Man City League Cup 1-1 - lost 4-3 on pens

[MC Prussian]

5 minutes ago, Swan Lesta said:

Did you watch the game?

 

Genuinely confused by your take.

I went into further detail a few posts later following my initial input.

 

I was somewhat disappointed by our approach and style until Mahrez and Gray came on, it was a succession of poor passing, lack of desire and hardly any goalscoring threat up until then.

Manchester City could've been there for the taking from the start - and yes, I know how good they are.

Instead, we sat back and let them dominate the game. 1-0 to them was rather flattering for us.

 

We should've gone out after 97 minutes, that would've saved us from penalties.

I just don't think we were that good tonight, Guardiola winding up Puel before penalties was an indication of things to come.

That Mahrez and Vardy had to miss adds to the insult.

 

All in all, a frustrating couple of days now - and Manchester United just around the corner. I do hope this is not a continuation of a downward spiral and that we can swing things back our way, or else we're in for a fatal couple of results in the league.

[HoustonFox]

1 minute ago, Stevosevic said:

Almost certainly

I think there was contact, so not sure on dive.  Thought he was trying to get the ball.  I genuinely thought it was a corner when I first saw it... in the pub... with no sound on... 

[surrifox]

Hamer is no less effective than Kasper at penalties and overall had a sound game . The casual slagging off on these boards is unmerited and unfair 

[lee7]

If we had started with our strongest 11 & Vardy had more time up against Mangala I think we could've sneaked that. 

 

Disappointing that Puel didn't start with our strongest side.

 

When it came to penalties Hamer didn't even look like getting close to any of theirs! He may as well of just stood still.  

[Tielemans63]

6 minutes ago, Cadno'r Cymoedd said:

Clearly far from Man City's first team but they had some good footballers out there who were very comfortable on the ball. Once we stopped unnecessarily giving them respect and the early-ish goal

Totally agree with this Cadno'r. We played that first half like we up against their strongest XI, we should have been more aggressive and disrupt them rather than standing off them. Might sound like a weird thing to notice and an even weirder thing to get wound up about but it really pissed me off that our players were constantly trying to high 5 their players like they wanted the recognition from those Man City mega stars. That and constantly checking to see if the City boys were okay every time a strong gust of wind floored them. Fvck that, be a bit nasty, make it an uncomfortable, unpleasant experience, get them a bit wound up godammit! 

 

We didn't look like we really believed we could beat them tbh.

[Guest Col city fan]

Just now, HoustonFox said:

I think there was contact, so not sure on dive.  Thought he was trying to get the ball.  I genuinely thought it was a corner when I first saw it... in the pub... with no sound on... 

The authorities are Hell bent at the moment on making an example of ‘diving’.

I think Gray will get a ban

[Slim Dog]

5 minutes ago, foxes21 said:

Real shame N’Didi wasn’t available.

 

If he was, I think we could have approached the game differently. We would have been able to press them high to try force mistakes in their third, instead of us sitting back all game.

 

Their back line was there for the taking but we never pressured them really or got in their faces.

What game were you watching!? We didn't stop pressing after the first 20mins or so. Jesus, the lads ran themselves into the ground.

 

Edit: We caused so many mistakes from pressing them back towards their goal.

Edited 19 December 2017 by Slim Dog

[HoustonFox]

Just now, Col city fan said:

The authorities are Hell bent at the moment on making an example of ‘diving’.

I think Gray will get a ban

Will they take into account that the ref was Richard Madeley?  Most decent refs would have just given a corner... 

[ealingfox]

Just now, HoustonFox said:

Will they take into account that the ref was Richard Madeley?  Most decent refs would have just given a corner... 

 

Bloody hell, how did I miss that? Bit of a career change.

[AjcW]

19 minutes ago, Col city fan said:

This simply isn’t true. We played against the bulk of a team who will not get into Man City’s first team this season.

We didn’t draw with the best team in Europe. Don’t try to bull shit.

Gundoghan, Toure, Jesus, Silva, Danilo, Bravo. I don’t really think it matters what is around a core like that.

 

I was quite clear in making the point that if we played our first team we’d have got a win... but we didn’t so my point was why are people criticising those in our team who did start? 

[Slim Dog]

They played AROUND the press today, like they do with every other team. Pressing doesn't necessarily work.

Edited 19 December 2017 by Slim Dog

[possiblygeorge]

Now, I don't want to be "that person". But given we were told by the gaffer our "strongest squad" will be selected and we get given Amartey, Hamer, Iheanacho, Dragovic and leave the key players on the bench is cause for concern.

Third round Europa League qualifiers were on the line and we're about to face our third loss on the weekend so we can forget about even finishing in a European place.

It's FA Cup or bust now for Automatic Europa Group Stage placing.

[Harry - LCFC]

We should've picked our best fvcking team.

