Key points from tonight’s game

[ClaretsPadiham]

Trafford isn’t ready, Muric is miles better in this system and can pass the ball more accurate and better.

We still are AWFUL at defending set pieces, teams will target us.

Some of our fans are dICks, glad they caught the lad who chucked the vape at Rico Lewis.

Just as I type this out we have an intuder on the pitch, not good at all for the image of the club this game.

[ClaretFelix]

Not sure if it's just a case of VK of not showing his hand to the other teams or catering specifically for Citys threat, but you've got to put your best left winger on the left wing.

I also feel Foster will cause a lot of problems for defences this season, looked hungry, stronger and quicker than last season

[RVclaret]

Trafford been quite impressive for me. Passing been very good.

[Robbie_painter]

Trafford isn’t ready, Muric is miles better in this system and can pass the ball more accurate and better.

We still are AWFUL at defending set pieces, teams will target us.

Some of our fans are dICks, glad they caught the lad who chucked the vape at Rico Lewis.

Just as I type this out we have an intuder on the pitch, not good at all for the image of the club this game.

Which of the three goals do you think Trafford should have done better with?

[ClaretsPadiham]

Which of the three goals do you think Trafford should have done better with?

Where did I mention any of goals ? Muric is much more comfortable on the ball, Trafford has looked shaky at times for me.

[Pickles]

Play as good as that more than not and we'll be absolutely fine. We'll play better than that too.

[JohnDearyMe]

Play as good as that more than not and we'll be absolutely fine. We'll play better than that too.

Fully agree. Confident that Kompany will learn from this as well

[Moorite]

Foster looks like a new signing

[4midable]

Trafford isn’t ready, Muric is miles better in this system and can pass the ball more accurate and better.

We still are AWFUL at defending set pieces, teams will target us.

Some of our fans are dICks, glad they caught the lad who chucked the vape at Rico Lewis.

Just as I type this out we have an intuder on the pitch, not good at all for the image of the club this game.

Obvs looking for a cast

Trafford looked great

[Pickles]

The Foster thing is funny. Some of us could tell he was getting up to speed last season and would be better this season. It was pretty obvious his attributes would be well suited to the Prem. He was superb this evening.

[agreenwood]

**** takes/cast.

[GodIsADeeJay81]

Considering the number of debutants we had against the best team on the planet, we looked quite good at times

Muric wasn’t stopping those goals
Trafford is also yet to forge a working partnership/understanding with his central defenders etc but that comes with games

We played some good football at times
Foster looks much better
The likes of Koleosho etc look like good signings

Once the team has settled we will be fine this season I think

Our bench looks very strong for this level, for us, plenty of options for the manager to use

We’re used to losing against City, we’ve scored 1 goal to their 42 in 13 games I think it was

The key is we didn’t roll over for them and the players didn’t let their heads drop and as fans that’s what we want to see

[ervi34]

I was actually impressed with Trafford. Couldn't do anything to prevent goals, his distribution was good (some nice balls over the top) and he made a few decent saves.

On the other hand, O'Shea had a tough night. Gave them a corner before the first goal, was awfully positioned before the second and was struggling in the second half. That of course doesn't mean he can't improve.

Biggest concerns are potential Benson and Beyer injuries + Zaroury's suspension.

[BabylonClaret]

Thought we played very well - caused City some problems and with some sharper finishing (which will come) ee might have gone in level at half time.

You simply can't let Halaand have a sniff - he is utterly lethal. Good thing is the first 2 (certainly the 2nd) are not likely goals by most sides in the league.

But 3-0 is much better than 6-0 and we showed that we could play the way VK wants to. I think we are in for a decent season here. The new signings look good and Foster caused a lot of problems too.

[BurnleyFC]

Trafford was fine overall, but the team selection from the off was wrong.

Still, we were always going to lose. Onwards and upwards.

[jdrobbo]

Rodri is an unbelievable footballer. Absolutely world-class.

[Andreshotboots]

We halved the deficit from the last meeting..

In all seriousness had to watch from home tonight. Thought we played some good stuff at times and will cause problems for teams in our "section" of the league.

They'll stuff far better teams than us for sure..

[JohnDearyMe]

The Foster thing is funny. Some of us could tell he was getting up to speed last season and would be better this season. It was pretty obvious his attributes would be well suited to the Prem. He was superb this evening.

Last season he never looked particularly quick but he looked sharp and pacy tonight. Looking forward to seeing him against lesser opposition

[Burnley1989]

There’s 3-4 posters on this board that are driving me mad, I can accept criticism but they’re clueless, and I mean really clueless.

[CnBtruntru]

Which of the three goals do you think Trafford should have done better with?

[Pickles]

There’s 3-4 posters on this board that are driving me mad, I can accept criticism but they’re clueless, and I mean really clueless.

I genuinely wonder sometimes if people actually watch us play.

