Manchester City vs Aston Villa Post-Match Thread.

[cdbearsfan]

Maybe clubs whose away supporters who bring in flares should have reduced allocations.

You'd think so, wouldn't you? But then Tottenham threw one at a linesman and Man U invaded our pitch once or twice a season for a decade and we still kept giving them huge allocations.

[MillerBall]

One of the amusing highlights of yesterday was just how poor the home support was until they scored their opening goal; I truly hope that if we are ever in that situation that we actually get behind our team. City fans were noisy in the end  but they were a shocking up till they scored.
The nonsensical chant from the City fans of "we're not really here was nearly so very appropriate for their "silent disco."
I think City deserve the league but the "extras from shameless" who ran on the pitch to celebrate in front of the Villa fans were no markers of the highest order. Let's hope they have some smoke inhalation problems today.


City created a lot of chances and given their quality in depth and the fact that Villa lose so many Premier League games it was not a total surprise when the ball finally ran for them.
Villa did far better than expected but there is little tenacity in our midfield and the defence is under constant pressure.
At least our performance gave their supporters a hard time that they never expected.
The Villa squad needs a big overhaul and in 12 months time we should have a much better idea of how suitable our Manager is for the job in hand.
Most people in the Stadium were expecting a comfortable home win and that never transpired and for a large portion of the game it was a case of the City defence singing "we're not really here."

[Paul.S]

Picked my lad up from the train station last night. He was sporting a nice black eye and swollen nose after being punched by some drug/drink fuelled idiot on the tram before the game. This brave soul jumped on, punched him while he wasn’t looking and ran off.
Having experienced the 80’s where arranged fights took place every week I don’t believe we are anywhere near that. However, we have a new breed of idiot now. If they aren’t abusing players on social media, they are attacking them on the pitch.
I think it’s more of a generational thing where they truly believe they can do what they like and get away with it, inside and outside the ground.
Sadly, the many will have to endure tighter restrictions if this isn’t brought under control.
UTV
 

[PaulWinch again]

Picked my lad up from the train station last night. He was sporting a nice black eye and swollen nose after being punched by some drug/drink fuelled idiot on the tram before the game. This brave soul jumped on, punched him while he wasn’t looking and ran off.
Having experienced the 80’s where arranged fights took place every week I don’t believe we are anywhere near that. However, we have a new breed of idiot now. If they aren’t abusing players on social media, they are attacking them on the pitch.
I think it’s more of a generational thing where they truly believe they can do what they like and get away with it, inside and outside the ground.
Sadly, the many will have to endure tighter restrictions if this isn’t brought under control.
UTV
 

Welcome to the site. Agree there’s a general issue in society as a whole around this type of thing, and unsurprisingly it bleeds into football.

[Paul.S]

Thank you Paul.
Not a happy chappy at the moment as it’s really wound me up. There used to be consequences but not any more.

[Smirker]

Saw on Twitter that some of our fans had lighters, coins and smoke bombs thrown at them.

Cannot stand MC. I can't stand MU either but you can respect their achievements throughout history. The blue shits have got nothing. I hate them.

[Paul.S]

It’s surprising how hard 3 pints of Carling makes some people.

[supertom]

Gerrard got completely schooled yesterday by Pep. Okay, the vast majority of managers have suffered this too, but I hope Gerrard learns from this. After conceding the first, and with our propensity to concede goals in a short space, we should have been a bit cuter and tried to grind the game out. We didn't have a lot of bookings. A few cute fouls here and there, some cloudbusting clearances into Old Trafford. Feigning injuries (Watkins did this earlier when we were 1-0 up). When City upped the pace we did absolutely nothing to slow the game down and we got caught high more than we should have done. When you've run out of steam you need to get the ball off the pitch and grind the game to a halt.

There comes a time you've got to go for a bit of shit-housery. We've complained a lot about clubs doing it to us. City are good at it in fact. We can't match them for quality or stamina, so we should have broken their rhythm by any means. We might at least have clawed out a point.

One significant area to improve though, will be the 6, and our CH's, because yesterday a key issue we had in trying to play keep ball at the back under their press, was Olsen, Nakamba (when he was on) and Mings not being very good with the ball.

A further note, Watkins dives way too much. He's always looking to go to ground under light contact. The problem is he doesn't sell it as well as McGinn. Likewise, he should really, REALLY know that any kind of borderline decision will ALWAYS go the way of Man City if we're playing them. Gamesmanship, and shithousery is only good if it's effective.

[Cropley10]

Agree 100% that City needed to be stopped from building momentum after their first goal and we did nothing. We have a reputation now for being weak and a cave in is never far away.
This has to stop.

[PaulTheVillan]

It’s surprising how hard 3 pints of Carling makes some people.

Makes me happy to know that if I’m having a pint then I ain’t bloody working

[markeeeebeeee2005]

We have seen this movie many times before so we always know what the ending is, there were some very good performances and Coutino's goal was sublime. For once I didn't want Gerrard to make any subs, I thought we were working hard across the park and working as a team. Bringing a player on cold into a hectic situation didn't work.
The way we captitulated was down to leadership on the field, to me Mings has lost his voice, he used to bark out instructions to the players but these days he points a lot.

I have to completely disagree on Mings. He does make the occasional mistake. But to accuse him of not being vocal is not it. Nearly every time I see him he is organising and calling people into better positions and motivating people (very vocally). I find it weird that Villa fans pick at the guy so much, very odd. And the amount of clear goals he’s stopped on his own is incredible.

[Nunkin1965]

I think Tyrone is just the scapegoat for some fans.
He's been our best and most consistent player for weeks.
His clearance was poor for the winner yesterday but our midfield had stopped tracking runs anyway so it was inevitable that City would score.

I have to say that seeing City fans leave after Coutinho scored will always be one of the weirdest things I've ever seen at a footy match.
And the team might be quality but the Eithad is a totally soulless, characterless football stadium.
Oh and sorry for calling the final score the day before.

[astonvilla82]

We have seen this movie many times before so we always know what the ending is, there were some very good performances and Coutino's goal was sublime. For once I didn't want Gerrard to make any subs, I thought we were working hard across the park and working as a team. Bringing a player on cold into a hectic situation didn't work.
The way we captitulated was down to leadership on the field, to me Mings has lost his voice, he used to bark out instructions to the players but these days he points a lot.

I have to completely disagree on Mings. He does make the occasional mistake. But to accuse him of not being vocal is not it. Nearly every time I see him he is organising and calling people into better positions and motivating people (very vocally). I find it weird that Villa fans pick at the guy so much, very odd. And the amount of clear goals he’s stopped on his own is incredible.

and why leave it to Ming's to be vocal, plenty of them gobby enough when have a pop at the ref

[Drummond]

Gerrard got completely schooled yesterday by Pep.

I'm not his biggest fan but this is completely wrong.

[PaulWinch again]

Gerrard got completely schooled yesterday by Pep.

I'm not his biggest fan but this is completely wrong.

Yeah it’s not true. Citeh have a stronger, the strongest, squad in the league. We had a three day turnaround - our game plan was fine, but we had to step back.