My list of positives from today:

 

1. We only conceded one.

2. Christensen looked quality.

The End.

Just now, Slojo said:

How is playing 3 at the back showing City respect... That doesn't agree with the point you're making. 

We showed them too much respect in general. Lack of pressing etc. 

Im just saying what Ferdinand said in regards to 3 cbs. I personally don't mind the formation of you don't allow your wing backs to be pinned back which we did.

you know there's something called fatigue ... It can happen. Not bothered one bit. as long as we deliver in the UCL, I am fine with that! Mancs and Citeh wont do sh*t in UCL when things start to get serious. But we need to understand that a five player turnover is mandatory when we play UCL and PL the samz week!! orelse there's a risk of losing like that again!!!

 

granted, city were better and had possession. we knew they would play that football. But whatever the tactics, when you don't have physically fit players or tired players, there's so much you can do... they are not superheroes or something!! today, half of the team should have been changed!! this was not done and led to morata's injury... 

Edited September 30, 20178 yr by Londonisblue

No effort on display, Conte was tactically inept, wasn't the first time he has seen the match slip away from him and acted far too late. Strange substitutions too, taking Hazard off, why? We lose Morata and have a back up striker who isn't trusted, had all summer to rectify that and didn't. Abysmal performance and reminded me of Jose's last season.

Just now, Barrettinator said:

I hope people can shut up now about Conte being the "best manager in the world". He's a brilliant manager but still has a lot of flaws. Love him still.

Every manager has flaws, there is no such thing as the perfect coach.

2 minutes ago, Slojo said:

How is playing 3 at the back showing City respect... That doesn't agree with the point you're making. 

It's not just the 3 at the back though, is it? We played 3 at the back AND played Azpi at RWB. 

My views on the match and team overall: 

 

Kante and Fabregas looked knackered. Poor passing and concentration. Unlike Kante, though he had a god game, just not up to his usual standards which are pretty high. 

Hazard was invisible after Morata went off. He can't play with no one making those runs and supporting him like Morata does so well. 

Willian is finished. People like to slag off Cahill, Willian has been the bigger culprit - no threat going forward and always on the back foot after he loses the ball. 

CL midweek games will hinder us in the league from the looks of it. 

We need quality wingbacks and wingers. 

1 minute ago, Scott Harris said:

Every manager has flaws, there is no such thing as the perfect coach.

That goes without saying. But there are certain things that seem painfully obvious which he tries to either be too smart or too cautious about. It's incredibly annoying. Happens almost every time he plays Wenger. Makes weird decisions sometimes during the game and makes subs (especially effective ones) far too late as well if they aren't puzzling subs to begin with. I think he's starting to trust certain players too much. Cahill and Willian for example.

Edited September 30, 20178 yr by Barrettinator

2 minutes ago, Sun zhi said:

Not faulting the players. 

Conte with his cowardly tactics there gave City an easy game.

Barely any meaningful shots or attacks in 90 minutes.

Even before Morata went off, City were the most likely to score. If Aguero was on, this would have been 3 or 4.

Just waiting for the inevitable. Go a goal down before having some balls to do something positive.

 

Agreed. Seeing a lot about morata going. Off. We were getting ouplayed/ letting them come on to us from minute 1.

After his comments mideeek about winning in the right manner. He has shown a big contradticiton here. Happy to get points playing ultra defensively.

 

Watching us play as we did live in madrid and 3 days later watching us play on a crap stream and play like that is quite a contrast in feelings. Going into the international break with my mid week experience tainted, f**king piss poor, tired or not, if we were at it we could have won that game, we defended well, but f**k all going forward, blow with morata's injury, willian was f**king awful, cesc has decided to have a bit of a holiday, just not good enough. 

3 minutes ago, magichat said:

exactly. how could you expect to score and to win if you don't go out and attack. today's gameplan feels like we hoof it forward and hope Morata/Hazard/Willian do some magic on their own

Yeah... just go out and attack this city side... and get 4 or 5 put past us like the others. 

Azpi should have played his regular position instead of Rudiger and Moses and Pedro should have played as well....with Cesc in DF they were able to control the midfield and that was tactical mistake , same with Subs Pedro did play on Wed so he was fresh ...so as with Batman and with his Goal he would have been confident. Hope Conte make amendments just like he dis last season

Edited September 30, 20178 yr by fun2sh

1 minute ago, EdinburghBlue said:

We could have had Sandro/Alaba at LWB & Alves/Carvajal at RWB and it would have made no difference IMO. The centre of the park were gifting the ball to city time and time again, just a woeful performance from back to front.

