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Haunted by Arne Slot's ghost as things go from bad to worse for the blues
20 Plays26 days ago
Episode 50, Daily Manchester City - in Man City Daily's 50th episode, the blues give us nothing to celebrate on the pitch as Arne Slot's former team Feyenoord come back from a 3 goal deficit to draw at the Etihad in an historic City capitulation.
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Transcript
Introduction to Manchester City Daily
00:00:04
Speaker
The Global Sports Podcast Network. Hello and welcome back to Manchester City Daily, your one-stop shop for all things Sky Blue, brought to you by, of course, the Global Sports Podcast Network. I'll waste no time with this one.
Reaction to Disappointing Match
00:00:17
Speaker
We're recording an immediate post-match review reaction straight off the back of yet another disappointing day, match night as a Manchester City fan. Manchester City 3, final three, at home at the Etihad in the Champions League.
00:00:31
Speaker
a complete capitulation from going 3-0 up. Just the first time in the competition's history a team has been 3-0 at the 75 minute mark and went on to not win the game.
00:00:44
Speaker
Joining me to discuss this in hopefully not too great detail or depth, because I think we're all a bit defeated at the moment, and is Keelan McNamara and Lewis. Lads, I mean, I'll start with you, Keelan. How do we even contextualize that? What words and what thoughts are going through your head after that match?
Emotional Responses from Fans
00:01:02
Speaker
I mean, I'll try and keep it as PG as I can, Jack, but I still can't believe what I've just seen. It's absolutely... I mean, we but we were talking about this before we started recording. Ironically, the one game we haven't lost and it feels like the worst thing out of all these recent fixtures In a very perverse way, I almost would have rather we just lost because I kind of expected us to throw it away. But to be humiliated and to capitulate, no disrespect intended. To Fionord, of all teams, the one easy game we were meant to have at home.
00:01:39
Speaker
And to go and throw a 3-0 lead away with 15 minutes to go is unforgivable. I'm sorry, there there is no recourse here. There is no amnesty to be given. All these games that we've lost, I could kind of make an excuse for
Critique of Team's Performance
00:01:56
Speaker
them. You know, injuries here, bad tactics here. The other team wanted it more, whatever. Hell, even the Tottenham game, which was an embarrassment in its own right, I could kind of get small refuge from.
00:02:08
Speaker
There's no refuge from this. This is absolute cowardice, its capitulation, its spinelessness and its pathetic attempts at defending from professional footballers. I i can't remember the last time I was this embarrassed by being a Man City supporter. i I feel absolutely humiliated, to be honest with you, because that was just as low as it gets.
00:02:33
Speaker
The atmosphere is just so completely deflated at the moment. Lewis, that to me felt like the worst result under Guardiola. I don't know if that's a bit of a reactionary take or a controversial point to make, but what what do you think that that result, where do you think it lies in our in our kind of time under Guardiola?
Historical Context of the Defeat
00:02:56
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's definitely up there as as one of our worst. I think although we were 1-0 up at half time, I thought the first half performance was nowhere near our best yet again. I didn't expect it to be. But there is that that sneaky feeling that and the opposition is not as good as obviously who we've been facing, who we're going to face on the weekend. We'll touch on that later. But I just think that The game management from Pep Guardiola, like you said under Pep, is normally fantastic and I think today with the second half subs, ah definitely made a big impact on the result and I just think that we don't want it enough. I spoke about it on the recent episodes. I mean, it's definitely unknown territory for for me, for many young City fans to to be in this period of of so many terrible results.
Positives and Individual Performances
00:03:41
Speaker
But I do think that summer ah definitely needs to change
00:03:46
Speaker
And quickly, I just don't think our mentality is there. I mean, you touched on you such in a few stats there, but it's the first time City have conceded two plus goals in six consecutive games in 61 years, which is, if my calculations are correct, 1963, which is astounding. And only three English sides have failed to win a UCL game in which they were three goals ahead.
00:04:09
Speaker
I mean, in the history of the competition and we do it tonight against a poor Dutch side, I mean, it is ridiculous and yeah, um' I'm astonished and I can't believe it. It's not exactly good company to be in at the moment, is it? it's pretty pretty appalling the way that we're playing. Those stats don't bode well for us. I mean, let's try and maybe talk about some of the positives that we can take from this game, if any. I mean, I agree with you, Lewis. I think the first half was completely dull and uninspired.
