Man City Post Match Thread

[Frogfish]

But summer 14 don't look too bad now either.

[xtable=skin1]
{tbody}
{tr}
{td}Rickie Lambert{/td}
{td}Southampton{/td}
{td}£4,500,000{/td}
{td}2 June 2014{/td}
{/tr}
{tr}
{td}Adam Lallana{/td}
{td}Southampton{/td}
{td}£25,000,000 *{/td}
{td}1 July 2014{/td}
{/tr}
{tr}
{td}Emre Can{/td}
{td}Bayer Leverkusen{/td}
{td}£9,750,000{/td}
{td}3 July 2014{/td}
{/tr}
{tr}
{td}Lazar Markovic{/td}
{td}Benfica{/td}
{td}£19,800,000{/td}
{td}15 July 2014{/td}
{/tr}
{tr}
{td}Dejan Lovren{/td}
{td}Southampton{/td}
{td}£20,000,000 *{/td}
{td}27 July 2014{/td}
{/tr}
{tr}
{td}Divock Origi{/td}
{td}Lille{/td}
{td}£9,800,000 *{/td}
{td}29 July 2014{/td}
{/tr}
{tr}
{td}Javier Manquillo{/td}
{td}Atletico Madrid{/td}
{td}On Loan{/td}
{td}6 August 2014{/td}
{/tr}
{tr}
{td}Alberto Moreno{/td}
{td}Sevilla{/td}
{td}£12,000,000 *{/td}
{td}16 August 2014{/td}
{/tr}
{/tbody}
[/xtable]
Lambert's gone but...

Lallana - looks a big part of Klopp's plans. Last month Rosco was saying flog him for £6m. Who wants to sell him now?
Can - Not great by any means but worth well more than the 10m we paid for him and probs going to be around for a long time
Markovic - I reckon he'll do great in this side
Lovren - who knows? Overpaid defo but he's in the side and playing well
Origi - Looks crap but we'd still get what we paid for him
Manquillo - only a loan
Moreno - looks good.
Balotelli - OK then, awful.

In the context of the time it was terrible coz we needed to replace Suarez, but it looks very positive in retrospect

Of the 8 permanent there were 4 starters in that great win. 2 have gone for good you'd think (Lambert and Balotelli) and Markovic who I reckon could be dead good, Origi who probs won't.

Not bad at all.

Nah sorry Woland but you are overstating that a bit.

3 are gone, 1 is away on loan (though agree he could work in this team, but was still a big 20M gamble. I do expect Klopp to give him a chance IF he does well in Turkey).

That leaves 2 players who are now just squad players and 3 more who are in the team but maybe not guaranteed starters or only back in due to injuries. Not to have at least a couple of guaranteed starring starters from all that money spent is still poor even if some can now be resurrected.

 

[Woland]

Yes, they were both excellent against City. How much love did Can get in the Palace MoTM thread? After all, that was one game too.

He did my fucking head in against Palace, he was shite, but he's 21, plays for the world champions, and is worth a fuckload more than the 10m paid for him. He's a very good signing.

 

[Frogfish]

Any thoughts on Klopp's tendency to bring on a CB near the end of the game to sure up the midfield and close the game?
I'm liking it tbh, it's very old school and I haven't seen it for years. Against Man C that was probably the third or fourth time Klopp did it.

TBH we were 3 goals up and I thought he could have given Randall more pitch time (much as I like Kolo he's not exactly one for the future).

 

[mark1975]

Any thoughts on Klopp's tendency to bring on a CB near the end of the game to sure up the midfield and close the game?
I'm liking it tbh, it's very old school and I haven't seen it for years. Against Man C that was probably the third or fourth time Klopp did it.

Yes, it's the kind of thing we were crucifying Rodgers for not doing in the end, or when he did have the balls to do it, you felt it was totally disruptive to an already brittle backline. Now it just allows us to suffocate teams, rather than throwing an extra body in to add to the confusion that came from sitting deeper and deeper as the game wore on.

The main thing that we're getting right though is that the centre halves are closer together, the fullbacks are in more orthodox starting positions, and we're getting good protection in wide areas from the likes of Milner. The fact we're not playing with an natural striker means you've basically got a flat backline holding position, good protection in the middle of the park and then 4 or 5 players left to run riot. Wonderful.

 

[Frogfish]

... Markovic is never coming back, because he's not very good and has no spine .....

I'm sorry but that simply isn't so. I think the lad has heart and talent .. but not when blatantly misused by Rodgers.

 

[Modo]

This season we've had about three consistently good players.

1. Clyne
2. Skrtel
3. Lucas

The rest have pretty much been up and down.

 

[Woland]

Nah sorry Woland but you are overstating that a bit.

3 are gone, 1 is away on loan (though agree he could work in this team, but was still a big 20M gamble. I do expect Klopp to give him a chance IF he does well in Turkey).

That leaves 2 players who are now just squad players and 3 more who are in the team but maybe not guaranteed starters or only back in due to injuries. Not to have at least a couple of guaranteed starring starters from all that money spent is still poor even if some can now be resurrected.

