JPJCB

The VAR decision was ridiculous and absolutely typical of playing this lot. First half was tactically quite interesting. We did the Gerrard style of playing extremely narrow/trying to dominate the centre of the park and Ragnick (ironically given he basically invented that style of play which he passed on to Klopp who passed on to Gerrard) decided to mitigate through playing old school 90s really wide 442. Basically allowed us to dominate the middle but for them to dominate the flanks which gave them some joy. Not sure what happened in the second half but the dynamic completely changed and we bossed them. Maybe its just one of those periods of time where our xG will be higher than our actual goals - these trends do pass and I can't fault any of the front 3 for their performances. But I agree with others that our decision making at times was just terrible. What exactly does Aaron Danks do? Recruited in the summer to help coach our attacking play but the coherence between the forwards has been terrible at times and hasn't improved under Gerrard.

If I were comparing I’d actually say grealish was moderately better at outright ball retention than coutinho- I think coutinho tries more tricks/flicks so loses the ball more frequently than grealish who’s somewhat more conservative. but I agree, coutinho has got more pace than grealish so is arguably a better “runner” with the ball. He’s also got much higher goal threat (still grealish’s weakest attribute)

I agree. It’s possible we might need to upgrade to meet the demands of Gerrard’s system but in my mind CDM and CB (in terms of squad) are by far higher priority areas to strengthen

The fact coutinho played his best football while in the prem is the big difference here for me. It’s widely recognised that the pace and physicality of the PL is higher than other leagues- coutinho is a proven performer in that environment; James wasn’t

I’m ridiculously excited about this signing. All I’d say to those who are (in some respects understandably) sceptical is that we’ve seen first hand with grealish at city how a player who is world class can fade when moving to a new club. I’ve no idea why coutinho was out of favour at Barca and injuries haven’t helped him, but we’re talking about a player who was genuinely the best player in the league 4 years ago. If he’s even a quarter of that player this deal will be worth it

The Athletic reported over the summer that we likely would have looked to sell Luiz if the JWP deal was on so that partly explains it

He replaced Barkley rather than grealish

I’ve said before that mings and konsa make a good partnership because one is aggressive (mings) and the other more passive (konsa) in the classic vidic/Ferdinand type combination mings gets criticised a lot because his more aggressive play can lead to more obvious errors but yesterday we saw the value he adds. Without him we’re too passive in defence. Konsa should have been much quicker closing down the scorer of Brentford’s first goal

So you’re criticising people for praising a player when he played well? Give it a rest and go lie down for a bit

Thought he actually looked ok when he came on until the dive. What’s most frustrating about it is that it looked like if he stayed up he could have put a decent cross in. I can understand players going down if there’s genuine contact or, at times, if they’re gonna lose the ball. But it’s frustrating as hell to see a player choose to dive when they’re actually in a good position to play the ball

He simply doesn’t have enough pace for the league. People argue all day long about whether his best position is as an 8 or as a 6 but he’s not good enough in either because of lack of pace. im marginally in the camp of preferring him as a 6 since pace is less needed in that role and it’s the position he’s shown most consistent form in (in the 2020 post lockdown period). But if naka were fit luiz wouldn’t get in my team

Performance not quite as bad as some of the crazy knee jerk reactions on here. We dominated the first half but didn't take our chances and that plus some soft defending at crucial moments lost it for us. The subs were fine but made far too late - Traore had looked like dogshit all second half Good performances: Buendia (although knowing this forum there'll be more claims he's not good enough) Ings (ditto my above comment re buendia) Martinez Ok performances Mcginn (not enough leadership though) Cash Targett Ramsey (unfortunate to be taken off imo) Bad performances Traore - genuinely awful. Did nothing all game and moves frequently broke down when he got the ball. Plus some typically mental passing to the opposition Konsa - at fault for the first goal in my view. Needs to close down that shot rather than standing off him (Mings would have done better in that situation) Hause - not good enough and we miss Mings massively Luiz - not a coincidence that our results have been worse since Nakamba got injured to be honest

Really well put

I’d much prefer to have grealish in my team than Sterling tbh. When on top form grealish is way more creative has far more influence on the game. Sterling’s main strength is his movement and finishing but he needs others to create for him

Now that you bring up the Liverpool game, can someone remind/explain to me why that game didn’t get called off in the end? we’re seeing games get called off left right and centre when clubs still have over 10 or more senior players available which must have been more than we had at the time of that Liverpool game…

“Soulless” is the perfect word for city as a club and as a team. There’s nothing authentic left in the club infrastructure and there’s nothing in the team that evokes any kind of spontaneity or joy. It’s just a soulless money consuming, winning machine. If football was run by AI it wouldn’t look that different to city

The Ings/Watkins situation is a real dilemma. On the one hand I think Watkins is better suited as a lone striker so he’d be the natural choice to prefer. But on the other I think Watkins is far more to blame for the fact they’re partnership isn’t working. Ings is a much more intelligent, natural link up player who is far less selfish. As others have said, at times it almost looks like Watkins feels threatened by Ings and doesn’t want to pass to him in good positions. If that’s at all the case then I’d want to see Watkins dropped until he can be coached into being more of a team player

Tbh I’m still a fan. He’s one of the only managers who’s taken a strong stand in favour of vaccinations which is what we need right now. I wouldn’t mind seeing nutjob moyes banned from the game for what he said the other week

I almost wouldn’t mind if this happened tbh. There’s a cliche that players need to go to bigger clubs to progress their international career. But it can easily go the other way- as I remember it Delph was a solid England squad player breaking into the team when he was with villa. Once he went to city and was turned into a reserve left back his England career died…plus he’s a word removed

He’s been decent but if Marv was fit then he’d be the one of the three CMs that I’d drop. I don’t think his performances justify a lot of the hype on here and McGinn and Ramsey have both outperformed him

This would be an intriguing (and hilarious) form of protest…I support

The perfect full back in this team would be some kind of fusion of cash and targett. cash is unbelievably athletic and is great running with the bell but lacks end product/final ball and at times is caught out defensively. By contrast, targett is an excellent passer and tends to have great final product as well as being basically completely solid defensively (when in form) but has far less energy and drive so doesn’t get into the positions as often and doesn’t influence the game as much reflecting on it (as I’ve been writing), targett is the more intelligent of the two but cash is the better athlete

Quite possible we look back in 10 years time and realise that grealish’s world class level was largely a part of the managerial environment created by Smith who, somehow, seemed to know exactly how to get the best out of him. Simultaneously made him feel like the best player in the world while also pushing him/encouraging his drive and ambition. all the evidence suggests that other managers he’s played for can’t do the same. He never reached the heights at villa before smith; has never looked as good for England; and has dropped off massively under pep

We have an annual flu jab so I don’t see what’s so worrying about having the same for Covid but with a greater push to people taking it. It’s really not that much of a hassle to get jabbed for most people and the risk/reward is massively favourable both to the individual and society