00:04:44
Speaker
The second half, Keelan, we started a little bit better, if anything. What what can you take away from maybe the first 20, 30 minutes of that second half that gives us maybe some respite? I mean, listen, in the context of the results, which is the only thing that matters,
00:05:01
Speaker
what happened in the second half hour really doesn't matter much to anybody but I will say we played a lot better. It was the first time maybe this year but since Roger has been injured that I saw shades of my man City of a team that actually did have that swagger and that confidence playing the ball around you know actually playing like they actually wanted to win a game of football and to his credit I have lambasted this man a lot recently but Ilkay Gundogan looked much better in the second half He looked like the gun to one of old. He didn't look like the imposter who's been occupying the number 19 jersey recently. He looked a lot better. Matthias Nunez had really good moments. Holland started looking a bit sharp again. You know, there there were some positive signs. And if this result were even remotely different, I'd be much happier about what I saw. But I can't forgive that capitulation. That was, it was maybe the most unforgivable
00:06:00
Speaker
game control that I've ever seen from Man City, from maybe any manager, that that's kind of where I'm at.
Gundogan's Role in the Collapse
00:06:07
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's one of them, it's frustrating because if it stayed 3-0, we'd be looking, you know, coming away from that game going, you know,
00:06:16
Speaker
in hindsight there were some some positives to take away from there i mean harlan got back on the score she got back to his you know his scoring habits at the moment and and that second goal from him as well that you know a materials cross that i i didn't think was going anywhere near his feet and it was a an almost similar to that goal he scored in derby against united from like kev pass where he just lunged his toe out a proper strike his finish a proper harlan finish But then we just had that inexcusable, inexplicable capitulation towards the end. and We'll get on a little bit in into the the kind of the game management um and how it changed the game and how we lost the control. But I mean, you mentioned there, Keeling, a player who looked a little bit better last night or tonight, even as we're recording this, was Ilkay Gundogan. Louis, did you have any thoughts on his performance up until that point? ah and And it's strange because maybe we can attribute the capitulation to you know him coming off. He did offer us a little bit of control, at least in a in a game, even though I thought he was still having a few of his odd mistakes. He looked better, like Keelan said. What did you think? Yeah, I thought definitely, I think.
00:07:26
Speaker
Obviously we've not seen the Uco Gundam one we're used to. I thought his free walls today were better. Some in the first half didn't quite come off, but I did think that he was executing him. For me it's a mentality thing, it's a confidence thing. The fans in the first half, you could you could see the stadium was on edge. The fans were on edge, whistles for like every misplaced pass, and I do think that he definitely improved second half one once we once we started scoring I think like like you said we saw glimpses of the old Gundwan but I just think obviously he got his goal as well I know it was a deflection but that's obviously boosted him but then once we start I can see and obviously he was taken off and then it just falls apart we can see one and our heads go down and then because it's a mistake that we've conceded you even saw Peps head go down that's going to make the players the players go oh well there's one goal they've got momentum now and then
00:08:14
Speaker
that's what happened, they used the momentum, they went forward and scored two more but now I do think it is is a positive in the the right direction for Gundaman but it just shows how much his performance is impacted when the team is also playing
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00:08:27
Speaker
bad. I do still think he has got that bit of ability in him that I do want to see moving forward.
00:08:33
Speaker
Yeah, I completely agree. But look, it's taken us to about the eight minute mark. And as you can see, we've completed all the positives in pretty record time now. So we'll get into some of the negatives that we can take away from that game and moving forward. And trust me, there is a lot to get through just after a quick word from our sponsors.
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Speaker
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Arrogance and Transfer Market Failures
00:09:12
Speaker
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00:09:17
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to Manchester City Daily. You're here with three deflated Manchester City fans today, talking about what is possibly the lowest point in Pat Guardiola's tenure as Manchester City manager and for us in our recent history as as you know Manchester City's dominant side in Europe.
