*** Man City v WBA Matchday Thread***

[Hazy2]

Start of a run will do me. Move on and keep it going.

[City64]

The sending off made the difference between a back 9 & a back 10. Not that much.

But let's not ignore it; WBA did exactly the job today, that sides did for Ferguson,. time & again, when they needed a bit of confidence. I described it to a rag mate, & the fucker pissed himself, knowing exactly 100% what I meant. They were sent from heaven. We slaughter teams for it at the swamp, rightly, & that was WBA today.

But that shouldn't detract from a lot of good stuff imo. We still would have struggled v a decent number of PL sides, but there was a fair bit of attitude shown by some of our 'big' players. That's a big plus imo. Aguero was a right greedy cunt, but he clearly cared & Silva gave the same impression.

Also Bony showed how it is actually possible for City to play 1-2s on the edge of the box without always losing the ball & imo that all of our strikers previously, have been totally shite at doing it.

What a pity Jovetic is most likely doomed. Bony is the bloke he has been passing to in his dreams & I'm sure given time, they would link up.

Fernando was exactly the same as he always is. No better, no worse. He is still finding his feet, same as Mangala.

Zabba looked more lively going forward & was fucking hopleless defensively. His defensive positioning was fucking terrible on several occasions.

Navas, was fucking great.

Welcome to the tourette,s club ! ;-)

[Mase]

Fernando was exactly the same as he always is. No better, no worse. He is still finding his feet, same as Mangala.

Are you kidding? You could tell how much confidence Fernando had yesterday compared to playing next to Yaya. He was always looking to give his team mates and option and getting forward a lot more. He's fuckin quality!

The problem is some City fans still want a Joey Barton or Nigel de Jong who is happy to just sit there and boot people and nothing else.

[blues2win]

Ted was at the match and I wasn't but Fernando seemed, from what I saw, to have had a very good game. He cost 14 million odd was it which wasn't expensive. He said a few weeks ago that playing in the Premiership was hard and he was clearly referring to the pace of the game. Mangala must feel the same. Both of them are having to adapt at a time when players around them are struggling. Mangala is playing alongside Vinny and Zaba having pretty crappy seasons and Kolarov having his usual one. Fernando is playing alongside a declining Yaya who seemingly can't be arsed enough to put in a shift and Nadri and Silva who aren't exactly the greatest at tracking back. Both have had a huge amount of flack this season. In my view they have every chance of proving their critics wrong. Next season will be critical for both of them.

[Nige]

Fernando still looks shit scared when on the ball. Also, pointless 5 yard sideways passes are his default rather than trying to take responsibility and carry the ball. I'm happy for CDMs to do that when under pressure but yesterday he had acres of space and still treated the ball like a hot potato.

Better than Garcia though.

[Mase]

Fernando still looks shit scared when on the ball. Also, pointless 5 yard sideways passes are his default rather than trying to take responsibility and carry the ball. I'm happy for CDMs to do that when under pressure but yesterday he had acres of space and still treated the ball like a hot potato.

Better than Garcia though.

You're talking absolute bollocks. Yesterday he was calm on the ball and always gave a City player an option when we had it. He didn't Nigel Clough it at any point. There was times in the second half where he was just sat on the edge of their box playing neat little passes to City players, and if that would have been Silva people would have been creaming their knickers. He didn't do anything fancy he just got the ball and passed it. It's not his job to flick balls here and there.

I was at the match though so it might have looked different on TV.

[Ted Hughes]

Fernando was exactly the same as he always is. No better, no worse. He is still finding his feet, same as Mangala.

Are you kidding? You could tell how much confidence Fernando had yesterday compared to playing next to Yaya. He was always looking to give his team mates and option and getting forward a lot more. He's fuckin quality!

The problem is some City fans still want a Joey Barton or Nigel de Jong who is happy to just sit there and boot people and nothing else.

No.

He fucked up a few simple passes which could have led to dangerous breakaways of exactly the kind we have suffered from, if it wasn't for the fact that WBA were terrible. He played it safe passing almost every time, because he lacked the confidence to try anything. He got forward because WBA had 9 at the back & very little threat.

The exact same performance, in a losing game, would give all the moaners a new thread.

People have been giving him shit all season, for pretty much doing exactly what he did v West Brom. Because we won easily, nobody is giving him shit for it after this game.

He doesn't dererve shit for his performance on Saturday, nor any of his other performances, he was 'ok'. No more no less, & has been in most games.

I agree that it will have given him confidence, to have a nice comfortable run out for a change, & I hope he can raise his game to the level we saw earlier i the season, which was as good as anything I've ever seen in that position.

[Blue Since 76]

I think it's impossible to determine anything, good or bad, from any of the players yesterday as most of it was like attack vs defence training. We didn't even need to worry about retaining the ball, as they had no interest in coming out, so were able to play more risky passes.

Hopefully it's improved our confidence, but I thought that about the second half against Stoke and then the Newcastle game. The only good point is that the next game is against Pardew, so hopefully Pellegrini still bears a grudge

[Ted Hughes]

I think it's impossible to determine anything, good or bad, from any of the players yesterday as most of it was like attack vs defence training. We didn't even need to worry about retaining the ball, as they had no interest in coming out, so were able to play more risky passes.

Hopefully it's improved our confidence, but I thought that about the second half against Stoke and then the Newcastle game. The only good point is that the next game is against Pardew, so hopefully Pellegrini still bears a grudge

It will be interesting to see how they perform now we are away from UEFA again.

I think the Champions' League to City players, is like a little kid waiting outside the headmaster's office.

[Hazy2]

I think it's impossible to determine anything, good or bad, from any of the players yesterday as most of it was like attack vs defence training. We didn't even need to worry about retaining the ball, as they had no interest in coming out, so were able to play more risky passes.

Hopefully it's improved our confidence, but I thought that about the second half against Stoke and then the Newcastle game. The only good point is that the next game is against Pardew, so hopefully Pellegrini still bears a grudge

It will be interesting to see how they perform now we are away from UEFA again.

I think the Champions' League to City players, is like a little kid waiting outside the headmaster's office.

7 changes and a walking pace game, put it to bed and forget it, that game is no way to judge anything. Fernando needs to work on the goal celebration that was dad scores a goal !

[getdressedmctavish]

I've always thought Fernando got forward reasonably well and gave a variety of passes as he did yesterday. If I've had a doubt it is whether he is as strong in the tackle as we would like,( think Boro's first goal) and whether his concentration is up to it. I've always thought him a decent footballer.The question as ever with City's midfield is whether we can find the right combination of defence, attack, power, mobility and skill. Only Silva is a shoe in, the other 3/4 are up for grabs, but I would love to see Fernando prove himself.Pogba for me is a tougher version of Fernandinho. Do we want them both?And remember, the question is not"can we beat ten man WBrom at home", its whether we can beat RM, B and BM, a slightly different matter.Thought Lampard played very economically yesterday and raised the q why he hadn't started more often. Totally agree with Ted about Wilf's ability to give little knock backs around the box, which is why I've been totally amazed that we've let Dzeko anywhere near this team recently.It will be clearer in the summer whether the top 3 men have a good football vision or not.Lets hope they remember our failures, not how we are with the sun on our backs against pygmies.