If Costa had done what was done to him ...

If Costa had done what was done to him ...

He would have been taken off in a Hannibal lector mask and been burned at the stake.

Edited August 16, 201510 yr by MissouriBlue

...the worrying thing is, I wasn't surprised...we look flat, uninspired and lacking in confidence...

 

 

Agree with this & I feel that it was a hangover after Swansea. In/after that game it may be the case that there was a collective realization/reality check by our players that the route to winning games - even as against the mid-level teams is going to be that much harder again this year. Sure, we only had 10 men for a fair amount of that match but even before that we had looked vulnerable in defence as we did even in pre-season & before pre-season. It must be a bit of a worry for Jose - our rather stolid, slowing & predictable defence - given that his hallmark has always been to build teams from a defence up. Midfield wise as well we look stolid & entirely predictable - the over reliance on Hazard to spark something etc - teams are now set up against us to mark him out of the game & if done successfully our other midfielders often seem in two minds as to what to do & as how to engage with each other. If that doesn't change then I feel that we are in for a long season. A lot of posters commented after games at the back half of last season at how out of sorts Jose seemed to be during matches. I feel that that was because he knew all of this about our defence & midfield last year as well: that is that we were slowly being overhauled & I feel that it made winning the title that much sweeter because we were able to do so despite this fact. And despite our limitations Jose was able to instill enough discipline & purpose within the team so as to grind out the results & of course we were also helped by the fact that City didn't seem to have the collective desire last year. For the last few years of course they have had by far the best squad with match-winners in every position. The big surprise last year was that given their undoubted quality that they didn't challenge & frankly win it again. So what do we take from all this apart from the fact that we're deficient in midfield & that our defence is not what it used to be? I feel that Jose has a large task in front of him in renewing confidence & purpose in certain players while at the same-time he's going to have to freshen up the team with some experimentation. That marriage is going to difficult: last year we had a pretty settled eleven but that existing idea I feel has to be shelved with this team now. In many ways all this was inevitable & this season is going to be a lot more interesting for us supporters than last year was because of it. Bring it on Jose.

Anyone writing JT or Jose off, on here or in the media, clearly haven't been watching close enough over the last 10+ Years

Anyone writing JT or Jose off, on here or in the media, clearly haven't been watching close enough over the last 10+ Years

Someone's started a thread on it, I kid you not!

Just home in time to see the highlights (Christ knows why I'm watching that again). Fernandinho elbow was very nasty and should have been a red. Had it been the other way round, it would have been 'Costa's crimes' all over again and he'd have been slapped with a retrospective ban. Consistency would be nice.

Thought Matic was immense today.

 

Pity Jose chose to play with only one midfielder.

It's not all doom and gloom just yet, but let's not kid ourselves, this is awful.

A terrible pre season, looking devoid of ideas, and after the week we've had in the press, bordering on the embarrassing.

I wonder what Roman thinks of it all.

Just got back from the Etihad. Very poor performance. Devoid of ideas in attack, lethargic effort overall and defensively we look so shaky across the board. Even Azpilicueta got done a few times by Navas.

So many players are really not pulling their weight at all at the moment. Ivanovic could do with getting dropped and I would draft in Zouma over Cahill who quite frankly is just a liability at this point.

Jose - Please stop talking sh*t for one second and just admit that were crap and got exactly what we deserved.

The only positive from today was Begovic, pulled off two outstanding saves and saved us from further embarrassment.

This may seem somewhat apoplectic but if we don't win at WBA then we will really struggle to retain the Title. 7/8 points behind on City after 3 games would be enormous at this stage. I'd almost say that that game is a must win.

My thoughts exactly. Cahill especially was just not good enough.

I wonder what Roman thinks of it all.

 

Yes -the salient issue. We can but speculate of course but I feel sure that Roman has probably matured enough footballing wise to acknowledge that the next couple of years may be a bit unpredictable results wise but that Jose is still the best choice to see us through this period. And so I like to think that the 4 year deal is a recognition of that.

Just home in time to see the highlights (Christ knows why I'm watching that again). Fernandinho elbow was very nasty and should have been a red. Had it been the other way round, it would have been 'Costa's crimes' all over again and he'd have been slapped with a retrospective ban. Consistency would be nice.

Had to laugh in his post match interview when speaking about the incident, Fernandinho said: "this is football, but the most important thing was getting the three points." Yeah, I bet it was you dirty fcuker

Wish I could wake up tomorrow and this would just be a mere dream, but it isn't. I honestly don't think we were that bad, our defending was woeful but Rahman can HOPEFULLY start on the left and move Azpi over to where he is most comfortable. We didnt really create chances and Costa had a poor game really but I'm not worried about our attack, the confidence going forward will return again soon. Don't forget Costa was outmuscled and out-played last season too when he had scored 7 in 4.

