ethicalstrategy

City won't win their last 12 games. They may still win the league, but they will drop points along the way.

Can we just clear up one thing, once and for all! The scousers are not going to win the league. No chance. Never. Really. OK. Good.

Depends on how much of a twat you are.

I think it really depends on the player and the relationship he had with the club. There are lots of examples of ex players who still strongly support the club. Wilkins is a good example. He was at Utd and Milan but I'd say he associates himself with us first and foremost. It won't happen, but if Frank scored against us he wouldn't celebrate and he'd mean it. The Jimmy Floyd goal was a great moment. The whole ground was singing his name after he scored. I'm sure that doesn't happen very often. If Didier scores I would not be surprised if it happened again - unless it was a lat minute winner of course. I hope we win the tie in the first leg so that the home game will be like a testimonial for him.

Perhaps we should just call the thread "Cahill can be excellent if played with the right partner and in the right system" Last night he excelled. Against West Ham he didn't. Why? Because he didn't have to do the same job. He will never be as good as JT because he isn't as good a footballer. JT is massively underrated for his passing and overall technical ability on the ball. If you need someone to defend deep and put himself on the line then Cahill is your man. Just don't give him the ball to feet, especially if he's under a bit of pressure.

Sorry Phillip. You cannot award anyone less than a 7 for last night. Really. It's just not on!

Hazard for me. The whole team were great and executed Jose's tactics superbly but the man that really made the difference was Hazard. A word too for Luiz. Matic is getting a lot of praise, rightly so, but David was also exceptional. Together they bring a dynamism to the game that you don't normally find in "holding" midfielders. Either can bring the ball out and both carry a goal threat too. There were a number of times where they were playing just outside City's box - not normally where you'd expect them to be. But winning the ball that high up the pitch really makes a huge difference. i'd like to see them play together regularly.

Loved watching him as he went off. He was tapping his head and really urging everyone to concentrate and see it through. Can't underestimate the value of that experience and leadership.

Hard to look past the 4-2 against Barca. Unbelievable match.

Wrong team, wrong formation and wrong score. Otherwise, not bad.

You really think we don't practice corners? Really?

Sort of game I hate. We should win. Everything indicates an easy 3 points. So I fully expect it to be agony. Probably a 1-0 with my heart in my mouth for the last 15 mins.

Hazard. But others played well too including Matic and Oscar. Good around performance. Looked comfortable and should have won by a lot more.

Not sure if it's been covered, but the issue for me is can we hang on to Courtois? If he has no prospect of playing for us then he is unlikely to renew his contract which will be in to it's fourth year in the summer. Much as I love Petr, I think it is important to look longer term and the only way we get to keep Courtois is if we bring him back. He doesn't have to be guaranteed first choice. He just needs to be given the chance to compete. if he shows he is better then Petr has to step aside. If Cech can hold him off then fair enough. A bit of competition won't hurt either of them. It's pretty much how it worked when Cech arrived and ousted Carlo. Replacing a legend of a goalkeeper is really hard. Look at the problems Utd had when Schmeichel retired or Arsenal when Seamen finished. We have the opportunity to ensure a smooth succession and we shouldn't blow it.

You stole my best line!

It seems pretty clear to me that Jose has been instructed to play in an open and attacking style. That is a similar situation to the one he had at Madrid. Personally, I think it goes against the grain for him but he seems committed to pursue it for now. Maybe he's hoping Roman will see the mixed results and agree to let Jose do it his way in time. I don't doubt for a minute that we could sort out the defence if that was the desire. But it would mean no place in the team for a number of our favourites, including Mata and probably Hazard too. In the meantime, the problem is that we are getting the worst of all worlds. We are getting the more vulnerable defence that comes with being more open and attacking but, despite playing some nice football, we aren't taking the chance we are creating. This is partly down to the strikers but also what now seems to be a crisis of confidence generally. Nothing is really flowing, everything is a bit forced. If it was up to me I'd go back to basics. Tighten up the defence, make sure that we didn't need to score 3 goals a game to win.

I only saw the extra time but the chances Sunderland created, like the Ki header, and the goal they scored were more on Cahill than Luiz. It was Cahill who left ki completely unmarked 10 years out when Schwarzer made that great save. It was Cahill who was spinning around like a duck on an ice rink when Ki scored the winner. Not suggesting Luiz is perfect, but you can't dump the whole blame on him either. (and yes, he should have done a lot better with Borini's goal!)

I think you are getting Luiz mixed up with Cahill.

I think that's a very optimistic assessment of where we are. Defensively we looked quite uncertain again last night. I can see why we are conceding these "unlucky" goals where the ball falls kindly for the opposition. It's the law of averages. There are just too many times when the ball is bouncing around our area without anyone getting it under control. Our passing in the final third was pretty grim. Willian, in particular, played the wrong pass far too often. Mikel played like he was in a trance. He wanted to coast through the game and ended up losing the ball with our full backs pushed high up the field. We may have kept a clean sheet, but only because Steaua are pretty terrible. I'm glad we topped the group because it should give us a very winnable match in the last 16 and maybe by the time we get to March we will have found our feet a bit. But at the moment Jose is absolutely right, we are rank outsiders to win this competition.

Dave definitely better going forward. Might be better defensively too. I love Ivan but he hasn't covered himself in glory recently. (And you know where you can stick your cane... :-) )

I think it's definitely time for us to bring Luiz back. I know he's been injured, but assuming he's now fit, he needs a good run of games. Switch Dave to right back and bring in Ash on the left. If Oscar is fit then I'd play him and Ramires ahead of Mikel. Mata, Hazard and Torres up front. Cech in goal but he needs to buck his ideas up or he's going to be replaced by Courtois next season.

I think we would be crazy to let Luiz go. He should be partnering JT.

That rules Cahill out then!

Nobody had a "shocking" first half - not even Essien. I hate the way everything is so black and white. We gave away a soft goal early on but then played pretty well without scoring. In the second half we dominated more thanks to the tactical change and got the goals we deserved.

When you see JT's goal from behind the goal you get a great shot of Ivan celebrating as the ball goes in - top class!!