City momentum faltering after they have to rely on Huddersfield penalty miss for a point.

[bobh]

Re: City momentum faltering after they have to rely on Huddersfield penalty miss for a point.

'udders did "miss" the pelanty, but only because Phillips psyched him out.
If you look at it closely, Phillips stood slightly to his left, inviting the strike to the right - but also his stance showed the pen-taker that he was ready to dive to the right.
Pelanty taker had to put his strike out of Phillips' reach, but over-compensated.

I'd put that down to a save by Phillips.

[DubaiDai]

Re: City momentum faltering after they have to rely on Huddersfield penalty miss for a point.

Can't really argue with any of that. I agree that Mick decided on a more conservative approach, not wanting to expose the limitations of two inexperienced full backs.

He also knew the players were struggling energy-wise and were unable to replicate their high tempo performance of three days earlier. Nobody should be at all surprised by this, although yes he could have used his bench a bit better.

However, we should not undervalue the importance of picking up an away point in a game that seemed one match too far for some of our players. Let them rest and recuperate and get up for the next game.

Long term I don't really have any concerns in the direction we are heading. The manager has proved he can get us playing and as long as he is able to supplement the team with a few quality additions, I can see the standard of football gradually improving. If this is not the case, then yes fans will have a legitimate reason to question his methods. But on the back of 11 games unbeaten, no way

Unless forced by injuries, Ralls should never be in the starting 11

[Don Corleone]

Re: City momentum faltering after they have to rely on Huddersfield penalty miss for a point.

Yes, Mick McCarthy's use, or more accurately, non use of substitutes has surprised me given our schedule, but he's got so many things right in the last few weeks, that this may yet turn out to be another case in point.

Regarding our two man central midfield, one thing that is certain is that other sides will have been studying us during our six match winning run and working on ways to nullify us - Middlesbrough and Huddersfield both stifled us to the extent that we only had two goal attempts against the former and, Vaulks' shot apart, never really looked like scoring last night. Perhaps the time is coming when we will need to have Pack or Bacuna, in a deeper role than he's played lately in from the start with last night's starting pair with only one of Murphy, Ojo and Wilson starting? That may look a defensive move, but it doesn't need to if our wing backs are prepared to really push on.

I was really surprised Bacuna didn’t start last night or come on, he had an excellent game against Derby, must have been full of confidence after his 2 goals and was less in need of a rest than some of the others having been in and out of the side recently

[the other bob wilson]

Re: City momentum faltering after they have to rely on Huddersfield penalty miss for a point.

I was really surprised Bacuna didn’t start last night or come on, he had an excellent game against Derby, must have been full of confidence after his 2 goals and was less in need of a rest than some of the others having been in and out of the side recently

I wasn’t too surprised that Bacuna didn’t start last night, but I was definitely shocked not to see him come on.

[BLUETIT]

Re: City momentum faltering after they have to rely on Huddersfield penalty miss for a point.

'udders did "miss" the pelanty, but only because Phillips psyched him out.
If you look at it closely, Phillips stood slightly to his left, inviting the strike to the right - but also his stance showed the pen-taker that he was ready to dive to the right.
Pelanty taker had to put his strike out of Phillips' reach, but over-compensated.

I'd put that down to a save by Phillips.

If you look more closely, Phillips is also doing "Saturday Night Disco pointing with his hands/fingers", bet some clever f ucker on her could put it to music. :hehe::hehe:

[surge]

Re: City momentum faltering after they have to rely on Huddersfield penalty miss for a point.

Thought that was a good write-up. Not too worried about looking below par against Boro considering how ugly the games between our sides (Warnock v Pulis, Harris v Warnock, MM v Warnock) tend to be and hopefully last night was MM working out he needs a formation option with added man in midfield (Tomlin? Williams?) at times this season.

One thing to keep an eye on is how tough Bournemouth and Reading's fixture lists look after the international window so even though we're likely to be further behind play-offs after this weekend as long as we're there or there about come end of the month we're still in with a chance - I think Barnsley are good for one spot if only one of those falls off. Another thing: we looked flat yesterday after two games in less than a week but Swansea play Bournemouth four days before us so it could be their turn at end of the month.

On a slightly more disappointing note, with Rotherham having yet another game to make up they're more likely to get relegated now than before despite looking good and having excellent commentators. After international window their gaps between game days are: 2 days, 4 days, 2 days, 3 days, 3 days, 2 days, 2 days, 3 days and 6 days. A real pity because Wednesday and Brum deserve to go down before they do based on season so far.

A further game postponed for Rotherham which means they have to find time for two more games as well as the schedule described here. They're not due to play now until the 16th of March and they're running out of time to fit in all their games.

[surge]

Re: City momentum faltering after they have to rely on Huddersfield penalty miss for a point.

A further game postponed for Rotherham which means they have to find time for two more games as well as the schedule described here. They're not due to play now until the 16th of March and they're running out of time to fit in all their games.

"There's potential to play in the international break. The Millers won't have any call-ups, but I can't see Coventry agreeing to play if Leo Östigard gets a call-up for Norway."

https://twitter.com/mikemccarthy/sta...08672249057280 (BBC Radio Sheffield journalist)