Good lord. We are being a bit inconsistent aren't we? Doing well in EPL, scraping past part-timers in UEFA, losing to League One team in Carling Cup. Does this indicate lack of squad depth or lazy attitude towards "weaker" teams?
I for one am disappointed. Yes the lineup wasn't "full strength" but jeez, Brighton and Hova Albion? First, they beat us without the use of a balloon (had to throw that one in there). But really the shot differential was insane. Where was the finishing? And why is anyone wasting their time throwing Caicedo into the match? Granted I did not see the actual match just watched live statistics on a website, but really? Lack of depth, as Stu pointed out, seems to be an issue up front. But I would have to say some of this could be a lack of intensity in these small club games. On the upside, it's good Johnson got some minutes after his groin injury a few weeks back. Also Ireland continues his form giving us the equalizer in the closing minutes of extra time. I thought Schmeichel was on loan somewhere?? Anyhow, moving on, Wigan away on Sunday, we should be taking that game more seriously that this one for sure. Typical City, ups and downs never go away my friends
Cheer up guys, we still got the FA cup and UEFA cup. Perhaps it's good that we're out of the Carling Cup, otherwise we'd be too tired for league matches. You are right, typical of City. Not surprised at all. I am use to us crashing out of the cup early vs league one teams.
All kidding and patronizing aside, Brighton had to be more geared up for this than City. MH is going to kick some backsides tomorrow in training. I bet we come out like a house on fire Saturday... Poor Wigan... 3-0 at least.
Did anybody expect anything else? Yes I hoped we would win but it didn't surprise me at all. We might now be labelled as the 'Worlds richest club' but we don't have the squad to match the title of that. Signing Robinho isn't going to be the difference between winning the Carling Cup or not, neither is he going to 'shoot' us into the top four by himself. We've been on a massive high but it wasn't going to last and tonight proved that. It also showed why we won't finish in the top four this season. They have the squads to cope with all competitions, we scraped past in the UEFA Cup, we've done great in the league but disappointing in the domestic cup. We don't have the luxury yet of rotating world-class players, we've come along way in terms of squad strength but we're still obviously short in a couple of players - but that is expected. Aston Villa, another team hoping to break the top four, were also eliminated by QPR tonight so it isn't just us who needs improving before targets can become a reality. Nevertheless, the fringe players brought in should have realised that it was finally their chance to impress and claim a place in the first-team. We still should have had enough quality to beat Brighton in 90 minutes, let alone extra time and we payed the price in the penalty shootout. There wasn't any understanding between players tonight, Dunne and Tal Ben Heim were isolated figures rather than a unit and it followed through most of the team. Elano was brought on too late. Please don't say "Oh well, it was only the Carling Cup. Theres always the League/UEFA Cup/FA Cup." There isn't any guarantee that we will win one of those, we aren't in that position yet and losing at such an early stage is a massive disappointment. The Carling Cup is still a way of ending the 39 year pain, it is still a big achievement and a way of being recognised - it is still a way of boosting morale for the team and fans. 9 Premiership teams only remain in it so it would have been a good opportunity, but as ever we've missed the chance again. We had the luck of the shootout against the Danish team in the UEFA Cup qualifier but not tonight. Thats why it really is too early to say anything about us, in the cups we have been disappointing and just because we have been bought by billionaires and had one transfer day to make an impact doesn't make us invincible. On another forum there was a thread asking who would you prefer in charge now, Hughes or Sven? Most went with Hughes because he has had the best start and we're playing great football - we must all have short memories. Sven started even better but the amazing form didn't last under him (not his fault but lets not get into that). Hughes isn't a god, but neither can he be criticised for any decisions at such an early stage - lets be rational here and keep a level head. One match can change emotions so much, such as tonight where people on other forums are pointing out mistakes in the starting eleven. One billionaire takeover and one superstar signing doesn't make the rest of the team world-class - We aren't one of the leagues heavyweights yet. You can change the ownership, the personnel in the squad and the manager, but we're always City and our DNA cannot change. So we dust ourselves off and move onto the next match. Every cup provides upsets and shocks, we just seem to be on the wrong end of the scoreline a lot more than not.
why did Ball take a penalty before Ireland, Caicedo, or Gelson? Seems foolish to me. just reminds me how much we are missing with Benjani, Petrov, Bojinov... and (gulp) Vassell injured. i'm still wondering if we'll get to see Castillo ever take the field this season. and Etuhu? shows how much work we still need to do in comparison to Arsenal who fielded the youngest team ever and handled their sh!t with authority. i'm embarrassed once again today.
A 'banana skin' game was on the cards - typical City. And I agree with Alan, we needed to win this one and the fact that were still in other competitions is no consolation, this shouldn't have been a tough match to win, weakened side or no (Liverpool and Stoke game comes to mind, so many scoring opportunities missed). Regarding the penalties, do the managers have to hand in the names of the penalty takers before the match? I wouldn't have chosen Ball, Dunnie would've been my pick (he's scored a goal this season!). I too am pleased that Johnson played a full match, probably one of the few good things to come out of this match (along with Stevie's goal).
