MIGHTY CLARETS versus Manchester City

[karatekid]

everton 2 up

[bfcmik]

ANOTHER utterly shameful display

We used to come out of big games with dignity, now we are just a literal joke.

To think our manager will have been paid for this game. Disgraceful.

When your whole 1st team squad and management cost a fraction of what the player City took off midway through the 2nd half cost them what do you expect us to achieve if they play to their level?

Additionally, how many of our squad apart from Pope would even get a consideration for City's 25 player 1st team squad? And which 1, if any, of their 25 player 1st team squad wouldn't walk into our first XI? They are all excellent players, have a very good work ethic and seem to park their egos in the dressing room before they go out to play so they play for the team. If one of the 'big 6' turn up they beat us every time no matter what we do. Liverpool didn't - we won, United, City, Chelsea all did and we lost!

[Leisure]

Tonights result means nowt in the greater scheme of things ... Fulham getting done over leaves them 8 points adrift of us is far more important.
Realistically anyone tginking we would get something from Citeh (looking at our recent history) is in cloud cuckoo land.

The most important thing is we were not on the wrong end of another 5-0 ...

So we park this and move onto Brighton on Saturday ... now there is a game that matters

Come on you Clarets

Whilst it's an important game on Saturday I don't consider it to be a season defining one. It's just the bottom 3 we need to keep an eye on. UTC

[Hedontplayforyou]

If we had a bit of pace on the right hand side rather than JBG having to cut back constantly , I think we would have caused problems on the counter tonight. Numerous occasions JBG had open grass ahead of him to carry the ball into but lacked the pace to really have a go. Never really expected us to offer much today but I think Vydra really worked his socks off and was unlucky not to earn a few more chances from simply closing the opposition down. We could have done much worse tonight against a very good side

[Bosscat]

Whilst it's an important game on Saturday I don't consider it to be a season defining one. It's just the bottom 3 we need to keep an eye on. UTC

I know what you mean Leisure but we keep Brighton below us and that buffer to Fulham and West Brom etc

[Dark Cloud]

I know what you mean Leisure but we keep Brighton below us and that buffer to Fulham and West Brom etc

Agreed, it means Brighton are the (jittery) target that the bottom 3 are all looking at and not us.

[Leisure]

If we had a bit of pace on the right hand side rather than JBG having to cut back constantly , I think we would have caused problems on the counter tonight. Numerous occasions JBG had open grass ahead of him to carry the ball into but lacked the pace to really have a go. Never really expected us to offer much today but I think Vydra really worked his socks off and was unlucky not to earn a few more chances from simply closing the opposition down. We could have done much worse tonight against a very good side

Agree about Vydra. Think we should start with him and Barnes on Saturday.

[Vegas Claret]

When your whole 1st team squad and management cost a fraction of what the player City took off midway through the 2nd half cost them what do you expect us to achieve if they play to their level?

Additionally, how many of our squad apart from Pope would even get a consideration for City's 25 player 1st team squad? And which 1, if any, of their 25 player 1st team squad wouldn't walk into our first XI? They are all excellent players, have a very good work ethic and seem to park their egos in the dressing room before they go out to play so they play for the team. If one of the 'big 6' turn up they beat us every time no matter what we do. Liverpool didn't - we won, United, City, Chelsea all did and we lost!

all good and fair points BUT Sheff United managed to give them a game at the weekend, they attacked, we didn't. We seem to have a phobia of Man City especially since Pep turned up

[kindonesque]

Put simply: Limitless crude oil money versus...pork pies and sausages and muchy peas

[kindonesque]

Put simply: Limitless crude oil money versus...pork pies and sausages and muchy peas

[onewillieirvine]

Pep or no Pep we've had some real old hammerings by City in my sixty or so years watching

[elwaclaret]

Some teams just have a habit of beating us... it used to be Rochdale. I think we respect them and give them a little too much room and time for fear of being done. It’s only a second but it is enough to make us look really poor against them. It’s frustrating but it happens.

[ewanrob]

all good and fair points BUT Sheff United managed to give them a game at the weekend, they attacked, we didn't. We seem to have a phobia of Man City especially since Pep turned up

Great point...never seen a team play with so much freedom as City do against us

[Bigvince]

Shows what can happen when you try.

The game at anfield was a similar display as tonight, the main difference was Liverpool didn’t score and we managed to Nick a goal! Today our 2 first choice strikers (IMO) we’re both missing, which made our task a whole lot harder.

[tim_noone]

Agreed, it means Brighton are the (jittery) target that the bottom 3 are all looking at and not us.

[burnley007]

I thought we played much better than Sunday.

[Belial]

Great point...never seen a team play with so much freedom as City do against us

Yep, happens every time. Same with Chelsea. Difference with other big teams is they have players who thrive on possession and gain confidence from being given space. Additionally, City also close down very well, which we can't cope with and that's why we end up playing so many backwards passes

[IanMcL]

Could not agree more and it has helped destroy the game. I’d rather watch The Big Match Revisited than (Burnleyless) MoftD, and it’s not as though they didn’t dive, but they got to made stupid for it... why did that change, sure the rule didn’t.

Continentals came over and unlike Klinsmann, who made a point of saying, "I won't dive - you don't do that here and that is good", they all carried on.

Somehow, regularity breeds a need to differentiate and you end up with folk conjuring up the utterances we hear and then referees too.

[kentonclaret]

Some rude awakenings for a couple of posters on the subject of Brighton.

Supposedly looking jittery (won 3 of last 4 games) and below us in the PL Table

[bfcmik]

all good and fair points BUT Sheff United managed to give them a game at the weekend, they attacked, we didn't. We seem to have a phobia of Man City especially since Pep turned up

But do we have the players to go at City with an expansive attacking style? And we did try to pile forward a few times -like the time Gundogan hacked a ball 60 yards right onto Sterling's toe and it needed an excellent save by Pope to prevent the 3rd goal.

[Mala591]

It’s a bit worrying (some might say seriously worrying) that ‘first choice players’ two years ago are beginning to look like backup/second choice players now.

Injuries and increasing age are taking their toll but SD seems rather blasé and over positive about the current situation.

In his position I’d be playing merry hell that we hadn’t recruited an attacking right sided midfielder in the January window.

[Wile E Coyote]

pieters, no thanks.