Premier League - Manchester City vs Ipswich Town Preview & Matchday THread

[Ricco]

Just thinking what might've been if not for individual errors!

A mad few minutes, I guess we don't deserve a point from the game though...

[AzzurroMark]

Just thinking what might've been if not for individual errors!

A mad few minutes, I guess we don't deserve a point from the game though...

Agree. They'd have found other ways through that's for sure. As they just add a fourth.

[Charnwood]

Another goal from nothing for Hasrland. 4-1

His 23rd career hat trick

101 Appearances for Man City and 94 goals scored inc 11 hat tricks.

Phenomenal

[mugen1]

Conor Townsend We have signed already .

Thought he was just cover.

Time to give him a run out then imo.

Davis hasn't helped his cause today. Wasn't overly impressed with him last weekend, this just adds to the doubt.

KM will not do that. Davis has been up against two fantastic players (ok, he'll be up against many more this season) and he will be more experienced for it. Dropping players willy nilly isn't good for team confidence.

True enough, but it's been said before his defensive game can be a little lacking. Bombing forward, amazing, just needs to up that defensive side of his game to match it.

But then I'm not a Premier League footballer. Dead easy for me to criticize 🫣

[AzzurroMark]

Thought he was just cover.

Time to give him a run out then imo.

Davis hasn't helped his cause today. Wasn't overly impressed with him last weekend, this just adds to the doubt.

KM will not do that. Davis has been up against two fantastic players (ok, he'll be up against many more this season) and he will be more experienced for it. Dropping players willy nilly isn't good for team confidence.

True enough, but it's been said before his defensive game can be a little lacking. Bombing forward, amazing, just needs to up that defensive side of his game to match it.

You are right there, he certainly needs to up that side of his game. Hopefully there'll be a few easier games now where he will be able to use his 3 lungs to burn up and down the touchline.

[mugen1]

Got to feel for CW.

Dropped after a cracking game against Liverpool.

Wonder what that's done for his confidence?

[Bluemike]

Much better second half. I'm only disappointed because of the nature of the goals, we gave them Three goals which ultimately cost us, better teams than us will be tonked by more. Our season starts in earnest now.

[mugen1]

KM will not do that. Davis has been up against two fantastic players (ok, he'll be up against many more this season) and he will be more experienced for it. Dropping players willy nilly isn't good for team confidence.

True enough, but it's been said before his defensive game can be a little lacking. Bombing forward, amazing, just needs to up that defensive side of his game to match it.

You are right there, he certainly needs to up that side of his game. Hopefully there'll be a few easier games now where he will be able to use his 3 lungs to burn up and down the touchline.

[mugen1]

Much better second half. I'm only disappointed because of the nature of the goals, we gave them Three goals which ultimately cost us, better teams than us will be tonked by more. Our season starts in earnest now.

Can't argue with that

[AzzurroMark]

Hey, two of our hardest games gone and still we're not on the bottom of the table as you'd perhaps expect. Thank you Everton!!

[Charnwood]

No mention even of the stone wall penalty we were denied when Davis was flattened at the opposite end of the pitch by the same player he gave his penalty away to.

[AzzurroMark]

No mention even of the stone wall penalty we were denied when Davis was flattened at the opposite end of the pitch by the same player he gave his penalty away to.

Martin Keowm has just said that we should have had a penalty.

[Bluemike]

Ridiculous decision Andy, all the commentators on the stream I watched said 100% penalty

[Cabanas Blue]

I'm not disappointed had we been playing say Leicester and Southampton I would be, the season starts now COYB.

[Ricco]

Well let's get the bad ref decisions and errors out of the way in the game we were never realistically likely to get much from. Frustrating, but two losses and a -5 GD was pretty expected!

[Charnwood]

Ridiculous decision Andy, all the commentators on the stream I watched said 100% penalty

You may have watched the same channel as me, Premier League 1 IRE where all 3 pundits were trying to find the mitigating circumstances to justify the refs decision not to award the penalty and count find nothing and described it as a stone wall penalty denied.

