City getting clapped off yesterday

[COYBL25]

I dont think we can afford to shut up about this matter. We are at a crossroads and if we dont get our heads sorted out and a clear direction for this club we are going to sink like a stone.

 

[jceverton]

Speaking personally, I was one of those who applauded City off the pitch yesterday.

They had played a very good game of football and comprehensively beaten my team, and whilst losing to them was painful I felt their football deserved applauding.

The fact that their ownership have been willing, able and prepared to invest so heavily in players, managers, coaching staff etc in order to take City so quickly from also rans to potentially the best in Europe is an issue most other clubs and fans have to come to terms with, and maybe try to emulate.

Am I jealous or envious of their rapid rise from near oblivion to near utopia, yeah, I guess I am.

But I put those feelings aside at full time yesterday, as on the 93 minutes we witnessed, their players and football were miles, miles, miles better and quite frankly light years ahead of our players and football... Hence I chose to applaud them.

Omitted another very important factor: their manager is light years ahead of ours as well!!

 

[Eggs]

Sadly, neither does Moshiri, Eggs

And that is way more worrisome

..it is Matey. He might argue that he got the Allardyce appointment right in that he secured our Premier League status. I wonder if it might now be a matter of appointing until he gets it right.

 

[davek]

Hard to argue that we took a spectacularly bad turn when we replaced Martinez with Koeman. What we needed was a manager who plays fast attacking football, can organise a defence and knows how to press, in addition we needed a DOF who had experience of working with teams that play that way in the top leagues of Europe i.e. Italy, Spain, Germany, France, England. Neither Koeman or Allardyce comes close to that. Walsh was so far away from this that it's almost criminal. Effectively a complete disaster since Moshiri took over.

Spot on mate. There was a kneejerk from fans and the club followed through by turning away from style to a manager who;d bring in what fans wanted: work rate and balls forward quicker.

 

[Seathestars]

Totally disagree, Peps way of playing is the easiest way of playing football, something you get taught at a very early age PASS and MOVE!!! not 'kin Lump and jump!! 95% of their passes are 10 yard passes to men who have created a bit of space. Theirs no step overs or tricks or crazy mazy runs, just clever movement.

True this. It’s hardly rocket science. It’s why they look fresh every game. They let the ball do the work and hardly any of them bust a gut.
I think the telling thing about them is each and every one of them know exactly what they’re supposed to be doing.

Thierry Henry told a story on Sky sports about when Pep took him off, he had just scored too. His reason was that Henry had ran out of position to score the goal. The Managers message was the team comes first. If Henry had not scored it would have left a gap to be exploited so Guardiola took him off despite scoring.

 

[arbok]

Also I've got to say there's nothing really shameful about getting beat by City, but Everton looked completely lost out there, they've lost the team spirit they used to have when Moyes and Martinez were around. It looks to me that the old guys like Jags, Baines and Coleman don't really have the locker room clout that they may have had before. Most of the new signings just don't look like they give a sh*t about Everton as much as the fans do.

 

[Khalekan]

Hard to argue that we took a spectacularly bad turn when we replaced Martinez with Koeman. What we needed was a manager who plays fast attacking football, can organise a defence and knows how to press, in addition we needed a DOF who had experience of working with teams that play that way in the top leagues of Europe i.e. Italy, Spain, Germany, France, England. Neither Koeman or Allardyce comes close to that. Walsh was so far away from this that it's almost criminal. Effectively a complete disaster since Moshiri took over.

Is it too late and/or too expensive to turn the clock back to the day after Bobby was fired and look for someone with his “philosophy” but whom is better at implementing it?

 

[Somerset Blue]

We need experienced manager but someone who has a definite idea of what they want to do - even if its a disciple of 'the press'. There are plenty of them out there.

And who would you go for?

 

[davek]

True this. It’s hardly rocket science. It’s why they look fresh every game. They let the ball do the work and hardly any of them bust a gut.
I think the telling thing about them is each and every one of them know exactly what they’re supposed to be doing.

Thierry Henry told a story on Sky sports about when Pep took him off, he had just scored too. His reason was that Henry had ran out of position to score the goal. The Managers message was the team comes first. If Henry had not scored it would have left a gap to be exploited so Guardiola took him off despite scoring.

The thing I learned yesterday is how Guardiola has got supremely talented players like Silva, De Bruyne and Sane all subsuming their talents for the team effort. It must be an enormous temptation of you're those players to receive the ball and take opponents on...especially tripe like we have in our team. But for most of the game they recycled the ball around and just kept gently applying the pressure. That takes some discipline.

 

[Bullet]

Never in a month of Sundays would I want us playing like them.

...but it's in the eye of the beholder, I suppose.

My point had nothing to do with aesthetics. It's about achknowledgeing the reality that when you have poor quality players due to limited resources a Moyes style is more likely to yield results than a posession based approach.
That's what took us from perennial relegation battlers to finishing top 8 seven years in a row on a very limited budget.

 

[Harryflashman]

I couldn't even clap them at half time because I was on my way home

I wasn’t there yesterday but I’d have absolutely been off and in the boozer by halftime after watching that first half .

I watched it out in a pub yesterday and it was in equal measure painful and embarrassing, credit to city they were excellent but it was like attack against defence training . Looking back now it’s all just a bit sad.

 

[jceverton]

I'd go along with that. They mixed up the play from possession to deadly counter attacking but for the most part it was keep ball because Everton were set up by numb nuts Allardyce to stand off.

Totally bizarre set up from the dinosaur. They literally didn't face a challenge in midfield until Davies came on. The way we played yesterday we'd of made a lot of teams look brilliant. Personally i always thought it would be interesting to see what performance levels we would see under Allardyce when we got to 40 points. It isn't going to look pretty in my opinion and I'd sack the guy straight away.

 

[JimmyJeffers]

We all accept mediocrity, from the fan base to the owners to the manager to the pundits.

Rival fans think we’re pointless. Our own fans get carried away by signings like Schneiderlin and other dross from Man U (Rooney).

Until our whole approach and philosophy changes, we’ll always be a nothing club.

Sick of Everton, not even bothered anymore.

I thought you were a united fan? Have I got this all wrong?

 

[davek]

And who would you go for?

If we wanted to go that pressing route then bring in one of the managers associated with Leipzig: Schmidt who's out in China or their current boss, Hasenhuttl.

 

[davek]

Totally bizarre set up from the dinosaur. They literally didn't face a challenge in midfield until Davies came on. The way we played yesterday we'd of made a lot of teams look brilliant. Personally i always thought it would be interesting to see what performance levels we would see under Allardyce when we got to 40 points. It isn't going to look pretty in my opinion and I'd sack the guy straight away.

He'll be gone in May mate. no fear of that.