Confidence In The Manager

[Louzie0]

Did we play well yesterday ? Genuine question.

To come back twice, reduce them to 2 set pieces to score and then turn their attack into our winning goal by confusing their defence?

By football standards, that is a 'yes'.

[walsall villain]

Did we play well yesterday ? Genuine question.

Many times last season I thought we played well and lost. By all accounts that was the case at Chelsea this year. Yesterday there was a lot to admire, determination, effort but played well? I would say no overall which was why we all went mad as number 2 and 3 went in. Most football fans bemoan there luck but yesterday we were fortunate in my opinion. I wonder how many in the ground thought after 65 minutes, we are going to win this.

[eastie]

Did we play well yesterday ? Genuine question.

Many times last season I thought we played well and lost. By all accounts that was the case at Chelsea this year. Yesterday there was a lot to admire, determination, effort but played well? I would say no overall which was why we all went mad as number 2 and 3 went in. Most football fans bemoan there luck but yesterday we were fortunate in my opinion. I wonder how many in the ground thought after 65 minutes, we are going to win this.

Agreed , but for once the footballing gods smiled upon us and its about time we deserved it.

[pauliewalnuts]

Great result obviously, and a couple of bits of real quality. However we need to be much more proactive in future.

Do you not think going proactive against a team with the talent that Citeh have got might have meant a brave but fruitless 5-3 defeat rather than a glorious win?

Maybe but as we progress we'll need to try and dictate games a bit more. If a team has 67% possession against us more often and not they'll win. We did brilliantly yesterday, but I wouldn't say that style would be the blueprint for success.

Nor me.

It is worth remembering that there have been plenty of occasions where luck has gone against us and we've got nothing (Chelsea away, anyone?) so we were due a bit of luck, and maybe yesterday was it.

Playing like we did for most of the game yesterday isn't a blueprint for success either - defending from the off and occasionally booting it long at Kozak is not a strategy to grow the club in any sense, but I suspect Lambert knows that.

Then again, we don't have to play a side that strong very often, so it shouldn't really be a question we have to face.

In short, I don't really know what to draw from yesterday, other than considerable happiness at three unexpected points.

[villa `cross the mersey]

Defending set pieces, in particular corners has been an achilles heel for much too long - I will start buying into Lamberts philosophy as soon as he and his defensive coach(es) sort it out.
Likewise an experienced wily centre midfielder would help this young team no end.
Any progression on those two fronts will have me smiling and fully supportive of the Lambert revolution.
Failure to address the defensive faults will leave me a "bed wetting, miserable, pessemistic, stay at home, even though I am season ticket holder, only post at 5pm when we lose" type of guy    

[Chris Smith]

The thing I would draw from yesterday is showed we have more than one string to our bow. The side we put out was a bit cobbled together because of injuries but they did their jobs in restricting their chances to mostly shots from distance. We conceded plenty of corners and dealt with most of them well. The first goal was poor from our point of view but the second was a bit of a fluke, as he went up for the ball I doubt he was thinking 'I'm going to use the base of my kneck to put it in the corner'; so that's one badly defended and one unlucky from what seemed like 20 corners. It should also be noted that they look like a team of giants compared to most of ours so they were always going to have an advantage.

So that's a strong defensive performance, tactical nous and scoring three goals without Gabby and Benteke against one of the favourites for the title. Plenty of positives to draw from the game, if you really want to look for them.

[villan from luton]

We do have to improve defensively, but lets be honest, Man City will score 2 or more against most teams this season. Instead of thinking of the negatives, lets think of the positives. We were without our two main forwards and a good central midfielder, but still got three goals and to be fair the defence did well generally. We are not going to be the best team in the league, but it is a pleasure to see the team battling for our beloved club. Special mention to Ron Vlaar, who gets a lot of stick, I thought he was excellent yesterday

[olaftab]

Nice comment by Peter Schmeichel on MotD2. "Bacuna went straight over to his manager they love him he has got something special there if they stay together Villa will be a force to be reckon with in a couple of years"

if only he had played full strength team against Spurs tut tut.......

