***official stoke at manchester city match thread***

[Dameerto]

On the bright side, a number of our rusty players logged a decent chunk of game time, I think it was a case of too many players all starting the game (or coming on early) with little (if any) matches under their belts. Sagna showed some crossing ability which will have Dzeko drooling, unfortunately they were aimed at Dave (especially the one where Dave was supposed to have fouled the defender).

[phips]

Makes no sense that you start with 2 strikers who can't win headers against a team which defends deep and then have a good crosser lobbing them in.

Poor team selection from Pellegrini.

agreed. against stoke you either play Dzeko or Negredo or both. with Negredo out Dezeko had to start. he didn't look injured from last week's "injury"

[Blue Since 76]

Well that was probably the worst performance in a year. C'est la vie. Just means we need to beat Arsenal and Chelsea

[Hutch's Shoulder]

Credit to Stoke, they had their plan and executed it perfectly, with some help from us.

Adams is still an obnoxious cheat.

City too narrow and slow, not enough from either fullback today. I'm surprised Sergio stayed on after 60 mins, I think Jojo, Dzeko and Naves would have been our best bet. In the end most of our real openings came from Yaya even though he is still off the pace.

[Ted Hughes]

It's a really bad result in terms of the title race though, even this early. We have just given most of, if not all our rivals , 3 points which we have to get back either by them fucking up v Stoke ( unlikely) or vs a similar level team, on a day where we win. Away it wouldn't be so bad, but at home this is an Arsenal level fuck up.

[blues2win]

No criticism of Joe Ted? I know the defending was bad on the goal but he was pitiful. Playing for a top side means doing fuck all most of the time but being really concentrated once or two in the 90 minutes. Not good enough.

[Ted Hughes]

No criticism of Joe Ted? I know the defending was bad on the goal but he was pitiful. Playing for a top side means doing fuck all most of the time but being really concentrated once or two in the 90 minutes. Not good enough.

Him & Kompany were what I was referring to. Both were total shit for that goal. Vinny just standing square on like Nastasic does & Joe; waste of space. Looked a different player v Liverpool. The striker outran the other two but Vinny & JH should have rescued that easily.

[Hutch's Shoulder]

I forgot to say Yaya deserved his booking; no cake for that dive

[Moonchesteri]

No criticism of Joe Ted? I know the defending was bad on the goal but he was pitiful. Playing for a top side means doing fuck all most of the time but being really concentrated once or two in the 90 minutes. Not good enough.

When a bloke is through on goal the blame is somewhere else than the keeper, no matter what the keeper does. Could've done better but I don't blame Hart

[Ted Hughes]

I forgot to say Yaya deserved his booking; no cake for that dive

He deffo dived. Whether there was also contact I don't know but it was pathetic. He looked in a great position to hurt them & chose to cheat instead.

[Ted Hughes]

No criticism of Joe Ted? I know the defending was bad on the goal but he was pitiful. Playing for a top side means doing fuck all most of the time but being really concentrated once or two in the 90 minutes. Not good enough.

When a bloke is through on goal the blame is somewhere else than the keeper, no matter what the keeper does. Could've done better but I don't blame Hart

If he makes a decent effort to save the ball I don't blame him. In this case, when they showed the replay there was a ghasp around the ground. That says it all.

[twosips]

No criticism of Joe Ted? I know the defending was bad on the goal but he was pitiful. Playing for a top side means doing fuck all most of the time but being really concentrated once or two in the 90 minutes. Not good enough.

Him & Kompany were what I was referring to. Both were total shit for that goal. Vinny just standing square on like Nastasic does & Joe; waste of space. Looked a different player v Liverpool. The striker outran the other two but Vinny & JH should have rescued that easily.

It was Fernandinho who was caught standing square last man.

[Clowncrete]

No criticism of Joe Ted? I know the defending was bad on the goal but he was pitiful. Playing for a top side means doing fuck all most of the time but being really concentrated once or two in the 90 minutes. Not good enough.

When a bloke is through on goal the blame is somewhere else than the keeper, no matter what the keeper does. Could've done better but I don't blame Hart

How can you not blame the keeper when the ball tamely goes between his legs? The shot wasn't at point blank range either.

[twosips]

First game in a year.. god it was awful.

