Decent chances of away wins are few and far between. Stoke were there for the taking. They were poor. After Saturday, the run of away games is (cue collective sharp intakes of deep breath):- Liverpool, Arsenal, Man U, Man C, Swansea, WBA, Spurs and Everton. Like at Villa, City had a great chance of turning a 0-0 into a 1-0 win IF only Mackay had been positive with his substitutions. All he did was a like for like swap and with no penetration and playing up the pitch, Odemwinghie might as well have stayed on the bench and City played with 10 men. City never really tested their defence; Noone and Cornelius might have made the difference. We will never now know. It was an awful game; goals were flying in all round the country, away teams wee winning by scoring 2,3, 4 goals yet City wouldn't have scored if they replayed that game ten times. Granted a point is a point, and stopped Stoke gaining 3 on us but unless we win on Saturday, it's our home form that will determine our future this term.
It looks like MM is content to get the single points where he can and sneak the odd win - as said above you need to go for the away wins when the chance arises.
At some point in the season we will have to be more positive otherwise we will be in trouble. Is Cornelius the new Velinkonja? Malky says he is not match fit having only played sixty minutes against Yeovil and five or ten minutes off the bench. How will he get match sharp if he doesn't play? Hope I'm wrong but so far this looks like a major waste of money.
I am disappointed that MM chose to play for the draw, it's teams like Stoke that we must go at, I know they are a physical side but to survive in this league we need to get at teams like this.
Where the **** did they find 7 minutes of highlights from, probably 5 mins of the managers saying how they both were fantastic and deserved to win
Disappointed at the starting line-up MM chose. No attacking flair, no wide men. He looks like he set out for a draw, instead of going for the win.
This season has shown that Malky will only ever be positive with his substitutions when we're losing. If we're holding on to a point, especially away from home, he will never go for the burn to take all three. Fear of losing seems to overide his ambition to win, and to be fair, that could either keep us up or send us down - it could go either way if we fail to beat these bottom half sides at the CCS. The loss to Villa up there was a classic case of where these plans can unfold - we could have and should have won that game with a more positive approach.
OS, MM will have no option but to be defensive and when the defence is breached to bring on attacking substitutions in the forthcoming away fixtures. Maybe we could sneak a 0-0 in one of these games but TBH it is unlikely. ** Whether we would have won at Villa & Stoke is a question we will never know the answer to. But against Fulham away City were more positive and it got the result. ** Unless of course January sees some high quality players to come in and take the places of the uninspiring Cowie, Odemwinghie & Gunnarrson.
There were a few of us who got ridiculed on here last season, as to the way MM sets up the side, basically there is NO Entertainment, our style of play is boring, we create little or no chances for the strikers (who i feel sorry for) if i remember rightly our last 6 games last year were all draws. We start every game this year looking for the draw. I recorded the match on sky, watched it all the way through, and both Stoke and Cardiff looked poor sides. We looked poor as we showed no ambition, no width, no crosses, basically no nothing. On another note that Achy breaky heart Malky Mackay song is now really getting up my hooter. If he were sacked tomorrow i for one would see the reasoning behind it. Its a bums on seats business, if we get no entertainment then the fans will start to stay away. Look at Sunderland under Poyet, at least they are having a go. We arent. This is going to turn into a very long arduous season if the owners dont do something about the dire tactics being used. As for the fans who go away every week i take my hat off to them, as they are spending their hard earned watching what is little better entertainment that is served up in the Conference. Dont blame the players, as i believe we have a talented bunch, however at the moment they are not being managed correctly
I think whats hard to take is the way we are playing against the likes of Man U and Arsenal, then we play like this against Stoke. If we had played well and finished 2-2 we would have been happier with the point, but it's the same 1 point just gathered a different way. MM played a lot of this stuff in the championship and got us over the line with points to spare. When we eventually play Corny it will be like playing a new £8 million striker, that should give us something different. I can understand how he set out to start with last night, look for the point is an obvious thing to do away from home, but once we had seen how the first half went it would have been nice to see him take the bull by the horns and give it a go for the 3 points. Never going to happen though, expect more of the same against palace unless we get an early goal(whats that I hear you say) then we might see some better play, but I doubt it.
I was hoping that for the last 15-20 mins, MM would stick Cornelius and Noone one and have a go at them. As has been said before, win one and lose one would be better than 2 draws, though I'm sure that denying Stoke 2 points is a bonus.
The goal this season is survival and I think we will all be pleased if this is achieved. What grates for many at the moment and particularly last night is that both us and the opposition wouldn't have looked out of place in League 2. My overriding concern is where are the goals coming from if we continue to play ultra cautionsly? We have a poor goal tally and as Norwich have recently found out on two occasions the big clubs can leave their mark in spectacular fashion. Check our goal tally. Where will we be if an on form big club put five or seven past us at their home? Yes. Wasted opportunity.
Malky was pretty pleased at the end last night with pumped clenched fists at the point gained. We did not seem very fluent last night or we might have got something from the match with what we had on the pitch....but some substitutions seemed needed after the kicking that we had taken that might have put a bit of a spark into the game. Wasted opportunity, yes.....but we might have settled for the point away at Stoke and maybe the argument is more about how the result came about rather than the result in itself.
Yes, I thought he would have brought on Corney and Noone to give them a go in the last 10 minutes. Earlier comments about Odemwingie a little unfair as he, like Campbell, is being asked to play up front on his own. He is too lightweight for this and his successes at West Brom occured when playing in tandem with another striker. We know they both have goals in them but it is so tough when fighting lone battles up front. I think the best we will get is for Corney to play up top with someone behind him in the hole - an opportunity for Maynard maybe who is suited to that or even Joe - ooops, forgot he is on Bolton duty. Will Malky serve up more of the same on Saturday? Surely there are 3 points there up for grabs? We know we can beat Pularse so he has to be more aggressive in his strategy.
Your Manager is a good one who can organise his teams well but he's overly cautious imo - even at home - and I wonder whether that's why Tan is frustrated with him. Stoke are decent at home though so maybe that's what he was thinking. Palace will be very tough on the weekend too. If MM doesn't go all out for the win their fans will be their 12th man and you could be in for a day of it. Lots of tough away games coming up as the OP says. I'll be disappointed and frustrated if we don't beat you at our place and the rest don't look winnable at all. But home form is what every newly promoted team relies on and you've had some decent results. However, if opposing teams have now sussed you out as they did with us after half a season you could be in trouble.
Don't you mean unless Palace score an early goal? City only seem to pay more attacking football when losing!