00:09:39
Speaker
It is a low point, and you know in hindsight, maybe five losses and one one draw for for most teams isn't the end of the world. But due to the ridiculously high standards that City have set over the past you know nearly decade now, ah especially with Pep around the team, it does feel like just a monumental low point. Keelan, where is it all going wrong? is it just you know you know on the pitch it looks to us as fans like individual errors popping up time and time again but is there more to it? um Yes and no, um I mean on the pitch it's Rodry that's the simplest answer I can give you it's the most basic answer I can give you but off the pitch there's so many more problems beyond this I mean
00:10:30
Speaker
What has happened with Manchester City has become very clear to me. We've become exceptionally arrogant and lazy and happy with just sort of coasting along, beating these slap dick teams and just doing nothing to improve. And what has happened is if you look around the league and around Europe,
00:10:49
Speaker
Everybody has improved except us. You know Liverpool have improved, Arsenal have improved, Chelsea are starting to motor hell even Man United are trying to do something. We have not improved and we have been stuck in the mud while everybody else has been racing past us. And what you are seeing now is the consequence of sheer arrogance and laziness when it comes to fixing this team.
00:11:14
Speaker
when Leroy Sanne left, when Raheem Sterling left, you know, when David Silva left, we did not replace the spine of this team adequately enough. And you are seeing the consequence of that. You know, Roger is the best player in world football. I accept that and I'm very proud of that fact.
00:11:33
Speaker
But it is not good enough that one player is unavailable and this whole outfit falls to pieces the way it has. It is not good enough and I will not accept any arguments otherwise. It is not a good enough excuse.
00:11:47
Speaker
and what has happened is we have we've just blown money on players who aren't worth a tenth of what we paid and we've seen other clubs spend and get massively better. I mean we'll get onto the game in a little bit but some of the cowboy defending that I saw in that game was just... I don't even have words that I can use to describe it but some of it was just absolutely abominably bad but On the pitch to answer your question, Rodry being gone has just ruined everything for us, but off the pitch, I mean, I think we've seen why Cheeky Bagheera Stan's lost his job to be completely blunt because we've stagnated and everybody else has gotten better.
Structural Issues and Lack of Leadership
00:12:32
Speaker
You know, the that kind of perfectly brings me on to my next point. We will touch upon how bad some of the points in the game were, but Lewis Tiki Bagiri Stan has come out recently. We've discussed it on the podcast and said that the recent couple of transfer windows summers were really, really poor. They were not good under Manchester City and under him.
00:12:53
Speaker
just how bad were those mistakes and why weren't we seeing them at the time and and what needs to fix in the transfer windows upcoming such as January but more you know more importantly going forward to next season in the summer we need a big clear out not just players in but a lot of players out what needs changing.
00:13:14
Speaker
Yeah, I definitely think that um our transfer window wasn't as good as as some other teams. I know Liverpool haven't made that many signings this season, but I mean, we've seen how thin our squad is now, the squad depth. I mean, just tonight, there's no leaders in defence for me. I mean, obviously Diaz is back in training now, but we've got him, Stones. I mean, even Karl Walker, in a previous captain of the club, just leaders on the pitch. I mean, that goes through the whole squad into the midfield.
00:13:41
Speaker
and obviously into our attacking force. I mean, we've got players on the pitch who are inexperienced at this top level, especially in the Champions League. Matthias Nunez, for example, is like Keeling said, he's going around in the first half. I know we i know he set up Harlan's second goal and he did do glimpses of good things tonight, but I just think that he's two laps a day. He's on the ball, he's too casual, and he don't realise that tonight for me, this was a must-win game. I think that, yeah, it was definitely a must-win game. We now sit 15th.
00:14:11
Speaker
in this new Champions League format. And I think that, like I've like ive mentioned, it comes with the mentality, but it definitely is the the squad depth. I mean, our substitutions today were Simpson, Poussey, James McEighty, and obviously Kevin De Bruyne, who is still getting back to his best, but even he looks sluggish and slow, and and he's definitely not up to his usual standard. But I mean, like, that's what you've got to look at, the substitutions is a big thing because if we were three and a lot, the subs were made,
00:14:41
Speaker
and then the game is unfortunately for us finished all square so yeah I think that is definitely where we're going wrong in comparison to to other teams especially against a shocking outfit for me tonight. Yeah well you you mentioned some of ah the big important players that we've got out missing I think that you know the biggest problem is is You know someone like Ruben Diaz who kind of has an understated importance in in his mentality in the defence but his captaincy ability and his ability to kind of lead and organise that defence on the pitch is
00:15:14
Speaker
It's huge, and it's so, so important. And it's not really a quality that that you realize he has until you lose him. Keelan, there were so many problems with the defense today, and completely capitulated from the 70th minute. and Up to that, we defended pretty well. We'd only conceded about 0.18 XG throughout the whole game. And then we conceded three massive chances back to back to back from the 75th minute onwards.
