ClaretandHugh’s Niall McDonald rates the Irons against Man City
Randolph: Strange game – no chance with first three, nearly got a hand on the penalty and I can’t remember too many other saves he had to make 5
Byram: I’m guessing Twitter is saying that a decent right-back wouldn’t have been nutmegged by Sane, I’m not so sure 5
Reid: Resolute in the face of adversity, again 6
Fonte: Gosh… Let’s just hope he was rusty having not played for a month… 4
Cresswell: Ended what had been a neat sequence of passes with a dreadful square ball for their opener. Looks well off the pace 4
Obiang: If we had a squeak at 2-0 then Pedro’s square ball for the 3rd killed that off! Impossible task against City’s attacking midfielders 4
Noble: Skipper used his lack of pace to deceive backtracking opponents into fouling him on several occasions 4
Lanzini: Decent start. Tried to create. Left Cresswell a little exposed defensively 5
Feghouli: Normal service resumed, sadly. Let the game pass him by 3
Antonio: Had the beating of Stones in the early stages. Put in his usual shift with little reward 5
Carroll: Too strong for City’s defenders. Magnificent hold up play on 32 mins and spread it wide for Cresswell. Couple of towering defensive headers and a frustrated yellow card 6
Subs:
Snodgrass: Must be used to being on the wrong end of scorelines like this coming from Hull. Some crisp passes, couple of incisive runs and a decent corner. Certainly did enough to take Feghouli’s place! A morale-boosting 7
Fernandes: Fortunate to come on when City had stopped counter-attacking at will 4
Fletcher: Got 12 mins on for Carroll. Didn’t do anything of note. No rating
City was too good ..it’s not the end of the world…this is a level of play where every mistake is count..and we aren’t on this level…yet.
They have been different class each time they have played us.Hats off to them.I dont mind appreciating when a team is better than us.Theye young frontline were awesome.No need for tantrums about tonight.But it wont stop a lot from spitting the dummy alas.
Horror show
were never be at that level with the owners we’ve got
Agree norfolk.How Noble gets on the pitch week after week is beyond me.There again what would I know.
Just look at a Silva,De Bruyne,,Sane price tags..they are exceptional players..we are just no match to them….not to mention Guardiola …so ,time to get back to earth..
I would take 2 points of most of your scores although a 4 for Fonte is ok. As for Slav he is responsible for the lack of drive from minute one to the last 1 out of 10, each time we have played them we have tried being passive each time we have been soundly beaten, if you can’t be bothered to watch the teams that have caused them problems and realise it was by getting in their faces then you are tactically inept, I would go further and say every game we have lost this season we have approached the game similarly, the troubles we had last season were the same, Bilic doesn’t seem able to get his teams to start matches with intensity and that worries me.
we don’t turn up for the big occasions same old West Ham were safe get the deck chairs & cigars out that was humiliating tonight plz Gold & Sullivan go take the best offer as your ruining my club at the mo your want me to renew season tkt again I’ve been entertained twice this season against Chelsea in EFL cup & Palace game the rest as been dross I can take being beaten by teams that play football but our lot are a joke I reckon the saints are p themselves 8 million for a statue
So a couple of wins and the Payet distraction papered over the cracks. Too disappointed to comment further.
Here we go the lunaticse taking over the asylum.Did tonights loss result in you having your arm amputated Norfolk.Its football Thats all.
Niall your points are rubbish as usual ..a couple played awful and Bilic hung the rest out to dry with zero tactics
thanks for the feedback – appreciate it
I love high quality debates
Spot on Fan 32 I also think we did not turn up tonight for the palace & Middlesbrough games we were so much more aggressive if Bilic had a game plan tonight then he needs to seriously rethink His instructions & watch his opposition before we play them If the plan was to play for a draw it did not work City were much too fast and simply. Passed our midfield that is when we were not giving the ball to them with these constant cross field or back passses. if it was.to sneak a winner again no go again how could we do that when we did not press the opposition every time we had the ball city had three men attacking our player when City had it we were lucky to have one tackling for the ball. Apart from the fact City are a very good team & I did not know expect us to get anything tonight what is very disappointing is the way we played Bilic must change his style we do not mind losing to a good time but we must at lest be seen to be trying.
Well that didnt go well.Anyone got a spare dummy i can spit or have they all been used up already.Someone tipped his beer down me as well. 😂😂
Niall get ready to use a lot of 7s & 8s on Saturday,we will hammer The Saints,stand on me 😉
No mate it was proper pony, I felt sick watching it and that was just on the telly, I will be at the next home game though, another 6 pointer, fingers crossed we can do one on the saints they are in a difficult patch at the moment so we should start with more confidence than tonight COYI !!!
Yeah it was pony but i finished work early & got on the lash so things dont seem to bad right now 32 😂😂
Anyway without getting philisophical just before i went to the game i read about that poor grandson shielding his dying grandad in Tunisia during that resort shooting.That has given me a reality check tonight. We lost a game of football..so what 😉
I agree with Norfolkhammer, two good performances at home all season is really all we have had.
Maybe there are a few worse teams than us, but should we be happy to finish between 11th and 16th? I don’t think so – new stadium, loads of money, 60K fans, and we are supposed to be happy just to stay in the league?
Bilic, sadly, has shown again that he doesn’t know what to do. Yes, City are much better than us but surely we could at least turn up, have a thought out plan and show some aggression. This was actually even worse than the cup game.
We need to invest heavily in the summer. If the owners don’t trust Bilic with decisions on signings, they should make a change now. I say this with a heavy heart, I have really wanted Bilic to succeed, but let’s get some pride back, finish the season with some impetus and get some real quality (as opposed just quantity) into the squad this summer.
A glass half full approach; we tried to press them in the second half but we were too slow!! There was a lack of heart or agression. We were outclassed today. Caroll was alone. Feghouli was not there, neither was Noble. We are missing Kouyate and Ogbonna if you ask me.
Liked Snoddy when he came on. LanzinI was missing something. Cressie was just simply outclassed. Let us look forward to grabbing the next couple of games which are totally winnable. COYI.
Not much to say really..totally outclassed by a top team that are in a totally different class to us, let’s be honest …..we got to put this game behind us and win the games that are winnable….just goes to show just how weak our squad is…..don’t like to say this but nobes is looking aged and when up against quality is found wanting time and again….