Closed Man City 1-1 Chelsea

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

Well actually what makes the match against City yesterday so difficult, is because they are already prepared and expecting us to 'park the bus', and we really did.

I could see next year when we go there again and Jose still our manager, he will try different approach, because it is pretty much predictable now.

[roba3y 28]

"Mr Pelligrino" gave his players clear instructions to prevent Chelsea from counterattacking by any means including chasing our players by hands, if this game was refereed by any other referee there would be two more red cards at least for repeating this more and more on our players...

Willian has been fouled 7 times !!!

even Silva has made this kind of fouls against us..

[roba3y 28]

sorry, I forgot my duties

Counterattacking

[Special Juan 27,111]

That Hazard pass for the goal is sublime, just look how perfectly weighted it was and how many players it took out.

[thehappyone 140]

Hey guys since yesterday morning I have eaten two biscuits and I had five cup of tea thanks to that frank lampard equaliser. I have to wait till friday till I can buy food.

[sutro 1,026]

Hey guys since yesterday morning I have eaten two biscuits and I had five cup of tea thanks to that frank lampard equaliser. I have to wait till friday till I can buy food.

yeah well, why would you gamble your last £?

[Stats 6,988]

We need to buy at least one CB like Kompany or Mangala. The reason we play defensive is because our CBs need protection otherwise they are shit, while guys like Kompany have no problem being 1 on 1 and often coming out on top.

We could have played more attacking if Jose wasnt forced to protect his back 4 so much.

Furthermore, it seems if you pass the ball back to any of the back 4, they will either loose the ball or just launch it forward. None of them seem to have any composure and ability to bring the ball out of defence. A top top CB should be our next signing.

Frustrating thing is that Mangala would have joined us apparently if we matched the same bid as City as he wanted to move to London. I always thought we should go after another CB especially as Terry is not going to carry on being first choice for much after this season and Cahill will be 30 next year. Mangala is only 23 and like you saw already on his debut, was exceptional. Pace, power and pretty much everything you want for a CB.

[Toli 977]

People will get angry, but City defense was immense yesterday. Kompany + Mangala, what a great defense.

we didnt give them a lot to worry about though. we barely attacked the whole game and Costa isnt the best in the air, so it was clear that Kompany+Mangala would win the long balls.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

City fans saying Kompany and Mangala tamed Diego. How about Cahill and Terry on Aguero?

Well, Cahill and Terry were never alone. We had 11 men behind the ball for most of the match. While the City back 4 often had to deal with our couter attacks on their own. They never let Costa hold up the ball to set up the counter. Every time he got the ball with his back to goal someone was quick onto him with a tackle. They did brilliantly. There's no shame in admitting that.

[thehappyone 140]

yeah well, why would you gamble your last £?

It was my first time betting, saw an offer on an add to sign up and it was too good to turn down. I regret it now and I will never gamble again. I found some heinz baked beans in the cupboard, I don't know how long it has been there but I will take a chance. I also went to Tesco (supermarket) I used the self-scan machines to buy a loaf of bread with the last £1 in my bank, hopefully this loaf will keep me going for the rest of the week. I would have been having champagne for breakfast if lampard didn't equalise. Ooh well.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

It was my first time betting, saw an offer on an add to sign up and it was too good to turn down. I regret it now and I will never gamble again. I found some heinz baked beans in the cupboard, I don't know how long it has been there but I will take a chance. I also went to Tesco (supermarket) I used the self-scan machines to buy a loaf of bread with the last £1 in my bank, hopefully this loaf will keep me going for the rest of the week. I would have been having champagne for breakfast if lampard didn't equalise. Ooh well.

You have Tesco in Somalia?!

Can't you just borrow a few pounds (no idea what your currency is) from someone for a few days?

[Cosmin 2,484]

It was my first time betting, saw an offer on an add to sign up and it was too good to turn down. I regret it now and I will never gamble again. I found some heinz baked beans in the cupboard, I don't know how long it has been there but I will take a chance. I also went to Tesco (supermarket) I used the self-scan machines to buy a loaf of bread with the last £1 in my bank, hopefully this loaf will keep me going for the rest of the week. I would have been having champagne for breakfast if lampard didn't equalise. Ooh well.

Sure you won't

[thehappyone 140]

Sure you won't

I wont! Never!

You have Tesco in Somalia?!

Can't you just borrow a few pounds (no idea what your currency is) from someone for a few days?

we have the smaller tesco's here

couple years ago I nearly declared myself bankrupt through too much borrowing, I managed to recover and promised myself to never borrow a single penny, I will survive, I'm from africa I should be used to famine

[CHOULO19 24,332]

we have the smaller tesco's here

couple years ago I nearly declared myself bankrupt through too much borrowing, I managed to recover and promised myself to never borrow a single penny, I will survive, I'm from africa I should be used to famine

I'm sure you can make an exception for this kind of emergency. Beats starving till Friday...

[Bir_CFC 3,455]

I rewatched parts of the match again and I found our problem was that our attackers were uncharacteristically sloppy in the first half. Costa was having trouble getting involved (but he was well marshaled by the CBs) and Hazard and Willian looked clueless in possession. If Hazard and Willian weren't so sloppy we could have had a much better performance. Yeah, we played defensive and they didn't have a lot of help but they didn't help themselves either by making it harder than it was.