[Woodleyclaret]

Everyone put in a shift .Trafford did well
Good teams punish slack marking
We will beat teams if we keep the standards up
Overall a good performance.

[CnBtruntru]

They brought two defenders on near the end 150 mill , we did alright tonight, think a few teams near the bottom of the league last year will be saying ****

[bf2k]

Trafford isn’t ready, Muric is miles better in this system and can pass the ball more accurate and better.

We still are AWFUL at defending set pieces, teams will target us.

Some of our fans are dICks, glad they caught the lad who chucked the vape at Rico Lewis.

Just as I type this out we have an intuder on the pitch, not good at all for the image of the club this game.

Agree with the fans bit.

Can’t agree with the Trafford bit. He was faultless really.

[Robbie_painter]

Where did I mention any of goals ? Muric is much more comfortable on the ball, Trafford has looked shaky at times for me.

I thought muric should’ve started but he didn’t and Trafford did absolutely nothing wrong.He is ready you’re just going off a couple of pre season friendlies

[Clovius Boofus]

At least we gave the best team in the world a game for decent spells of the match. More gutted at Zaroury being suspended and having two incidents tarnishing our return to the Prem. They not only let the club down, they also let our town down too.

[pauliopaulio]

I know we lost but people are over-reacting. Whether you agree or not it’s a legitimate opinion to think that Muric would be a better choice than Trafford.

I personally don’t agree - I think the way City pressed us was just a different level. All our back 6 tried to play out from the back like we did last season and we barely got over the halfway line. Just like last season vs Luton (h), Blackpool (h) and Watford (a) we’ll learn, adjust and improve.

I saw enough of Trafford to think he will give us a more secure base against better strikers. But its all about opinions

[Claretprinter]

Gumshields....top & bottom set?

[Neil]

Big difference in the press. We were as aggressive as possible as there's always the duel threat of them beating the press and the quick out ball to Haaland. So we couldn't go full pelt.
They have no fear of anyone and had a 5-6 man press so high up the pitch which will have been a big adjustment for our defenders who were used to 20 yards of space last season.
Think we definitely need an orthodox left back.
All in all it went as expected and nothing to be despondent about.

[KRBFC]

Considering the number of debutants we had against the best team on the planet, we looked quite good at times

Muric wasn’t stopping those goals
Trafford is also yet to forge a working partnership/understanding with his central defenders etc but that comes with games

We played some good football at times
Foster looks much better
The likes of Koleosho etc look like good signings

Once the team has settled we will be fine this season I think

Our bench looks very strong for this level, for us, plenty of options for the manager to use

We’re used to losing against City, we’ve scored 1 goal to their 42 in 13 games I think it was

The key is we didn’t roll over for them and the players didn’t let their heads drop and as fans that’s what we want to see

Well in the game with 15 to go at 2-0, competed well all night. Think we’ll be more than fine once we get back to 4 at the back with our best team out.

[CoolClaret]

The Foster thing is funny. Some of us could tell he was getting up to speed last season and would be better this season. It was pretty obvious his attributes would be well suited to the Prem. He was superb this evening.

Yup , bump the Bristol city match day thread for example

[warksclaret]

Gumshields....top & bottom set?

..and apparently a cricket box

[CoolClaret]

Rodri is an unbelievable footballer. Absolutely world-class.

Best player in world football for me

[Pickles]

Yup , bump the Bristol city match day thread for example

It was painful seeing some of the opinions on him last season. Not saying he's the second coming, but he showed tonight why some of us could see he'd be good in the Prem. Huge overreaction from people as per. And it wasn't as if we needed his goals last season was it anyway.

[boatshed bill]

I haven' watched (listened to the game), but my guess is that this game and the player selection was viewed as a free hit and an opportunity to test some new players against the best in the league.

[TsarBomba]

Thought we were excellent at times tonight.

-Foster and Al-Dakhil were the standouts. Al-Dakhil is going all the way to the top.

-Need a left back.

-Atmosphere was embarrassing. A few half hearted renditions of ‘No nay never’ and that was about it. Is that really the best we can do? CFS emptied at 35 minutes and again at 80. It’s an equal split in the CFS and there’s no excuse to be getting out-sung. Seems fans would rather go for a pint than clap their team off.

-As VK says, we’ll get better as the season goes on, and on that showing alone tonight, we’ll stay up.

UTC.

[claretspice]

Decent performance and some interesting performances. Conclusions;
.
- Foster and Amdouni looked very promising and with a goal or two will give us useful options up front.

- Koleosho looks lively but a little raw

- we need a left back

- we have loads of pace at the back, which is great but particularly from set pieces there may be a bit of a lack of a controlling mind.

[CoolClaret]

Thought we were excellent at times tonight.

-Foster and Al-Dakhil were the standouts. Al-Dakhil is going all the way to the top.

-Need a left back.

