It's not often I plan to go abroad in the monsoon season and to think I thought we were the rain magnets in Manchester. A brains breakfast in the harvester was just the job to take the edge off the previous nights over exertions in the people watching paradise that wind st has to offer and set us up for the lunchtime fare at the liberty The previous seasons goalless draw was a fairly cagey chess like game where neither side were prepared to really go for it and the outcome was predictable from quite a way out. Today's game was nothing of the sort,far more like an old fashioned end to end cup tie. Considering the difficult conditions the quality on show from both sides was of a very high standard for the off as both teams settled into their stride quickly. With Pellegrini setting up 4-4-2 rather than packing the midfield,I felt he thought we would struggle in a possession game with Swansea and opted to play narrow with a high line looking to play through Navas & Nasri on the counterattack. Swansea looked dangerous whenever Bony got on the ball and Kompany looked like he was going to have a busy afternoon containing him. First goal from Fernandinho came a bit out of the blue as we hadn't looked particularly dangerous and we spent the remainder of the half,barring the odd counterattack that came to nothing,looking more and more likely to concede De Guzman fluffed an easy chance,very similar to the game changer up at the Etihad in December where Swansea had been the better side at that point and I wondered if history would repeat itself. The impressive Bony put paid to that,having already shot narrowly wide and grazed a post,he created a yard of space to head home the first decent cross of the half to deservedly bring Swansea level just before the break. Swansea supporters showed a bit of old fashioned courtesy at the start of the second half,giving Hart warm applause as he took his place in front of the Swansea stand behind the goal,something that's rarely seen these days Second half started as before with Shelvey and in particular the excellent De Guzman controlling the middle of the park and were setting the tempo of the game,while the busy Fernandinho was having a good game breaking up the play overshadowing his largely ineffectual midfield partner yaya toure who struggled to get much of a foothold in the game,although Pellegrini would've been much happier with the way the back 4 defended second half Typically for yaya,having done precious little in the game,he then picked up a loose ball in the box to smash it home to put city 2-1 up and immediately Pellegrini made the obvious tactical change by withdrawing the clearly not fit Negredo and replacing him with Garcia to put 5 in midfield to look to close the game out. We were looking much more solid with the switch and still dangerous on the break,typified by Kolorovs quick burst down the flank to fire in a third,what the defence were doing backing off will no doubt be a topic for laudrup to address as it's certainly a weakness in the Swansea side The third goal knocked the stuffing out of Swansea and other than De Guzman still looking for the ball and urging Swansea on,his teammates appeared leggy and the resulting pot shots from distance rather than continuing to press and probe were of little benefit,although Bony picked up his second with a fine strike arrowhead into the corner of harts net near the end but it was only a consolation. Atmosphere in the ground was a little subdued,maybe the early kick off and sore heads from the night before? Certainly doesn't come across as anything like the very intimidating vetch field,where I remember seeing Bob Latchford terrorise us many years before,which had a wall of noise emanating from all sides rather than just the corner of the liberty where the drummer tries to create something that's missing somehow? Got an utter soaking getting back to the car but taking all the points back to Manchester made it all worthwhile.A draw would probably have been fair on the 90 mins but I'm sure Swansea can take plenty from the game and kick on from here Regards PPLF
Great read Paul, and very fair and magnanimous of you, I think our main failing today was as you rightly pointed out, our defence stood back far too much, failing to put the foot in and block the shots with their body, one of your goals went through four of our defencive players, and I'm sure Laudrup will show that footage to them, as they all stood there like statues. My positive is the fact that Bony got some half decent service, something that has been lacking all season, just hope this is now the turning point for us. Many thanks, great read!................... PS: Glad you noticed that sitter that De Goose missed?...............
Thanks for the post Paul and sorry it wasnt a dry few days for you. Got to agree the key players for us yesterday were Bony , JDG and JJ with, ny my view, JDG getting the MoM. Our weakness yesterday as you point out is our defence backing off and then offering up goal scoring chances. Hope you got back OK
Great read fella, i thought the game deserved a draw but in fairness if you defend like we did you dont deserve anything . Tremmel has gone backwards and looks like he is under pressure to perform,he is suffering from nerves IMO never seen him make so many basic errors and dodgy decisions .
