Noisy Neighbours - the Man City thread

[Archer]

come on now

barcelona play yesterday, arsenal on tuesday. first choice team yesterday

man c play today, kiev wed, sitting on your bench are hart, clichy, fernandinho, sterling and kompany

even allowing for the injuries thats an affront to the competition and if i were a travelling fan there today i'd have been really pissed off


chelsea had newcastle saturday, paris tuesday, city sunday and put a full team out all three times. it can be done

Do Barcelona play a cup final next Sunday?

no, but to "throw" an fa cup last sixteen via team selection (and yes the youngesters performed better than the senior pros. kolarov and de michelis in particular mailed in in, again) is extremely disrespectful from a very arrogant club

The FA moved the game from a Saturday to a Sunday to accommodate TV. That's the first problem. If they had allowed to be played on Saturday, maybe City would have fielded a full side.
Secondly City have to play a Cup final next weekend. That means they aren't playing a league game next weekend. That means they have to fit in another league game somewhere in an already congested fixture list.
Let's say City get the Champions League Final. That's 7 more games. Let's say they had drawn today with a full strength side and won the replay and went to the FA Cup final after beating Everton after another replay. That's another 5 games.
Add the League Cup final, the remaining 12 league games and they'd have 25 games remaining this season. In what, 12 weeks?
I'm sure City would love to do the quadruple but it's just not possible. You have to prioritise and the League + Champions League and even the League Cup final, come way ahead of the FA Cup.
Didn't Leicester put out reserve sides against Spurs?
Didn't Bournemouth put out a weakened side against Everton?
Yes and both sides were right to do so. The league (winning for Leicester and surviving for Bournemouth) is a far, far bigger deal than a potential FA Cup run.
For these pundits to sit there and pontificate about how it's a disgrace the lineups teams are putting out is a joke.

TheDazzler nails it.

As regards the TV scheduling, City asked for assistance because of the CL game in Kiev and wanted the game played on Saturday. This couldn't be accomodated because Fulham were playing at home and the police supposedly refused permission. They never play Chelsea and Fulham games on the same day apparently. So City pointed out that United played a replay at Chelsea in 2013 and Fulham had a home game against QPR the same day. The police still refused.

Comparisons with Chelsea going to Paris are not fair IMO. There is somewhat of a difference between a 2 hour return trip to Paris and a 10-12 hour return trip.

Pellegrini's and the clubs record of playing strong teams in domestic cup competitions has been excellent this season and last. I suspect they have been the most respectful of the clubs involved in Europe and subsequently Tighty's comment that they are arrogant is very disappointing.

The further problem with fixture congestion for teams involved in the FA Cup. aside from replays,  is that during the later stages PL games need to be rearranged from the weekend and there is a limited number of slots this can happen because games can't be played on the same night a CL or EL games is being played anywhere else in Europe.

  

[TightEnd]

lol.

i am sure mine is a minority view but capital one cup, meh. f a cup =major comp

seems mines is a very outdated view of the fac though, to look at the strategies of a lot of big clubs.

even good old cesc fabregas said he was surprised at teh city team selection in the post match. no axes to grind, of course. (cough)

[Archer]

come on now

barcelona play yesterday, arsenal on tuesday. first choice team yesterday

man c play today, kiev wed, sitting on your bench are hart, clichy, fernandinho, sterling and kompany

even allowing for the injuries thats an affront to the competition and if i were a travelling fan there today i'd have been really pissed off


chelsea had newcastle saturday, paris tuesday, city sunday and put a full team out all three times. it can be done

Do Barcelona play a cup final next Sunday?

no, but to "throw" an fa cup last sixteen via team selection (and yes the youngesters performed better than the senior pros. kolarov and de michelis in particular mailed in in, again) is extremely disrespectful from a very arrogant club

The FA moved the game from a Saturday to a Sunday to accommodate TV. That's the first problem. If they had allowed to be played on Saturday, maybe City would have fielded a full side.
Secondly City have to play a Cup final next weekend. That means they aren't playing a league game next weekend. That means they have to fit in another league game somewhere in an already congested fixture list.
Let's say City get the Champions League Final. That's 7 more games. Let's say they had drawn today with a full strength side and won the replay and went to the FA Cup final after beating Everton after another replay. That's another 5 games.
Add the League Cup final, the remaining 12 league games and they'd have 25 games remaining this season. In what, 12 weeks?
I'm sure City would love to do the quadruple but it's just not possible. You have to prioritise and the League + Champions League and even the League Cup final, come way ahead of the FA Cup.
Didn't Leicester put out reserve sides against Spurs?
Didn't Bournemouth put out a weakened side against Everton?
Yes and both sides were right to do so. The league (winning for Leicester and surviving for Bournemouth) is a far, far bigger deal than a potential FA Cup run.
For these pundits to sit there and pontificate about how it's a disgrace the lineups teams are putting out is a joke.

Shearer was big on the pontification but made me smile in the post-match summary. After slagging off City with the "3 days is plenty of time to recover" narrative and  smiling smugly he then went straight into "Palace must have fancied their chances  against Spurs today" because Spurs had played in the EL on Thursday and the inference they will be tired and not had chance to recover. LOL. Yep, that's 3 days earlier Alan and you recognise it isn't enough time to recover then...

[DungBeetle]

The problem isn't that the cream of the academy were chucked in.  It's that they have hardly had any exposure before.  This isn't aimed at City but I don't understand why all clubs don't have a couple of youngsters on the bench every league match. How many times this year has a club been absolutely cruising and not had the opportunity of giving a youngster 20 minutes from the bench?  Watford don't do it either despite having some decent forward prospects Deeney and Ighalo are run into the ground even when we are 2 goals up.