[MC Prussian]

My main positives from tonight's game:

 

Maguire

Amartey (again surprisingly solid as RB)

Dragovic (as the game progressed)

Hamer (saved what could save)

 

Other than that:

Fuchs got skinned way too often by Bernardo Silva and looks like his legs have gone for good.

Iheanacho and Vardy were highly ineffective on their own up front, with no service coming from either Iborra or King - we needed an attacking midfielder or a more attacking-oriented central midfielder so bad. Okazaki was mostly contained by the Manchester City defenders or Yaya Touré, ran his socks off but just couldn't impose himself.

Wonder how it'd have been with Adrien Silva in the center...

 

Oh, and the four substitutions rule for cup games is irritating. As is Bobby Madley and his officiating. Way too lenient on Manchester City and then - to make up for it - gifts us a penalty.

[baldeagle]

36 minutes ago, ZeGuy said:

Not even hitting the target is even better. Funny both Vardy and Mahrez missed, both are shit at pens, yet Mahrez is the who's taking the flak.

Yep Vardy is that shit as pens that he scored one to equalize 

[jayfox26]

47 minutes ago, MC Prussian said:

Didn't deserve to win this, anyway.

Just never were in it, really. A somewhat logical continuation from Saturday's performance.

Either you're joking or you only watched the 1st half. Can't work out which one 

[Sir Steve Howard]

16 minutes ago, surrifox said:

Hamer is no less effective than Kasper at penalties and overall had a sound game . The casual slagging off on these boards is unmerited and unfair 

Absolutely dispute that.

Some keepers are far better at saving penalties than others.

Bravo saved two penalties in the last round and saved another this round, he also went on a saving spree for Chile at the confederations cup.

Kasper saved two penalties out of 3 in the champions league knockout stage last season.

Can you honestly say with a straight face you fancied our chances in the shootout the same with Hamer in goal as if we had Kasper?

[broughtonblue]

Fecking day trippers ?

[Callabinho]

Passed to death for he best part of 80 minutes by their kids and reserves..... is Pep a bald Gandalf? Disappointed again that it took until Vardy to come on to get into them... but looking at both on paper, we really should be doing better.

 

Kalechi can get back on the bus with them, he really isn’t our type of player. 

 

Pretty pissed off with that in all fairness. 

[ajthefox]

Well that was a wank game.

 

We were shite tonight for the most part I thought. Our passing in particular was shocking - we gave the ball away so often.

It was still a decent Man City team with Gundogan, Yaya, Silva etc and some youngsters who looked very accomplished but make no mistake - that game was ours for the taking if we'd been a bit more direct and aggressive. Hamer is unconvincing but he saved what he had to and the odds were against him for the goal.That aside he wasn't too busy, which says a lot really given how poor we were in the final third.

 

Called both Vards and Riyad missing pens - both far too one dimensional.

 

And wow, Madeley really is a ****ing shocking ref.

Gave so many soft fouls and turned down a load of blatant fouls on both sides. That pen was so soft 

Edited 19 December 2017 by ajthefox

[AjcW]

Poster above jokes about it, but I’m pleased pep is actually getting credit for being a good manager and not just “buying success” 

 

You only have to look at the way he talked to his players at HTET and at the end to know his man management is spot on.

 

To have fringe players playing the sort of football the first team does is nothing short of a miracle and shows the sort of structure he has in place.

 

Previous city manager played kids at time in the cup and got humiliated.

 

It’s time to accept he’s just very good at what he does instead of harbouring dislike like so many premier league teams fans seem to.

[Guest MattP]

Gutted, strongest team I think we win that.

[LCFCSOULBOY]

27 minutes ago, Paddy. said:

Totally agree with this Cadno'r. We played that first half like we up against their strongest XI, we should have been more aggressive and disrupt them rather than standing off them. Might sound like a weird thing to notice and an even weirder thing to get wound up about but it really pissed me off that our players were constantly trying to high 5 their players like they wanted the recognition from those Man City mega stars. That and constantly checking to see if the City boys were okay every time a strong gust of wind floored them. Fvck that, be a bit nasty, make it an uncomfortable, unpleasant experience, get them a bit wound up godammit! 

 

We didn't look like we really believed we could beat them tbh.

Thank you. Could not believe Nacohead apologizing for everything. They didn't give a toss about him. Chillwell got a kick to the face and Nachhead was no where near. So annoying

 

[Trav Le Bleu]

38 minutes ago, TheUltimateWinner said:

Could Gray be hit with a ban?

For what? It was a penalty.

[Wymsey]

Very unlucky, did all we could really.

There's a strong chance they'll win three trophies this season.

There's a player of theirs that looked similar to De Bruyne (number 35/36?) who stood out for me - very good awareness and intelligent on the ball.