Match Thread - Home to The Toffee men

[KunDB]

Come on City lets make it Fortress Eitihad this season

CITY XI | Ederson, Walker, Danilo, Kompany, Stones, Aguero, De Bruyne, David Silva, Fernandinho, Otamendi, Gabriel Jesus

SUBS | Bravo, Sterling, Mangala, Sane, Bernardo, Yaya Toure, Foden

[gavin]

Should be strong enough to beat Everton. Quite nice to see no fucking about with the line up.

Which dumb cnut bought a load of very dark navy seats to stick in the middle of all the sky blue ones??

[gavin]

Can't fucking see now for all the smoke!

[KunDB]

What has happened to Aguero's shooting boots?

[KunDB]

Sane cannot defend OMG

We are still trying to walk the ball into the net and we still cannot defend - last year this year?

[Ludo]

Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiit

[KunDB]

Sane cant do throw ins?

[KunDB]

Jesus cant shoot? OMG wake up Pep.

[KunDB]

That was no yellow card OMG ref?

[KunDB]

Could it be any worse?

[Neil Mcnab]

Pep will show us in the second half why he is the best coach in El Mundo, or not.

[gavin]

Finishing rubbish again. It all starts with that. Their goal should still leave them behind. Get Sanchez in.

[KunDB]

Finishing rubbish again. It all starts with that. Their goal should still leave them behind. Get Sanchez in.

Correct, but hard to believe our finishing is so bad given the quality of our players.

[KunDB]

Sane repeats a foul throw in. That is pathetic.

[Ludo]

£120m on full backs and not one on the pitch.

[zacc]

haha turgid stuff! toffees have been clever with their niggles

[Lekos]

This is rank.

[KunDB]

Not one of our players look match fit and we are fragmented and slow as a tortoise in attack and useless in and around the opponents box.

[Neil Mcnab]

Get in.

[Ludo]

Only player on the pitch......

[KunDB]

What is wrong with my hero Aguero, he is as sharp as me in and around the box.

[KunDB]

A point is a bit of a relief in the end but the performance was not good.

[Neil Mcnab]

Showed character and determination in the second half. Still disappointed. Course if Silvas shot had gone in instead of hitting the post just before granny shagger scored, different game.

[lee]

koeman is no mug and everton looked a good as i have seen them in a long time....sane was a bit shite tonight and them fuckin fireworks at the start pissed me off

[Ludo]

Sane was awful tonight but de Bruyne and Siva mk1 didn't cover themselves in glory either.

Sterling has to get a start on Saturday along with Silva mk2.

[Hesperus]

Showed character to get a point and not give up when down to 10 men for so long in the game.

Thought we played poorly though. We didn't work Pickford at all really and given the attacking flare we have is criminal.

Silva, Kev, Jesus, Sergio and Sane all pretty shit especially in the first half.

[gavin]

We are in desperate need of a striker that takes a decent percentage of his chances. Exactly the same as last season. It's going to be another very frustrating season.

[Neil Mcnab]

Agree Silva MKII looked like he really needs to start.

Is three at the back really working. If Vinny is spending a lot of time as a midfielder, wouldnt a full time midfielder be better at that? Yes, I remember he was a DM originally. Perhaps when Gundog comes back in things will change?

We look nothing like league favourites.

Though Kun was off with his finishing, he had a couple of good assists which should have been converted. The other thing I think of is confidence. Until now every manager will have Kun as one of the first on the team sheet, and why not. Now he has a manager who is not that keen apparently. If the manager has no confidence, leads to the player doubting themselves. What might have not taken a second thought before, now Kun is perhaps trying for perfection. Just a theory.

[nimrod]

We didnt win the prem last year because of poor finishing and defensive errors.

Same two reasons we didnt win tonight.


Changed my mind now, we do need Johnny fuckin Evans 

Were not gonna win the prem with Otamendi and Stones

[Lekos]

Danilo looked decent

[Swiss]

Everton had a game plan to frustrate and 'park the bus'.

Two factors for their goal.

1st. I don't know why Sane just didn't let the ball go out of play!

2nd. Dave didn't track Rooney. Well he sort of did, but then stopped

[Hesperus]

Sane isn't a wingback. Not sure why we're trying to convert him. He's a bloody good attacking winger with an eye for goal.

I think Pep got the formation wrong given the players that were available. I'm rapidly going off 3-5-2.

[Hesperus]

Genuine question. Most people (including Pep) say we need to be more clinical in front of goal. However I was at the game last night. I really didn't think for all the possession we had, that we created many good chances. I don't remember Pickford making many saves? What are other people's views? I thought we lacked creativity from midfield and both Silva and Kev had poor games, but they weren't alone in that respect.

On Kev. I'm concerned about him, he doesn't look happy to me and from being a player who was scoring goals for us pre Pep, he seems to be playing a lot deeper not really getting into scoring positions.

[KunDB]

I think we create too few chances because we are too slow and deliberate in our build up too often.

