City Burnley Thread & Team News

[gavin]

Yes, Mangala was a bit of a problem today.

[Zabba]

I'm sorry Zabba but today Mangala was far from fine.


He was constantly pulled out of position and gave away stupid free kicks through simple bad judgement.

I put that down to the whole team easing off causing defence to be badly exposed. He made no seriously detrimental errors today.

[robyn6cp]

thanks zabba for welcome,,
and i too am sorry but as your mate said he (mangala) was and is far from fine, he comes dashing out when he should be holding position, he is leaving a gaping hole which full back has to try and fill, and that being zabaleta he has to usually come back over the half way line to try and do so.. with one movement he disrupts the whole back line, and he don't seem to be learning..it must be dammed hard to find a centre half these days if thats all we could get
i played there in the days and looking at mangala i think their would be no contest really..so come on city make me an offer
keep playing him and fernando and by end of jan bye bye premiership..simples 

[Rowley Birkin QC]

I'm afraid Mangala was having all sorts of problems.

Aside from his positioning, he also struggled (for a man of his size) with the physicality of Burnley's strikers who too frequently out-wrestled him and were allowed to hold the ball up, and sometimes even move away with it - leaving Mangala strangely flat footed, trailing in their wake. 

Wasn't just him though. I thought Demichelis had a poor game as well. Not his usual positive self at all - quite tentative and indecisive at times (perhaps unsure of things because his side kick was having such a hard time of it?) We never looked that good at the back - even in the first half when we were on top. I'll say one thing for Burnley - they know how to consistently drop that long ball into a centre back's 'zone of uncertainty' and they take a good free kick as well.

Sometimes you are just unlucky and we were on this occasion. First Burnley goal should never have stood and a few other things didn't go our way (the ridiculous Silva 'handball' and subsequent booking really summed up our day). But sooner or later the absence of our top two strikers was going to catch up with us. An opportunity lost, but at least no major damage done thanks to the other results.

...a few minor gripes though. Pellegrini still appears to favour Fernando over Fernandinho and I still can't work out why. Subbing Fernandinho for Sinclair with only 2 regulation minutes left seemed utterly pointless. I'm not sure what Nasri did to get subbed either. He and Silva were our best hope and if Pellers was determined to bring on Lampard I would much rather have seen Fernando sacrificed for him.

[City Slicker]

The guys next to me spent the whole game on Kolarovs back, he didnt have a good game but here lies an issue... He was totally exposed by lack of support from midfield in front of him. The knock on effect of that is that when he then moves forward to try and prevent the attack Mangala has to come across to cover... The result is we are then exposed through the middle. So whilst Silva and Nasri are superb going forward and the interchanging with Milner was is a joy to watch, neither is desperate to drop back.

It wasnt happening on the other side so much where Navas puts the work in both ways.

And Dyche isnt the first visiting manager to play on our left back is he?

[Zabba]

As City Slicker, and I said earlier, a team failing more than individuals failings.

If the team does not put the work in for each other then a team working hard and together, albeit inferior, will have a chance. On this occasion Burnley were inferior but worked really hard and well as a team and seized their chance, with more than a little help from incompetent officials.

They simply wanted a result more than we did.

[Rowley Birkin QC]

Considering our absentees I don't think "the team" failed.

From central midfield to make-shift striker we played well (Silva, Nasri, Navas, Fernando and Fernandinho) or at least tried hard and weren't a disaster (Milner). No proper striker and yet we were all over Burnley in the first half (going forward). Yes - OK - some of the above names did not commit to the second half with the same level of intensity, which didn't help matters (once Burnley were gifted a goal), but most of our problems were at the back and they were clearly evident long before the second half got under way.

Aside from another workman like performance from Zabaleta I don't think the rest of our back four came out of that smelling of roses.

[Victoria]

Yesterday that City team failed, poor performances by most, Silver in the second period of play was non existent. Perhaps we should give Burnley the credit they deserve, after all, they changed their style of play and in the end deserved to tie the game. City had no answer at all, City looked short of ideas to win the game.

[City Slicker]

Long term there was no great damage suffered? Not having a recognised striker finally caught up with us but ill be very interested to see how Chelski cope without Terry, Fabragas & Costa for 5 to 6 weeks? We are wonderfully placed at the halfway stage so we should be very positive

[Zabba]

Considering our absentees I don't think "the team" failed.

From central midfield to make-shift striker we played well (Silva, Nasri, Navas, Fernando and Fernandinho) or at least tried hard and weren't a disaster (Milner). No proper striker and yet we were all over Burnley in the first half (going forward). Yes - OK - some of the above names did not commit to the second half with the same level of intensity, which didn't help matters (once Burnley were gifted a goal), but most of our problems were at the back and they were clearly evident long before the second half got under way.

Aside from another workman like performance from Zabaleta I don't think the rest of our back four came out of that smelling of roses.

Firstly Fernando performed poorly, Silva went missing, one player not mentioned much so far is Joe Hart, what an absolutely woeful piece of goalkeeping for the first goal (irrespective of offside excuses), I could go on and on.

The only real difference between the first half and second half was two good goals masked an otherwise lacklustre performance first half.

Yesterday we reverted to our early season form and performances. I do not think Pellegrini will be impressed and I hope he is not idle in reading the riot act to players.

[gavin]

Can't blame Joe for that first goal. The offside striker got a touch to deflect it under him.

[reddishblue]

I want to know what Citoeast thinks about this one.

[Zabba]

Can't blame Joe for that first goal. The offside striker got a touch to deflect it under him.

I think the touch theory is very questionable, either way Joe was too slow to react.

[Rowley Birkin QC]

Either way - the bastard was offside.

[gavin]

He touched it plain and simple and it is very harsh indeed to blame the keeper.

[Zabba]

He touched it plain and simple and it is very harsh indeed to blame the keeper.

A world of opinions, some wrong mine always right. lol