by Goaters 103 » Tue Sep 30, 2014 10:37 pm
Time for a rant.
An absolute shocker of a night; all the talk of still winning the group, how important tonight was and then we walk and out and collectively the team management and players basically pissed down their own leg.
The team selection was wrong - I sighed when I saw Milner bafflingly omitted again - and the formation was wrong. After being dominated and out passed in midfield for the first 15 mins the manager still refused to change it, and when he finally did go 5 in midfield we'd wasted 60 mins of the game and gave away the initiative.
Dzeko shouldn't have been subbed, Aguero should have. Ya Ya Toure was quite frankly abysmal - when every City fan can tell you that you cant play with a midfield 4, when 3 of the four are Toure, Navas and Silva, how on earth cant the manager see this? He sent out a daft team and formation vs Bayern exactly a year ago, got spanked and learned. A year later he's back at the same spot & had another brain fart and we've paid the price again. Roma were short of their first choice keeper, their centre back pairing and two best central midfielders and yet they still passed it round us for the first 60 mins.
We were outplayed and outcoached this evening Im afraid, that's the bare truth of it.
As for the empty seats - a couple of thoughts on that. Charging £40 and £35 is a pisstake and Im not surprised fans opted out when the games on tv anyway; in addition City in this competition is like exposing yourself to a punch in the gut. We've had 22 games in it now over 4 years and I think we've played well 4 times in it. We go in to these games on the back foot, don't apply ourselves as we do in the Premier League, very rarely actually go after teams at pace and we keep getting the same results.
Its generally accepted that you have to win your home games - in 4 seasons in this comp our first home game has been drawn, drawn, lost and drawn. An absolutely horrific record. We have too many big name players not doing it on the biggest stage, a manager who seems too stubborn to admit he's wrong and a fanbase growing tired and indifferent to the whole thing.
The club needs a rethink on pricing for the CSKA game - £15 is about right - and the Bayern one which should be in the £25 range, tops. The manager needs to do a far better job, and the expensive playing staff needs to start manning up in Europe because quite frankly its a tiresome, tedious load of repetitive bollocks at the moment.
Nights like tonight, and yet another shocking omission, are exactly why James Milner will walk at the end of the year. He seemingly has to play out of his skin to get a game and is judged on a different scale to many others.
