Starting at Celtic, God that place has got an atmosphere it's like a Bear Pit! Forget 12th man, 13th and 14th as well, no wonder they have lost so little in the champions league at home. Then combine that on the night with a hell of a lot of luck/good timing, and a decidedly average team managed to somehow get a draw, with lucky and offside goals popping in from everywhere. I've decided I hate watching champions league on BT Sport for two reasons Mcmanaman an ex-player who seems to hate us and obviously the arrogant anti-city idiot back in the studio who I don't even have to name!
Then there was Tottenham and here they were the better team and we showed that a team without DeBruyne wasn't as potent. Also I was surprised to see Fernando (someone who has never felt like a city player) on. For me Fernando and Navas should have made way for Gundogan and Sane from the start. As well as Clichy for Kolarov as Kolarov in my mind is not the full back to play in such a big game away from home, and with his mistake that was sort of proved.
Next Everton and two more missed penalties, myself I was away in Turkey and was gutted not to get a stream this time, but from all I heard it was simply a case of missed opportunities, something that has been plaguing us all season. Now I know this is difficult to say when we had been scoring so many goals, but at times we could have scored so many more which don't matter when you win 4-0 but obviously do when you draw 1-1! then life starts becoming a funny old thing highlighting that momentum and confidence are such a fundamental part of development whoever you are! This is obviously compounded for us by a viscous united bias media wishing to pounce on the slightest crack, like bad parents who constantly want to tell you how shit you are in an effort to break you! When they finally find this corporate Elite group that is running and subsequently destroying the fabric of the world you can bet your bottom dollar there will be a dirty red sat around that table!!!!
So next its Barca and once again the Media pull them up to the top of the highest mountain and place us on the underground! Myself I was quietly optimistic. However I was one of the ones disappointed to not see Sergio, I think that was giving them too much respect. However we had that first half and if it wasn't for a bit of bad luck and a bit more of a precision header we should have justifiably on the run of play gone in 1-0 up. Here my argument for why we could have done better is I like to see DeBruyne in the middle rushing towards the goal, not with his back to goal, because this is where he makes the biggest difference (A Yaya on steroids!!). Also I cant help thinking with all the possession we had Sergio's sheer presence would have given that makeshift Barca defence more to think about and subsequently created more shots on goal. Even into the second half we were still the better team and then the keeper does that! Bravo, Bravo!!! The knife is out and it is getting relatively sharp, but as yet I am not willing to stab him with it! just stop doing that though, please! your shot stopping seems good enough and I do like you passing it out from the back 80% of the time, I know things take time to settle but please start making better decisions soon. Once this was done so was the game, resulting in ab undeserved strange 4-0 loss, that was (as this post bangs on about!) again the mixture of bad luck, poor judgement and missed opportunities.
Finally Southampton at the weekend and I don't agree at all with MOTD analysis which reeked of X players watching highlights! Southampton top 4 my ass! They parked the bus and at times they were reasonable on the counter attack, but along with a relatively solid defence that's all, whilst we gifted them there goal and failed to score enough of our own once more. If you watched the whole 90 minutes live it was us giving away 2 points not Southampton particularly earning 2 points yet you watch MOTD and you'd think Southampton next stop top 4 and a 'super club'!
Anyway you get the theme of this post, so now the rot needs stopping before the media can desperately throw more corrosive material on it and tonight it is the Derby again! I will be there with my bro to witness first hand us steadying the ship whilst sinking there's hopefully! It's a massive game though with how things have gone lately for both sides and Derby's are Derby's anything can happen and usually does! With one thing for sure even with all our success and all their failure recently they are still a lucky club and we are still an unlucky club and I guess that seems destined to stay! So if you are naturally unlucky you have to make sure even more so that you are unbelievably good! so here is hoping.
The End
Colin Bell Stand, Third Tier