I think conte know best.. with only fab, kante and bakayoko in CM, he cant do much.. 3 of them are not in best physical condition.. only 1 day rest.. his plan is to save the energy and start play on minutes 70.. 

6 minutes ago, Nevamind said:

That Willian sub was awful! 

 

Why not get Bats on, he just gave you the winner in Madrid. 

He won't be happy that Willy came on instead of him.

Cause it doesn't change the fact his hold up play and general game is still pretty poor outside of his goals. I would have preferred him to come on as well but I can understand why he never brought him on. I would have rathered Pedro though.

3 minutes ago, EdinburghBlue said:

We could have had Sandro/Alaba at LWB & Alves/Carvajal at RWB and it would have made no difference IMO. The centre of the park were gifting the ball to city time and time again, just a woeful performance from back to front.

The problem with our wingbacks today was that City pushed both wingers out wide and in very forward positions, meaning our wingbacks could not push forward and leave City wingers unmarked

3 minutes ago, Londonisblue said:

you know there's something called fatigue ... It can happen. Not bothered one bit. as long as we deliver in the UCL, I am fine with that! Mancs and Citeh wont do sh*t in UCL when things start to get serious. But we need to understand that a five player turnover is mandatory when we play UCL and PL the samz week!! orelse there's a risk of losing like that again!!!

 

granted, city were better and had possession. we knew they would play that football. But whatever the tactics, when you don't have physically fit players or tired players, there's so much you can do... they are not superheroes or something!! today, half of the team should have been changed!! this was not done and led to morata's injury... 

Why buy zappacosta if you don't use him? Why keep bats if you don't trust him. Stop making excuses. Pedro/Willian didn't play in the week and decided against using fresh legs

 

Hindsight is a beautiful thing at the moment, we start positively against Arsenal 

"Conte got his tactics wrong! Where was the cover against Arsenal, they had too much space"

We've now started defensively against City with hopes to counter-attack and expose their weak defence 

"Conte what are you doing! How can we score if we don't attack" 

on the bright side we can win at the Etihad - I think this was just a tough week for us and let's face it City are a good side in a great run of form. Disappointing but not the end of the world.

1 minute ago, Stim said:

Yeah... just go out and attack this city side... and get 4 or 5 put past us like the others. 

Instead we will just lose 1-0 and not even give it a go.

There is something called BALANCE

 

What can I say: with Morata insured or not MC was much better, no question about that. The depth of the squad is something totally different from us. 

The lack of depth in our squad was obvious in the end of last season. We didn't improve in that and the concequances are seen today and in the future. I say this loss and the loss of this season is our incompetent board to thank for.

i was expecting a draw at best so I'm not surprised really.

 

i dunno maybe we were fatigued but still it was poor going forward 

 

14 minutes ago, EdinburghBlue said:

My list of positives from today:

 

1. We only conceded one.

2. Christensen looked quality.

Was pretty much what I was going to post. Christensen was our clear MOTM - quality display,

Still a long way to go but City do look the real deal this season and they totally outplayed us today. Would rather they win it that Mourinho's Utd any day.

 

 

 

Tired old performance today and we never really got going,oh well sh*t happens.....UP THE CHELS !

Just now, zes said:

My views on the match and team overall: 

 

Kante and Fabregas looked knackered. Poor passing and concentration. Unlike Kante, though he had a god game, just not up to his usual standards which are pretty high. 

Hazard was invisible after Morata went off. He can't play with no one making those runs and supporting him like Morata does so well. 

Willian is finished. People like to slag off Cahill, Willian has been the bigger culprit - no threat going forward and always on the back foot after he loses the ball. 

CL midweek games will hinder us in the league from the looks of it. 

We need quality wingbacks and wingers. 

I agree. But we need to use ALL our squad players to the fullest. I.e, put the top 11 in UCL and do a mandatory 5 player turnover for the PL!! we have the quality for that!! I don't think Zappacosta would have been battered today... it could have been interesting to see him play. Pedro should have started instead of Fab. As for Morata, providing he's not yet totally physically accustomed to PL physicality, it would have been good to rest him as his injury results from having played twice in 3 days!! Also, not playing with Moses or Zappacosta on the right did not help at all IMO.