00:15:42
Speaker
We looked from the 75th minute like we we were a Sunday lead team. what What's going on? but What is that? It's just mistake after mistake. Yeah, listen, I mean, under Pep Guardiola, Man City have never been a good defensive team. We've been very good at masking it. We've been very good at basically rolling over opponents, but we've never fundamentally been like a part the bus, faithful defensive team. That's just not in City's DNA.
00:16:09
Speaker
But what you are seeing out there is a complete lack of understanding, a complete lack of leadership, a complete lack of any basic competence when it comes to defending. That's just what you're dealing with. I mean, let's go through, I mean, as painful as this is to do, let's go through each of the goals. That first goal, Simpson, PC heads the ball over to Vardial. Vardial plays the most cowboy lackadaisical back pass I've ever seen. Edison gets rounded 3-1. The second goal, the ball, you know, a nothing ball gets played into the back post. Vario gets outnumbered and now jumped 3-2. And the second, that second goal went in, I knew we were in trouble and I knew we were going to blow it because that's just what City do now.
00:16:57
Speaker
And it's just, it is so, so bad. It's so poor. And like I said, relying on one or two players who are out, you know, falling apart when they're out just isn't good enough. I'm sorry, it's not good enough. Yasuko Vario is an international for Croatia. We paid 90 million pounds for a centre back that plays left back for some reason. I still don't get that, but that's a different conversation. I mean,
00:17:25
Speaker
If you're that experienced and you cannot lead a backline, you don't belong in this team. And frankly, nobody covered themselves in any kind of glory tonight in that defensive line. All of them were horrid, quite frankly. Every single one of them were terrible. And if I had my way and we were in January, I'd probably sell every single one of them because I think they've been disgraceful and I think they've been rancid. Unfortunately, we deal with the situation
Champions League Prospects
00:17:52
Speaker
that we're in. We can't change what's happened. We can only look forward to what's going ahead and we just have to pray to whatever deity you pray to that Ruben Diaz is fit for Sunday because if he's not it is going to be a cricket score and don't try and put any niceties on it. If Ruben Diaz is not fit in Sunday it is not a question of losing it is a question of by how much.
00:18:16
Speaker
Yeah, I completely agree. i'd I'd even go a little bit further and say that from tonight's game, there's probably no player that can can walk off that pitch holding their head up. I think it is completely through the team, just spineless. and Listen, there's still more to talk about and we'll we'll get into what this means for City going forward, particularly in the Champions League with this new format. Also for the rest of the competitions that we're in, just after a quick read from our sponsors.
00:18:44
Speaker
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00:19:12
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to Manchester City Daily, brought to you by the Global Sports Podcast Network. Now we're back discussing Manchester City 3 final three.
Upcoming Fixtures and Challenges
00:19:22
Speaker
And Lewis, I'll come to you straight away because this sits us, like you mentioned, 15th, I believe, in the new Champions League format table. We're a point behind Aston Villa, who have a gaming hand tomorrow night.
00:19:35
Speaker
ah Have we got any hope of making the top eight now? We still have to go away to Juventus. We still have to go away to Paris Saint-Germain, who fortunately are one of the only big teams in Europe doing worse than us. I think they sit in 25th or something like that. Is there any respite that we can take going forward, or do we have to hope now that we we play the extra games and and make it through the knockout stages? Did you have asked me that at the the start of this Champions League campaign, once the fixtures have been released?
00:20:05
Speaker
I'd have seen the last three games, I think it's Bruges at home, obviously PSG away and then Juventus away. And I'd have said that we definitely beat Bruges at home, but after today, I would not be putting any money on it. I think Juventus away is going to be tough. ah The way that Juventus and PSG both started this campaign in the Champions League, got I was confident going into them games. I mean, like you said, PSG at 25th, and I don't know where Juventus are, but I know they didn't start it off too great.
