Match reaction vs Everton

[IBK]

Haven’t watched Match of the day in years, in regards to other teams tend to watch the two minute highlight packages posted on you tube by Skysports.

So it turns out I’m still incredibly fucked off about Saturdays game, and the city defeat has done nothing to quell that…arguably it’s made it even worse

I think now has come the time to examine issues of squad rotation. Both full backs were horrible, if we had depth in midfield to drop Xhaka that’s exactly what we should do (I’d be open to playing Tierney at left back and Zinchenko in midfield)

And as good as Odegaard has been lately, he stunk out the place so badly on Saturday that there should be some consequence for that.

Arteta can keep his “I love the players even more” you love Martinelli so much you made him completely isolated you stupid cunt.

No wonder they think they can put in performances like that with that attitude.

I agree with the highlighted text. The reason I feel upset about Saturday is not even so much the defeat (these things do happen even to the best teams) - it was the performance, which raises questions about our consistency and ability to stay the course this season. Everton were motivated and well organised, but for a team with title winning aspirations they should have been beatable, and increasing the gap on Citeh would have been invaluable.

Not sure I'm quite with you re Matrinelli, though. He has been sub-par for a while, and I don't think this is the manager's fault. I am beginning to worry that Jesus needs to play for Martinelli to shine - which is a worry for a player who has just been re-signed as a 'go to' player for us.

[HCZ_Reborn]

I don’t think he’s played that well either but if you look at the way we played Saturday where all the attacking play went to Saka and neither Zinchenko or Xhaka tried to find him that was concerning. Now you’ve got to make yourself available and yes I think Trossard clearly made himself more available when he came on, but early on in the game Martinelli’s pace was a problem for Seamus Coleman and Connor Coady

[Marc Overmars]

I would definitely consider starting Trossard in place of Martinelli against Brentford. Love the kid but he’s been very quiet since the World Cup IMO.

[Ollie the Optimist]

I agree with the highlighted text. The reason I feel upset about Saturday is not even so much the defeat (these things do happen even to the best teams) - it was the performance, which raises questions about our consistency and ability to stay the course this season. Everton were motivated and well organised, but for a team with title winning aspirations they should have been beatable, and increasing the gap on Citeh would have been invaluable.

Not sure I'm quite with you re Matrinelli, though. He has been sub-par for a while, and I don't think this is the manager's fault. I am beginning to worry that Jesus needs to play for Martinelli to shine - which is a worry for a player who has just been re-signed as a 'go to' player for us.

But that is only the second time this season we have played badly out of 20 games. I wouldn’t say that raises questions about our consistency especially as it was first time we played badly and lost.

[Mac76]

I don’t think he’s played that well either but if you look at the way we played Saturday where all the attacking play went to Saka and neither Zinchenko or Xhaka tried to find him that was concerning. Now you’ve got to make yourself available and yes I think Trossard clearly made himself more available when he came on, but early on in the game Martinelli’s pace was a problem for Seamus Coleman and Connor Coady

This, especially the bit I've highlighted - I'm always looking to see where Xhaka and Zin place the ball and even though Martinelli's often got a little bit of room out wide and is asking for the ball, 9/10 times they pass infield or straight ahead, into areas where the opposition have greater numbers

Which is a problem in itself, but doubly so given Arteta's historical blindness to Xhaka's failings and now apparently also Zinchenko's

I don't with disagree having Zinchenko as an option for some games and which helps change our system in games, but Arteta has gone full hog with him and basically jettisoned the concept of a traditional left-back, robbing us of another option - I know bringing Tierney on hasn't always worked in terms of creating a goal but it should still be tried, on Saturday we still just kept running the same way against brick walls for 90 mins

Also we should, as Martinelli tried to do, swap the wing players sometimes

We're just lucky Pep's own frailties are being exposed at the moment, last season's Citeh would be top of the league by now
Newcastle and now Everton have now worked us out we need to show against Brentford we can do things differently

[HCZ_Reborn]

But that is only the second time this season we have played badly out of 20 games. I wouldn’t say that raises questions about our consistency especially as it was first time we played badly and lost.

No it was the second time. If you control the game and concede three goals that doesn’t mean you’ve played well. The Man United game was tactically shambolic, it wasn’t a case of being unlucky.


For me performance is often less important than result but let’s take performance for a second.

Palace (a) - absolutely dreadful, couldn’t keep hold of the ball after first 25 minutes and had to put in a deep block

Fulham (h) - The passing and movement just wasn’t there, and Fulham were able to defend deep and put us off our stride


United (a) - Already mentioned


Leeds (a) - We all know what a shit show that was but we were in poor form then anyway


Southampton (a) - After the first half just gave up control of the game and after they equalised never looked like threatening


Chelsea (a) - Chelsea were awful, we weren’t much better…really wasteful and struggled to break them down and we were fortunate that they created nothing.


Wolves (a) - Absolutely abysmal first half, created nothing and Wolves looked a threat


Newcastle (h) - Played into their hands, they came for a point and it was ridiculously easy for them to get one


United (h) - I was proud of us in this game, because the performance wasn’t great at all…no control in midfield…defending was suspect…but just showed the kind of fight and determination we completely lacked against Everton

[Letters]

So it turns out I’m still incredibly fucked off about Saturdays game, and the city defeat has done nothing to quell that…arguably it’s made it even worse.

The different mentalities on here are interesting, and I'm not saying yours is wrong or mine is right.
Your view is we should be 8 points clear with a game in hand, and that losing away at Everton is not the stuff of champions.
Mine is we could have had our lead cut to 2 points and losing after your rivals have slipped up is not the stuff of champions.

We definitely dodged a bullet this weekend. I rarely declare games a "must win" at this stage but after Saturday we absolutely have to beat Brentford. That would make the City game more of a "must not lose", but a win would be another "statement".

[HCZ_Reborn]

The different mentalities on here are interesting, and I'm not saying yours is wrong or mine is right.
Your view is we should be 8 points clear with a game in hand, and that losing away at Everton is not the stuff of champions.
Mine is we could have had our lead cut to 2 points and losing after your rivals have slipped up is not the stuff of champions.

We definitely dodged a bullet this weekend. I rarely declare games a "must win" at this stage but after Saturday we absolutely have to beat Brentford. That would make the City game more of a "must not lose", but a win would be another "statement".

See that’s not even it

I’m not even thinking about the defeat in terms of the title. I didn’t think it was likely we would win the title even before the game against Everton. What annoys me is how easy it is for certain teams to beat us. Like it wasn’t a tactical masterclass by Dyche, he just put five in midfield to stodge it up and played a deep block when we attacked.



Looking at the bigger picture, If we can beat City at the Emirates then I might think the title is doable. But you can understand why I don’t have much faith in that happening after five defeats on the bounce at home against them. And I wonder how psychological that is, I don’t think there’s any doubt we were the better side against them on New Years Day 2022 but it counted for nothing.

With the exception of Brentford the teams city have lost to this season are the teams they usually struggle with (United, Spurs and Liverpool)

[Marc Overmars]

Man City have been charged by the PL with several breaches of financial rules.

I think we can all agree that the appropriate course of action here is a points deduction.

[Letters]

Man City have been charged by the PL with several breaches of financial rules.

I think we can all agree that the appropriate course of action here is a points deduction.

I literally just came here to post this