If the front 4 played as well as they did last year at the Etihad, I believe we could have won against 11.

I think the fast start by City threw some off mentally. Even when we looked to be mounting an attack, someone would loose focus and misplace a pass. Someone would overdribble. Blaming Jose for defensive tactics is also wrong because we did the same last year but just didn't screw up so bad while attacking. Plus considering this was the most important match for City so far into the season and we still got a point is nothing to scoff at.

People are complaining that we didn't attack City enough when they were down to 10 also have to realize a few things. First, we did attack them, we scored a goal too. Second, we created some more chances too and almost scored a couple more. However, even with the opponent down to 10, it would be stupid to compromise your defence. Can you imagine we try to score a second and they counter us and equalize? That would be way worse imo.

There is one player I would like to single out though - Ivanovic. He fell asleep on the goal we conceded, which was obvious. However, something was wrong with him in the last 10-15 mins of the game. It was like he gave up playing RB. Our back 4 line was almost always just 3 with Ivanovic awol. He was missing for the goal but he was missing for few other City attacks too. It was so bad that at a point I was sitting there thinking did we change our shape to 3 at the back? wtf was going on, until I realize Matic was covering for him at RB while this dude is just waltzing around. He makes some individual mistakes once in a while, but this year his positioning itself has been very poor, he was never this bad at defensive awareness.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

Frustrating thing is that Mangala would have joined us apparently if we matched the same bid as City as he wanted to move to London. I always thought we should go after another CB especially as Terry is not going to carry on being first choice for much after this season and Cahill will be 30 next year. Mangala is only 23 and like you saw already on his debut, was exceptional. Pace, power and pretty much everything you want for a CB.

That was a shit ton of money for a CB, he was my MotM but he also fouled a hell of a lot and never got carded. We'll see in time if he was indeed a miss, I have a sneaking suspicion he was slightly overpriced. Also, who would he replace in our starting XI? He wasn't gonna come here and play off the bench. Terry is captain and Cahill was a pretty good value buy and English... No way were we gonna grab yet another foreign player.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

I rewatched parts of the match again and I found our problem was that our attackers were uncharacteristically sloppy in the first half. Costa was having trouble getting involved (but he was well marshaled by the CBs) and Hazard and Willian looked clueless in possession. If Hazard and Willian weren't so sloppy we could have had a much better performance. Yeah, we played defensive and they didn't have a lot of help but they didn't help themselves either by making it harder than it was.

If the front 4 played as well as they did last year at the Etihad, I believe we could have won against 11.

I think the fast start by City threw some off mentally. Even when we looked to be mounting an attack, someone would loose focus and misplace a pass. Someone would overdribble. Blaming Jose for defensive tactics is also wrong because we did the same last year but just didn't screw up so bad while attacking. Plus considering this was the most important match for City so far into the season and we still got a point is nothing to scoff at.

People are complaining that we didn't attack City enough when they were down to 10 also have to realize a few things. First, we did attack them, we scored a goal too. Second, we created some more chances too and almost scored a couple more. However, even with the opponent down to 10, it would be stupid to compromise your defence. Can you imagine we try to score a second and they counter us and equalize? That would be way worse imo.

There is one player I would like to single out though - Ivanovic. He fell asleep on the goal we conceded, which was obvious. However, something was wrong with him in the last 10-15 mins of the game. It was like he gave up playing RB. Our back 4 line was almost always just 3 with Ivanovic awol. He was missing for the goal but he was missing for few other City attacks too. It was so bad that at a point I was sitting there thinking did we change our shape to 3 at the back? wtf was going on, until I realize Matic was covering for him at RB while this dude is just waltzing around. He makes some individual mistakes once in a while, but this year his positioning itself has been very poor, he was never this bad at defensive awareness.

We haven't played this style with this team at all this year. We haven't really worked on sitting deep and waiting for the opportunities, chalk it up to a bit of unfamiliarity and not having enough days to train it. Having said that City did everything they could to break up the counter, fouls were plentiful from them.

[Stats 6,988]

That was a shit ton of money for a CB, he was my MotM but he also fouled a hell of a lot and never got carded. We'll see in time if he was indeed a miss, I have a sneaking suspicion he was slightly overpriced. Also, who would he replace in our starting XI? He wasn't gonna come here and play off the bench. Terry is captain and Cahill was a pretty good value buy and English... No way were we gonna grab yet another foreign player.

That is the value of young players who have years ahead of them. They are overpriced but that is the reality now. It is not the fact that he would walk into the team but he would keep Terry and Cahill on top of their game and like some people have been criticising Cahill (a bit too harshly imo) he could come in for him if he was having successive bad games and his age is a factor as well. He is 5-6 years younger than Cahill and 10 years younger than Terry. Also judging by what I have heard of him he was excellent in Portugal. We saw how good of a success Carvalho was. I think Mangala will be a quality signing for City. He has a lot of qualites for a CB. Probably one of the fastest CB in football right now and he is still improving. Look how many other players we have bought for quite outrageous fees.