FA Cup Final - Manchester City 6-0 Watford FC - 18/05/2019 Match Thread

Yes probably would.

 

Peryera in particular, but some others as well looked like they needed dropping for a while to get their spark back. But for all our early season wonder of our squad it became apparent that in certain positions we just didn't have any cover. So they got away with not busting a gut. I don't actually think most didn't try, but perhaps that extra 5% you need wasn't always evident near the end of the season from too many. Better competition in all areas hopefully reduces this.

 

Perhaps in previous seasons the players took their foot off the gas (either consciously or unconsciously), especially when it became clear that the manager wouldn't be staying. Looking back on it, the Arsenal game was the one which really ****ed it for us, was such a winnable game anyway, but to lose it like that, having to put in an extra shift with our midfield in particular not getting any rest, must have taken so much out of us (ditto West Ham). Ultimately, I don't think it's a matter of heart (we've certainly had enough comebacks this season to refute that claim), I think it's one of injuries, suspensions, and a possible slight mismanagement of the squad by Gracia and the board hitting us at just the wrong time. Maybe Chalobah could have been brought in to give Doucs/Capoue more of a breather? Maybe Wilmot shouldn't have been loaned out?

 

I agree with pretty much all of this and that's what got to me on Saturday and the end of the season in general. The other thing was that they seemed to freeze a bit due to the occasion and were mentally beaten before a ball was kicked as we were playing City.

As much as we need players who make less mistakes, we need players with strong character.

 

Certainly worked wonders for Holebas. Masina hasn't looked great when called upon, but the threat of taking Jose's place in the team kicked his arse into gear. Maybe the same would be true of Pereyra, though I don't think he wants to stay anyway

 

Alessandro Diamanti.

Almen Abdi as a surfer dude.

 

Great idea.

Much bigger catchment area than W Herts/S Bucks.

Would recommend near motorway junction.

 

200 times the size of Watford and not in the Chinese Super League

 

We are higher on the wage league than them (13th vs 16th) & they only just survived.

https://www.independent.ie/sport/so...ester-united-boss-jose-mourinho-37566304.html

What is noteworthy how far the top 11 are ahead of the rest.

Soton in 11th pay over 50% more than us.

Difficult to overcome that year after year.

Have we peaked?

 

A gap in the market the size of Texas!

Anyone got the number for the Polish guys who built the SEJ?

 

Be competing for fans with the big Shanghai teams so it'd be much the same as now! On the plus side, Hangzhou is lovely, very picturesque

 

Can we still get there from the met line in watford ? How many stops and where do I change ?

 

Take the eastbound District Line, changing at Baikal North.

Round trip a month.

Imagine how empty The Family Stand is going to be, especially when Disneyland HK have a 2 for 1 offer.

 

Usually after a match, within 5 minutes of the result I don't really care anymore - this one took a bit longer to get over, but that also may been the almighty two-day hangover.

We were atrocious, no sugar-coating that at all, Gracia really should've gone with a team/formation similar to when we last played them, despite losing 3-1 we actually looked decent for a good part of that game and with different officials/VAR we may have even got a result - think only two players that were involved that day started on Saturday which surprised me. I actually think City could've hit 10 if they really wanted to.

You know how tinpot we are that even after losing 6-0 the opposition fans aren't even mocking us, just offering their sympathies.

The only positive to come out of that defeat is that the Pozzo's can't avoid how utterly hopeless that defence is and will have no excuse not to invest - let's just hope investment doesn't come at the price of losing Delefou/Docuoure with no like-for-like replacements.

 

There's a Disneyland in Shanghai now too, so even worse!

 

Pretty straightforward once the BRI is finished: Met line to Kings Cross, then walk to St Pancreas, train to Rotterdam (via Brussels) to catch the BRI train to Xian, then it's a local train from Xian to Hangzhou, well worth the trip to see Wu Lei score 5 against our defence!!

 

None of this matters now. GD has just won best goal of this season's FA cup.
Back of the net !

 

That table throws up some surprises, looks very different to a net spend table! Worth noting that the list is average salary per player, I don't know how big Brighton's squad is, but there are a lot of passengers in that team (dunno if that's Hughton's fault or whether those players are genuinely terrible). The problem with our model is that it's based on quantity as much as quality, so there's a lot of dead wood in the squad. Get rid of most of them, we have a chance of competing in the transfer market, it not, we're relying on stumbling upon a diamond in the rough

 

Sorry, but I think you are so, so wrong.

Our players did want it, but City wouldn't give them a look in. They have proved themselves much better at winning the physical battles against virtually every other team. They hound you and they exhaust you. Keeping possession takes less energy than chasing possession. They are also at a huge advantage psychologically than most teams. We went into the final saying 'we might win this' knowing we probably wouldn't. They went in saying 'we're gonna win this' knowing they probably would. No-one could kid themselves otherwise but it doesn't mean we didn't try our best.

Also, you don't insist your players run until they puke, that's just playing into an opposition's hands, anyone knows that you've got to conserve enough energy until the end of a match, City included. City knackered us out. Didn't Kiko go down with cramp at one point? You don't get that from not putting in the effort. City were better than us in every department, shitloads of money has paid for it. They could have been complacent but they were totally and ruthlessly focused on winning. We just weren't good enough but I couldn't see any of our players giving up.