00:20:34
Speaker
Um, especially in your presence of recent years, but I'm looking at them games and obviously I really can't see us, see us winning. At this point, I can't even see us scraping a draw. I mean, we look at our, our nil-nil against Inter Milan and we had chances, we had so many chances and it was just the case of not taking them. But I think tonight we didn't have as many as that against a week aside. I think that a lot of players are playing too safe.
00:21:00
Speaker
um I don't know if that they don't want to make a mistake because they'll have the crowd on the back or they'll have the media on them if they if they do really terrible. But they're not trying things like obviously De Bruyne would if he was fit in my opinion, trying to find them balls to Harland. And I just think that it's it's going to be really tricky to definitely... mad ah I think the top eight is definitely ruled out, but I think obviously it's not going to help us qualifying in the playoffs with the amount of games we're already playing. Now this new format,
00:21:29
Speaker
We've already got injuries, hopefully Diaz stays fit, hopefully de Bruyne can stay fit and hopefully it doesn't mean that there's going to be more tired legs and and more injuries which are going to hinder us in the league as well.
Urgency for Immediate Changes
00:21:41
Speaker
yeah i mean it could be a case of even if we we lose the next two games then just saying you know what about it I'll play the kids against bridge hope we don't make it into the top 16 and just say you know one less fixtures with the games to worry about and concentrate maybe on me the the f FA Cup I'm not sure because the league's going nowhere listen Keelan the big game is in the weekend against Sunday I'm sure we'll get into that a little bit later on in the week so we won't touch on that too much but let me just read you some of our next fixtures from Man City obviously the game at Anfield on Sunday after that Forest at home then we play Palace at Selhurst Park to start December off
00:22:23
Speaker
and You know, Wednesday, the 11th of December, we play UVA, then it's the Derby, then Aston Villa, then on Boxing Day, we play Everton. For me, personally, I can't see us winning one of those games until Boxing Day against Everton. What does this kind of result mean for us going forward, not just in the Champions League, but in the league as well?
00:22:45
Speaker
Well, I mean, I think the title's finished. I'm not going to dress it up, I'm not going to light anybody. I think that ship sailed three or four games ago. ler put i mean The worst bit is the league, I don't think it's even great this year. We've just been so rancid without Rodry that we've handed it to Liverpool. But credit to them, they're very good. But we've handed it to them on the Silver Platter, basically. i mean As for the season as a whole, what we basically have to do, let me try and give you the best example I can, we are basically fighting a boxing match and we are in the corner basically praying that we survive until the end of the round and the ref doesn't throw the towel in.
00:23:27
Speaker
We have to survive until January 1st and just get anybody in that's remotely competent so and try and steady this ship before it completely sinks because that's the territory that we're in now. I mean, after the first two or three losses, like I said, you could find positive. You could kind of forgive that. We are in territory now where it hit the panic button. That is the territory we're in. I am not concerned anymore I am panicking because these players either cannot or will not get the job done and we need to bring in people who can steady the ship or this thing is going to sink before our very eyes. I mean you mentioned a few games there I do think there are some winnable games thankfully because there are teams that are just worse than us. I think Nottingham, Everton are two winnable games, Palace maybe if we show up because they've been bad this year
00:24:22
Speaker
but forget the European games and forget Liverpool. Hell, I'd even punt on whether we're going to be good for the United game. That's how bad we are. But at the moment, all we have to do is cover up and pray we can make it to January 1st and not be in the bottom half of the table because that's where we're at.
Reflection and Future Content
00:24:42
Speaker
Yeah, it's looking pretty bleak at the moment and you touched upon the quality of the league there. As of right now, we still sit second in the league above the likes of Chelsea and Arsenal. That just goes to show how poor the quality of the league is. And like you said, we've pretty much handed it completely on a silver platter to Liverpool.
00:24:59
Speaker
Listen, we're all very tired boys, ah very down in the dumps at the moment, feeling sorry for ourselves, which I'm sure people will be getting the world's smallest violins out for us. But listen, we won't take any more of your time. I'm sure we'll get to more ah talking about the upcoming fixtures against Liverpool. And of course, we'll have that crossover coming for you a little later on in the week. But as of right now, that is our immediate post match reaction.
00:25:21
Speaker
from the Champions League fixture at home tonight against Fine Art Manchester City 3, Fine Art 3, not a good one. We have been Manchester City Daily and we hope you have a lovely rest of your day.