Manchester City v Aston Villa, Sunday 22nd May | Page 28 | Vital Football

Manchester City v Aston Villa, Sunday 22nd May

I was cooking my dinner - Mrs P at work - we went 2-0 up I thought, Yes!

Sadly it didn't last, but hey, we gave it a go. Without reading all the posts, we should of scored more, but hey ho.
 
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I like Ollie and I don’t think he is anywhere near as poor as many on here seem to think. But equally, he’s not the striker we need to push on.

None of us would ever have expected to be 2-0 up today and comparatively comfortable. But we’d have been a lot more comfortable had Watkins had a better touch or made better decisions.

You don’t get those kids of chances against teams like City very often. I’m not putting the defeat on him, plenty else went pear shaped. But looking ahead, we need to take our chances against better teams. Simple as.
 
Pangloss said:
To be honest during the match I thought Coutinho coming off was a decent move to make but some of the analysis on here has made me change my mind. He gave City a lot more to worry about than Nakamba. Without Coutinho we were much less of a worry to them and that freed them up to attack more. It was a bad tactical move.
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Just reading the Graun comments on the game and a City fan said the Coutinho substitution must be up there with the dumbest in football ever.
 
It goes back to the spine. Kamara is hopefully a big step forward. Some say the likes of McGinn, Mings et al are the least of our worries but I disagree. These are mainstays in key positions in a team that firmly cemented as a bottom half club. To move on we need to upgrade these key positions. Centre half, central midfield, striker, we have to address these areas this summer.
 
Despite the disappointment and what might have been yet again I thought we gave a good show. Save the last 15 minutes but we are miles behind them in terms of squad. I thought Ollie worked well with Coutinho and we got midfield support around them. That was the tactics spot on. Regrettably Ollie couldn’t put his chances away or we could possibly have done it. I couldn’t blame Olson for any of the goals, looks a decent no 2. We gave them a massive scare - who thought we’d do that?
 
If SG didn’t change it when we went 0-2 up then he’d have been getting pelters as well 🤷🏼‍♂️

Can’t win with some.

Most of us expected a tonking today.
If we weren’t playing last game of the season and the title at stake, would we react like this?

Really disappointing to lose a game we could have won but we know where we need to strengthen and a result like this confirms it.
 
MollyCruyff said:
If SG didn’t change it when we went 0-2 up then he’d have been getting pelters as well 🤷🏼‍♂️

Can’t win with some.

Most of us expected a tonking today.
If we weren’t playing last game of the season and the title at stake, would we react like this?

Really disappointing to lose a game we could have won but we know where we need to strengthen and a result like this confirms it.
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I think most of us are saying that it was the wrong substitution rather than he shouldn't have changed it.
 
Pangloss said:
It goes back to the spine. Kamara is hopefully a big step forward. Some say the likes of McGinn, Mings et al are the least of our worries but I disagree. These are mainstays in key positions in a team that firmly cemented as a bottom half club. To move on we need to upgrade these key positions. Centre half, central midfield, striker, we have to address these areas this summer.
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I would tend to agree that Mings and McGinn (and one or two others, perhaps) need to impose themselves more - they are what I would consider the senior players in this squad. And McGinn in particular goes missing when the shit hits the fan.

I genuinely think the root of our problem is an attitude thing as opposed to an ability thing. But we do need better quality across the pitch, that much is clear.
 
I'm finding it difficult to be too critical of the players, even with all of the emotion in the immediate aftermath of the result.

I think some of the mistakes and silly decisions come in because the concentration levels you need to sustain for 90 minutes are almost impossible to keep up with the quality they have and the speed they play at. Then you get punished. That's why they get 85-90+ points a season.

But the spine absolutely does need upgrading in the summer, for sure. CB, CM and a proper striker should be priority areas, then let's see what else we might need once Gerrard's got rid of a few he doesn't want.
 
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