he gets the nod. Second half produced 3 more goals and it could've been any score as Tottenham simply fell apart. Losing at City is not the end of the world and many will suffer similar fates but it's the manner of the defeat,the tactically flawed performance from the off and the horrific performances of players like Paulinho which will give Spurs fans plenty to ponder over. Packed behind the goal,credit must go to the Tottenham supporters who continued to support right to the end when many other clubs would've been long since headed back down the M6 or stayed to boo like the chinless tosspots fron the other side of North London Bad day at the office but many questions remain Regards PPLF
Good post, Paul. I think most Spurs fans now accept that AVB doesn't really know what he's doing. We used to be a juggernaut. Now, we're looking more like a knackered Transit Van.
Sandro is our best midfielder, not in terms of being creative but having that overall level of performance, desire and sheer fighting spirit to put everything on the line to stop the opposition, and while the goal today was unfortunate to be credited as his own goal, that was just part of an overall defensive shambles. In the past, a team would employ a player like Sandro to protect the back four and allow the attack, to attack, knowing there is a defensive midfielder who enjoys winning the ball back and helping the team drive forward. Today there is more of a tactic for teams to close down in numbers yet with us the narrow bullying and short passing has zapped the life out of a potentially exciting team. Holtby, Eriksen, Lamela & Paulinho are potentially exciting talents, yet we have given 100 million worth of players to a complete moron of a manager who has developed an obsession with a system which simply doesn't work in an attacking sense and never will. I said then he wasn't the right man to oversee such exciting young attacking talent and nothing has changed, at all, other then just more hope,that he is removed as manager at some point. Not a knee jerk reaction, not even anger, more depressed at watching such a boring manner of football, overseen by a complete boring man. Anyways, well done to City as you took advantage and for a team with no English players and a foreign manager, you have English qualities, your manager understands how important it is to stretch the defence with wing play. Negredo is like a powerful English forward with technical ability and if you sort out your away form you will run away with the title and Aguero is odds on to be player of the season.
You just get the impression that AVB is learning his apprenticeship as a manager when he should be the finished article managing such a big club in this league Telling the players they should be ashamed is hardly the answer
Spot on. He should be looking in the mirror if he wants the to see the root of the current problem!...
We've replaced an experienced manager and an experienced squad with a manager and a squad who have got lots of potential but are far from the finished article. City, have better, more experienced players and an experienced manager but are only just ahead of us. How does this show that AVB is doing badly
Look at the players City signed over the summer compared to our bunch, All better . Who was the madman who wanted so many defensive plodding mid fielders . Who payed 30million for Llamela , A tale of 2 Spanish strikers the City one a fair bit cheaper. Watch the quality of football do you enjoy his style. The only people who want him to stay are the Arse and Chav fans .
I suggest you look again!, if you can't see that there is a serious problem. These players are supposedly top flight internationals. They clearly have lost all confidence, in themselves, and their manager. Yesterday was nothing less than a clueless shambles!..
I've got no idea whether I will enjoy AVB's style in the long run because I think he's building something for the future and what we have now is not what we have then. City were able to spend a net £90m in the summer while we have no spare cash so broke even. Its hardly surprising they look stronger and we don't. Negredo looks better than Soldado right now but that wasn't the situation in the summer where Soldado was being selected for Spain who play almost exactly the system we play. Similarly Navas over Lamela but the latter is much more of a long term prospect. Give AVB time and he will deliver.
Spain have Xavi, Iniesta, Silva, Fabregas and Co. Players who can pass the ball and create in tight narrow areas. We have.................... Usually one player selected in each game that is known for their passing. Our neighbours, the goons, have Ozil, Ramsey, Arteta, , carzola, usually all starting. If Avb wants us to play like Spain then he will have to sell most of our squad as he clearly isn't capable of coaching them. Rodgers and Martinez, two managers who helped transform Swansea, done so by coaching but they started in the lower leagues, with little pressure and a long term project. Since Avb arrived, off the top of your head, how many games stand out for our passing ability? Attacking cohesion or are your memories mostly of our passing and attacking unit being devoid of quality aside from Gareth Bale. Avb can have all the time in the world and we will still play boring ineffective attacking football.
