we were really good, a few signings and we will be very competitive in the PL. City beat a team that would beat us 10 times out of 10 7-0 in midweek. LOADS of positives today and proof that some wont be good enough. Great from the fans too

They brought a £100mil player on in the 90th minute, that shows the level of them.

Funnily enough I thought one of the positives was Peacock.

I don't really like goalkeepers having to play football but he did it pretty well.

In fact some of his passing was brilliant.

I thought we were brilliant for those 30. Lacking quality in some key moments but the press and shape kept them away from areas they usually really like. A new, quality CM in Vitinho’s position and Muric in the net and we’d have been looking seriously tasty.

Bin Ont Turf wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 18, 2023 8:08 pm

Funnily enough I thought one of the positives was Peacock.

I don't really like goalkeepers having to play football but he did it pretty well.

In fact some of his passing was brilliant.

His passing was generally poor and kept giving them the ball. Lost count how many times he kicked it out of play. It’s also a fair bit slower than Muric who sees the picture infront much quicker.

Subs at halftime made it harder. Cork really struggled and effectively shows why he's not good enough for the Prem any more (sadly)

RVclaret wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 18, 2023 8:12 pm

His passing was generally poor and kept giving them the ball. Lost count how many times he kicked it out of play. It’s also a fair bit slower than Muric who sees the picture infront much quicker.

I’ve criticised Muric’s general goalkeeping a couple of times but can never fault his distribution. Today proved the difference in level between BPF and Muric.

I don’t really see that there were many positives to take from today. We were utterly outclassed and beaten quite soundly.

About the only one is that we will only have two utter mailings by City to look forward to next term.

Yep we did well. For half hour. Really should’ve played Muric. BPF looked nervy with distribution all night and just isn’t as good a goalkeeper. Got to play your strongest team away to City.

Nadum Onuoha had watery eyes when interviewing VK after the game…. He didn’t want a 6-0 reverse for him

Lord Beamish wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 18, 2023 8:15 pm

I don’t really see that there were many positives to take from today. We were utterly outclassed and beaten quite soundly.

About the only one is that we will only have two utter mailings by City to look forward to next term.

here are some for you
Cullen more than comfortable at that level
Al Dakhil hadn't played for weeks, that would have been his toughest ever game and for 30 minutes he beat Haaland to every single ball
Tella caused loads of issues with his runs but couldn't find a finish
Roberts first 30 was excellent

We passed the ball better today in the first half than we did in 99% of any of our games in the PL against the best team there is
LOADS of positives

RVclaret wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 18, 2023 8:12 pm

His passing was generally poor and kept giving them the ball. Lost count how many times he kicked it out of play. It’s also a fair bit slower than Muric who sees the picture infront much quicker.

I must have been watching the wrong game then.

Here was me thinking a football match was a minimum of 90 minutes.

Shows how much I know.

We were great for the first 30 minutes but we didn't create the chances we should have because of poor balls on the break

We have to put that sort of performance in for 90 in the prem though!

We were great for the first 30 mins as city where stuck in 2nd gear, when they went up the gears it showed

Retrospectively I would have liked to have seen JayRod in this game. That, plus the lesson learned for me, not from our play but from theirs is to look for more incisive inside balls rather than recycle. For example, Roberts makes inside runs all the time in the championship, and we don’t find him that often

Goalposts wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 18, 2023 8:25 pm

We were great for the first 30 mins as city where stuck in 2nd gear, when they went up the gears it showed

that's what money gets you, better players.

If BPF's distribution looked poor it's only because Muric has set the standard so high. I didn't see much of a future for him at the club but he's actually been really good when called upon this season.

This is going to sound like the daftest thing you could say after a 6-0 pasting, but I thought we were a bit too cautious in the first half, refusing to commit to attacks in the same numbers we do in the league. This let City settle into their rhythm, at which point the result becomes an inevitability against any team in the world, let alone a Championship one. You've got to fluster City before you can beat them because you can't outplay them on even terms. You've got to take that risk to get anything against them.

Lord Beamish wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 18, 2023 8:15 pm

I don’t really see that there were many positives to take from today. We were utterly outclassed and beaten quite soundly.

About the only one is that we will only have two utter mailings by City to look forward to next term.

City in their current form are probably the best team in the world.

We’ve played 3 games against PL opposition this season; beaten one, and given a very good Man U side a run for their money.

We have more than enough about us to hold our own next season, and we’ll strengthen again the summer.