-Atmosphere was embarrassing. A few half hearted renditions of ‘No nay never’ and that was about it. Is that really the best we can do? CFS emptied at 35 minutes and again at 80. It’s an equal split in the CFS and there’s no excuse to be getting out-sung. Seems fans would rather go for a pint than clap their team off.

-As VK says, we’ll get better as the season goes on, and on that showing alone tonight, we’ll stay up.

UTC.

Atmosphere in longside lower towards the cricketfield end was really good I thought - especially in the first half.

Needs the rest of the ground to get involved and try starting chants (unfortunately we do get a lot of plastic every time we’re in the Prem)

[JohnDearyMe]

Decent performance and some interesting performances. Conclusions;
.
- Foster and Amdouni looked very promising and with a goal or two will give us useful options up front.

- Koleosho looks lively but a little raw

- we need a left back

- we have loads of pace at the back, which is great but particularly from set pieces there may be a bit of a lack of a controlling mind.

Fingers crossed Maatsen is lined up and i was surprised to see Koleosho start ahead of Zaroury but c'est la vie

[pauliopaulio]

Best player in world football for me

You quoted someone and I’m quoting you but would nuance it as the best in his position. He is operating at a different level to other top class players. He is always in the perfect position in both defence and attack - it’s like he has a sixth sense.

Same as Haaland - his instinct is unbelievable.

Think Foden could be at that level too in the future. Showed him in the prelims doing kick-ups. Was like that video of Maradona at Napoli - effortless.

[louieollie]

Fingers crossed Maatsen is lined up and i was surprised to see Koleosho start ahead of Zaroury but c'est la vie

I think Koleosho's performance answered his selection personally, raw but exciting.

[Pickles]

You quoted someone and I’m quoting you but would nuance it as the best in his position. He is operating at a different level to other top class players. He is always in the perfect position in both defence and attack - it’s like he has a sixth sense.

A very good summary of him. Countless times tonight he comes away with the ball, seemingly without doing anything to win it. It looks like a lucky bounce, good fortune... but it happens so often it can't be a fluke.

[Goalposts]

very positive from nearly all players, all put a shift in.. vithino at leftback is not the answer for the season ahead ( or wing back, whatever you want to call it). The 3 centre halves performed admirably. Al dakhil is a rolls Royce of a player. Cullen and berge will form a strong partnership , Trafford at the moment for me is not the best goalkeeper. He will be long term but at present, muric beats him on quicker decision making and playing evenly spreading left and right and long ball pings. Foster looked good , but that’s the thing with him, there is so much potential, can it be unlocked, but definitely worth persevering with. Koelsho will be some player can only get better… amdouni needs to get up to pace with prem, but again so much potential.. benny worry’s me a little bit seems a very injury prone player but makes an instant impact when introduced…. Hopefully buyers injury is minor , worrying that he signalled 3 times to be taken off before he was. A player signalling is never a good thing..

But great to be back under the lights. Oh and zaroury innocuous foul , but both feet of the ground so deemed not in full control so under the rules straight red..

[CoolClaret]

You quoted someone and I’m quoting you but would nuance it as the best in his position. He is operating at a different level to other top class players. He is always in the perfect position in both defence and attack - it’s like he has a sixth sense.

Same as Haaland - his instinct is unbelievable.

Think Foden could be at that level too in the future. Showed him in the prelims doing kick-ups. Was like that video of Maradona at Napoli - effortless.

Honestly I don’t rate Foden as an effective top class player.

He has a lot of skill and looks unbelievable in warm ups and stuff but I’ve yet to see him constantly impact them game in a way that a top player does.

[AfloatinClaret]

We have pace all over the pitch. Only significant improvement we might have made was Taylor at left back, though we'd still have lost. Team performance bodes well for the season, I'm more optimistic than I was before the game.

[martin_p]

First time I’ve come off a 3-0 defeat more confident about the season to come than I was before it.

[JohnDearyMe]

I think Koleosho's performance answered his selection personally, raw but exciting.

He looks like he has promise, was just surprised to see him as one of 5 debutants above Zaroury who has impressed, knows the system well and has more English football experience. Sure it wouldn't have made much of a difference either way

[Hedontplayforyou]

With Foster and Koleosho out wide it gave us pace to close down faster . I think perhaps Foster was utilised there to try and limit Walkers pace as well.

Fosters work rate and press was good tonight, he won the ball back on a few occasions and I was impressed with him.

Amdouni, I must say again looks like he could be a real player.

Koleosho , 18 years old , no fear worked hard and gave everything against arguably the best team in the world. His passing was questionable but it will improve .

Some good performances .

[pauliopaulio]

I still think we’ll finish top 10. Moments of quality for them at the back and up front were the difference. Most teams don’t have that

[louieollie]

I'm really quite positive from seeing a number of the new signings and a couple that needed time to adjust from last year, like the majority on here as much as I love little Vits we desperately need another answer to the left back/wing back option and I don't see it being Taylor I'm afraid.