Nice post, Paul Your comment "the excellent De Guzman controlling the middle of the park" is one I'd go along with. It's a shame that some feel the need to highlight the JDG miss when his overall contribution was superb. I also dislike our 'fans' name-calling our own players. It's tacky and distasteful imo. "Got to agree the key players for us yesterday were Bony , JDG and JJ with, ny my view, JDG getting the MoM" Can't disagree with glam's comment above on the key players, though I think JJ faded badly second half (he looked wasted) and Bony was our MOM because of the goals and overall effort. I also agree with Norway - Tremmel has cost us dearly in recent games.
Good accurate appraisal , it's nice to see we played a big part in what was an entertaining game in the most part,JDG did play a significant part in our performance but Bony for me not just for his goals but for his never give up attitude . It is a pity to read the amount of pisstake regarding our players on "rivals" board, this being instigated by "our fans " anything to appease the uneducated I suppose
Last season he played better than Vorm when he had an extended run in the side , surprising really ,you can make a mistake as a defender and hope the keeper or others bail you out but his mistakes yesterday were really of his own making .All players have a blip but the trouble is at the moment is we don't have an experienced back up keeper so he'll either play his way out back to the standard he set himself last year without any more costly mistakes ,fingers crossed. We have 3 U21 keepers but with them not playing at this level could be a step too far atm .
Tremmel is very experienced but is on a very sticky patch imo. His distribution is really poor as well. He's made some very good saves in recent games but he's also let in goals that imo Vorm would have saved. As others have said we need some experience as back up.
When ? , it's only fair to receive the criticism as well as the plaudits which has happened , he had a good season last year and a poor one to date this season.
Dai in response to your previous post Yes he has made some very good saves but the simple ones he's failed to deal with .He's not consistent at the moment and I'm afraid at this level we're getting punished because of it.
That's a top appraisal there pplf. Joe Hart has always had a good reception here and at the Etihad he claps our fans back too. Top keeper and I'm glad he's back in your team doing well. He played against us in our last league game at the Vetch for Shrewsbury and a lot of fans haven't forgotten that. As for your team I think they oozed class and are the best team in the league and the best we played. Kompany is a class act and there's not many teams that could cope with not having Aguero and Silva playing. Good luck for the season not that I think you guys will need it.
He's probably not consistent because our back four are farting in the wind, and it's putting him off!.................. How many times has Williams blocked his line of vision recently? Dai is correct, he's had a very good season, with a couple of games below par, not bad considering how crap we have been this season as a team in general!...............
Exactly dragon tremmell is as good as vorm and each have better individual qualities...Talking about joe Hart he had a nightmare few games recently where he let in easy goals, It happens and part of being a keeper...vorm and tremmell are an asset to the squad who both have saved us from conceding a lot more goals if the truth was known...
I don't think Tremmel has had a good season. Many pundits are saying that's an area we need to strengthen and they may have a point. He's made some decent saves yes - that's his job, and at Prem level you'd expect that. But he's let in some goals recently that have cost us points of that there is no doubt. Almost all of them I think Vorm would have probably saved. I'm not counting deflected goals which are unfortunate, but saveable shots. His distribution isn't a patch on Vorm's either. My son (who was coached by Neville Southall as a keeper for Welsh schoolboys a while back) thinks the same. His theory is that if a keeper can get a touch to the ball it may be saveable. If he can get a palm to a ball it almost certainly is. That may be a generalisation but there's some truth in it. Tremmel has managed to get a hand to the ball on numerous occasions recently yet has ended up picking the ball out of the net. One of yesterday's goals came off his hand then onto his head ffs! Let's be honest - would he ever be a number 1 here? I seriously doubt it. Tremmel isn't a kid, he's very experienced and I'd have expected him to do better. That said, it's the same old story with keepers - if they make an error it's usually very costly.
