Burnley 1 – 0 MAN CITY – MY THOUGHTS
14 Mar
It’s quite hard to know where to start. With the season slipping quickly away amidst a sea of lifeless and, frankly, boring performances, this was an excellent chance to record a win and build some notion of momentum ahead of Wednesday’s encounter with Barcelona. Burnley might have received their fair share of plaudits this campaign for the way in which they have acquitted themselves back in the Premier League, but they are fighting relegation for a reason. They don’t score enough goals and they concede too many. So surely City’s visit and the opportunity to put some pressure, however mild it might have been, back on Chelsea ought to have been one that Manuel Pellegrini’s players grasped.
Instead, rather than a committed display full of quality and class – the type of performance this group of players should produce more often than not – what we witnessed was abject. It was dreary. It was hopeless. It was embarrassing. And, in truth, it’s tough to figure out where exactly it went wrong.
- There was no fight or passion.
- There was no urgency on the ball, no tempo and no evident desire to seize the initiative.
- There was no clear plan beyond giving the ball to Sergio Aguero and hoping for the best.
- There was no creativity, no guile and no signs that this was the same attack and midfield that swept aside all opposition last season.
- There was no inspiration from the bench, no changes of system despite the starting XI hitting a brick wall.
- There was no emotion from the manager, no cajoling from the bench, no semblance of being able to influence proceedings on the pitch.
- There was nothing.
This is a side who have been playing together for four seasons, yet there was no cohesion, no balance and certainly no leaders. City’s defence were vulnerable, the midfield non-existent and the attack isolated. It was a team of disinterested individuals, not of a group of players working effectively to claw their way back into the title race.
No supporter will ever be truly gutted at losing to a wonder goal, but to lose when your players haven’t given their all, to lose when your players amble around without trying, to lose when your players yet again lack the motivation to win, that is what crushes fans. That is what stings when you pay all that money to go. That is what so hurts when you give your time and heart to follow your club.
The sad reality is that Burnley didn’t even have to play that well to win. They defended in numbers, pressed intelligently and in packs, and grabbed the victory courtesy of a perfectly-struck drive. Yet they were hardly Bayern Munich. And the honest truth is that they didn’t need to be.
How much of the blame should be directed at Pellegrini and how much criticism should the players take? Well, in recent matches Pellegrini has got it horribly and repeatedly wrong. He has been stubborn and naive and arrogant and lost. He has not reacted to the opposition, nor extracted the most from his own side. Yet it would be unjust, I feel, to direct too much anger at him for what happened at Turf Moor.
Yes, it is, in theory, his role to motivate his players, to have them fired up and raring to go. But this is a group of players who have woefully underperformed this season and who should take pride in their displays. It is easy for them to hide behind their manager, but when they are fighting for the title, desperately trying to cling on to Chelsea and exert some pressure, they should be able to show some character and spirit. They have all the ability in the world, but their attitude this season has been dreadful.
They got their wish with Roberto Mancini being sacked and although they warm far more to Pellegrini, the Chilean may end up suffering the same fate. It is time, however, for the players to accept greater responsibility and to demonstrate just why they are paid so handsomely to play at one of the best clubs in the world. This was an utter shambles.
well said vfab..the embarrassments just keep on coming and to be honest I don’t think even knocking barca out(unlikely) on Wednesday would lift my mood.their needs to be a clear out I would get rid of 7-8 players (permanently and not loans) and bring in say 4 younger hungrier players.this squad seems finished so action should be taken asap. i’m sick to the pit of my stomach and I know I’m not the only 1.
You’re talking like this is the first time these players have done this this year. City has been lazy and embarrassing in EVERY ‘must win’ game this year. The fact that Milner didn’t get on the field today is a disgrace. None of the players on the field looked like they cared. At least James would have given them a spark.
Reminded me of the FA cup final performance against Wigan. The players and manager not really caring;
The performance was disgustingly flat; yet, on another day we could have scored the goals that would have got us the points. The ref’s decision not to give a pen was predictably baffling
I’m worried because apart from the Chelsea game we’ve not played well since Boxing Day (WBA away). I hope the recent run of poor performances and the fact next week’s game against WBA is on the TV will create empty seats and a flat crowd. We, the supporters, need to get behind the team and drag the players through to the end of the season
I hope the owners don’t become disinterested, or we’ll have to get used to results and performances like this one
Agree with some parts but not others. To suggest that these players have no pride or passion are judgments that are very difficult to make and ones I dont totally agree with.
‘There was no fight or passion.’ I didn’t see a Burnley side running more tackling more or winning more second balls, there was no obvious difference in desire in my eyes. When a bigger team is beaten by a smaller one I see these terms such as passion and pride overused especially by pundits to describe the performance, sometimes I may agree but based on what I say today i just don’t.
‘City’s defence were vulnerable, the midfield non-existent and the attack isolated.’Frankly we had lots of possession and there weren’t too many issues defensively, neither centrally or down the flanks. Therefore, on todays game alone I don’t believe formation or the players picked within that system were fundamentally wrong
Against Barce and Liverpool especially I found the in game management to be really poor as you have eluded to in your report, but today I’m not sure what he could’ve done differently. Was a change in formation the answer? Not convinced myself, Bony had to come on and I wouldn’t take off Aguero therefore i would’ve stuck with 442 also
Going forward we weren’t inventive nor clinical, the players looked low on confidence and out of form and should take responsibility for todays result in my opinion. I do also agree we lacked guile and creativity going forward and i truly agree with the closing sentence about players taking responsibility and this not all being down to the manager and therefore aiming all anger at him would be unjust as you say.