Yeah, defo overpaid for Lovren and Lallana, I'm not saying it was fucking great... it probably got Rodgers sacked... but I think there's a lot of talent there. There must be. We just dicked City away with half of them starting. I still don't know with Markovic. Everyone wanted him, he didn't turn shit overnight. Klopp will give him big special finger cuddles and he'll be great.

 

[mark1975]

This season we've had about three consistently good players.

1. Clyne
2. Skrtel
3. Lucas

The rest have pretty much been up and down.

And that's where we're reminded we've a long way to go, because eventually those who aren't good enough will get found out, because we and they aren't consistent enough.

I'm kinda with Woland though, there's alot of good players there who can have futures here, there's not many blatant write-offs.

 

[Modo]

And that's where we're reminded we've a long way to go, because eventually those who aren't good enough will get found out, because we and they aren't consistent enough.

I'm kinda with Woland though, there's alot of good players there who can have futures here, there's not many blatant write-offs.

I think Klopp has a good foundation to build on. I would be very surprised if Klopp suddenly sells half the squad. He said it himself, he likes the project. He wants to build a team.
Sadly the only write off seems be Allen.

 

[mark1975]

I'd probably add Lovren to that, despite his form at the weekend, he's usually come a cropper eventually. Klopp will inevitably add to the squad and that's where, position wise it'll be fairly obvious who the fall guys are.

 

[manwithnoname]

I think Klopp has a good foundation to build on. I would be very surprised if Klopp suddenly sells half the squad. He said it himself, he likes the project. He wants to build a team.
Sadly the only write off seems be Allen.

But there seems to be this groundswell of opinion that we actually have a great squad and Klopp wants to shape it and build a winning team with what he has, and eschew spending large amounts of money, like Wenger or whatever.

He has a decent squad, but we knew that already, but he will spend as much money as he is allowed, to bring in what he thinks are better players. Like every other manager ever.

 

[Modo]

But there seems to be this groundswell of opinion that we actually have a great squad and Klopp wants to shape it and build a winning team with what he has, and eschew spending large amounts of money, like Wenger or whatever.

He has a decent squad, but we knew that already, but he will spend as much money as he is allowed, to bring in what he thinks are better players. Like every other manager ever.

Of course.

 

[Woland]

But there seems to be this groundswell of opinion that we actually have a great squad and Klopp wants to shape it and build a winning team with what he has, and eschew spending large amounts of money, like Wenger or whatever.

Where?

 

[manwithnoname]

Where?

Oranges are not the only fruit

 

[Woland]

Just curious if that is a popular opinion, I haven't heard it from anyone.

 

[darkstarexodus]

That was an embuggerance all right, but (a) as I said above we'll continue to find it harder at home anyway and (b) it was still early days for Klopp.

Liked for the word embuggerance. Will remember that one

 

[Judge Jules]

Not original to me unfortunately. It was coined by the late Terry Pratchett.

 

[Modo]

Carragher and Neville

 

[Modo]

Carra highlights Lucas importance to the team. He was somewhat of a forgotten man in that game.
He pretty much got Yaya subbed.

 

[Mystic]

Cheers Modo. It's worrying what Neville points out about how easily we could have been opened up, lets hope no teams figure that out against us.

 

[the count]

Carra highlights Lucas importance to the team. He was somewhat of a forgotten man in that game.
He pretty much got Yaya subbed.

From watching the clip I took from it that Lucas was not doing a typical DM role and it was something that could potentially be exploited by other opponents.
I have no issue with Lucas but I didn't see at any point Carra outlining him being more important than anyone else in the team.

 

[Modo]

From watching the clip I took from it that Lucas was not doing a typical DM role and it was something that could potentially be exploited by other opponents.
I have no issue with Lucas but I didn't see at any point Carra outlining him being more important than anyone else in the team.

I never said that Lucas was more important than anyone else.
Also if you look at that video again, skip to the part where he displays those tackling stats, Carra mentions that Lucas is vital to our team and yes he uses the term "vital".

 

[the count]

I never said that Lucas was more important than anyone else.
Also if you look at that video again, skip to the part where he displays those tackling stats, Carra mentions that Lucas is vital to our team and yes he uses the term "vital".

Yep, that sound more like what I heard.

 

[kingjulian]

I think its just because we dont really have midfielders on the bench due to injuries....and as shown by stats above, our midfielders put in an enormous amount of effort.

 

[Modo]

I think its just because we dont really have midfielders on the bench due to injuries....and as shown by stats above, our midfielders put in an enormous amount of effort.

Allen

 

[Woland]

I was all like 12.7 miles? Half a fucking marathon? On average? In 90 mins? And play footy too? But then saw that the furthest ran was Milner on 7.9.

Mixing their metrics with their imperials there. Very poor. Surprised you weren't all over that Binny.

 

[kingjulian]

Allen

Exactly

 

[Modo]

Exactly

haha, poor the Allen.

 

[Hyena]

How can the average distance for an outfieldr player be 12.7 miles when our top player has only run 7.9 miles? Something very wrong with this graphic..

 

[kingjulian]

Yeah...they made that up after seeing the result.