However the score line says it all and they were three really bad goals, but I have confidence that EVENTUALLY this can be sorted out and we'll go on a run. Lastly, this may seem ridiculous but I honestly think Sky had the whole game set up for a City win. They barely talked about Chelsea at all before the game and it was all about City, that cringey Kompany speech about how he "doesn't rest until he puts things right" lowered my confidence a lot for some reason, I even posted on this forum that I wouldn't be surprised if Kompany scored and said to my parents before the game that I think he'll score. Unfortunately I was right, but onwards and upwards, even if it takes a while

No where near our standard, just like every other matches we played since the end of last season. I don't think Jose has any point arguing about the result, just gave more fuels to the media for a beatup. First of all, where the hell was Oscar? I hope he just had a minor injury, the last season we need is to see him sold. This is the first time we looked no where near ready when playing the big 4 teams since he took over. Jose made a mistake picking Cahill instead of Zouma, tried to correct it when the boat has already sailed. We just have too many non-performers right now, whether Jose had the balls to make the change is still to be seen. On the other side, with no real reinforcement, who will Jose pick to replace the non-existent Cesc? It's really showed our lack of planning there.

 

On a different day, had Hazard scored and we put on 11 defenders to block out the game, we probably just forget about all the problems within our team, so I say this huge loss does have it's merits.  Hopefully we will make things right before the Transfer Window shuts, and more importantly get the team in shape. It looked like we had 5 Torres in our team judged by our shooting so far this season.

The red card that never was may have changed the dynamics, just a thought amongst other things.

That, the offside goal, whatever, that's football, they could have had an extra 3 goals, when we lose because of crap calls or dominating and not being clinical but we play well these things matter, today we got a train run on us, when we looked likely to score I already had my post in mind, undeserved draw but I'll take it, we didn't deserve to get anything out of the game and once I knew it was over at 2-0 I was hoping for 3 or 4 so they shake things up at the club. Rocky was a slugger with heart, won the title, took it easy, lost hunger until Clubber Lang beat the sh*t out of him, then he went back to the drawing board and stepped up to the next level, it's a metaphor that works for all champions, you need hunger, city had it today,  last season I though if they bring in 2 big signings we will dominate in England for 3 or 4 years..we rested on our laurels, we look off balance, something isn't right with the system, when the system is good even with players not at their best the system carries you, when we have individual players looking dull there is nothing.... makes me sick but we needed this. 

.still don't get why they play 'one step beyond'...what a bunch of w**kers they are...no originality at all

They got pissy about it since the time we beat them at the Bridge under AVB and it was played after the game, thought we were taking the piss out of them or something. Since then, every time they beat us they play it. They even played it after winning the title the first time. As you say, no originality.

MATCH OF THE DAY 2 (MOTD) – WATCH ONLINE FREE

 

http://www.matchdrama.com/match-of-the-day-2-motd-watch-online-free-2/

For me the big difference between the teams was that we looked out of ideas once we got to the edge of City's box. Everyone just tried to pass on the buck to Hazard and hope that he could create something.

 

Ramires and Ivanovic were a total waste on the right wing coming forward aside from that 1 nice dribble Ramires had through 2-3 players on the edge of the box, while whenever the ball came to Ivanovic he'd either cross it right into Kolarov or take a ridiculous shot that was never going to go in.

 

Willian and Fabregas were slightly better but again were incapable of creating anything and deferred to Costa and Hazard. Defensively Fabregas may as well have been a plastic training cone in the first half, although in the second he redeemed himself with a few timely slide tackles.

 

Diego wasn't too bad although he is also still far from his best. The fact that no-one around him was creating anything meant that Kompany and Mangala could smother him all game though so i'm not too worried about his performance.

 

Hazard was decent if not spectacular.

 

While if you compare it to City, Aguero and Silva were constantly moving and creating problems, while Sterling and Navas seemed to be able to breeze by Ivanovic and Dave. I cannot believe how many times Navas was able to get away with doing the same thing (sprinting around the outside of Dave) when it is literally the only thing he does.

 

Willian and Fabregas are more talented players than Sterling and Navas, but they didn't show it yesterday. I think we desperately missed Oscar in place of Ramires too, even Cuadrado played better than Ramires after coming on.

The elephant in the room is that for all his assists, Cesc is a poor CM and Matic literally is our entire midfield, and it was much diffetent last season. Cesc needs to play in a system designed to retain possession.

