Man City HOME Sunday August 12th 4pm

[M-50]

Toothless

*word censored*

[sk-gtfo]

Is the season over yet?.

[Perryashburtongroves]

That was better than most of last year. Better tempo and better organisation. I expected nothing from today so really, let's see what happens in a month's time. Last year, that would have been 5-0.

[GranadaJoe]

I think Emery has got a tough job on his hands.

If we're going to play a pressing game the defence needs to push up, but only Bellerin has got the pace to get back and he's had a poor start. Also, are Ozil and Miki going to press for 90 mins? Xhaka spends more time standing still watching play go on around him than covering.

Ozil will have to speed up his play. A few times when we were breaking on Citeh he did his little twirly thing and allowed their defenders to get back.

Neither Ozil or Miki have got the pace to play wide, nor the inclination to track back.

I actually think that with our current players 4 4 2 would be a better system.

[the playing mantis]

Disappointing but its city so not really that fair a test. this is the first game ive watched since the start of last season...i was that disinvested i simply wayched MOD when i could be arsed last season. so seeing PEA for the first time for a full game was an eye opener

Dont like this playing out from the back come what may. doesn't work with the plank in goal.

Cech, do fuck off, should have easily saved the 1st. made decent saves after but looks a liability.
bellerin, got better, maybe can come good again
mus/sok thought they did ok no pace but think they could be ok
naitland miles, out of position, lichtensteiner looked class. new what to do.
xhaka - f'ing awful. not in the game, and when he was looked like an accident waiting to happen. worrying he got a new deal as hes shite.
sideshow bob - put the effort in, not bad, sometim,es looked like bambi and has an error in him, but he is young
ramsey - fuck off please, nowhere near as good as he thinks- 1/3 of a good season in 10 years. not in the game
ozil - tried
pea - hmm not sure, attitude/effort maybe not right
laca- did well i thought looked hungry and caused issues (much admittedly of cities own making)
mik- now he seems to have escaped criticism. i think hes atrocious. weak, cowardly, lacks effort, i hate him. never rated him at untied or dortmund, as at dortmund i always thought it was he who fucked up attacks when they played us in the past. his lack of effort and cowardlyness in ducking out of 50/50s etc and tracking back is unforgivable.

we need to bomb cech, xhaka, and mik out straightaway and ramsey too. i think mustafi could be ok in a proper system.

its gonna be a tough season. but think top 4 and above scum isnt out of reacgh once we bed in.

[nut flush gooner]

Why is the kid with the hair still on ?

What game where you watching Rob? For a youngster it wasn’t an awful debut. He made one howler, got away with it but for the rest of the game looked more accomplished than so called seasoned pros Ramsey and Xhaka. I like how he sees a forward pass early. When the front line figure his game and there is more of an understanding, I expect a more productive outcome.

[clockender1]

That was a great pass for the 2nd offside goal from the kid.

[northbank123]

To be expected. To be honest I thought it was ok on the whole, bar the first 30 minutes which was awful and inexcusable. After that we worked hard and our high pressing game was actually effective, albeit we were comfortably beaten.

Xhaka took all of six minutes to needlessly give the ball away under no pressure in a dangerous area (a trick he repeated another twice) and as always against a decent side watched the game pass by him. Thought Guendouzi did a lot of things well and in addition to being a pain in the arse off the ball he also tries to play football. Horror show to let Aguero clean through and beaten too easily for the first goal but overall thought he did well.

Cech is a fucking laughing stock. Watched the first one into the middle of the net, tried to pass another into the goal and worse than Ospina with ball at feet.

Lichsteiner is miles better than Bellerin or Maitland-Niles (or Monreal or Kolasinac) and should undoubtedly be starting for me.

Shape didn’t look great to be honest - Ozil and Mkhitaryan give us no width. I’m not convinced by Mkhitaryan and doubt he will turn up in big games, and I don’t think that Ramsey as our creative force at 10 will work. We got into decent positions going forward but just didn’t click, but that is completely to be expected. I did like our tempo though and I thought we pressed well - not just people trying hard and then waving their arms but actually everybody pressing together as a unit to win the ball back.

If anybody was naive enough to think it would be anything other than a long slow slog, today should have disabused them of that notion.

[wibble]

As expected from the players we had last season i.e. pretty disappointing. We didn't create much and the chances we had were generally from city mistakes, some of which came from decent high pressing at least.

As for the new signings(apologies in advance for the spelling!), liechsteiner looked solid and has good positional sense, which you would expect from a defender but has been sadly lacking for us in recent years!

Sokratis looked ok, nothing special but not a bad debut. Lack of pace between him and mustafi is a worry though.

Guindouzi was a mixed bag, showed well for the ball but was dispossessed quite easily and error misreading the bounce nearly cost a goal. Certainly has potential though.

Torreira didn't get much game time but that will hopefully change soon when he surely replaces xhaka

Leno, I worry we won't see him for a while despite cechs performance

[LeftfootlegendGooner]

Bangabang, Ramsey, bellend, mustafi, ozil, heymikiyouresoshit, Cech, haka all shit.

Too early to judge emery but I still can't see this high pressing game

[silus]

On the way home from the game..not sure what to make of it all considering the opposition.
Positives:
-made a few chances press8mg them in their own half.
- we seemed to have a much better shape than normal
-decent debut by lichsteiner and guendouzi looks a great signing (whoever asked why he was still on tje pitch must have watched a different game than me)
Negarives:
- defence very shaky at times
- xhaka...fucking shit
- Ramsey..I'm not sure what his role/position in the team was supposed to be.

All in all I'm not too downhearted...a lot of work to do but definitely positive signs I think.

Hard to judge as man city are fucking good...if they don't win the league at a canter I will cut my cock off and feed it to my neighbours dog.

[Midz]

All in all I'm not too downhearted...a lot of work to do but definitely positive signs I think.

agree

[Midz]

Ozil is still a *word censored* though.

[Red Snapper]

Why is the kid with the hair still on ?

What game where you watching Rob? For a youngster it wasn’t an awful debut. He made one howler, got away with it but for the rest of the game looked more accomplished than so called seasoned pros Ramsey and Xhaka. I like how he sees a forward pass early. When the front line figure his game and there is more of an understanding, I expect a more productive outcome.

Agree with Nutflush, I thought the one with the hair was our best player and one error is to be expected from a new player on debut. He barely put a foot wrong apart from that and has energy and pace to burn. Impressed by the new midget too!

[northbank123]

Does anybody here think that Xhaka is anything other than a disaster and a fraud at this level?

Barely lasted five minutes before he needlessly gave away the ball in a really dangerous area under zero pressure. Did the same thing a few more tiles.

But forget about that - what did he do well today? NOTHING. It’s always fucking nothing. He is a painfully average footballer with zero pace and simply cannot get a foothold in any game against a half-decent side. Doesn’t win any fucking possession back, doesn’t do anything going forward.