cosmicway

You will never see anything from Costa the way he is deployed now. He is not the speedy nippy type. He wants to be up front and someone to give him the final pass. That way he is a killer. I 've seen one such player who could not even play football when outside the box. But he had a fleet of Toyotas (!), the prize for becoming first scorer.

We are too predictable. No speed of movement. Typically Willian takes the ball down the left. Hazard-Costa are closely marked and whoever else is happening to move along the axis. Sometimes the solution is a back pass to Courtois, more often than not it ends with Hazard or Costa losing the ball after a hopeless and furious battle against two or three well positioned opponents. Have all the other teams become so fast or have we slowed down ? We look vulnerable in the back too !. We conceded 9 in four matches, I can't say that one of those was a giveaway but 9 in 4 is too much. Fabergas-Ivanovitch don't belong to the division the way they play now. Matic is a worker and no more than that. The unhappy thing is all this came about all of a sudden -after we became champions- and I don't see any remedy coming soon. It's just impossible to revitalize an organism when irreversible processes have taken place. Renewal is the only answer. In my opinion the situation was not approached as carefully as it should from Munich afterwards. The team's average age is too high.

We are too slow. In the days of glory you just knew when CFC was in possession one wrong step from the defenders of the other team and the ball was in the net. Now it's slow motion.

Iva and Fabregas are useless. We are right in the middle of a disaster area situation. Also Costa is useless or he needs someone to feed him. As is he is not performing any function whatsoever.

Crystal played well. But horrible result once again. Nothing in the scoring department.

I doubt Juve will sell the player. They reached the final last year. With a bit of luck they could have won it (Buffon gave a goal uncharacteristic of him, the 2-1). The Italians after a lean spell want to bounce back. We should look elsewhere.

Charlie Cooke too. It happens with young players. There is a rumour we had Karl Heinz Rummenige in Greece. Another German player, Wagner, brought him. But the AEK Athens supremos said send this skinny youth back home in Germany !

No it was going wide if Costa was not there.

Ill yesterday. A glimpse of the goals in youtube only I think Pedro might have had two and Diego pushed in what was already a goal. Or maybe that video I saw was bad ? Meanwhile City are 3 x 3 now.

Great name. Let's see if he can make it true.

Ha ! It depends on speed of reaction. I mean even now we see goals disallowed as offsides and then on second thought count. Look, when it is dead time all the wrong decisions can be changed. Also the goal line technology. That was an easy one, that's why they accepted it. Sometimes it won't work. In Greek cup semi final last year a strange goal was scored - possibly hand ball. Of the three cameras only one could illuminate but a flag pole obscured it's view ! It depends on speed and offside decisions are difficult to re-evaluate.

They already do it in water polo, don't they. It can be done. One needs to carefully define a hierarchy in the decision making process - not an impossible task. Thus for instance the video ref can readily change a throw in decision if given to the wrong side. In the case of offside decisions I 'm afraid it has to be the linesman on the ground who decides. How can you tell the players, you go back and stand there, you take the ball and run again ?

That one is difficult for the playback technology. The defenders will say we stopped after the flag was raised and they scored in dead time.

Panathinaikos of Greece comes to mind. In 1968 their grand team was dissolved, because of old age as well as some huge internal problems they had. So they started all over again with youths plus Mimi Domazos, the great no 10 who stayed. They could n't buy new players because there was a total ban but managed to gain special permission and sign one or two Panathinaikos was readied again by Ferenc Pushkas and reached the champions cup final in 1971.

Can't expect things to get any better. If those players are good for say 3d-4th-5th place, when they know they are part of a declining side they can only underperfom. It might be a different story if they were playing for let's say Southampton or Sunderland. The only answer is rejuvenation now, no matter how you look at it.

Chelsea are traditionally good starters. Sometimes things go wrong from December and afterwards. Now it's 16 of August (!) and we are on the doledrums.

I like Remy. You forgot Schurle. When you sell that German, it means you have Messi and Neymar at least.

We lost to spurs 5-3 last season but that was against the run of play. Now it's one more proof that the team is in need of renewal. That has to be the prevailing logic now.

Look some of today's players are ok, namely the two goalkeepers and Eden. Some more could also prove useful such as Matic But to rebuild such teams you need to buy everything you can lay your hands on. Also introduce players from the youth squads if good enough. That's the only possible future. Let's all consider this as the established fact of the present situation. We need moral and determination. Suppose something else. Suppose we are relegated this season and come back in the next. Everybody here will be happy - that's for certain. That proves something. It proves when we work we can face up to all challenges. The enemy is moan and grumble and also statements to the effect "I 'm going to win the champions league with this team of boer war veterans I have". It does n't work that way - only brings disorientation.

balls

We had Lamps-Essien and Didier. This generation are slow motion people. Ok we need players like Oscar and Matic to have some power, but all of them ? You become snail. There have been failures too. Cuadrado was one and Falcao is nowhere on the scene. The year before we had Etoo. That one was good but old and left the team.

The bigger problem is up front. City are entitled to a goal in their home ground, but in any case it's the forward movements that stink.

There are too many slow players in this team, with the exception of Hazard. The tiny man Willian has succeded in becoming the no 2. That shows something.

Let's face it. We are worse than Panserraikos. Snail motion. When the ball moves a little bit fast those attackers we have simply can't follow - only if Hazard manages to go past 20 men.

A fact that emerges is that Jose is not a member of the group of suitors, now numbering infinity minus one. Yet another old man told me once this piece of wisdom: He said you think you are a just person ? What about if your gf was a pickpocket ? You 'd go to the court and defend her, so you are not a just person. So if Jose was in the club, he 'd do the same even if we were to lose 6-0 following a spate of medical errors.