Man City (H) 4:30pm Sunday 7th August (Sky Sports)

OutcastLondoner

I think the only real disappointment for me from that game is I felt we were mentally not very sharp. There were two or three occasions when a midfielder played a nice through ball that someone was too late to react to, making it look like a bad pass. Apart from that, Cresswell and Coufal weren't very good, in my opinion, and Benrahma did nothing good when he came on. Lanzini a bit anonymous as well.

But it was a tough game. City took their system of tucking the full backs in to the extreme. They weren't really playing as full backs at all with quite a few moments when Walker and Cancelo were standing a metre or two away from each other in the middle. I think this dragged Bowen and Fornals into more central positions to avoid being crowded out in the midfield and left a lot of space for their wingers. Tactically, it was pretty smart and they had really capable players, so this was a tough game.

Johnson was fantastic. Our best player. Not sure he did anything wrong but he got a few clearing headers in, blocked a lot of crosses and distributed pretty well. He deserves so much respect for how much he's helped this team out over the past season or two by plugging gaps.

Fortuneseeker

Outcast, Do you think Johnson could be a cover for CB, saving money on another defender, so the money can be spent strengthening elsewhere?

OutcastLondoner

Fortune. I'm not sure about that. Unless he's actually converted there, I don't know how he can be cover for CB, RB and LB all at once without sacrificing actually being a starter himself - which I think he deserves to be.

But I have a lot of respect for how well he's done wherever he's been asked to play. The only position he looked totally lost in was the brief stint against Man U as a right winger.

OldCastleSwift

He completey misread Haaland's run for the penalty and it looks awful in slow motion, but that's going to happen to many CBs this season so he needn't lose any sleep over it.

Longer term he could make a very good CB, but I think we need a ready-made replacement for when Diop inevitably gets sold.

buffybegood

OldCastleSwift said:

Longer term he could make a very good CB, but I think we need a ready-made replacement for when Diop inevitably gets sold.

I do wonder if that will be his best position long term; I'm not sure his distribution will ever be good enough to be a really good full back.

OutcastLondoner

OldCastleSwift said:

He completey misread Haaland's run for the penalty and it looks awful in slow motion, but that's going to happen to many CBs this season so he needn't lose any sleep over it.

Yeah, Zouma's done the same for the second so you can let Johnson off when he's basically completely new to the role.

How tall is Johnson? I think he's not as tall as most CBs which might be why he wouldn't become permanent there but he seems to have the ability for it.

Bazshuayi

OldCastleSwift said:

Haaland is massive

Everywhere he goes

Bazshuayi

So can we all agree now that Man City are very irritating and we dont want them to win the title

Also, Haaland has obviously been created via an experiment involving Ivan Drago (but not Dolph Lungren) and Brigitte Neilsen. EUFA need to investigate as soon as possible

(you know a million people will be transferring him in too)

chicagohammer

I have to admit that I just did

Pearces_Left_Foot

I see Diop did not put himself forward to play even though he was not injured and fab took a knock to his hip and his leg went numb . Anyone else know what was going on with our goal kicks yesterday play short to Zouma back to keeper then kick but all this did was allow city to pressure to keeper .

Fortuneseeker

Baz, So can we all agree now that Man City are very irritating and we dont want them to win the title

No.

Expat_Hammer

Bazshuayi said:

So can we all agree now that Man City are very irritating and we dont want them to win the title

A much better option than the scousers winning it

I see that old klippi has started already, "the pitch was too dry" . What an expletive

Bazshuayi

To be fair, Fulham are known for dry pitches, he has every reason to complain

buffybegood

Bazshuayi said:

Also, Haaland has obviously been created via an experiment involving Ivan Drago (but not Dolph Lungren) and Brigitte Neilsen. EUFA need to investigate as soon as possible

(you know a million people will be transferring him in too)

Already had him in my team. Decided my conscience couldn't cope with Salah's diving for another season 😂🤣😂

Expat_Hammer

I've decided to transfer him in.

Queue long term injury

BubblesNeverDies

Anyone else see the likeness?

