Positives & Negatives v Man City (one of each please)

[1964white]

Positive.....Rodrigo debut goal

Negative......Gave them too much respect in the first 20 minutes

[HarryofOz]

Positive: The quality of our bench (with Pablo and Harrison to be added to today's squad)

Negative: The amount of time it took you to start this thread to allow me to state the above ;) (Just kidding, love the thread)

[Byebyegeegee]

Negative - 1st 20 minutes
Positive - next 70 minutes

[The Subhuman]

Positive - Rodrigo looks class, has to start (for me at 9)

Negative - The nervous start

[mothbanquet]

+ Rodrigo getting his first, looking better and better every game now.
- Cooper needs to set the standards from the start - his mistake that led to their goal was born of nerves, he needs to be a rock from the first second

[Lorimer46]

Positive - Poveda
Negative- to sloppy with possession gave it away to many times

[Muppet the Cat]

+ immediate impact from the bench with Poveda and Rodrigo

- took us a while to appreciate that we are good enough

[John in Louisiana]

Positive:Since others have already cited the play of Poveda, Rodrigo, and Koch, I will say Meslier's performance. Still can't believe he's only 20 years old.

Negative: Since others have already cited the flat start, I will say nothing. We were every bit their equals over the last 70 minutes.

[weasel]

Positive - Defending I felt was a lot better, especially given the amount of pressure we invited on ourselves. Despite City's dominance in the opening 20 minutes Messlier didn't really have any saves to make (unless I missed one as stream was a bit iffy until the goal) apart from the goal. In the full 90 minutes I don't really recall Messlier having to make a save of note apart from Bamford's header whereas in contrast Ederson had to make several good saves. City had more chances but we had better chances.

Negative - I feel we are still light of at least 1 quality player. In choosing Alioski and Roberts to start I feel Bielsa was making sure he still had positive options to bring players on. However once Poveda and Rodrigo were on we didn't really have anyone to come on to give us a further spark to try to win the game. Obviously we have Harrison and Pablo to come back but I hope we do get one more addition to the squad. If we had someone else to come on around the 70th to 80th minute we might just have been able to create another chance and win the match.

[HarryofOz]

Positive - Rodrigo looks class, has to start (for me at 9)

Negative - The nervous start

I am pretty sure that once he has reached Bielsa-fitness that he will start - either at 10 or 9.

[SG90]

Positive: Rodrigo and Poveda changing the game
Negative: Gifting them a goal with two poor clearances

[CHAPELALLMAN]

Positive - it looks as though we have bought one hell of a player with Moreno.

Negative - Alioski isn't going to be good enough at this level.

[Finnatic]

Positive. Toe to toe with the best two in the Premier League so need not fear other teams, although we will lose against some.

Negative. As John (Louisiana) said, rabbits in headlights first twenty mins, with sloppy passing included.

[Fridge]

Positive - Rodrigoooooo

Negative - Roberts starting in place of Rodrigo, less of that please

[paddy parrott]

Positive for me is.. Team ethics.
Negative : why the singling out of individual errors of some Leeds players 3/4 games in .
* ( see above ).

[Leeds1000]

Negative - Agreed with you lot. First 20mins we couldn't live with them.

Positive - For 20mins second half they struggled to live with us.

[LUFC 1966]

Positive: Rodrigo and Poveda changing the game
Negative~ Alioski and Roberts

[WhiteRose]

Positive - it looks as though we have bought one hell of a player with Moreno.

Negative - Alioski isn't going to be good enough at this level.

Yeah it saddens me that, he is such a good lad and I bet the rest of the squad love having him around. I still think he has his uses as a sub though and he can be a disruptive presence, often popping up where opposition least expect him. Be harder for him to get on the bench though as more quality comes in.

[weasel]

Yeah it saddens me that, he is such a good lad and I bet the rest of the squad love having him around. I still think he has his uses as a sub though and he can be a disruptive presence, often popping up where opposition least expect him. Be harder for him to get on the bench though as more quality comes in.

Always tricky getting the squad balance right because you need people who are content to simply be bench players and give it 100% when they come in. Alioski to that extent is great as a squad player, he can come on, or start if needed, in a couple of positions, knows the system, knows how to play it although might not be as good as the player he replaced isn't going to spit the dummy out. Plus how much would it cost to have a player of Harrison's ability just to sit on the bench?

I think that if Poveda and Rodrigo had started today we would have still been under the cosh for the first 20 minutes. Man City can dominate against any team in the world. As such for me Bielsa got it spot on by keeping them on the bench so that he could change things positively. Poveda was a great introduction although hardly saw the ball in the last 20 minutes and for me looks like he can be a great impact sub in the way that Jack Clarke was - however we all saw with Jack Clarke how his impact diminished when he started. 18 months ago and people were screaming for Clarke to start instead of Harrison. I do feel though that Rodrigo will start to get more and more minutes and I wouldn't be surprised to see him starting soon.

[Carrick Dave]

Positive: Rodrigo looking like Spain’s no. 9

Negative: Tyler looking weaker in comparison, and I believe he has a great future - I think he needs a change in mindset, to ditch the languid superior talent approach as Bamford had to, and concentrate on doing the basics better all the time.

Just my take, sorry Faiip.