Surely in such a situation VAR should intervenes as it was clear snd obvious referee error ?

I’m really not up to speed with VAR so not sure if I’m right wrong ?

[shabba]

Njce to be able to celebrate a goal - especially as it was taking a lead.

Had a right bad ten mins - otherwise fairly stable. Just move on and get the season started after this - like Mike stated.

I do tho know we have the front line of Clarke, Szmodics, delap and Hutchinson then we will get goals this season.

Midfield needs attention but it’s got that now with the new signings so let’s see how we are in 5 games time.

[Bluemike]

I thought Szmodics was really good today

[hallamblue]

Ridiculous decision Andy, all the commentators on the stream I watched said 100% penalty

We are going to get this big team bias the whole season. We’d better get used to it.

[ITFC2024]

Have to admit I said “Thank God!” when the final whistle blew. It really could have been a mauling, so well done lads especially considering we gave them two goals.

Greaves and Szmodics clearly our best signings, so far. Delap tries really hard, but he lacks the end product.

-5 GD against two of the best teams in Europe, so a lot better than I was expecting. You really have to admire the class of Man City. Super players!

Great save by Muric to redeem himself a bit, but still a stupid mistake to gift them a goal.

I’m not sure one striker is enough against the top teams, but then again we need a stronger midfield.

Bring on Fulham! COYB!!

[MasseyFerguson]

Realistically, the season starts now.

I don't think any of us expected points from the first two fixtures. What is heartening is that we do not look out of place in this league. While we were well beaten today. City are probably the best team in the world right now and we were competitive for most of the game.

From what I've seen so far, Everton and Leicester are nailed on to go down. Leicester were poor against Spurs, should have been 4 down at half time, and capitalised on a defensive error to get a draw. We look a lot better than them. Everton could have conceded 8 against Spurs today.

I'm pretty confident we will end up somewhere in mid-table, comfortably clear of the drop zone. That view is predicated on our not losing confidence if more early season results go against us. Lack of belief can become a habit. We need to stay vocally supportive of our team at all times.

[Mach_Polish_Blue]

Got back.

It was always going to be a tall order. Anything out of the game seemed impossible. The team have never disgraced themselves. However there is something that doesn't make me happy. What did Walton do wrong last week to be dropped today? Muric was a pure calamity today.

Of course mistakes happen but this what Muric did for Man City's 2nd goal. It wasn't a mistake, we can't classify it as a mistake. It was a stupidity. It was an inexcusable, careless attitude. Of course City was always going to be too strong for us but his moment of utter madness ended a game for us. He threw the game away. He had 3 seconds to either pass the ball or kick it long forward. The game was over after 15 minutes even though we had taken a lead.

Anyone remember what Muric had done during the Burnley-Brighton game last season? Isn't he able to learn?

Today and last week was a brutal lesson for Leif Davis. Our king of crosses and assists. These two games and quality of the opposition was a clear message to him that he is a full-back and his main focus is defence. Leif has had a few dodgy moments in both games, today particularly in the first half. We all love his forays but it's a Premier League and hard season for us therefore his main focus is defence. Need to be said that we probably should have had a penalty after he had been knocked down. Where was VAR?

Positives from today:

- very disciplined at the back in the 2nd half

- Delap. I really like him. It's going to be a fierce competition between him, Hirst and new striker

- Szmodics. Did a lot in terms of tracking back and working for all formations.

- Johnson. A bit better than last week but still his positioning isn't perfect

- number of other teams will have done worse than us at Etihad as we put in an effort.

- 3000 Town fans. All stayed till the end and thanked players after the game

-------------

A goal difference after the first two games isn't as brutal as some predicted. However next week it's all about going for a win. Fulham are a strong, athletic team but ... no excuses. We've got to have a go at them.

