***Official Napoli vs City Thread***

[CityGer]

The board wont be happy trying to get sponsors to sign mega deals when were playing in the Europa.

Good job we sponsor ourselves to the tune of £400Mil then.

[Bingo Lewis]

zabba and kolarov shown up to be average, yaya and nige not at the races, and dzeko doing the impression of a shit footballer that we see every few games meant we were half a team down from the get go. Add to that the fact Lescott had his worst game in months and we were never in with a chance.
Bad desicions by Bobby, too much tinkering was done and it cost us.

[Arjan Van Schotte]

i think we can agree - yaya is not a defensive midfielder.


which is why we signed him from a club that thought he was.

[dazby]

Well played Napoli, you deserved that. We looked very nervous in the attacking third. How many times did you want the ball to go to the open player but the pass wasn't played? Too timid.

[david yearsley]

We've lined up wrong all CL campaign.

Let's get over it though. We were never going to win the comp this year.

Let's just hope we don't let it affect our prem form.

Ps. Can't be arsed with Europa league. Massive distraction if we take it seriously!

we should be arsed if that where we end up!

Not until the quarters - will depend on how we are in the league. It´s clear to me from tonights line up the PL is Bobs priority. He knows he can´t play his top eleven every game and has sacrificed something in the hope we might get a draw. Tonights result has always had an air of inevitability about it imo
Next season though , we´ll be ready

Yes but as a team we don´t play CL style football week in week out. Napoli do. We haven´t adjusted as a team not individually. Bob can´t play Micah , Clichy , Aguero and Barry 3 times in a week if he wants them fresh for the really tough few weeks ahead. It was always about prioritising imo . We´re still not out of it btw!
How? It's not like we were playing the kids. Virtually the entire side had champs league experience. Yes we could buy a few more players, but how about coaching the ones we have?

Seems churlish to complain considering the domestic form, but Bob's record in Europe is pretty poor and over the last few months I think we've seen why.

[Tokyo Blue]

There are various selection things that can be argued after the event but when Platt was interviewed at half time, he stressed the importance of not giving the ball away in the middle & how they had talked about it. We kicked off & Yaya Toure could not have done a better job of giving the ball away in the middle if he had been hired to do so; he was fucking pathetic.

It set the tone for a build up of pressure & their goal resulted from it. I made the point in the thread about him that when he plays the withdrawn role he is unreliable. Against Bayern he failed to track players going into our box & he did the same today; players were left to take up positions inside our penalty area whilst he stood in open space, eventually they scored from such an area. A quality defensive midfielder would have piled in & stopped Cavani from getting a shot in. Yaya could have done so without breaking sweat but didn't. It's no use saying "oh so & so should be there" " it's not my job" etc move your fucking arse, bail out the defence & then shout about it. He has been a weak link in that position & a strong point when played further forward. I never wat to see him in that role again v a decent side.

Kolarov btw has proved today that he's not good enough to play fullback at the top level but I think at least half of us already knew that.

I don't mind losing games if we do our best but imo both v Napoli & Bayern, we have played at a level which would lose us most PL away games. We are dodgy at the back & lack the same threat up front; it is not the same team. That team we saw tonight would not get top 4 in the Prem; no chance.

It was De Jong who gave the ball away for their second goal, mate.

[dazlebluefrog]

i didn't see tonights match but we're still not out of it ,saying that though fcuk we need a small miracle to get through,whats more important a result tonight or sunday?i'd take sunday any day

[PeterParker]

If i might add, i don't think Yaya was the weak link, but Nige. I don't know what is up with him this season, i saw he had huge problems since the Community Shield.

Gaz baz had an injury, or he was rested again?

[Plain Speaking]

Zdeko-invicible

Presume that should be invincible - does it mean something different in Swedish, as in adjectives I'd use to describe him, it's way, way down the list.

I think he meant invisible Mate

[Beeks]

Goalkeeper kept them in it too

[Dubaimancityfan]

Bitterly disappointed tonight. Bob blew it with his starting lineup. No excuse for not playing Micah unless he is injured as he was not even on the bench.
On a bright note, Scum blew it at home and might join us in the Europa !!
There is still hope though. We have to beat Bayern (which is more than doable) and hope that Yellow Submarines can take a point off Napoli.

[marvin]

How is it Mancini's fault?

Simple mistakes, and nerves in then opening game against Napoli.

[lets all have a disco]

Zdeko-invicible

Presume that should be invincible - does it mean something different in Swedish, as in adjectives I'd use to describe him, it's way, way down the list.

I think he meant invisible Mate

Impassable fella.

[Blue Since 76]

Zdeko-invicible

Presume that should be invincible - does it mean something different in Swedish, as in adjectives I'd use to describe him, it's way, way down the list.