This. Probably the only positive we can take away from it. The next thing close to it was the fact that you scored some excellent goals against us, Navas' chip at the start was brilliant considering it was his first touch. After that it was probably Sandro and Lennon's performances in the first half although they weren't much help in the second. Oh and Dembele did okay coming on but really none of the performances from our players should be taken as positives. Dawson's been having a good season and Kaboul looked very mobile in the games he's played recently so I was happy to see them start, although Kaboul looked like he was about 40 on the day and Dawson looked like he was a teenager out of his depth making his debut. Basically the reasons that I would've picked them both ended up being the opposite, Dawson's decision making was crap and Kaboul was just dreadful.
Utd got bashed at the Etihad too by making the same mistake of giving Aguero time and space. He is the best in the business at finding a yard of space and City have the players to pick him out. When he's not under pressure, he finishes so calmly, usually positioning his body so he can pass the ball into the net. When City have lost away this season - which they clearly have done a few times - defenders have been swarming around Aguero and have also had greater success limiting his supply. Dawson and Kaboul might be fine at shackling Lukaku or a similar type of powerful centre forward, but Aguero's movement cruelly exposed their weaknesses. Spurs needed a better decision maker such as Vertonghen in the centre. In fact 5-3-2 would have been the ideal formation for Spurs with the extra man against Negredo and Aguero, width from the full backs which would have reduced the chances of Zabeleta and Clichy pushing forward to effect and would have given something to occupy City's two centre halves when Spurs got forward. Without Kompany and with Richards and Lescott seemingly out of favour as first choice, City do look vulnerable there. A few long passes for Adebayor to hold up and to allow Soldado to find space would have been the best attacking option for a team which lacked a creative, passing midfielder.
One gets the sense with the players that one did under the darkest days of Ramos. When we get Dawson come out, in a TV interview, and lament the fact that the team has no leaders, as Woodgate did, then we'll know AVB is out the door.
All you are doing is falling on your swords at the behest of someone who is probably a WUM. Actually I find the initial post quite arrogant, particularly when coming from a team that would not even exist without a vast amount of middle east money that bears no relation to revenue generated, together with some extremely dodgy sponsorship. And they spent £100 million over the summer net, when we spent more or less nothing (net). This is not sour grapes this is a fact. Won't be long before you hear all the ManCity supporters on talk radio speaking with a London accent.
He's not a wum and I don't know why you have a problem with the post, I think many Spurs fans are far more critical of us after that result.
I would agree with YV, the guy has made some valid points. I don't think we're anywhere near as bad as we looked yesterday - and in general, we have bought some very good players ( have to say Soldado is looking like we overpaid) what the players lack is a sense of direction. That is supposed to come from the manager. I will say again, I am beginning to get the distinct impression that AVB is rapidly losing, if not has already lost, the dressing room!..
http://www.not606.com/showthread.php/207615-View-from-the-opposition I do try and give what i hope isnt a myopic outlook on the game from an opposition supporter .Im not a fan of one club forums where the biased opinion is the norm and hope these threads add value to the forum and allow debate with opposition supporters in a constructive way Cant please everyone i know,especially after a hiding but weve all been there at some stage
Hmmm, most opposition fans who appear after a victory are either WUMs or trying to say something gracious. I don't think you're either one. It seems to me you ran down our team and our manager because you felt they deserved it. Well, it's hard to argue after getting thrashed that either one were remotely good enough. I'm not sure how you'll react to your own team's reverses, but I guess that's off the subject. In any case, I would dispute that Kaboul lacks pace and that Paulinho was awful. Kaboul isn't as fast as he once was, but he's still pretty fast (though he had an awful game yesterday). Paulinho and Sandro, along with others, but especially Paulinho, dominated possession against your midfield while the game was competitive. Your players have a funny way of sitting back and conceding possession. If I hadn't known better, I could have sworn they were looking very frustrated at being unable to win any 50-50s, get the ball back from Spurs, or string two passes together. Fat lot of good it did us (we certainly weren't set up well in retrospect, as you have kindly pointed out), but nevertheless. Look: credit to City overall, who were far better than we were. But I'm not sure running down almost the whole team you just beat easily is the best thing to do.
If you looked at the link to the previous visit to your board last year that I linked on the previous post,you would have seen how I reacted to a reverse,a loss which was probably the nail in the coffin to our pitiful title defense It's difficult to please everybody but at least sparks some honest debate I think
