Man City v Everton. 6th Dec at 17.30.

[Tubey]

You assume he's being asked to do what your suggesting

It's a fairly safe assumption based on how we play. If he isn't, then Martinez is an actual madman.

 

[Del]

It's a fairly safe assumption based on how we play. If he isn't, then Martinez is an actual madman.

Martinez bought an immobile center forward with no first touch for 28m, Madman could cover it

 

[streeky]

The cb's are a big problem, they cant bring the ball out and make a forward pass. Things will change when stones is back.

think it was more about defending today and they did that magnificently

 

[harris78]

One of the biggest problems for me today was our energy levels. Too laboured with the ball to even try and penetrate and stood off far too much when Man City had it. The spine of our team today had a 35 year old keeper, a 36 year old centre back, a 35 year old centre midfielder and a 34 year old number ten. Experience is all well and good but you need pace and hit quickly if you are going to go play the possession game, you need to be able to change it Up from slow and steady to getting at them in a blink of an eye. Half our lads are looking for their horlicks and false teeth to even be able to implement what needs to be done for the system to work.

 

[streeky]

Would like to see barkley and besic cm next match with mcgeady eto mirallas and lukaku upfront think we need a more attacking threat city didnt had to get out of second gear today

I love the sound of this team. and the person in the front 5 doing any running is????

 

[tim cahill]

One of the biggest problems for me today was our energy levels. Too laboured with the ball to even try and penetrate and stood off far too much when Man City had it. The spine of our team today had a 35 year old keeper, a 36 year old centre back, a 35 year old centre midfielder and a 34 year old number ten. Experience is all well and good but you need pace and hit quickly if you are going to go play the possession game, you need to be able to change it Up from slow and steady to getting at them in a blink of an eye. Half our lads are looking for their horlicks and false teeth to even be able to implement what needs to be done for the system to work.

That's been our problem since last the Wolfsburg game. But it's because our squad has too many injures to cope with so many games in a short space of time.

 

[harris78]

So were should he be making these runs Tubey? Remembering we don't hit over the top balls or anything past 5 yards

But he is his own worst nightmare. There is no point putting a ball over the top if the forward isn't showing willing to make the runs. Too many times Rom is flat footed when it gets into the final third. That maybe an issue with the system we are using, ie slow build up play but Rom still has to show willing, otherwise any balls over the Top or down the sides either run through to the keeper or is bread and butter for the oppositions defence.

 

[Woolly Blue]

Amazing what a billion quid buys you

Aye, very true.
No reason not to learn off them though. Overall their players are better technically than ours, but not by huge amounts

 

[Groucho]

Judging by the fume levels this week, we'd fail our MOT here on GOT....

 

[banno]

think it was more about defending today and they did that magnificently

Yes they defended the box very well but they didn't defend very well in more advanced positions. We allow teams to drop off our defence to pick the ball up and then allowed to turn unopposed to run at the defence. City did it well today and Hull did it the other day (2nd half). I wish Lukaku was afforded the time and space that our defence allow opposition attackers.

 

[harris78]

That's been our problem since last the Wolfsburg game. But it's because our squad has too many injures to cope with so many games in a short space of time.

So why only make 2 subs? Why have a 21 year old lauded as the best English talent on the bench? Although Distin was decent today why not give Browning a start, what's the worst that would have happened? We got beat anyway. Martinez post match comments after the Hull game where we were too tired to go on and win the game, so two and a bit days later he starts 8 or 9 of the same team and drops a 21 year old for a 34 year old....yeah that will get the energy up!

 

[streeky]

Just got back
Can't be arsed reading through 150 pages so I'll probably repeat what others have already said

They tore us to bits first half and we were lucky to only be one down to that soft penalty. We could learn a lot by watcing the video of the first half which was a masterclass in movement and making runs off the ball to create space ( as opposed to passing to players in static positions which is what we've mostly done in the last three games )

For the penalty, it didn't look like Jags made any contact with his foot to me, but, from where I was, leaving his foot in, gave the ref an excuse for giving it ( Marriner had a nightmare btw )

Barkley came on and changed the game. We were much better second half. Despite losing, that was a much better performance than on Wednesday. Against teams which park the bus, playing Ross high up the pitch hasn't worked recently, but against the better teams who leave more room, he can remind us why we talk about his talent.

and when he keeps losing the ball in our half we are [Poor language removed]

 

[tim cahill]

So why only make 2 subs? Why have a 21 year old lauded as the best English talent on the bench? Although Distin was decent today why not give Browning a start, what's the worst that would have happened? We got beat anyway. Martinez post match comments after the Hull game where we were too tired to go on and win the game, so two and a bit days later he starts 8 or 9 of the same team and drops a 21 year old for a 34 year old....yeah that will get the energy up!

Our options are very limited because of injuries within the squad. He's got to put the team out that he thinks has the best chance of winning. Starting Browning against Aguero would be stupid. Barkley hasn't been playing brilliantly either(but not as bad as some make out).

 

[Deco]

Didn't deserve to lose at all

 

[harris78]

Our options are very limited because of injuries within the squad. He's got to put the team out that he thinks has the best chance of winning. Starting Browning against Aguero would be stupid. Barkley hasn't been playing brilliantly either(but not as bad as some make out).

But why would it be stupid? Distin got dry humped by Sone Aluko on Wednesday night and it was quite possible he had 'another' one of those performances in him tonight. It may have only ended 1-0 but Man City comfortably playedwithin themselves tonight and if by some chance we scored I have no doubt in my mind they could have picked us off if they wanted too.

We are so one dimensional and lacklustre at the moment it defies belief, especially when you see some of our performances in Europe.