At this point, it's all about depth. We have depth, but our depth are injurred. You touched upon Benjani, Petrov, Bojinov, Vassel, and Castillo. If these guys were healthy, we would have fielded a much stronger second string team. I am not all that upset because with all the injurries we have, we don't have the depth to compete in that many games anyways. Having too many competitions at this point will only bring fatigue to our best players.
Never trust an Englishman to take a penalty. The result sucks, but we should of won without extra-time. Poor concentration to let them in with a goal in the 89th minute. The rest after that was a lottery. Glad i didn't stay up for this one.
you're right on with the Lottery part. I called it a crap shoot. Honestly, I never liked penalty kicks to end a game. Even if City won, I still hate penalty kicks in that manner. It's not football, but rather an element of the game. I am surprised they don't do the 100M dash to end the game They should just play until they crawl.
I've always been an advocate of taking 2 players off the field every five minutes after the second extra time period. First goal wins Would be great to watch.
Below is your FIRST TEAM squad against Portsmouth at the w/e. The players in bold played against us, and the ones with an * were on the bench. It's not like you put out a bunch of kids or trialists!! Hart* Garrido* Dunne Richards Zabaleta Kompany Wright-Phillips Ireland Elano Robinho Jo Schmeichel Fernandes Sturridge Evans Ball Hamann* Ben Haim
City: Schmeichel, Zabaleta, Ben-Haim, Dunne (c), Ball, Kompany, Ireland, Johnson (Elano 102), Fernandes, Sturridge (Evans 61), Jo (Caicedo 91). unused subs: Hart, Garrido, Logan, Hamann. Here are our second string players who were on as starters yesterday Schmeichel Ben-Haim Ball Fernandes Sturridge Our regular starters who were also started yesterday Zabaleta Dunne Ireland Johnson Jo Elano came on really really late. So you are right, it's not exactly a bunch of kids playing, but we didn't exactly field our best as well. Also, remember that we have tons of better players injurred who may have played. The bottom line is that we lost and it's time to focus on other things.
My reference to the 'fringe' players was because it was the fringe players who were most disappointing last night. Ben Heim, for example, had a poor game and I would have expected him to have taken the chance to impress because he'll find himself back on the subs bench against Wigan. Schmeichel, who is our second choice keeper, could have done better (still had a good game) but my points are that those who came in didn't do well enough to warrant a place in the starting eleven this weekend. Johnson and Gelson were disappointing, neither were in the lineup V Portsmouth (Johnson was injured mind) but the point is I wouldn't change the lineup we had against Pompey. None of the fringe players did well enough to start. Your correct in saying that it wasn't a team full of kids and I wasn't trying to defend the result. My point was that taking out Robinho, SWP, Elano and Richards, possibly even Hart from the starting eleven leaves us with some problems - as we found last night. It was the perfect opportunity for Ben Heim, for example, to show that he could fill in for Richards but he failed to do that. Credit to Brighton as you won the game and deserve to progress, the bottom line for me is that the fringe players who did start showed they aren't up to it right now. We played a risk by resting SWP, Robinho and others and we paid the price for doing it.
Indeed, on paper we should have won this match. It is disappointing, because, as Alan pointed out, it is a cup competition that could have ended the drought. But at this point we need to move on focus focus our attention on our other competitions. UEFA cup should be a priority now, although, when Champions League team start coming down it is going to get TOUGH. The FA Cup is also something looming on the horizon, it is another chance to prove ourselves there. And of course, the league. As great as these other competitions are, breaking the top 6 would be fantastic, top 4 a dream come true. I am still very optomistic at this point in our campaign, disappointed in the result, but less so since we are involved in many other competitions at this point.
Comments on our exit from Andy Hinchcliffe: http://www.mcfc.co.uk/default.sps?p...ommonth=7&fromyear=2008&tomonth=9&toyear=2008 His opening paragraph sums up everything we've put in this thread: "Only a handful of Clubs have the ability to go from the sublime to the ridiculous in 4 days as well as being taken over in-between times but City have proved yet again they are a Club like no other." and: "It now seems a City tradition to get knocked out by these types of sides (remember Doncaster and Chesterfield?) yet I feel this season’s defeat could have easily been avoided." I agree that this defeat could've been avoided, it should've been avoided. Maybe MH has learnt a sharp lesson. AH doesn't mention SWP's injury, so is it all 'smoking mirrors' when MH said that SWP was out of the Brighton game because on injury? How about this.. "No time for the Blues to feel sorry for themselves as they face yet another Sunday game this time at the JJB and a Wigan side that we’ve recently been unable to beat." No pressure on the team then!!!