ethicalstrategy

I thought Neville was well over the top about Balotelli yesterday. Clearly the guy is a numpty, but he wasn't the reason they lost yesterday. Mancini has to shoulder the blame for not making the right changes when his team were clearly out on their feet. The goal came from an error when the fullback tried to play out to Pizarro when he out to have put his foot through it. Pizarro lost it because he could barely stand up, let alone run.

Just posted this in the "nearest and dearest" thread, but it's relevant here too; Article by Bill Edgar in today's Times:

A lovely article by Bill Edgar in the Times today. As it's behind the paywall here's the article:

I'm not looking forward to this game at all. After Saturday's lacklustre effort it will be a real challenge to get us playing better. I think the same back four should start and I'd like to see Torres and Kalou come in for Sturridge and Malouda. In midfield I think we have to start with Mikel and either Frank or Ramires.

There's an awful lot being written about this but it boils down to one thing - attitude. Sturridge's stinks big time. Yesterday's performance was unacceptable. Its nothing to do with talent or opportunity it is simply that he didn't try. He got booed, not just by a few but by most of the crowd and I think he deserved it.

Generally I'm not in favour of booing players. It is unlikely to help them play better. However, I think there was a real justification today in Sturridge's case. He wasn't just appalling. He basically sulked his way through the match. I really wanted to go on the pitch and give him a big slap.

I haven't read the whole thread so I may be taking this out of context, but we most certainly didn't win any league titles with displays like today's. I'm delighted that we won and in a few days the whole match will slip in to obscurity (thank God), but I have to say that this was probably the single worst display I have seen in the last few years and I include matches like the loses to Sunderland and Arsenal in that. We were devoid of any sort of urgency and creativity. Sturridge and Malouda produced two of the most inept, and in Sturridge's case sulky, performances that I have seen in many a year. Sturridge was booed off and, frankly, he deserved it. He was clearly not interested in playing and it showed. His half assed attempt at a shot with the outside of his left foot when in a good position was embarrassing. We didn't deserve to win and we got very, very lucky.

I'm thinking I should move these posts to the Jokes thread!

Not our best performance, but we can still have a MoTM vote!

My shortlist, and it is a short list, is Ramires, Mata and Ivanovic. My winner is Ivan.

I wasn't sure about the lineup last night, but was prepared to give RDM the benefit of the doubt on what he's done so far. As it turns out, my reservations were well founded. We went there looking to contain them rather than play them as equals. You might say that we aren't equals and so that was reasonable, but off the back of some very positive games I think we would have been better off trying to put them under more pressure. I think leaving Drogba out was a big mistake. Playing Ramires wide clearly gave us more defensive cover but it also reduced our threat going forward. As did playing Mata wide. I'd have liked to have seen Torres on the right with Ramires in the middle helping Frank and Mikel. Maybe it wouldn't have made a difference but at least we would have been more positive.

Jesus, this is hard work watching. We are either giving the ball away needlessly or wasting really good attacking positions out wide. If we can get our act together this match is there for the taking. City look very edgy.

I don't think I'd quibble over Clifford. It's one thing to bring the offending item in to training, it's quite another to let it off and cause the Fire Brigade to be called out and trigger a full scale evacuation of the place.

I thought he'd only recently signed a new contract. I think he got what he deserved to be honest. I'm surprised that Clifford got away with it. I do agree though that there are double standards in play. It's a lot easier to sack a reserve team player who is probably never going to make it in to the first team than it is an international full back who is amongst the best in the world.

He may have got a fair bit of stick on the forums - justifiably so in my opinion - but he has had nothing but fantastic support from the fans at every match I've seen him play. I can't think of a single player who would still have the fans chanting his name so enthusiastically or willing him to do well so vociferously as Torres has. It is quite remarkable.

What I find most frustrating about Sturridge is not his poor decision making in attack but his reluctance to put aside the fact that he would rather be playing through the middle. You can argue the rights and wrongs of playing him on the right, but once selected he needs to be fully committed to that role. At the moment, he's happy enough to do the forward part but is very hit and miss on the defensive part. Sometimes he does make an effort and other times he can't be arsed. On Wednesday I was screaming blue murder at him in the first 25 minutes because he just let his man go and gave no help to Ivanovic. Yesterday he was even worse. He made hardly any effort to help Bosingwa (who frankly needs all the help he can get defensively) and we were constantly threatened down that side. We got away with it because we were just too good for them overall but we can't afford that against City or Spurs or even, God help us, against Barca. What he needs is some Jose love a la Joe Cole. He's clearly a great talent and he offers us something that no-one else in the squad does, but his confidence is in danger of stopping him developing rather than helping him. He needs to find the right balance.

Agreed. A very assured performance. Made the twat who was asking about the CL semi and final look very stupid.

Llike Anelka then, you mean?!

Can't see there being much chance of Luiz playing. He was really struggling at the end of Wednesday's game. We have to rotate. 4th place and the CL have to be the priority. Cech Bosingwa Cahill Ivanovic Bertrand Mikel Ramires Meireles Sturridge Torres Kalou

If we are looking for a replacement for Drogba then we could do a lot worse than Llorente. That was some goal he scored last night. He's a big f**ker too.

I can only assume you guys haven't seen some of the refs we've had in the CL! This guy was a dream.

That's the luck of the draw!

A very fair point.

Yep. Definitely at home first in the semi - if we make it.

I'm as big a critic of Torres as anyone, but describing the chance he missed as an open goal is stretching it, to say the least. He might have done better, but it was far from a glaring miss. On the whole I thought he did ok when he came on. Still looked pretty forlorn at the end though. Di Matteo nearly flattened him when he jumped on him in celebration. I wonder whether Cavani is being castigated for his missing a golden opportunity early on. That really is a chance that he ought to have done better with. I also thought he was a bit disappointing on the night - fine when playing on the counter but he and Napoli looked a lot less effective when they had to make the running.