Reflections on today

[Nufcian]

Beaten 1-0 away by the best team in the league, no shame in it.

I thought we would do better, I had foolishly thought without KDB or Silva we would have a better chance, but Foden was immense and caused us problems whenever he had the ball.

We lost the ball stupidly at times, Miggy and Bruno especially, and they kept the ball very well… I had thought our fitness levels would tell come the final third… but their retention meant they finished with the same 11 as the didn’t have to chase the ball too much.

Spent a lot of time with 10 men in our own half, which hopefully won’t ever happen again this season.

Bruno looked off it again, I don’t know what is happening with him, is he carrying a knock, was that ankle injury from last season fully sorted, are his contract negotiations impacting him?

Miggy… said my piece on him too much, all effort and nowhere near the end product, especially against quality teams!

Anderson was a breath of fresh air and we attacked them more with him involved, so he was my big positive and hopefully done enough to get himself a lot more game time this season.

[TANYA_]

its not all doom and gloom, we were not quite at it and they didnt cause us too much trouble, took their goal well.

They are a very good team who were missing 3 first team starters.

The intensity wasn't there yesterday and although a few players were off their games, we all know where the weak links are in our team.

Miggy, works his socks off running, but he's a 1 trick pony, gets the ball, runs and comes back on his left foot and cuts inside.
Thats his entire game. Gives 100%

Longstaff, also works his socks off running and chasing but gives the ball away far too many times for my liking. Gives 100%

Dan Burn, ultimately a central defender playing as a left back, offers very little going forward Gives 100%

These 3 lads really do give 100% for the club, but there needs to be a time when ability needs to come before effort, for our club to

be up there with the best in the world, we need to have an elite mentality and not get stuck on sentiment, these 3 lads will be bench warmers at best in a year or so.

Im not slating them, its just a fact, this is the difference between beating Man City and not quite being good enough

Big Joe had an average game for his standards, Isaak looked lost up top and Gordon just couldn't make an impact like ASM did last season.

Its only 1 game though. 3 tough games coming up but we are capable of taking 3 points from each of them

[toptoon]

Some good points there Tanya. When you play a team like that it only takes a couple of our players not firing to drag the performance of everyone else down.

[HughieG]

Agree that quality needs to come over effort. Giving a 100% isn’t enough in itself, otherwise we could just play the U23’s each time.

However, it has occured to me that a lot of the time Miggy’s lack of output is due to him being isolated because he drives the ball forward so fast that his teammates struggle to follow. Perhaps he should slow down, but I thought that he did well in getting into situations where we could have created something dangerous, but then didn’t because it ended up being Miggy against 3-4 defenders.

[Zippity]

Clearer thinking this morning...

As I said elsewhere, they are the best club side in the world and are over a decade into their journey. This is our second full season on ours.

Botman and Schar stopped the goal machine Haaland from scoring.

[toptoon]

You see their younger players of a couple of seasons back dove tailing into the team with their big signings. We are just getting our young players now - shows we are a couple of seasons behind but are on the right track.

[ex_pat_magpie]

Clearer thinking this morning...

As I said elsewhere, they are the best club side in the world and are over a decade into their journey. This is our second full season on ours.

Botman and Schar stopped the goal machine Haaland from scoring.

Let's look at it without emotion. Although they were much the better team, we were not at out best both individually and as a combined unit, but we could have come away with an undeserved draw and come the end of the season there won't be many, if any, who can say that.

Indeed I would wager there will be many, including the biggies who leave Citeh's fortress with a thrashing.

And that is putting things into an unbiased perspective.

[HughieG]

Clearer thinking this morning...

As I said elsewhere, they are the best club side in the world and are over a decade into their journey. This is our second full season on ours.

Botman and Schar stopped the goal machine Haaland from scoring.

They've actually put Haaland into a bit of a goalscoring crisis - only two goals in four games for him now

[Zippity]

They've actually put Haaland into a bit of a goalscoring crisis - only two goals in four games for him now

I'd sell him.

Incidentally, Howe himself said he was disappointed because he knows we can do better.

[HughieG]

I'd sell him.

Incidentally, Howe himself said he was disappointed because he knows we can do better.

Aye, overrated!

Howe's analysis of the game was spot on - we've come a long way when we're disappointed not to come away with something away at Etihad.