Yaya was very poor. Very. Worrying to be honest... as were all the midfield too. All the little 2nd and 3rd passes kept being misplaced, touches were sloppy and the general pace of the passing was rubbish. We struggled to get into decent crossing positions and then when we did we took far too long deciding what we were gonna do with them.

Sagna was steady, but he doesn't move into space quite as well as Zaba does. Not his fault though. Kolarov was bang average and the less said about Hart's abysmal attempt at keeping out Diouf's shot the better.

Perhaps this game came too early on in the season for us. Breaking down a team as stubborn as that is fucking hard. We don't look anywhere near as sharp as we should do but we still shouldn't be losing that.

[Ted Hughes]

No criticism of Joe Ted? I know the defending was bad on the goal but he was pitiful. Playing for a top side means doing fuck all most of the time but being really concentrated once or two in the 90 minutes. Not good enough.

Him & Kompany were what I was referring to. Both were total shit for that goal. Vinny just standing square on like Nastasic does & Joe; waste of space. Looked a different player v Liverpool. The striker outran the other two but Vinny & JH should have rescued that easily.

It was Fernandinho who was caught standing square last man.

Fair enough. It was shit. Was it Vinny who was floundering behind then ? As that's as bad from a central defender. I figured it was the other way around.

[twosips]

No criticism of Joe Ted? I know the defending was bad on the goal but he was pitiful. Playing for a top side means doing fuck all most of the time but being really concentrated once or two in the 90 minutes. Not good enough.

Him & Kompany were what I was referring to. Both were total shit for that goal. Vinny just standing square on like Nastasic does & Joe; waste of space. Looked a different player v Liverpool. The striker outran the other two but Vinny & JH should have rescued that easily.

It was Fernandinho who was caught standing square last man.

Fair enough. It was shit. Was it Vinny who was floundering behind then ? As that's as bad from a central defender. I figured it was the other way around.

It was Kolarov chasing him i think. VK wasn't involved at all - he was still up from the set-piece i think.

https://vine.co/v/OBh99Qhh5Ma

Here it is ^

[South Stand Balti]

Credit to Stoke, they had their plan and executed it perfectly, with some help from us.

Adams is still an obnoxious cheat.

City too narrow and slow, not enough from either fullback today. I'm surprised Sergio stayed on after 60 mins, I think Jojo, Dzeko and Naves would have been our best bet. In the end most of our real openings came from Yaya even though he is still off the pace.

Just about sums it up. I thought Crouch was excellent today. It's strange how Welbeck gets picked for England before him. It's a bad result just before Arse and Chelski.

[Blue Since 76]

That 'save' was pathetic. Was down the far end and can't see the screens, so had no idea it was that bad. Kolarov should have taken him out much earlier, but even so...

[Ted Hughes]

No criticism of Joe Ted? I know the defending was bad on the goal but he was pitiful. Playing for a top side means doing fuck all most of the time but being really concentrated once or two in the 90 minutes. Not good enough.

Him & Kompany were what I was referring to. Both were total shit for that goal. Vinny just standing square on like Nastasic does & Joe; waste of space. Looked a different player v Liverpool. The striker outran the other two but Vinny & JH should have rescued that easily.

It was Fernandinho who was caught standing square last man.

Fair enough. It was shit. Was it Vinny who was floundering behind then ? As that's as bad from a central defender. I figured it was the other way around.

It was Kolarov chasing him i think. VK wasn't involved at all - he was still up from the set-piece i think.

https://vine.co/v/OBh99Qhh5Ma

Here it is ^

That's bizarre. I thought I saw him go through two players in our half, one being Fernandinho. That setup is like England v Germany. You can't leave Kolarov v pace.

[Tesl]

Yeah I don't think Kompany was at fault at all. It was a horrible few seconds of play where:

Silva hits an awful cross
Kolarov tries to bring the man down but fails
Fernandinho suddenly steps forward letting him run straight through
Hart fails to stop what is really a very bad slow shot right at him

An embarassing string of cockups there really. We didn't do enough to win but should never have allowed that to happen and lose. Its a shame because I think we've started the season looking much stronger defensively than we did last year.

With Chelsea about to beat Everton easily today, already that game against Chelsea is feeling quite important. If we fuck up against Arsenal/Munich/Chelsea in that week we are going to find ourselves struggling in all competitions.

The worst part is I think we'll prioritise the Munich game and I really wish we wouldn't, because that could cost us.