Manchester City vs Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[Steve67]

We have two massive games next up.  Beat Brentford and we pretty much guarantee Europa football at the very least.  Then comes the quarter final against Lille.  Unai did the right thing by putting Pau, Tielemans and Bailey on the bench.  Along with McGinn, they will all be back in the team on Saturday and for next Thursday.  Rogers is a bit fitter and better for the experience too. 

Torres and Bailey have played one game after a two week break. Not playing them was chucking the game, basically.

It’s protecting his players, for more important games ahead.

[Gareth]

This TNT coverage is vomit-inducing. Brain donor Ferdinand listing the 5 players Man City were missing. Try Martinez, Torres, Cash, Mings, Buendia, McGinn, Watkins, Kamara...

Exactly this….had me shouting the same at the tv

[PaulWinch again]

I don’t believe he chucked it, and Citeh are obviously an exception, but we do have a bit of a soft centre against decent sides. We tend to concede a lot of goals and that needs to stop.

[Somniloquism]

I'm going on Emi pulling out pre-match and what others have stated on here. If there wasn't then there wasn't.

[Monty]

Emery's not mentioned illness, just said 'we have to try and save some players' with the rush of games coming. I guess fuck him, what does he know.

[ExclDawg]

Considering we only had 4 players from the 11 we started back in December, and that doesn't even include Mings, Buendia, or Ramsey, the result is about what you'd expect.  I thought outside a couple of mistakes that cost us dearly, we looked alright.  Unfortunate, but if we win Saturday, everyone will feel a lot better.

[Clark W Griswold]

The only thing we have dodged so far this season is a plague of locusts!!

There’s still time!

[Small Rodent]

As ever, it's just not worth getting upset about this fixture.

We were up against it missing McGinn, let alone then losing Ollie, Emi and others.

Emery did the right thing playing the side he did, and they did pretty well all things considered.

When Foden plays like that, he's going to score goals against anyone.

Exactly.

2nd string attack and 3rd string midfield (in my opinion) did fine.

Neutrals in pub also thought so.

[VillaTim]

When the 3rd went in that was enough for me , took the dog a walk. We allowed them too much possession, nobody dealt with Rodri all game and therefore the end result was inevitable. Win Saturday and all is forgiven.

[Percy McCarthy]

I really wish that the commentators wouldn't gush over Man City as if they don't have 115 charges against them.

They ramble on about everything and anything except the one major subject and that is the 115 charges.
I wonder why that is?

They’re not allowed to. Ian Wright bucked the trend on Monday Night Football a few weeks back, bless him, and the other two looked like they were shitting their pants as he spoke.

[Paul.S]

Yep, accusing Unai of chucking the game is just nonsense.

It’s absolute bolloc*s.

[Brend'Watkins]

Injuries is one thing, illness though, when did that manifest itself? And, what illness is it, have they all been open water swimming in our sewage infested rivers?

[AGRIPPA]

For what it’s worth even if we’d played our best available team I reckon they would have beaten us…. I actually thought Fiden was quiet…. Apart from his goals obviously

[Clampy]

We had Cash, Mcginn, Kamara, Martinez, Ramsey and Watkins out  tonight (alongside long term absentees) but yeah, it  was like the line up Lambert finished with against Bradford years ago.

Fucking hell.

[eamonn]

I really don't know what Chambers was playing at trying to be clever on the edge of our box. I know our tactic is not to hoof when in our defensive third and under pressure but he completely over-did it. I presume it'll be his last meaningful bit of play for us. He'll probably join some team in the Swiss league like Fulham or Servette.