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Bale tore him a new one in the CL

Just looked and yeah, it's all coming back to me now. What a difference a couple of seasons makes

Maicon played on my side, he was a beast!!, actually caught Bale once when the good looking welshman had a head start on him, his pass to Silva was fantastic and deserved putting away....Team selection for the Villa game will be interesting!!

Was Bale playing yesterday? I don't recall seeing his ugly ape like face

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Or maybe Bale was just in somebody's pocket for the entire game.

Touchy this morning Galvin

Bale didnt play yesterday, well I didn't notice him.

Surely super Garath bale the world class Welshman would have had an impact?

Any impact?

Bale had one run good run at our defence yesterday otherwise he was a passenger. I assume on the other side the thinking was to play Kolarov in front of Clichy to cut out Lennon and Walker overlapping. It certainly worked.

Miacon played right in front of me too and he was brilliant, not a single poor touch.

Ade has improved immensely since he left us. When he played for us he never got free kicks when he fell over - now his record is 100%.

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I thought Kompany was excellent yesterday.Him and Clichy moving forward to intercept balls rather than sit back was a joy to watch.

Its a pity the injuries you have had in defence becoz you still have the best defence among the top clubs in England although Arsenal could claim to be just as solid.

Thought Hart was poor for the goal, no excuses.If that was De gea he would have been pillored.

a united wum got it spot on when he said City look like Anceloti's chelsea in his 2nd season, same team but a lack of hunger and enthusiasm.

It brings into focus why Mancini is being criticised for trying to change the team, granted it hasnt worked but I believe he is doing the right thing.I still think 3 at the back suits the squad city has and a lack of width.Lets face it Zabaletta and Maicon offer better deliveries and make better runs than Milner,Johnson(when at the club),Sinclair.

I thought Korolov was awful, he was in good positions to make good deliveries but would kick them out of touch.

"Its a pity the injuries you have had in defence becoz you still have the best defence among the top clubs in England although Arsenal could claim to be just as solid."

Haven't Arsenal just conceded 12 goals in their last 4 games? That would be quite a strange claim to make, to be honest.

I disagree completely about the lack of hunger or enthusiasm as well, if that was the case then we wouldn't be able to keep turning games around. Not once have I thought that any of our problems have been due to a lack of effort. Our issues so far this year have been due to both personnel missing and tactical decisions. The perception of lack of hunger, as said by most creditable journalists, is just frankly lazy.

And we're still using zonal marking on set pieces.
Does anyone actually like this way of defending?
I can recall many teams in the past trying to use that system and all shipping goals for fun. Can anyone convince me otherwise?

Alan,

We used it last year and we conceded less from set pieces than any other club. When Benitez was managing Liverpool, they conceded the least from set pieces. Again, used zonal marking.

I don't get why any time a team that uses zonal marking and concedes a goal, that system is blamed, yet the same isn't said for when they use man marking.

It seems to be the new thing where all the pundits are having a go at it, despite the fact the stats show it is more effective than man marking if executed properly.

We are still second without ref assistance and off side goals!

You have to get our defensive crisis in perspective. We have conceded 10 goals - less than everyone in the prem except Stoke and considerably less than the Rags.

It's a crisis don't listen to the rag centric media or idiots like Alan Brazil an his lady boy Roni Irooney on the man united sports breakfast.

It's not the amount of goals conceded but more of how the majority of these goals have been conceded, panic seems to set in on set pieces.
But as has been said ten goals so far, less than a goal a game.

@ meltonblue

I was talking about Arsenal in the league, didnt City concede 3 goals to aston villa in the carling cup???Im obviously not talking about the cups.

Spirit yes City has that in bucketloads but the enthusiasm and excitement doesnt seem evident in this seasons team.Thing is its all related to form but heads seem to drop sometimes, something a spirited individual like Vermalean is also going through at the moment.

anyway I also dont think City's defensive problems are related to zonal marking.Its silly hearing pundits going on about it when most top 6 sides use it with the exception of united.

Its actually more used worldwide than man marking.

we let 4 in against Villa

we don't have a defensive problem. The villa game doesn't count it was the Capital One Cup. Our problem is that we are not scoring enough. Last season we were averaging 3 a game.

kolarov and yaya both got in very bad positions on the free kick, and instead of being involved in clearing the ball ,they lost their player ,and had no chance of attacking the ball
hart was well placed to save the ball ,but it was to close for him to react correctly
ancelottis team was bad,not only poor results but terrible to watch

It might just be me, but it feels like a lot of the time when zonal marking goes wrong it's because Yaya's concentration has lapsed.

Zonal marking will always get more of a slating though as long as there's old school defenders like Hansen giving punditry.

Unfortunately for all his talents, Yaya is inherently lazy when it comes to marking and closing down, he also let Nolan go for the 'offside' goal at West Ham.