[ITFC2024]

I’ll take the goal keeper debate even further, after Muric’s performance today he should be benched. Walton deserves to be our number one!

[Bluemike]

Agree with some of the posts above, as for Muric, he came here with a bad reputation for this crap and Burnley fans said he'd cost us a lot of points, he's made a good start. He needs to learn and learn quickly.

As for Davis, not impressed with his defending again and never really has been in truth. He needs to up his game and quickly.

[Blue Wilf]

Fab scenes when the goal went in. We outsung them all game. They are better than us - the small first touches that are not 100% get punished here and not in the championship. Muric should have just hit it!!!! He has a mare... we tired but they are just better than us. We will have better days and move on to our 'real' season now. Refs hive us nothing ( we thought in Lge 1 and Champ that they were poor cos lower leagues - forget it - Prem refs just as bad! I get it why we play out from the back but I just do not understand what we think we will gain from it against teams like this?? Stop putting ourselves under unnecessary pressure as we will inevitably get punished - you don't need to be Pep or KMc to see that, surely??

[ITFC2024]

Fab scenes when the goal went in. We outsung them all game. They are better than us - the small first touches that are not 100% get punished here and not in the championship. Muric should have just hit it!!!! He has a mare... we tired but they are just better than us. We will have better days and move on to our 'real' season now. Refs hive us nothing ( we thought in Lge 1 and Champ that they were poor cos lower leagues - forget it - Prem refs just as bad! I get it why we play out from the back but I just do not understand what we think we will gain from it against teams like this?? Stop putting ourselves under unnecessary pressure as we will inevitably get punished - you don't need to be Pep or KMc to see that, surely??

Exactly!

[hallamblue]

Fab scenes when the goal went in. We outsung them all game. They are better than us - the small first touches that are not 100% get punished here and not in the championship. Muric should have just hit it!!!! He has a mare... we tired but they are just better than us. We will have better days and move on to our 'real' season now. Refs hive us nothing ( we thought in Lge 1 and Champ that they were poor cos lower leagues - forget it - Prem refs just as bad! I get it why we play out from the back but I just do not understand what we think we will gain from it against teams like this?? Stop putting ourselves under unnecessary pressure as we will inevitably get punished - you don't need to be Pep or KMc to see that, surely??

This was exactly my point about McKenna last season. He went to Leeds to play an open attacking game, in the full knowledge they had the capability to tear us a new backside( which they did at PR ). So instead of learning by it and tweeking our approach ( we really only needed a point out the game at that stage), he decides to stick to " our identity" and attack at will. 20 mins into the game we're stuffed.

I couldn't see the game today so have no idea if that'll was our tactics again. I feared it might be.

[Blue Wilf]

I think it was, pretty much. We were 'brave' as KMc will say but fact is, they toyed with us, cut though us at will and could have scored many more. I admire our bravery but why get the ball and play suicidal balls across the penalty area when you have arguably the beat center forward, winger (Doku - what pace!) and attacking midfielders on the planet against you? It is simply playing russian roulette and as suspected, Muric found the bullet and it was game over! We needed to park the bus and be hard to break down, pack the defence and frankly, hoof it when possible to frustrate them - exactly what so many teams have done to us over the years! We went toe to tow with them - admirable but untimately, pointless which is what we are! Incidentally - I said many times that I feared the spectator experience would not be as much fun as it has been in the past few seasons when we made the Prem and I can categorically say, after two games, that the 'show' has been better but the spectator experience has not even got close... their stands basically emptied at 75 minutes!! However - I still think there will be 3 teams worse than us in this league once we get our new squad up and running so I will keep my powder dry and keep the faith... COYB's!

[ITFC2024]

Yeah KM has to realize too that playing out from the back against world class players in a high press may not be the best option. We usually got away with it in League One & the Championship, but it won’t work against top teams in the Prem.

[mugen1]

MOTD coverage was shocking