I worry about Pep seeking players to fit his system rather than using them to their best and playing them in their best position. I think this has damaged players confidence e.g. Aguero working his arse off blunts his attacking poacher instincts; Sane playing wingback - the guy simply cannot defend and we waste his talents in attack, (other teams in PL will now know this and will target him to make things worse).

[gavin]

We created enough chances to win the match and then some. We didn't take them. You can change systems a million times but if you don't take your chances then you won't win. We were let down with finishing all last season and have started same this. We have a week or so to sort it because the current personnel have shown that they don't have it in them to score a high enough percentage of chances.

[zacc]

No idea where Sane's mind was couldn't even throw the ball in correctly?!
Started brightly enough but the Walker sending off, reduce the speed down, looked like moving through treacle or should that be toffee?
There's no doubt the Toffees were well set up and executed the plan including infuriating niggle fouls, rolling around with mock injuries, well.
City subs freshened things up and considering were down to 10 played pretty well deserving the point.
Still a disappointing game, have no doubt the Walker card will be rescinded, no consolation as achieved its goal this game.      

[bluebrendan]

Sane was shocking, no excuse for the throw-ins but he won't be a wing-back as long as I have a hole in my arse, no defensive awareness at all so Pep has to take a share of the blame for putting him there.

I thought after Bernardo came on that KdB and the 2 Silvas worked well as a combination, in some games against bus-parkers a 4-5-1 with those 3 in centre-mid could be a better option. Sterling has to start on Saturday, he gave us a more direct option.

[Gareth]

Still a disappointing game, have no doubt the Walker card will be rescinded, no consolation as achieved its goal this game.      

I don't think there's any appeal against a red given for two yellow card offences.

[Rowley Birkin QC]

Well - I must say I'm surprised by the negativity of many of the posts in this thread...

OK - so it looked like we hadn't quite blown away all the pre-season cobwebs just yet, but that aside I thought we played well; with a man down for 50% of the match; going on to earn a well deserved point in tricky circumstances.

I agree with the general concerns expressed about our poor finishing, but not the suggestion we created too few chances. Quite the opposite I thought! I was really encouraged by the number of chances we carved out. Noticeably more than we did in many of our more ponderous performances against 'park the bus' opponents last season. We stayed positive (despite the numerical disadvantage) and worked the ball forward quickly and imaginatively. Really impressed with our effort off the ball. As a result you wouldn't have thought we only had the 10 men on the pitch!

Everton were certainly intimidated. They are a good side who will do well this season, but needless to say they didn't have the balls to really go after us and look for the killer blow after taking the lead and then Walker's sending off.

Good game. A win would have been nice, but I really enjoyed it.

[Hesperus]

Stats showing the number of chances and on target chances can be misleading I think.  We had 19 chances and 6 on target according to the BBC website. Of the 6 on target 3 were long range efforts outside the box and 3 were in the box (one of which was Sterlings goal). So in 90 mins we had 2 shots on target from inside the box. That pretty much ties in with what I saw last night.

I think a better stat would be 'clear cut' or 'golden chances'. From last nights games I can only think of: Silva hitting the post, Sergio, through on goal but took an extra touch and the chance was gone and Sterling blasting over from Inside the box. I really can't remember Pickford making a save of note in the entire game. That's why I'm questioning the number of 'chances' we make.

[gavin]

Sterling should have buried his other good opportunity in the second half. Silva should have buried his chance in the first when he hit the post. Sergio had two very presentable opportunities in the first. There were numerous chances that we didn't make the keeper save. Same as last season. Transfer window nearly shut, we need people in who finish.

Sterlings goal was a great finish though and I wouldn't have expected him to do that.

[Hesperus]

Yes, Sterlings goal was a much harder chance than the one he blasted over. He did make a difference when he came on but I doubt he's ever going to be clinical in front of goal.

I'm sceptical as to if we'll sign a striker or Sanchez to help in the scoring department. I'd be very surprised if Sanchez signs for us, especially with the international beak coming up which he has declared himself for for. Time is running out.

[Rowley Birkin QC]

I acknowledge that what defines a "chance" is a movable feast, but as it happens I did not base my opinion (above) on any official stats - more a purely gut feeling for what I was watching. We just looked more creative to my eyes. We played quickly and purposely, launching a barrage of attacks - and varied what we tried.

Have you all forgotten those too frequent games last season where we plodded around the pitch, wasting whole minutes of game time while we tip-tapped the ball, left and right - right and left, across our back lines before deciding to launch yet another predictable attack down one wing or the other - all to no reward?

To score goals you have to create chances - lots of them (statistically!)   I'm not too fussed if they're clear cut, or fleeting opportunities - first you have to create them and create them often! That's more than half the battle in my book. Sure you then need the quality to finish some of those multiple chances off and of course that can be an issue, but that's the first time I've seen City this season (missed the Brighton game) and what I saw was a marked improvement on a lot of what I watched last season.

[Rowley Birkin QC]

Only real negative from the game (aside from only a point) for me was David Silva's new 'hair cut'.

What is he thinking!? From some angles he now looks disturbingly like Stephen Ireland.

[nimrod]

1st half I actually thought we played too slowly