Stoke City 2 - Manchester City 0 Johnny On The Spot & Stats Link

Johnny Baguette

Johnny Baguette

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Johnny On The Spot:

#DREADFUL. Statistics never lie and the ones that you cast your eyes over here certainly don't. They reflect the damning fact that Leslie Hughes' Stoke City hardly needed to get out of third gear to beat Manchester City today...For weeks now Manuel Pellegrini's admittedly injury ravaged squad have given the impression of a side tiring both mentally and physically, clinging on to playing a part in a spluttering Premier League title race by their very fingertips...However, much as Blues the world over can ship defeat in an unprecedented run of treatment table related bad luck with good grace, what they cannot stomach is a team failing to compete or fight for the cause. That is precisely what happened today and is happening far too often this season as a vastly experienced group of international stars registered one of the most insipid, spineless and cowardly first half performances imagineable...Considering where this club wants to be and indeed where it should be, so superbly set up and run that it is, there were too many men out there today who clearly didn't want any part of it outside of a brief second half resurgence...Shorn of any menace, such was City's collective malaise, ball watching and a criminal lack of concentration were arguably overshadowed by a general absence of communication or tactical preparedness for adverse conditions from the outset...I am not going to name names, we can all see who the powder puff effort culprits are, but this team is threatening again to play itself into a full blown crisis and some big decisions need to be made to stop the rot. I would suggest that installing Fabian Delph with all his bite and appetite as captain and starting him regularly alongside Fernandinho would be a start. Furthermore, if Txiki Begiristain is not preparing to sign a combative centre forward on the 1st January, then I would be gobsmacked. My Man of The Match is Nicolas Otamendi for at least displaying some edge and intensity.

Stats Courtesy BBC Sport: http://www.manchestercity.vitalfootball.co.uk/stats.asp?a=559737#ixzz3tSYTV8RK
 
#gutless #abject

Take your pick.

Delph injected some grit but it was too little too late and he couldn't do it on his own. Too many lightweight performances and a collective failure to put their foot in to hardly any 50/50 challenges.

Bony looked like he was playing knowing that he could score six goals and still be dropped when Sergio is fit.

Seriously disappointing
 
Bluedub - 5/12/2015 15:13

That Otamendi/Demichelis partnership is just shocking
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No other choice BD but spot on, these two cannot play together.

But with the form of Delph and Navas these should have been on from the off, certainly in regard to the loss of Yaya.

Bony is a good player and striker but not in this team and needs to move on or step aside for Iheanacho, but we have to look for a fourth striker or sell bony and buy another.

This was was an odd game and Stoke played better in the very windy conditions and once again City lose another player to injury, so questions should be asked as to why?
 
Reality Check:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-city/11526320/Manchester-City-will-not-sacrifice-their-attacking-philosophy-despite-recent-defeats-insists-Ferran-Soriano.html

we try to keep the ball, we play with a high defensive line and we apply pressure to recover the ball.
“These are very simple things that all our teams do
 
Our next prem game is at home to Swansea.
Knowing our luck, they'll sack Gary Monk before we meet and there will be a dead cat bounce a la Villa, although in that case it was a twitch rather than a bounce.

 
Only slight ray of sunshine perhaps that other results at the top weren't too bad for us

Leicester are flying having beaten Swansea 0-3, rags drew

Doesn't make me feel much better though after our insipid performance :bang:
 
Rags firing blanks again saves us the ignominy of being below them, another ray of light.

 
Bound to happen. New manager bounce inevitable.

How Pellegrini motivates this shower before Tuesday eludes me
 
Embarassing across the table. They simply did not turn up today. If your squad is that tired why are we not giving 1 or 2 grads a run in the mix to give some rest to some players. I dont think Pellegrini has faith in the wider squad.

Most of our squad at the moment are like tamp0ns. In 1 week out for 3.

God knows how we are going to shape up on mid week then a weekend again.
 
Skoorb - 5/12/2015 15:21

#gutless #abject

Take your pick.

Delph injected some grit but it was too little too late and he couldn't do it on his own. Too many lightweight performances and a collective failure to put their foot in to hardly any 50/50 challenges.

Bony looked like he was playing knowing that he could score six goals and still be dropped when Sergio is fit.

Seriously disappointing
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Agreed.

 
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