TT did a pep today.. he needs to trust our forward players more than this.. we have played like an away team. in the long run it is affecting the confidence of the players too. We have some of europe's best attacking players and mid fielders.. to see us first go to 3 at the back and now to 5.. the players were raring to go today.. but all the chasing in the first half cost us. we can go tow to  tow with this city team for sure.. 

by going for 2 at the top it meant we were not able to play out from the back or push them back. Extremely frustrating to see a squad assembled with $400 mill playing like that.. not impressed at all.. Tuchel for me is the one to blame for this defeat.

It felt like City were hungrier, angrier and wanted it more. The had a point to prove and they did it.  They simply were the better side today. It could have been much more than 1 goal today for City. Anyway, City got 3 points but we still have that Champions League Cup final which mattered much more. So, moving on. Will beat them again in the knockout games.

Loftus Cheek was good today and showed glimpses of real quality play.

Just now, Scott Harris said:

It's annoying that our coaches always need to learn that Alonso just isn't suited to certain games. No matter how well he plays in previous games, he has weaknesses that just can't be ignored. He's been one of our weakest links today.

Yes he hasn't played well but everybody wasn't at his best today. 

But not because of City. His record is good against them, scored the winner last season and under Lampard held his own in a back four. 

I also suspect motivation levels were different. Citeh were really up for this after three straight losses against us, inc. cl final…whereas it looked like we rocked up thinking ‘we’re the bollocks’, believing in all the positive chat in the press…then we were shocked when we couldn’t get a touch of the ball for five minutes and seemed to sh*t a brick…once momentum is lost in a game, it’s hard to turn it round.

Unfortunately, we started the second half in the same way we played the first half, results were written already.

There is no need to defend like this, I respect City's quality but I don't think we're behind them in anything. We're f**king champions of Europe and we beat City in the final, we're playing at home!

We can't perform like that. I can't blame the players for conceding the goal, City were about to score in any minute because tactically we were only defending.

Tuchel has got it wrong here, I hope we won't see these ultra defensive performances this season.

Head up, there is still a lot of games to play and we will meet City that's for sure. COME ON CHELS!!!!

Today we were played off the park, not helped by being overly negative

The midfield three were dominated and it took far too long to change it around

Mount is huge in these type of games and you only really see his worth when he is missing

No shots on target! Not good enough at home for a team with title aspirations

Mendy, Silva, Christensen and Rudiger can hold their heads up, as can RLC who has to have played his way into contention with his cameo

Titles aren't won in September and the only consolation is that City just drew level with us today, Liverpool being the benefactors so far. Come on Ivan Toney

Just now, Bob stark said:

Nope, the problem is simply Mount was not available and ziyech has been struggling otherwise we would have played one of them. 

I don't believe the issue is as simple as Mount not playing. He definitely would have been a factor in this game, however, if we played with two forwards beside Lukaku and actually played to win, we would have been able to beat city without Mount. This City is only dangerous if you allow them to play their game.

No Mount and no balls to take the game to them really. They're gettable, but we sat back too much. 

 

Would love to know what PEDs Walker and Silva are taking, mind you. 

Got what we deserved today. way too passive.

We missed Mount and his energy and pressing, we also had some players having a serious off day.

Their passing compared to ours was night and day.

Oh well, to be 3 points off the top of the table after playing Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs & Man City in our first 6 matches is still pretty decent

We now need to win a few matches on the bounce to make a statement while some of the big teams play each other.

Edited September 25, 20214 yr by 2211

5 minutes ago, Jangz said:

TT did a pep today.. he needs to trust our forward players more than this.. we have played like an away team. in the long run it is affecting the confidence of the players too. We have some of europe's best attacking players and mid fielders.. to see us first go to 3 at the back and now to 5.. the players were raring to go today.. but all the chasing in the first half cost us. we can go tow to  tow with this city team for sure.. 

by going for 2 at the top it meant we were not able to play out from the back or push them back. Extremely frustrating to see a squad assembled with $400 mill playing like that.. not impressed at all.. Tuchel for me is the one to blame for this defeat.

We didn’t pay a single dollar for our team 😁

frustrating part is a starting 4 of Foden, Jesus and Grealish is a far cry from Silva and Aguero .. I cant believe that a forward 3 of Lukaku - Havertz- Werner/Ziyech is not better than them.. TT needs to trust our forward players.. these negative formations are killing their confidence.. If needs to experiment it has to be a in a more agressive formation by going to a 4 not a 5-3-2... 

Not our day unfortunately.

We were all over the place in the second half. Poor defending, too predictable in attack. They managed to prevent our transition perfectly. As much as it's hard to say, Pep did outclass Thomas today. 

On a more positive note, it's still very early in the season and this is a good lesson for us to come down to earth. I'm certain we'll learn from our mistakes. No need to panic after one bad result.

Got what we deserved from our performance today. 

Tough loss. Had high hopes going into the game but we were played off the park really. Their pressing was incredible really and they kept it up for 94 minutes. We were shellshocked and never got out of it. 

But still, really tough start to the season is over with on paper and we are joint top of the league as we speak. And i'd rather take the wake up call now than later.

City came ready to make a point and, we let them. 

