Centre mid

[Dorset Seagull]

We were playing the best team in the league but we will need to keep the ball a bit better against the lesser teams or we are toast

 

[WhingForPresident]

Ahhh it's ok our CMs were atrocious we were playing big bad Man City. It's ok mummy not all of those teams are good like that.

Go and buy some fanny wipes you're gonna need them.

Hahaha. You are actually pathetic. Stop drinking mate.

 

[TSB]

Load of tosh. It's easy to look good defensively when, every time your opponent gets the ball, you put 10 men behind the ball and defend on the edge of your box. You have to be solid but be braver and take risks when attacking

No it really isn't. Otherwise it would be a piss of piss to draw every game away from home and gain 19 valuable points.

Are you [MENTION=21158]Weststander[/MENTION]'s second account?

 

[stss30]

Christ what a ridiculous overreaction. Yes Propper and Stephens gave the ball away a couple of times, it's hard to find your rhythm when we have about 15-20% possession. There won't be many, if any tougher teams we play this year. Get a grip, if this is how you react when we lose a game to City I dread to think the toys out the pram attitude if we lost to a less fancied team.

 

[tigertim68]

From what i saw the whole team needs not to give the ball away so cheaply........!

I thought the whole team looked very nervous , espically the first half hour , we just could not pass

 

[Albion Dan]

Hahaha. You are actually pathetic. Stop drinking mate.

Mummy mummy Someone is saying bad things. Make him stop. Fanny wipes cost a quid btw.

 

[sir albion]

Honestly think we won't come across another team as good as City. That said ya right defence good, midfield need more. They never created the outlet to the frontline hence as attacking we were min existent

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Disagree....Yes they're immense but a possession based side and feel a more direct sides will be far tougher for us.

 

[Albion Dan]

Christ what a ridiculous overreaction. Yes Propper and Stephens gave the ball away a couple of times, it's hard to find your rhythm when we have about 15-20% possession. There won't be many, if any tougher teams we play this year. Get a grip, if this is how you react when we lose a game to City I dread to think the toys out the pram attitude if we lost to a less fancied team.

No toys just a statement of fact that we won no second balls or headers in the middle. It makes no difference what the quality of opposition are skill is irrelevant in those areas.

 

[sir albion]

Rather gutless and negative and showed city far to much respect in my opinion but they're a zillion miles ahead of us and many other sides in this league.

 

[British Bulldog]

Wow. We're going to have to see a vast improvement on that display from Propper and Stevens to stand any chance. Almost invisible, terrible passing and barely put a foot in. Did we win one second ball?

Defence were immense though.

Midfield were ok they just had no outlet up top, nobody to put the ball too when they won it.

 

[BevBHA]

No it really isn't. Otherwise it would be a piss of piss to draw every game away from home and gain 19 valuable points.

Are you [MENTION=21158]Weststander[/MENTION]'s second account?

Did the game finish 0-0 today then?

 

[sussex_guy2k2]

Anyone with any footballing brain can see that today was not the result of the players in our midfield. There were structural issues all over the pitch due to how Hughton set up, which basically left our midfielders without an out ball every time they needed to make a pass. Add that to the fact that Hughton's set up managed to leave us a man down in midfield up against City's fluidity and it's clear that there's not actually much more the two lads in that area of the pitch could've done.

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

I thought it was a very nervy opening 30 minutes from him, but he seemed to settle down after that. However, it was Stephens who gave away two clumsy free-kicks in dangerous positions (an accusation that was leveled at Sidwell last season, so only fair that the same standard applies to Dale) and then clumsily gave away possession to gift City their opening goal.

Last season I would have said Stevens was more likely to give dangerous freekicks away, nothing has changed.

 

[stss30]

No toys just a statement of fact that we won no second balls or headers in the middle. It makes no difference what the quality of opposition are skill is irrelevant in those areas.

It makes all the difference, we barely had possession of the ball and City barely ever kicked the ball long so there were very few second balls to win. When we're playing the likes of Stoke and West Brom who hoof it long we will see if we can mix it.

 

[dazzer6666]

Defence was pretty solid under immense pressure (all good, actually thought Bruno defied most of the prematch predictions of being too old/slow etc and had a very good game)
Centre mid was weak, Stephens didn't have a great game and Propper took a while to settle (did make a couple of promising runs later on though)
March is PL quality and Murphy did ok when he came on
Tomer worked hard as usual but was isolated. Gross was a bit of a disappointment

Didn't expect anything from the game. We were a bit negative and lacked an outlet or any pace up front - Jose could be critical here (and Sam when he's back)

Not sure what everyone was expecting....on here tonight feels a bit like after a Sami show.

 

[heathgate]

For me Propper is excused due to late recruitment... Stephens was poor against Athletico too.. why was Sidwell not given a chance, he pepped the whole game up last Sunday.

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[The Rivet]

This thread is too glum, going to cheer myself up on the Brexit thread!

 

[MrSnuggles]

I think it was obviously that Hemed lacked the pace and ability to take on the City defence. He had done an amazing job over the last few seasons but based on that performance l fear the premiership may be a level too high. Hope lm wrong as l like him as a player, but there were a few times he got seriously outpaced. If we are going to defend deep and play counter attacking football then we need players that will counter with speed and unfortunately with all of his assets, speed is not his forte!

 

[crookie]

We were poor today, the defence was immense, most was played in front of us. My concern is that we created nothing,zero,zilch. You expect even in a 1 sided cup tie encounter that you will have a spell of pressure/have a few chances. We never did, against a side in the same division, painful

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[ac gull]

Sidwell will be back next week - needed for away games