This season has been our best for over 30 years. If you are sick of a whole season just because a few matches at the end didn't go to plan, that's your 'glass-half empty' negativity but it definitely isn't mine.

 

Just three starting players from that game started the game on Saturday - Kiko, Doucoure and Capoue.

• 26Foster
• 2Janmaat
• 27Kabasele
• 3BritosSubstituted forCathcartat 82'minutes
• 11Masina
• 21FemeníaSubstituted forDeulofeuat 66'minutes
• 16Doucouré
• 29Capoue
• 8CleverleyBooked at 18mins
• 10SuccessSubstituted forDeeneyat 66'minutes
• 18Gray

Substitutes

• 1Gomes
• 7Deulofeu
• 9Deeney
• 12Sema
• 15Cathcart
• 20Quina
• 25Holebas

Four key players on the bench, three of them only coming on when the game was lost (a not too dissimilar story to last Saturday funnily enough). I commend Javi trying something different in a game that reasonably he thought we had no chance of getting anything from, but you can’t adopt such a laissez-faire attitude in an FA Cup final, so you have to have to play your strongest if not necessarily fittest team. Whatever the wrongs of the referee, and however well we played in parts, City still utterly dominated us in possession, chances, shots and corners as they’ve been doing to 90% of teams and we would’ve still lost whatever the circumstances. We played OK because there was no pressure, had fringe players eager to prove themselves, were on a good run and confident and fit. Sadly the final was a totally different story. I think we have to concede for now that Watford vs Man City is just a very bad match-up - the 6-0 was hardly a one-off.

But if we’d played that team even for half the season, our hopes of European qualification would’ve been over far earlier than they were. I think the season’s end proves that our squad isn’t as deep as many of us thought - in quantity yes, but not in quality. I think this is more evident than our defence being “utterly hopeless” based on a hammering against the best ever top flight team - against teams outside the top six, when we have had all 11 players on the pitch, our defence has been reasonably solid and certainly better at managing games than it was under Silva and Mazzarri. A back four of Holebas, Cathcart, Kabs and Kiko can pretty comfortably hold their own against the rest. It is the depth that is the problem and why our first team was so knackered towards the end.

 

Kiko was down at 80 mins but all the subs had gone.

Cathcart was also hobbling around in the first half.

Not ideal against a KdB/Sane sub combo.

 

You've never actually played a competitive football match in your life though.

 

So, just like Watford, then.

 

Thanks for changing the name of the thread Dom. I needed the reminder.

 

Hi as you will see from my name....am a City fan just browsing to see what the fall-0ut was from cup final.
Read this post with interest.....you have had a great season both in league and across the FA cup.
Also it was humbling to see your reaction at 5-0.....first one or two flags , then more until your whole end was red and yellow.
I for one will remember that a long , long time....we have all had bad or "difficult" days and surely most could identify with how your players must have felt.....but to see that support and humanity ( a metaphorical arm around the shoulder) was amazing...........

 

.Watching what I have of you guys I feel you play too much " football" against the top six.......
Not shutting up shop . Staying in the game al a Newcastle......
Just using Troy to get up the pitch and nothing more. Win a set play .
You tend to play bright expansive football at times that is decent to watch.........however not quite so enthusiastic without the ball heading back to your own goal.
Less adventure....more tenacity against top six. Make it a dire , slug fest. Rope a dope?

 

I thought this was what we would do at wembley. Unfortunately we decided our mission was to entertain the world.

 

This made me smile...... You certainly did play your part in entertaining the world !

On a positive note . I feel your players will come out fighting at start of next season having had the summer possibly feeling uncomfortable and slightly embarrassed by their final performance.
Professional pride an all......

 

On a side note.....what do you guys feel about Gray? I rate him and think he has real potential to go further? However I don't watch him week in week out ?

 

I think it's fair to say we don't necessarily share your optimism. A poor run over the last month or two we hoped would culminate in a really battling display at Wembley. We didn't see that so it just became a longer poor run. With a few indicating they might be ready for a move away this will be a real test of Gracia's management skills and Pozzo recruitment. We haven't started a season badly since we came back up which has kept us clear of any relegation worries - remarkable really, and we don't want to start now.

 

Does anyone know when the second leg is?

 

Not popular from day 1 due to the fee and being ex L****. Has a terrible touch which causes attacks to breakdown and is ineffective against packed defences at home. More effective away from home where the extra space means the ball "bouncing off him" doesn't matter so much. Great "goals per minute" stats and has won us some key games coming on late. The issue is can you really play him, GD and TD in the same 11 ? So it has been a choice of GD or AG.

 

...and what the ticket arrangements are ? Pulling 6 goals back against Citeh certainly looks doable.

 

Cheers. I like the fact he is mobile though.....
Who would you like to sign within reason ( we all would like messi) . And who will you sign in summer?

 

Very doable.....all sky tv ( ex loser pool and United) experts have said for last two seasons how our defence can be got at !

Just get the ball in good " areas".......,,,,