Well in my pre match I had us down for smashing Cardiff today, although I stupidly made this prediction based on thinking we were going to be consistent, silly me!
We were absolutely terrible today and although Cardiff worked hard, the defeat was all our own doing. I discounted Cardiff as a poor team and I stand by that, all they did was stick ten behind the ball and that was us gazumped, just as we were against the same tactics last season.
Today our passing was just awful, our defending poor and our work ethic was lacking, it is almost like they think they have a right to win these games at times and just do not put the effort in.
If we were to look back at the game you would see we actually dominated possession, but as we know that doesn't necessarily mean a whole lot. It is ok to have a lot of the ball when your not giving it away every other pass or trying to score the prettiest goal every time you go forward.
We need to just keep things a little more basic at times and our class will shine through. As I mentioned we always seem to want to score the prettiest goal we can rather than just making sure we do the basics properly first, today for example our goals came from having a pop and your run of the mill cross and it worked, but more often than not for some reason we want to walk the ball in. I thought this would of been addressed in pre season as this is not a new issue, it was a big problem last season when we weren't scoring enough.
Now to the players, I am not at a stage where I want to pick out certain players yet as it is not something I like to do if I can help it and seems as its just the second game I am going to let certain people off. What I will talk about however is players that I think should be playing, Gareth Barry being the player in question.
What has Barry done wrong that means he should be frozen out? Barry has been a major part of our transformation and has seen us through plenty of games by very quietly marshalling the midfield, today for instance he would have sat in the midfield cleverly breaking up play, something that needed to be done but just wasn't. It is almost like he is just not fashionable enough to play for City, I would bring him back into the fold with immediate effect.
Just to finish up, is it drastic to think that this is an extremely bad result in terms of the title race? I personally don't. We cannot lose games like this if we want to win the title, in fact we have to win these games if we are to finish top, don't get me wrong I am not panicking but it is not a good sign if we can't take advantage in these more favourable fixtures.
That's my opinion, what do you think?
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beaten by a team that done a job on you and scored more goals don't be bitter and twisted
ReplyDeleteWhat job did you do? stuck 10 behind the ball, I think if you read properly I did nothing but tell the truth about both teams today.
DeleteYes your fans wernt even gd summed u right up cardiff fans where amazing couldn't stop singing even wen 1-0 down..... Sour grapes u were beaten by a more determined side 3-2 to the sheep shaggers
ReplyDeleteYour fans were good fair play, more determined side? I write about City mainly and in response we conceded bad goals.
DeleteCould you try and refrain from the bad language as well please as I have children that read on here, opinions are welcome as long as they are dignified, cheers.
Deletemore determined to beat us? thats why you played with everyone behind the ball then, you played against a poor city team and a really bad defencive display thats why you won, fact.
DeleteHow can u say a bad defence if we didn't get out of our half if we camped surely u r on about ur stikers not defending then just face facts u where beaten by a side who give u to much respect in first half which u failed to capitalize on and wen u scored we had nothing to lose and went out to play our normal game.... I was speaking to m.city fans on train back and they said cardiff deserved the three points and that our crowd was our main reason as we didn't once get on players back kept on cheering even when I scored we kept cheering ur fans where very quiet barely heard u all game maybe do your support in the stands instead of slating cardiff for winning u could just say well done cardiff on a win because most cardiff fans said man city will still won the league and I hope u do
DeleteOk I will say it now well done on winning and yes for the fact you wanted to win more you deserved it, my problem is not with Cardiff winning it is with Man City losing.
DeleteI will be honest though apart from Cardiff working hard I didn't see anything else to suggest what your team did to win, that's not slating you. Thanks for commenting.
But be honest did u expect anything else we were playing man city my friend and I thaught Campbell made intelligent run behind ur defence call it a long ball or a defence splitting pass hart made two class saves in first half can't remember m.city having a decent shot in first half call that camping or good defending as a team because if ur team defended from bk to front u would have had the points instead I think it's gd determination beat arrogance
DeleteThe other anons commenting are complete morons. City lost the game today on the basis of a poor overall performance with particular note on the lack of ability to deal with men behind the ball with long balls into danger areas. Football by numbers as Big Sam once put it won out. It's disappointing but the team will pick themselves up and I for one expect a big response in our next game and the following fixtures.
ReplyDeleteCardiff wanted it more. Man City expected it to be an easier game especially when they went ahead.
ReplyDeleteThere were times when Cardiff were stuck to their own half but thus was because Man City were piling on the pressure. Your opinion that Cardiff did just that is totally wrong.
In the first half I thought Cardiff outplayed Man City on occasions.
Anyway, we won because of the poor attitude of Man City players. If they don't leave this attitude behind they will lose many more matches.
I'm hoping Man City will win the Premiership. But, whatever other teams do, they have to combat it. They didn't against Cardiff and paid the price.
I think you are wrong to say Cardiff are a poor team. Their position at the end of the season will prove you right or wrong. Personally, I believe Cardiff will do well.
Your correct poor attitude sums it up as far as City are concerned. As for Cardiff staying up I hope you do, I don't dislike Cardiff or anything like that I just don't rate them too highly, thanks for commenting.
DeleteI remember when Man City fans had a sense of realism and perspective, it was an attractive quality which led me to think of them as being some of the most grounded supporters you'd find anywhere.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure those type of fans are still to be found at the Etihad, but I'm afraid that you come across in this piece as the sort of intolerant and arrogant supporter which you get at clubs who some expect to be at the top of the Premier League as a matter of right.
To claim that Cardiff are a poor team who won solely because they put ten men behind the ball and were gifted three goals is to show a one eyed attitude that does you no favours at all.