I would have agreed with you if we would have lost this game after a run of good results. Save December, City has been struggling to get results. The defensive fragility, non-existent midfield have been so obvious all along through out the season. You look at FA cup, Curling Cup, Champions league(I believe they owe more to luck than anything else to get through Group stages esp against Bayern) and EPL. Struggle after struggle. I can blame players for a game or two but a trend of embarrassing displays/results points to manager only as it is his responsibility to fix issues/manage risks/players and prepare a winning team. Unfortunately, this season he has failed hands down. And the fact that he still shoots his big mouth that all is okay, or we created more chances or they had one chance and they scored or we are still fighting for title is quite upsetting and moronic (excuse after excuse week in and week out). City is truly in danger of falling out of top 4. With a current form Arsenal and Liverpool and Spurs are, it would only take one or two results like today for that to happen.
Good post BB but all that beings accepted, we were a long way short of the sort of performances that these players are capable of and the standards have been slipping, and the motivation missing, for some time now.
Since Christmas at least, it’s been far too lacklustre and indifferent and it’s getting worse not better. For me to see any future in this group of players and management it has to change starting next week.
Even if this unlikely event occurs, a substantial overhaul next summer is needed, within the stultifying grip of FFP of course. That can begin with Denayer, Rekik and Lopes of course, but will it?
It’s not the fact that we are likely to be 3rd, maybe even fourth now; nor is it the lack of a trophy, it’s the attitude of the key people. Vince and Yaya are a shadow of their previous best, a lot of the others are now on the wrong side of 30, and the hunger seems to be missing and complacency has taken its place.
Reluctantly I have come to the view that it would be a mistake to entrust Pellers with the rebuilding needed nest summer.
This is really the lowest that I felt in an city sense for year’s ( the other stuff probably hours ha!!) I disagree with the m.e.n rating on v.k – the goal most certainly was his fault. (Head wide Vincent) he put it straight on his tootsies – in fairness he did finish it sweetly. I like that dyce guy (not too much today mind) I feel – as stated in previous msg – that it would be madness to start v.k, whats the point in “dropping him” for one game?? Come on for fu@@s sake – its not Freud or anything…(another clown) v.k needs a couple of months off to sort his s*$@ out. Playing frank for 10 mins & expecting him to produce a “Hollywood” is just insulting to the man plainly, after the 16 he must be the best finisher that we have at the club. Who knows what’s going on “behind Closed doors”… For the sake of balance dinho tried his heart out.. I’m dreading Barca to be honest. I love city to bits & regardless of what redknapp etc have to say that wont be changing. This is being human – this is sport – there is no black & white people as far as I know so let’s stick together & try & keep In the top four. (Soon to be 3)
Though I do agree with most of your points. I strongly believe the buck stops with Manager. This is not the first game or two that City embarrasses itself. This has been an ongoing issue all along. Even quite a few of our wins owes itself more to lady luck as opposed to our team efforts. It is the job of the manager to prepare of a winning team and pick the right players esp with the amount of talent at his disposal. What is even more alarming is that this stubborn fool is still talking about the title forgetting that we are one or two results like today away from falling out of top four. Bobby got sacked with a lot less than this. In the season after his EPL trophy, he finished strongly as runner ups to EPL and FA.
This manager needs to go ASAP, my God the team are terrible at he moment, and yes a clearout and a new set up in the Summer would be very welcome, disgrace, well done Burnley.
The match had all the impression of an end of season game with nothing riding on it. Nothing should have been further from the truth. My own view is that this team is shot. Too old, too tired and lacking the desire for the fight. Massive reconstruction is needed under a new manager if we’re ever going to get back to the top again.
We sold players that in hindsight was a mistake, people said they were past it and not up to it etic, but their replacements haven’t done it, De jong, Barry, Johnson, Tevez
these are my thoughts about MR PELLEGRINI,yes he was succesfull in his first season,but what is it that this season hes not doing what he done last season. 1 MANGALA,he cant play with Vinnie,vinnies making to many mistakes playing with him. 2,demichelis,yes he come good but to give him another year when we can go and get matt hummels from dormund in the summer,plus we have rekik coming back from psv,cant understand that one.3,fernando,fernandinho,we can sacrifice 1or 2 of these and go and get pogba from juve and give George evans,and seko fofana a chance.4,jovetic,dzeco,not done enough this season for me,we can get better marco reus 24 from dortmond great talent,can score,cavani{proven}and if we can get simione from athletico Madrid,mandzukic might come with him.what ever happens this season we need changes come the summer.
If we all lived in some dystopic parallel universe where there was an amazing billion dollar brain computer that you could supply with information and it would then give you the answer to any question i’d ask it to name the 3 teams in the whole world of sport who have the greatest resources at their disposal and yet consistently deliver the greatest levels of inconsistency. I have no doubt that the response would be City under Hughes, City under Mancini and City under Pellegrini. Honestly I can think of no other team in any sport that delivers outcomes like this and with this degree of depressing predictability.
Looking on the bright side at least City are still top of the table; New York City, obviously!
Good post, in particular regarding the feeling you get as a fan when your players look disinterested. I was absolutely elated on New Year’s Day watching Harry Kane rip into Chelsea. They were being heralded (ridiculously) as one of the best teams in PL history, and we’d kept going on the quiet and ended up level on points. The collapse since then has been embarrassing and mildly insulting to fans and the Premier League. Swanning around with very little consideration for the opposition and waiting for one of your world class players to dig you out is disrespectful and not a sustainable model for a team with aspirations of competing with the very best. And while most people agree that we need to refresh the squad in the summer, I’m not sure I trust Begiristain and Sorriano to deliver given our record in the market in the last three years!
Rebekka Klausen was hired by Johns Hopkins