Possibly worst performance under TT and I think he has to carry the can for this one, our game plan wasn't right.

 

8 minutes ago, Frankie8Lampard said:

I don't believe the issue is as simple as Mount not playing. He definitely would have been a factor in this game, however, if we played with two forwards beside Lukaku and actually played to win, we would have been able to beat city without Mount. This City is only dangerous if you allow them to play their game.

The problem is not that simple. We have been playing with 343 but the one player has always been Ziyech or Mount. Their role is to connect the midfield with the two forwards which is our biggest problem today. 

That is why we need kova or kante to have their a game today but both didn't played well

It is pretty much the same as last season, whenever Mason didn't play we can't connect with our forward. 

 

Edited September 25, 20214 yr by Bob stark

Nothing new than anyone else really but good therapy to put my point across if you don’t mind 😊
 

1. probably the first time I have been genuinely disappointed with TT’s tactics 

2. Citeh hungrier 

3. Delighted for RLC, what a story,  he has to be first on the team sheet now surely looks so assured 
 

 

Well... that was complete pants. A total lack of ambition and ability to actually get the ball to our attackers in the first hour has cost us dearly. Bringing forward the 3-5-2 from the Tottenham game did remind me of the odd occasion when Lamps would switch to a back three against certain opponents, find it to work, and then copy the setup in the following game regardless of how suited it was to the opposition (which usually resulted in us being behind at half-time or making a sub after half an hour). A hard performance to swallow, although I would argue that Man City certainly owed us one...

I'm sure the negatives will be discussed at length, so positives:

- Mendy was awesome as usual.

- I thought Christensen did really well, he seems to have the knack against City (surely aided by the fact that they rarely play a standard centre forward against us).

- I'm really enjoying Loftus-Cheek's unlikely resurgence. I don't know whether he can realistically be expected to play 90 minutes yet, especially against a top side, but he could serve as a decent backup to Mount as the guy who progresses the ball between midfield and the final third.

- Man Utd lost at home against a team we beat 3-0 (ignore the fact that Villa are actually decent and that scoreline flattered us). This is undoubtedly funnier than a narrow defeat against the [probably] best side in the country.

The winning run against them was bound to end at some point, but the performance was pathetic. I don't mind being compact but it was worrying that we could hardly move the ball forward when we had possession, especially in the first half. It seems we couldn't deal with their relentless press and conceded possession too meekly a lot of times.

Can’t lie, I didn’t have a problem with the team picked. But I didn’t think our midfield three would be so poor, plus our wing backs were hopeless too. It meant Werner and Lukaku had no service. Those two against city’s defence could have wreaked havoc if someone could pass the bloody football to them.

Another thing to look on the bright side, we have had a pretty brutal fixture list. Only palace at home was what you’d call an easy game, villa showing again today why they’re a good side. 
hopefully we can rediscover our mojo against the ‘lesser’ opponents coming up (without taking anything for granted). 

Poor today, city had a lot more intensity a d deserved the win. Our midfield got overrun and we had no release through our wingback. Alonso and Dave were poor today.

Have to try and pick out some positives, apparently it's the modern way. Christensen was excellent again, strong games for Mendy, Rudi and Silva.

Main positive for me was RLC coming on. Only on for 20 mins so hard to judge but he looked powerful,fast, skillful in taking on players and positive in his passing. Sort of the exact opposite of Jorginho. Hope he can stay fit and get himself back in as a starter, would be like a new signing.

I game to forget, move onwards and upwards.

16 minutes ago, rocker_joker said:

It felt like City were hungrier, angrier and wanted it more. The had a point to prove and they did it.  They simply were the better side today. It could have been much more than 1 goal today for City. Anyway, City got 3 points but we still have that Champions League Cup final which mattered much more. So, moving on. Will beat them again in the knockout games.

Exactly this. We won the game that mattered. Still a long season ahead. We must win the next league game.

Think Tuchel set up for a draw, but in the end fair play to City, even though it was a deflected shot, they were the better team.

Thankfully it's early in the season and it is a loss that does not mean that much in the grand scheme of things IMHO, we've had the worst schedule a club could have asked for in the first 6 rounds and we've done ok if you ask me.

United at home and Leicester away in the next 14 PL matches are the only two tricky fixtures for us - think we are just alright as things stand.

Oh and Villa beat United and that rat face Fernandes missed a pen at the very end. Ha ha. The so called title contenders with the easiest schedule of all could not even go at least one point ahead of other competitors after six rounds.

Edited September 25, 20214 yr by petre ispirescu

Again I don't expect us to play like this again vs any team in the world. One thing we must remember is we've had a pretty ruthless fixture list and almost any team in the world would eventually drop points vs Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs and City in their first 6 matches.

Playing only two attackers vs Man City at home we gave them too much respect. Like Pep said in his post match City were themselves and while our back line held up our midfield and attack was not us not the Chelsea under Tuchel we've become accustomed to. I like 352 but I think 3421 is the better suited style to our players it's what allows us to play out.

I want to watch entertaining football and that wasn't it but, I don't think anyone can be too negative we are still a top top team and the future looks very bright under Tuchel. Onwards and upwards guys!