Manchester City v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[barrysleftfoot]

  You thought Clark was poor Paul.

  For me against a very good player he did'nt get over exposed, covered well, but more importantly always tried to play the ball out, and keep the ball.The fact that Petrov and Delph did'nt do a great deal with it when they got it was not his fault.The fact that Gabby and Bent were not stong enough to hold onto the ball and bring other players into the game was not his fault either.Heskey is too cumbersome at this level, as is Warnock tbh.Not enough options when we had the ball, only Hutton was making runs off the ball,copy Citeehs team work and tbh we will finish easily in the top 8.

[Brian Taylor]

If you can't get hold of yje ball you can't play and if you can't deliver to the forwards you'll never score..we was lucky with that result. A lesson in Football.
Next week we have a more, potentially, achievable objective.
Need to get points from the lesser teams!

[Witton Warrior]

I wonder what we could have done differently to change this result and reckon half a billion ££££ might help.
There will be more days like this for us and most of the rest of the Premiership.

I almost feel like saying it aye fair!

[Rudy Can't Fail]

For the first time all season we have a pretty good 1st half. Then we switch off for the second instead.
Still look woefully static going forward and still seem to play a rugby style off passing, having to go backwards to get forwards.
There's no dynamism in our attack, feel sorry for Gabby & Benty.

Agree with that, our midfield is just so weak and disjointed.

Delph and Bannan constantly gave the ball away.
Petrov still thinks he's a young Frank Lampard. At times great but no real sense of positioning which makes Delph look poor..
Heskey was there because erm.. he's big? Yes Man City are the strongest, most physical side in the PL but we should be trying to build something there.
Thought Ireland did ok but still doesn't bust a gut.
N'Zogbia? As mentioned on the Match thread, I'd completely forgotten we had him.

Let's face it, there's not much to choose from but the team have such little confidence in each others ability on the ball, they always opt for the 99.9% safe ball 30 yards back rather than play a neat one-two and move forward.

Like you Beds, I felt really sorry for Bent and Gabby (my MOTM) with the poor service all day.

[Brian Taylor]

It was an oblect lesson in football today. Let's hope a lesson learnt. We can use the experience against lesser teams. Not going anywhere this season!

[Apyadg]

Complete rubbish. this is exactly the kind of team that tests the side, that shows the teams strengths and weaknesses. talking complete rubbish.

And Barcelona would test Coventry, it's a bit daft to consider it "the real test" though, isn't it?

[Villanation]

I wonder what we could have done differently to change this result and reckon half a billion ££££ might help.
There will be more days like this for us and most of the rest of the Premiership.

I almost feel like saying it aye fair!

Its how we bounce back from this, shouldn't be a problem but they (the FA) need to do something to get more of a balance in the Premiership whereby its more of a level playing field because Man City could throw another 500ML at this squad and play everybody out of sight. Crazy.

[Mac]

Makes me angry about football, not Villa.

To be expected. Forget it and move on. Three points next week will do. Any less will be very disappointing.

Exactly... from twitter..

"Excitement continues at #mcfc where the real world equivalent of an FM cheat continues to help a failing small club to pyrrhic victories."

[Villanation]

It was an oblect lesson in football today. Let's hope a lesson learnt. We can use the experience against lesser teams. Not going anywhere this season!

It was, we can play your Blackburn's and Co all day long, they won't teach you anything, we've now played a good side and we should learn from that and improve and I'm sure AM will look to do that.

[Mac]

This club can lure away players from Arsenal.

That's the team with the largest match day income.
That's one of the big four
That's one that have had Champions League football since it was invented.

If they can't compete how can we?

[SamTheMouse]

The really annoying thing is, I looked at their line-up, saw they'd left out Silva and Nasri, and had Aguero missing, and still assumed we'd get tanked.

But let's face it, with the amount they are spending, if they failed to beat us at home it would be a ridiculously bad result for them. Hardly anyone will go to Eastlands and get even a point. We aren't competing against City in any way this season, and we only need to worry about results against teams around us. Next week will be far more important.

I refuse to feel even slightly depressed about that defeat.

[Villanation]

This club can lure away players from Arsenal.

That's the team with the largest match day income.
That's one of the big four
That's one that have had Champions League football since it was invented.

If they can't compete how can we?

This is why something must be done to get a more level playing field, otherwise teams will raise the white flag even before they've taken to the pitch.

[Dante Lavelli]

With regard to the Bannan's non-selction, I think McLeish has been pretty shrewd here.
The reality is that we would probably still lost, however Bannan has not been exposed and will be fresher for a winnable fixture in a week.

Failure to pick him next week will deserve the wrath that some expressed today.

[PaulMcGrathsNo5Shirt]

I'm not buying all this 'outclassed' shit. We gifted them 3 goals. Two from corners and one from Warnock trying to do  Doug Ellis.

We were our own worst enemy today - Milner's goal was class and the only one I can excuse.

[richard moore]

Makes me angry about football, not Villa.

To be expected. Forget it and move on. Three points next week will do. Any less will be very disappointing.

Exactly this. Predictable scoreline. There are a lot of teams bunched together who are all average, we are only 3 points behind Liverpool who spent loads. Man City and the other 1 or 2 are in a league of their own.

Exactly this again. I stopped receiving Sky Sports last weekend - and how liberating does that feel - and this result kinda symbolises exactly why. Another hugely mediocre Saturday afternoon in the Premier League passes me by...