Edited August 17, 201510 yr by Nichollz

Thought Jose got his tactics wrong...Fabregas and Matic should not be partnership in front of back four for big games, yptougher opponents, mainly because they don't have the pace to do the defensive part, particularly Fabregas..yesterday should have been all about boring our way to a point so Zouma should have been next to Matic...that would have helped negate Toure and silva a lot more...as average as Ramires is, playing him on right was fine cos of sterling

Can`t focus on chelsea at the moment...meet some german bird...and the sex with her is just so f**king awesome 

 

Willian and Fabregas are more talented players than Sterling and Navas, but they didn't show it yesterday. I think we desperately missed Oscar in place of Ramires too, even Cuadrado played better than Ramires after coming on.

 

I would take a lot of players over Willian and Sterling is one of them (although not at £49M). I'm in the camp who just doesn't get Willian. He has good games and runs about a lot but for the £30M we paid, the return has been poor. He just doesn't do anything like enough to be selected as often as he is - but that again comes back to not enough competition in the squad. IF we still had Schurrle and KDB I would be playing either ahead of Willian most weeks.

 

 

The elephant in the room is that for all his assists, Cesc is a poor CM and Matic literally is our entire midfield, and it was much diffetent last season. Cesc needs to play in a system designed to retain possession.

 

Yep. At times Fabregas is a bit of a luxury player - a bit like Mata used to be. Both are far too easily knocked off the ball and offer little when teams are putting you under pressure. You acknowledge that for what Cesc can give you with his passing through the eye of a needle but when he is struggling to do that, he is a liability. Anyone catch any of the Utd v Villa game. Mata got mugged (highlighting the reason Jose got rid of him) but a couple of seconds later Utd had the ball back and then Mata played a sublime pass putting the Utd player clean through on goal. You have to take the rough with the smooth with this sort of player - Jose chose to do so with Fabregas but not Mata.

 

that death stare by diego and fernandiho walking nervously trying to stick close to kompany as close as possible

shame they cut the part after the HT whistle when diego tries to eat him, probably too much expletives being thrown

Edited August 17, 201510 yr by havelschayes

Thought Jose got his tactics wrong...Fabregas and Matic should not be partnership in front of back four for big games, yptougher opponents, mainly because they don't have the pace to do the defensive part, particularly Fabregas..yesterday should have been all about boring our way to a point so Zouma should have been next to Matic...that would have helped negate Toure and silva a lot more...as average as Ramires is, playing him on right was fine cos of sterling

Thing is, if he did that he would have got abuse on here for parking the buss

First time at the Etihad yesterday and certainly one to forget.

 

We seemed to hold our own in terms of possession but boy did we struggle to create anything with it; the first shot on goal around the 70 minute mark I believe. Over the course of the 90 minutes I can only think of the Ramires disallowed goal and the Costa chance when the game was dead.... other than that we really were spinning our wheels and getting nowhere. On the flip site City looked dangerous throughout and created enough chances to be 3/4 up at half time with ease. Kudos to Begovic for preventing an even more embarrassing score line. 

 

Hard to identify the problems as the entire team looked sub-standard, City were simply better all over the pitch yesterday and well deserving of the 3 points. There are a few decisions we could moan about (Ramires offside decision and Fernandinho being on the pitch) but, in reality, we were well beaten over the course of the 90 minutes regardless. 

 

Seems pointless going over the selection choices... I think the majority feel Ivanovic could do with a spell on the bench with Dave being moved to RB to balance us defensively and add a bit more going forward as well... and I would not disagree. Other than that there seems little we can really inject into the team. We did not endeavour to strengthen in the summer we 'maintained' at best and it just seems that the starting 11 has become a little stale and needs a couple of fresh players in key positions. Perhaps we will collectively improve back to our best, we are only 2 games in after all, however if we don't do it soon we may find ourselves playing a serious game of catch up against a City side that look the full ticket at present. 

 

As for City fans I do find they have a real mixture of support. We enjoyed chatting and having a beer with some really decent middle aged City fans who were a really humble bunch however there is also this really gobby breed of teenage City fans who I find quite cringey. I am all for the tribal nature of football but City seem to have an abundance of 'football factory' generation fans, spotty little teenagers trying to 'give it large' inside and outside the ground who seemed far more interested in goading Chelsea fans and shouting 'rent boys' in their squeaky little voices than actually celebrating/supporting their team. Perhaps I am just being a miserable sod but I also had to listen to a group of City fans in replica shirts a lll the way back to London Euston who were having 'soccer am style football banter' all the way home, rolling our all the usual anti chelski cliches.... ended up thinking City have more bellends in their support than I thought.

 

As for one step beyond..... absolute tinpot in my opinion. I suppose if it is designed just to annoy Chelsea fans than perhaps it's job done. I just don't really think they get it and playing it every time they beat us just seems a bit pathetic to me. 

Edited August 17, 201510 yr by mclovin83