Team against Brighton...

I looked pissed, but I wasn't. Well, r lass said I was pissed, I disagreed.

Oh, and another centre half? Brilliant. It's not like Hassell or Delap can play there or owt.

I did. I even stunk of pissed off-ness. And piss.

No. Just piss.

 

At 3-0 I chalked **** on it, and did the wiggle with Jim O'Brien's pals. Doubt I'll be getting another ticket with the players families etc.

Must have been pissed after all. Doubt it though.

 

We've had our day out and we ****** off home....

 

I was surrounded by 'Barnsley' fans singing Man Utd songs. So that increased my enjoyment 10 fold. I genuinely clapped when the City fans retorted with 'Who the **** do you support?'. Second half the guy sitting next to me had to be held back by his Mrs as he was off to lynch them.

I've been watching Barnsley for over 30 years, so I've seen us play **** hundreds of times. Never seen us scared to play football before though. There was one point in the first half where Etuhu was deep in the City half on the right wing covered by two City defenders. On the half way line were four Barnsley defenders and two Barnsley midfielders covering Dzeko. The rest of the Man City team had got back to defend. Did Wiseman sprint up the line to help out his right winger? Did he ****. He just stayed there, one of the six men marking the only City attacker. Don't know if it was Flitcroft's instructions for our full backs to stay back or it was a decision that Wiseman took on himself, but either way it stunk and summed up precisely how we approached the game: fearful and cowardly. We were already 2-0 down at the time.

 

I've got mixed feelings - we never got a tackle in which I found surprising the way we've applied ourselves under Flitcroft - but genuinely Man City's movement killed us. We didn't help ourselves at all but Silva and Tevez especially are a million miles away from what our players normally face, so any accusations of non trying have to be weighed up against the fact we just couldn't get near some of their players. The last thing we wanted was a daft red card keeping someone out of the next 3 games.

Wether tactically we got it right is another argument - very surprised to see a flat back 4 against that sort of opposition, no Mellis who is the best passer at the club and no Delap who has the nouse at that level.

 

No disrespect Whitey but I don't think any manager picks a team of players because "he likes them" .He might pick a team because he believes they can do a job.The trouble with doing that is he upsets you,me and everybody else for not picking players we want in the team.Unfortunately footballs been like that from day one.What I do want is for Flitcroft to send a fit strong unit out to get them vital 3 points whether he plays my favourites or not.

 

Big blow to lose Golbourne and Stones but I'm now very worried how we hitting a slump due to what seems to me like Flicker being once again oblivious to our weaknesses.
352 gave us a fighting chance to stay up. Makes most use of Perkins and Mellis, offers dodgy centre halves another mate to sweep up. Dominates the middle of the park.

Thought he'd play 352 at city who don't do wingers. Real danger of wheels falling off and fewer games to go by the week.

 

They were good, there's no questioning that. And although I do question the team selection and the formation I think we would have lost whatever we would have done. They were too good for us. But I think we could have made much more of a game of it. Putting a tackle in doesn't mean putting a foul in. Perkins put himself about without fouling, but got no help at all from the other three midfielders. And our problems weren't just defensively. We were scared to look up and make a forward pass. No one made a forward run. We completely bottled the opening 45 minutes, both offensively and defensively. I've seen us being totally outclassed before, but been proud of the lads application. There was nowt to be proud of on Saturday.

 

If he'd played Mellis then Marlon and Daggers would've had service, as it was Perkins did his job, Tunnacliffe contributed what he has done up to just, ie nowt imho, Etuhu was out of position wide right and Cwyzka just never got into the game.

 

I think our team will be something along the lines of:

Kuszczak
Bruno ~ El-Abd ~ Upson ~ Bridge
Bridcutt ~ Hammond
Buckley ~ Lopez ~ Orlandi
Ulloa
​

With 2 of our main strikers injured for the rest of the season and another banned for a good few games, we're left with just Leonardo Ulloa, fortunately he's pretty good. I don't think you lot will like him though, he's still used to the Spanish game where you get a free kick as soon as anyone even comes near you.

We normally create a ridiculous amount of chances (apart from at Bristol the other week where BBC claim we didn't even have a shot) but fail to put them away. One of these days it'll click. I'm sure your boys are hoping to avenge the 5-1 at the Amex earlier this season.

 

No F***ing Chance (of winning)?