City slickers

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Kernow Yellow
Grumpy old git
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City slickers

Post by Kernow Yellow »

Well that went pretty much as expected. When seen close up, you do appreciate what a completely different planet of football City's players live on. Their speed of thought, movement and passing is something else. But is this just innate skill or coaching and set-up too?

I wasn't overly impressed with our tactics. Obika and Holmes wasted a lot of energy harrying City's centre backs when they built from the back (which was all game), but since our other players didn't join in the press it was very easy for them to just pass round us. Contrast with when Mitchell rolled the ball out to Nelson, and City were tight to every single one of our players, meaning we had to resort to going long straight away from about 20 mins in. I understand that we didn't want to commit too many players forward when not in possession, but why bother pressing high at all in that case? Why not let them get to the halfway line then get in their faces and save energy? Also, we seemed so scared that their wide players would skin our fullbacks that we didn't bother marking them at all! That long diagonal to Mahrez was a very impressive ball played very accurately, but surely a change in Garbutt's positioning could have stopped it.

I also wish we'd shown a little more ambition when we did have the ball. On the few occasions that we ran at City we did actually cause them some problems, But what do I know? The fact that there was only one goal in it with 15 minutes to go shows that the tactics worked to a degree, and when we did then go more gung-ho with two up front and long throw-ins etc we quickly shipped two clinical goals on the counter. But it all reminded me a bit of that FA Cup defeat at Highbury when Atkins set us up not to lose too heavily.

Hard to rate individuals on a night like that, but that was my first look at Hanson and I wasn't very impressed. Brannigan looks better (ie less of a liability!) further forward, but didn't really get into the game much for obvious reasons before he went off injured. Obika missed a sitter (albeit he was offside), and should have got a cross in late on when free on the right, but he worked hard and won some impressive balls and retained possession against some very, very good defenders. Baptiste is some find isn't he? I fear he won't be with us for long, but let's enjoy it while it lasts. I got a bit fed up of Mitchell kicking goal kicks straight off the side of the pitch.

The crowd sounded good when they got going, but were a bit subdued for long periods, mainly thanks to our cagey tactics I think. Shame the South Stand didn't get the memo about the sea of yellow! Was I the only one that got a bit bored of the anti-Kassam chants?

That was my first evening home game for a while, and I was surprised to see the floodlights looking so bright. I read somewhere that they're not in fact broken, but we choose to only turn some of them on to save money usually. Clearly the eyes of the world were worth the extra few quid last night...
Kairdiff Exile
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Re: City slickers

Post by Kairdiff Exile »

I agree with all of that. They were miles ahead of us, no complaints there. But they didn't have to work hard for their win. Even at 0-0, there was no doubting that they had several further gears to go if needs be. KY is spot-on about our tactics re: pressing.

Still, no harm done and there will be plenty of teams (eg, Cardiff City) who will fare worse than us against City. Now we have Wimbledon and Luton - two sides who, in July, you'd have said would be almost certainly bottom half.

Pressure's on, Karl.
Dr Bob
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Re: City slickers

Post by Dr Bob »

yes but no but...
I too thought about the Arsenal comparison, but here we were up against the most expensively assembled club squad in history, that has skill, power and pace in such abundance - and yet who, for much of the first half, were reduced to shooting from distance (that exquisite turn and shot in the box from Silva excepted). As we approached the last 10 minutes, with nothing to lose, we opened up and went for it a bit more, and were caught out by at least three penetrating fast-paced counter-attacks, resulting in two goals, and one excellent save by Mitchell from Foden just before his goal.

I guess that our full-backs played so narrow in order to provide cover for more central attacking moves by City, but whilst it did give them room to play the ball out wide, except for their first goal (and until those last few minutes) nothing came of that for them.

Maybe I am being too accepting of defeat, but in the circumstances I thought we were much better than this:
https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... tch-report

with this report doing us more justice:
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foo ... 55066.html

Given our injuries, our attacking options were really limited and I am not quite sure what more KR could have done, without setting us up to be demolished within half an hour.

