21 Apr 2021 22:16:22
I enjoyed the first 20 seconds but not much after that. What I don't understand is that teams have shown it's possible to compete against City eg Leeds but the way we gave the ball back to them time after time was poor I am sorry but Nakamba is just not good enough and you can see why Smith is reluctant to play McGinn further up the pitch we definitely need a quality defensive midfielder come the summer.
21 Apr 2021 22:41:00
Thankfully we are safe but agree, this is relegation form - Terrible!
21 Apr 2021 22:48:44
Leeds and Chelsea played the same game plan, they didn't play to compete.
Our players panicked, simple as that. Too many blind passes from Mcginn, Martinez hoofing it out multiple times for no reason and just a general sense of not being confident enough to keep the ball. Our midfield have gone back to hiding when there should always be someone available for the pass and nobody pushing up or dropping off to win a second ball.
The big mistake was pushing up the pitch without pressing which led to their first goal when they hadn't had an attempt before that. Frustrate City with the block long enough and they me mistakes, we didn't wait long enough.
Nobody who beats City plays pretty against City, don't pretend like Leeds did. If Cash had stayed on his feet we could have built on the control we started to gain but once down to 10 the legs went and there was nothing left.
Jack in the 10 and a top winger instead of Ramsey (possibly another instead of Traore) and we play with slightly more control and confidence. We're really not as far away from a result in that match as we think. We've avoided a spanking like we had last season and a lot of teams have had this season and City are the only side we have felt we needed to play like this against. It's small steps progress. It's not relegation form when we've still been picking up as many points as the teams below us. Of course it's not great to watch at times but we're not the big fish in a small pond anymore. I'd rather be us than a Fulham team that look pretty but will still get relegated.
22 Apr 2021 08:16:16
RK, I think (but open to correction) over the last 10 games we are out of the relegation zone on goal difference alone - I get your point though, we are picking up results here and there but since January our form and overall play has been terrible mate! Spread that over the course of the season and it's relegation form, thankfully we had a great start and that purple patch around Christmas and we are safe but this is not the form you want to take into next season. Massive summer ahead.
22 Apr 2021 10:03:50
I don’t t think anyone would suggest trying to outplay City with the pass and move style that City adopt but we should be able to pass to someone in the same coloured shirt which we struggled to to do, and consequently the ball just kept coming back the pressure was relentless and the only surprise was we kept it down to 2. What I thought we should have been able to press City turnover the ball and create on the break which is what Leeds did so well but if you can’t hold on to the ball then that can’t happen. The other thing is a number of posters have suggested we play Mcginn further up the field as he does for Scotland however I think last night shows why we can’t do that with the current squad as we don’t have sufficient cover in the defensive midfield berth this is one of the roles which needs addressing in the summer window.
22 Apr 2021 10:06:48
Wolves only have 2 more points than us in the last 6 with similar fixtures. The only difference was their late winner against Sheffield and us not taking our chances against the same team.
5 points from 6 isn't good form but other than Leeds and Arsenal who overtook us nobody in that half is picking up many points right now.
Other than Chelsea and City I don't see anybody on particularly good form, everyone seems to be struggling to get going. We need to improve but we're not playing worse than the majority of others in my opinion.
22 Apr 2021 10:18:18
Sky did a table of worst form since the turn of the year and we weren't in the bottom 5. Although our form has been poor our results don't really warrant saying its relegation material. We came up against a very very good city side last night who keep the ball for fun and lost by a single goal, yes it could of been more but it wasn't. Yes major signings will be needed in the summer to help our ability to keep and pass the ball effectively but maybe not the complete overhaul some are suggesting.