For their first goal Cardiff were able to work their way from end of the pitch to the other by putting together 16 passes which culminated in the sort of incisive run past defenders that your team never matched - does that sound like a poor team which simply preyed on your mistakes?
I'm a Cardiff fan and I also had you down for smashing us, but my team made me proud yesterday afternoon because they showed a spirit, unity of purpose, capacity for hard work and, yes, a degree of talent which I thought they were incapable of against the top teams. It's an amazing feeling to be shown that they can demonstrate these qualities against the Man Citys of this world, but it seems to me that you cannot feel the same pride in your team any more (if you ever did) because you now expect opponents to roll over in awe when your side pitches up at their ground.
Fantastic analysis my fellow bluebird we where the better team man city have fantastic players but u can't turn up with the attitude u r going to win this easily.... I was extremely proud of my team yesterday was on the march before kick off about playing on red which I thaught was going to cause a problem if we where losing but the fans yesterday created a atmosphere that scared the man city players because we united as 1 to support the boys and they thrived on that true man city fans appreciated the support we gave them yesterday and praised cardiff for beating a team that not many sides will beat this year but man city fans take this one on the chin as I'm sure wen we come to the ethiad u will repay the favour
DeleteRealism and perspective, well yeah your right in a way it is just that the perspective changed when we became what we are now.
DeleteYour also correct about the sense of pride, I have always been a proud City fan and you shouldn't be calling that into question as you do not know me, but it is hard to feel that sense of pride now that we are supposedly a top team, winning games just isn't the same because there is always an expectancy to win.
As for being arrogant not the case, intolerant maybe because these performances have been a regular occurrence for some time now.
Also in the sense of being one eyed, I write about City, I didn't say you won just because you put ten behind the ball, I said City couldn't combat it, I also said we defended badly which was also the case.
As for being a poor team, that is my opinion on Cardiff, I don't think you have the best squad going and yesterday cemented the fact that you are not a good footballing side, I mean on the flip side if you hadn't sat so deep what damage could you have done?
I am not taking this victory away from Cardiff fans because as you said you will be immensely proud and rightly so, I merely had my opinion on why I thought city lost, if I sounded arrogant I cant help that it is just very hard to write about City now without perhaps coming across that way.
My blog is always only about opinion, thank you for taking the time to leave yours.
I think that our defensive and goalkeeping work at the set pieces had a lot to do with the defeat yesterday, but you have to give a lot of credit to Cardiff. Campbell ran miles all afternoon and not like a headless chicken, they were some really intelligent runs. But man of the match was Gunnarsson. Fantastic performance and a good mix of grit and technical ability too. After a poor first game, if Cardiff play like this every week, they'll be more than alright.
ReplyDeleteOne other thing, from our perspective, I wonder if bringing in the width which Navas provides in the second half, when they were getting tired might have been more fruitful. He seemed constantly frustrated, first half.
Yeah Navas was frustrated in the first half because of the way Cardiff defended, instead of taking him off more width should of been put on, thing is we don't really have any.
DeleteThe club make some bad decisions at time we should keep the likes of Sinclair for this reason, same with Rekik, we are struggling in defence and we let him go on loan only to be called up to the national team.
Thanks for commenting.
Man city fans who didn't go cardiff yeasterday don't comment please as you Cleary got cardiff wrong I'm sure Campbell did more chasing and running behind defenders than aguero but u Wont c that on tv will u man city fans who where fantastic in the pubs with us cardiff fans yesterday had a gd day and also realised wen they went into stadium that it was just a cauldron of noise and they couldn't even get going there fans cardiff fans where fantastic and what u had in talent we had in support which pushed us on to our first 3 points and m.city fans said after game ur fans where a credit to us now that is true fans coming together not fans who watch on tv and listen to commentary and have a one aides opinion. I like man city and hope u win the league but get thé man city fans who once had dignity when they lost instead of tearing ur team apart get behind then because trust me us cardiff fans will be tearing our hair out more than once this season but we will carrying on singing and cheering as we are happy to be in premier league and want to enjoy every moment
ReplyDeleteYou know that's my favourite comment yet because I have lost a bit of that enjoyment since we have been a 'good' team, your right we need to start enjoying City again and just roll with it like we used to, the pressure to be a good team just changes everything though and it is hard to keep a level head now.
ReplyDeleteI have obviously offended a lot of Cardiff fans, I want to make clear that was not my intention and I apologise if I have done so.
Thank you very much for commenting.
No problem mate glad u liked my comment don't forget us cardiff fans have had to put up with everything going from nearly going bust missing out on playoffs by a point losing in playoff final fa cup final league cup final and also changing our tradition by playing in red which I strongly disagree with so wen all that is thrown at us we have faced it by supporting our team stronger than ever so yesterday not many cardiff fans would have even dreamed we would have scored so winning was a dream come true yes cardiff ain't going to be troubling many teams this season but to say we don't have quality says a lot for your team as we didn't think man city were that good and maybe u could say I doing tit for tat but be honest what chances did u create that troubled is dzeko scored out of nothing and negredo goal was class where gunnarsson goal was well worked and corners were class deliveries if man city had scored from them u would say Class delivery as navas and Silva corners wwre terrible .... Good luck for rest of season hope u win league still from a true cardiff fan
DeleteI have been busy today and its been a while now but if you come back can you drop me an email please.
DeleteJust to sum up maybe I discredited Cardiff but without meaning to, my issue is really with City trust me, I am becoming annoyed by these players that earn 100 grand a week and are not performing. I work hard to pay my mortgage and then I have to pay an extra 50 quid again for my season ticket this year to put in the pockets of these underachievers, I just don't think it is acceptable.