[ozzjim]

Nice comment by Peter Schmeichel on MotD2. "Bacuna went straight over to his manager they love him he has got something special there if they stay together Villa will be a force to be reckon with in a couple of years"

if only he had played full strength team against Spurs tut tut.......

He did though Olaf, he played the bes that he had available to him. And was justified in the result in leaving out Clark and Delph who were carrying knocks.

[ciggiesnbeer]

Did we play well yesterday ? Genuine question.

Yes. Lambert had a plan and it worked. The team worked hard and took the chances they had which were always going to be few. it was against the team which demolished ManUre last week.

Obviously I dont want us to play 5 at the back against teams around us but I am pleased Lambert is still willing to change things up just like last season.

Against teams around us I really prefer 4-3-2-1 but Lambert is Lambert, the man cannot resist throwing extra attackers on when he gets a chance and so we are very likely to see the 4-2-2-2 or even 4-2-4 again soon enough.

[not3bad]

Did we play well yesterday ? Genuine question.

It's a yes from me.  Although City obviously dominated possession (particularly in the first half) they never really created that many clear cut chances and had to rely on set pieces (Villa's famous achilles heel ATM) to score.  The second half was much more equal and it was great to the Villa's midfield get stuck in.  At one point in the second half Sylla I think it was received the ball in the centre circle and he had time to make a choice about what he'd do next and I realised Man City weren't dictating the play any more.  When we scored the 2nd and 3rd they huffed and puffed and we (the fans) stressed out but there was never much danger of them scoring looking back.

[Monty]

We were very poor first half. City were always likely to have the ball more than us, but when we got it we looked down and pressurised and just whacked it over our midfield and in the generalish direction of poor old Kozak, who had no chance. Second half? When we got the ball, we got it down and played, and that made all the difference. That and Brad absolutely tanning it after a City attack and Kompany and Nastasic not knowing what hit them.

[PaulWinch again]

We were very poor first half. City were always likely to have the ball more than us, but when we got it we looked down and pressurised and just whacked it over our midfield and in the generalish direction of poor old Kozak, who had no chance. Second half? When we got the ball, we got it down and played, and that made all the difference. That and Brad absolutely tanning it after a City attack and Kompany and Nastasic not knowing what hit them.

I think that's a pretty accurate assessment.

[eastie]

We were very poor first half. City were always likely to have the ball more than us, but when we got it we looked down and pressurised and just whacked it over our midfield and in the generalish direction of poor old Kozak, who had no chance. Second half? When we got the ball, we got it down and played, and that made all the difference. That and Brad absolutely tanning it after a City attack and Kompany and Nastasic not knowing what hit them.

I think that's a pretty accurate assessment.

I agree too, there are a few times this season when we have started poorly and then upped our game after going behind.
This was very much a game of two halves, could never have imagined at half time that we would score 3 goals and win and that makes it all the sweeter .

[MoetVillan]

I thought we played well.  We are missing Agbonlahor, Westwood and that other striker chap, all so instrumental to our great finish last season.  And Lowton has not been anywhere near his best.  First half was tough, that was a team that ripped United apart a few days ago, and were incredibly skilful, I thought Toure, Nasri and their two wing backs had a good game.  Yet for all their possesion, in the first half, the closest they came to a goal was a deflection, and the goal itself was hardly a classic.  We defended deep true, but how many times will City be outpossesed this season?  Second half seemed to be driven by our belief.  Something our Gaffer said at half time must have clicked as suddenly we were putting agressive passes together, while still relentlessly harrying City when they had the ball.  We defended higher, and were terrier like, never giving them time.  We have just not been good enough at home for too long, which must have been nagging at minds, but it felt like we played with clear heads, a distinct plan to nulify the gazillionaires, and build into the game.