I think he meant invisible Mate

Ah, that would be much higher up my list. Probably just below 'lazy tosspot'

[Blue Since 76]

Bitterly disappointed tonight. Bob blew it with his starting lineup. No excuse for not playing Micah unless he is injured as he was not even on the bench.
On a bright note, Scum blew it at home and might join us in the Europa !!
There is still hope though. We have to beat Bayern (which is more than doable) and hope that Yellow Submarines can take a point off Napoli.

Can't see us beating Bayern, unless they make a lot of changes and I'm not sure Villareal will get a point, however, they won't want to go out with another defeat at home, so maybe.

I predict Villareal will draw, but we'll draw with Bayern, after gifting them a goal in the first 5 minutes.

[Ted Hughes]

There are various selection things that can be argued after the event but when Platt was interviewed at half time, he stressed the importance of not giving the ball away in the middle & how they had talked about it. We kicked off & Yaya Toure could not have done a better job of giving the ball away in the middle if he had been hired to do so; he was fucking pathetic.

It set the tone for a build up of pressure & their goal resulted from it. I made the point in the thread about him that when he plays the withdrawn role he is unreliable. Against Bayern he failed to track players going into our box & he did the same today; players were left to take up positions inside our penalty area whilst he stood in open space, eventually they scored from such an area. A quality defensive midfielder would have piled in & stopped Cavani from getting a shot in. Yaya could have done so without breaking sweat but didn't. It's no use saying "oh so & so should be there" " it's not my job" etc move your fucking arse, bail out the defence & then shout about it. He has been a weak link in that position & a strong point when played further forward. I never wat to see him in that role again v a decent side.

Kolarov btw has proved today that he's not good enough to play fullback at the top level but I think at least half of us already knew that.

I don't mind losing games if we do our best but imo both v Napoli & Bayern, we have played at a level which would lose us most PL away games. We are dodgy at the back & lack the same threat up front; it is not the same team. That team we saw tonight would not get top 4 in the Prem; no chance.

It was De Jong who gave the ball away for their second goal, mate.

Yes, after Yaya had twice been lost possession in EXACTLY the manner Platt had just said we had set out to avoid. As I said it suddenly built a pressure situation where they went up a gear, the crowd went up a gear & we got the shits. DeJong's pass was fucking woeful but it was the result a lack of composure running through the whole team because of the way Toure started the half.

For a player of his experience it's absolutely fucking awful. DeJong was poor as well.

[carl_feedthegoat]

Mancini cost us tonight..his record in this comp was and still is SHIT.

His subs tonight were 10 mins too late..NDJ was abysmal and the commentator said he didn't look happy coming off...well I wasn't happy him being on in the first place !!!..Kolarov, dear me..... they should have scored another 2 goals due to his fuck ups.

Overall, Mancini played the same team just about as he did before - so he learnt nothing.

We are out...believe me....even if Napoli draw their goals scored are better than ours and we will never put 3 goals past BM.

PISSED OFF TO THE MAX.

[guv111]

The consolation is that we could be Premier League champions in May, and this will have been forgotten.

We needn't expect to beat Bayern and Villarreal to beat Napoli, that would be stretching credibility, but it would be ironic if Mancini played the eleven he should have picked tonight for that all but pointless fixture.

Apart from the second rate Europa League and what now feels like pointless long haul trips to the back of beyond, my other concern is that this could affect team morale for our forthcoming domestic matches. If we beat Liverpool on Sunday all will be good. Lose and things will have taken an unpleasant turn.

[lets all have a disco]

Bitterly disappointed tonight. Bob blew it with his starting lineup. No excuse for not playing Micah unless he is injured as he was not even on the bench.
On a bright note, Scum blew it at home and might join us in the Europa !!
There is still hope though. We have to beat Bayern (which is more than doable) and hope that Yellow Submarines can take a point off Napoli.

Can't see us beating Bayern, unless they make a lot of changes and I'm not sure Villareal will get a point, however, they won't want to go out with another defeat at home, so maybe.

I predict Villareal will draw, but we'll draw with Bayern, after gifting them a goal in the first 5 minutes.

Gomez will score at the near post in front of the North Stand.

[colonel_muck]

think some of the criticisms are absurd to say the least. Thing that frustrated me most was how whenever someone out wide went past one of their full backs or defenders, our attacking prowess was anywhere but near the napoli penalty area. Having a go at Nige and Yaya is a bit harsh, I don't think they did anything particularly wrong They were just better than us. But Kolarov should have been replaced the minute Hamsik hit the post. I know some people aren't gonna appreciate this but it was A* for effort tonight. It took United about 10 years of regular champions league to get a decent result in italy.