[horseplayer]

The hypocrisy of the BBC team does not surprise

[Archer]

The problem isn't that the cream of the academy were chucked in.  It's that they have hardly had any exposure before.  This isn't aimed at City but I don't understand why all clubs don't have a couple of youngsters on the bench every league match. How many times this year has a club been absolutely cruising and not had the opportunity of giving a youngster 20 minutes from the bench?  Watford don't do it either despite having some decent forward prospects Deeney and Ighalo are run into the ground even when we are 2 goals up.

Agree with this and a big source of frustration. On one hand I can understand a manager wanting to give his senior players minutes off the bench if they've not featured much but as far as City are concerned they've had plenty of opportunities to chuck in youngsters more than they have.

[nirvana]

players would regularly play three games a week all season, at all levels

Slight exagg of olden times - 2 games yah plus clubs could organise most of their midweek home games to suit their preferred way of doing things

[Doobs]

lol.

i am sure mine is a minority view but capital one cup, meh. f a cup =major comp

seems mines is a very outdated view of the fac though, to look at the strategies of a lot of big clubs.

even good old cesc fabregas said he was surprised at teh city team selection in the post match. no axes to grind, of course. (cough)

That isn'[t the point.  Many would agree with that, but most of them would also agree that final capital one cup >> last 16 fa cup.

[TightEnd]

some interesting stuff on yesterday

Pellegrini turned the day's big match into a point-scoring exercise

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-city/12167616/Manchester-Citys-Manuel-Pellegrini-turns-the-days-big-match-into-a-point-scoring-exercise.html

Manchester City youngsters suffer tough day as Pellegrini looks ahead

http://gu.com/p/4hvdf/stw 

[horseplayer]

I am always wary of any British Press articles on Pelle.

Make no mistake he has given them not a sniff in the years he has been here (nor did he when in charge in Spain)  and any chance to stick the boot in has never been missed.

Find it slightly strange the same writers bemoan the lack of chances young players get most weeks then some outraged when a load get their chance, only just watched the game and the first half in particular COULD bring on some of those players massively, much more than a loan spell or under 21 football would.

The Guardian article is not far from the mark tbf.

[Archer]

some interesting stuff on yesterday

Pellegrini turned the day's big match into a point-scoring exercise

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-city/12167616/Manchester-Citys-Manuel-Pellegrini-turns-the-days-big-match-into-a-point-scoring-exercise.html

Manchester City youngsters suffer tough day as Pellegrini looks ahead

http://gu.com/p/4hvdf/stw 

Agree with horseplayer that the guardian article is balanced enough. Unlike, for example, the ManuMirror and other tabloids but overall the view on this is polarised.


Here is the view of Gary James (a City historian)  : https://twitter.com/GaryJamesWriter?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author   and his point taht the FA have devalued their own competition.

Disrespecting the FA Cup - a few thoughts: process started years ago. First, teams started to move home fixtures to other venues to 'cash in' (fortunately, now stopped); the final stopped being treated as the event in the sporting calendar and just became an ordinary match as far as broadcasters concerned; replays reduced to satisfy a few big clubs; FA encouraged a leading team not to enter because it would 'help' their World Cup bid (it didn't); semifinals moved to Wembley to cash-in; finals moved to weird times to suit broadcasters or sponsors - Not fans!; FA cup draw moved around to odd times, sometimes broadcast, sometimes not, often before all scheduled games could be played; Major League fixtures played on same day or take preference - for broadcasters & sponsors sake, not ours!; leading teams in 90s prioritising Europe/PL over FA cup by picking weakened sides... A trend that grew to include teams struggling in the League as well; sponsorship of the old cup; now - title if FAC now bears sponsor's name, something the FA said would never happen - the FAC was the only trophy 'above' naming rights! I could go on, but the point is that the FA have devalued their own competition, as have the media, the Premier League, multiple clubs over the last few decades... In fact the only people who haven't devalued the competition are the fans - we're the ones who pay the admission, TV licence fee, Satelite subscription and buy the newspapers, match programmes, Bovril, half-half scarfs etc. time for football, especially the FA, to start respecting us!

[hhyftrftdr]

Didn't think City had any historians.

[tikay]

Didn't think City had any historians.

Ooh, very good.

[hhyftrftdr]

Morning Teeks

Something that people might not realise; the game kicks off in Kiev at 9.45, so come midnight Wednesday/ticking over to Thursday, the players will still be sat in the dressing room. I imagine they will stay Wednesday night/Thursday morning in Ukraine, then fly back. Not sure how much training you can put them through after a 3+ hour flight so Thursday is pretty much a write off. Saturday will be travelling down to London, so that only really leaves Friday as a full day for intense training and whatnot.

Not looked at any media yet today, assume Pellers is being battered?

[tikay]

Morning Teeks

Something that people might not realise; the game kicks off in Kiev at 9.45, so come midnight Wednesday/ticking over to Thursday, the players will still be sat in the dressing room. I imagine they will stay Wednesday night/Thursday morning in Ukraine, then fly back. Not sure how much training you can put them through after a 3+ hour flight so Thursday is pretty much a write off. Saturday will be travelling down to London, so that only really leaves Friday as a full day for intense training and whatnot.

Not looked at any media yet today, assume Pellers is being battered?

In "The Game" in today's Times, big 2 page article, pages 2 & 3.....

Pelligrini: I was right to rest stars despite rout