Praise continues rightly to be forthcoming for Baptiste, but I thought it was great not only to see Long back, but to see him do a sterling job (pun intended - sorry) against experienced internationals. Whatever his 'preferred' position might be, I would like to see him given more starts ahead of Norman. And whatever his limitations may be, I thought Brannagan looked much better playing further forward. If we are to play with just one striker, we need not only wingers to get forward more, but someone in that position just behind the striker who has the energy he showed last night. Against teams other than the Premier League Champions, he might well have more success.
OtmoorYellow
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Re: City slickers

Post by OtmoorYellow »

Come on, let's be realistic here. Teams from the bottom of the third division, very rarely trouble teams from the top of the first division. Never have and never will, bar small miracles when the top team puts out a severely weakened team. That situation has only been exacerbated since the rise and rise of the Premier League and the players that top clubs can attract. World class players, who would walk into all bar the very best teams in the world. That is the context of this game.

Yes Man City made 10 changes, but such is the strength in depth of their squad, their starting XI would be still have been perfectly suited to beating most if not all Premier League teams.

When the teams were announced, I was seriously worried that our record home defeat was going to be under threat for the second time in just a few short months. But that is not how the match panned out.

The report from the Independant, linked above, is a fair summary, despite the glaring error as to which team sent us to the depths of non-league football.

Robinson set us up well for this game. We were set up to play from the back when possible, and to press and absorb for the long periods we didn't have the ball. We did the latter job very well indeed, and on a couple of occasions we strung passes together and made City chase the ball.

Inevitably, City's pace, control, movement and passing were all too slick for us. They really were the best side I have ever seen us play against, and that includes our period in the top flight.

We were outclassed, but that was not shameful in any way, that was to be expected. That is what 66 league places difference means. But despite this, we defended resolutely and heavily restricted Man City's attempts on goal in the first half. It was only a mistake from Garbutt that led to the set up of their opener, and then half hearted back tracking from the same player who could otherwise have been back in time to at least challenge Jesus.

The second half was much the same as the first half, until Robinson gave the all clear for United to go for it with about 10 to 15 minutes remaining. Of course Man City are very quick on the counter and with us having failed to get into a clear goal scoring opportunity, Man city punished us.

If we had gone for it earlier, the scoreline could easily have been very different, but unlikely in our favour.

No complaints about the result, no complaints about the performance, no complaints about the officiating, nor about the management. It was a pleasure to watch this match, and to be reminded where we are at as a club.

Time now to find a decent striker who will score regularly, as that is what our League One survival will depend upon.
ty cobb
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Re: City slickers

Post by ty cobb »

I thought City were incredible - best team I have ever seen us play. All one touch, they knew exactly where their men were going to be without looking half the time and they always seemed to have a man over. They weren't clinical but that was due to us putting up a very good rearguard action - as others have said, the last two goals showed how quickly they could cut us apart on the break.

David Silva was a class above - is he the first world cup winner to play against us since Desailly when Mike Dean cheated us? How many world cup winners have we played against in our history - anyone know?

Watching Kompany was also a masterclass in positioning and strength. Nothing got past him and he won everything - Obika didn't get a sniff.

How Wigan beat them last season I will never know but we should take a lot from that - if we can look that solid against one of the best teams in the world, no reason why we can't against Wimbledon. We need to start making the clean sheet the priority and nick a goal.
Kernow Yellow
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Re: City slickers

Post by Kernow Yellow »

ty cobb wrote: Fri Sep 28, 2018 1:17 pm David Silva was a class above - is he the first world cup winner to play against us since Desailly when Mike Dean cheated us? How many world cup winners have we played against in our history - anyone know?
Desailly and Lebeouf both played that night. The ref was Mike Reed. The reason I was so gutted that night was that, the way football was going, I thought it might be our last chance to ever beat the best club in the country. And we came so close. I never thought the gap would open quite as far as it has though, and that we'd ever settle for getting beaten 3-0 at home without creating a single decent chance and think we'd done alright...
Kernow Yellow
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Re: City slickers

Post by Kernow Yellow »

Robert Pires was in that same World Cup-winning squad (though didn't feature in the final), and played against us for Arsenal in 2003.
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