Ravel49

His price has already risen

alderz

buffybegood said:

Bazshuayi said:

Also, Haaland has obviously been created via an experiment involving Ivan Drago (but not Dolph Lungren) and Brigitte Neilsen. EUFA need to investigate as soon as possible

(you know a million people will be transferring him in too)

Already had him in my team. Decided my conscience couldn't cope with Salah's diving for another season 😂🤣😂

And here’s me who put them both in

thornburyiron

Having watched most of it back again even though we only had about 25% of the ball and they were totally dominant except for about 15 minutes, I can’t recall any of the 3 keepers really making a meaningful save.

Bazshuayi

BubblesNeverDies said:

Anyone else see the likeness?

Duckling Braut Haaland. So its a duck and Ivan Drago experiment. I got it wrong earlier, sorry

BubblesNeverDies

I watched the build up for the second goal and we gave them so much space to pass into.
Grealish on the edge of his penalty area passes to Rodri, who passes to De Bruyne, who then puts the through to Haaland. They didn't have to take anyone on, just slide rule passing.

Kuchinghammer

Kuchinghammer said:

I sincerely hope that we can avoid ending the day at the foot of the table. Maybe another team can lose by more than four goals.
However, if we manage to stay only two goals down, it will cheer me up immensely. COYI!

Always look on the bright side of life...

Lukerz

BubblesNeverDies said:

I watched the build up for the second goal and we gave them so much space to pass into.
Grealish on the edge of his penalty area passes to Rodri, who passes to De Bruyne, who then puts the through to Haaland. They didn't have to take anyone on, just slide rule passing.

It was because we opened up. In the attack, Coufal, Bowen, Fornals had all gone way up the pitch to try & box City in, they broke between the lines & because we had squeezed, our defensive line was higher than it had been. This left Johnson - Zouma- Cresswell & Soucek (who was trying to fill in for Coufal) against the City attack. Rice was trying to cover the entire midfield.

This is why Moyes decided to go with the passive tactic & highlights how good the work of Fornals & Bowen is when we are in defensive shape. With those two out the game, plus Coufal not at RB, it was easy for world class players like KDB to find a player like Haaland.

Slacker

Obviously Haarland took all the plaudits but in a team full of football rock stars De Bruyne is the absolute Springsteen.
He just seems to get better every time I see him.

Lukerz

Interestingly, with the first goal, Areola & Johnson got the blame. Look how easy Soucek & Rice make it. Rice should follow Haaland. Not sure who he is marking. He sees Haaland go to peel off of Johnson & stands marking space. Soucek makes the ball into Gundagon so easy by pressing out of position.

MrsGrey

As an aside, I wanted to mention how amused - and somewhat puzzled - I was by the half time food and beverage offerings inside the stadium.

I was starving, and as a vegetarian I wasn't sure what choice I might have.

Imagine my delight to see, as well as the usual meaty options listed according to ingredients, there were also 'vegan pies'!





Made of ....one infers

..... actual vegans?




Well, whatever's in them, they are very popular. Sold out :-(

buffybegood

MrsGrey said:

As an aside, I wanted to mention how amused - and somewhat puzzled - I was by the half time food and beverage offerings inside the stadium.

I was starving, and as a vegetarian I wasn't sure what choice I might have.

Imagine my delight to see, as well as the usual meaty options, vegan pies!





Made of ....

..... actual vegans?




Well, whatever's in them, they are very popular. Sold out :-(

The supply of vegans to go in the pies is limited due to current global issues I'm afraid.

chicagohammer

Mrs Grey, despite the result, I hope and trust you enjoyed the visit and had a positive experience, I have toured the stadium but am very much looking forward to my first live game, unfortunately right now, it seems it may be a while yet

MrsGrey

Chicago, it was fantastic. I had a great time.

Thanks to Herb, who sorted the ticket :-)

ASLEFshrugged

A lot of pundits talking about how the City FBs came inside and overloaded the midfield

You only have to look at the "average" positions to see how Pep played compared to how our FBs were played