Let’s not overreact because we’ve been beaten handsomely today, in part because of a generational player in Haaland.

TsarBomba wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 18, 2023 8:31 pm

City in their current form are probably the best team in the world.

We’ve played 3 games against PL opposition this season; beaten one, and given a very good Man U side a run for their money.

We have more than enough about us to hold our own next season, and we’ll strengthen again the summer.

Let’s not overreact because we’ve been beaten handsomely today, in part because of a generational player in Haaland.

No overreaction from me. I just said what most of us probably expect will happen next season. We’ll get mullered home and away by City.
Today’s game was largely pointless. We were out of the Cup as soon as the draw was made.

TsarBomba wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 18, 2023 8:31 pm

City in their current form are probably the best team in the world.

We’ve played 3 games against PL opposition this season; beaten one, and given a very good Man U side a run for their money.

We have more than enough about us to hold our own next season, and we’ll strengthen again the summer.

Let’s not overreact because we’ve been beaten handsomely today, in part because of a generational player in Haaland.

Some would argue they have 3 or 4 that would or will be mentioned in the same breath as the top players in Haaland, Foden, Alvarez and KDB

We competed in the first 25 minutes but were then taught a lesson. It’s not always going to be like that, annoyingly we managed to catch an extremely good side on a high from their last performance.

We could have done far better ourselves though, there were some really poor mistakes along with a few very poor performances overall.

Agree with Beamish. TalkSport (what a shocker of a station that is by the way) were posing the question whether the result today meant bad news next season for Burnley in the Prem. Does it heck. Whether we concede four or whether we concede six against City, it doesn't matter. Whether we can beat sides in the lower half of the Prem, that's what matters.

And how many did Man Utd concede at the Etihad in the Premier league? Yes 6

Bin Ont Turf wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 18, 2023 8:08 pm

Funnily enough I thought one of the positives was Peacock.

I don't really like goalkeepers having to play football but he did it pretty well.

In fact some of his passing was brilliant.

I thought he was weak, funny how different fans see things

I know this is a weird take on it but have we saved ourselves £30m. All the talk before the game was about buying Breyer, Tella and Maatasen for upwards of 15m a pop. I think that match has shown they are nowhere near that bracket and Tella alone possibly halved in value in one game. From £20m + star to a Championship bully that may be worth around £10m….

Ok maybe I’m exaggerating but it will help rather than hinder our negotiations if we go in for them.

Oh and BPF needs to be moved on. He cannot play our system and we missed Muric just when we needed him the most

We did well until the 1st goal, sadly once City got into their groove their class showed.

No issues for me as City are one of the elite teams in Europe and on a good day can give anybody a thumping.

Hard to find the positives after a 6-0 mauling, however we did at least make their keeper work which isn't something we normally manage on our visits.

And we did keep plugging away for the 90 minutes when heads might have dropped.

Today well have no effect on how we fare in the Prem next season, but I've seen enough to suggest we'll be fine against many of the lower half sides.

The key difference was when City got openings they were ruthless, Haaland in particular showed exactly why he's bagged so many goals already this season.

Exactly same as utd game

They gave us a few mins to suss us out then battered us

We made ourselves look good but both performances were easily managed by the opposition

It’s been easy to get carried away this season but the fact is, the standard of second tier football is very poor. The Premier League is light years ahead.

There’s a reason Dyche is so highly regarded by many in the game. It can’t be underestimated how well he did to keep us in the Premier League as long as he did.

RVclaret wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 18, 2023 8:12 pm

His passing was generally poor and kept giving them the ball. Lost count how many times he kicked it out of play. It’s also a fair bit slower than Muric who sees the picture infront much quicker.

Much better 2nd half. Hit every pass.
Good saves too.

A bit of perspective: I think it's wrong to use this game to predict how we may fare next season by arguing that City are representative of the PL. They are not representative of the PL. City are representative of City. Arsenal are one defeat and a draw away from handing the title momentum back over to City. That kind of team is not representative of the PL on a week-to-week basis, but of champions, of which there are at best only three or four teams a season genuinely competing. Champions butter everyone. We also caught ManU in their post-Ronaldo/pre-Weghorst period, which was the best they've looked all season. Unlucky with the draws in both cups, but if you do well enough in them you eventually come up against these teams anyway. Shame we got literally the hardest draw possible in all of English football just a game away from Wembley.

I don't need to start a new thread but I have to say it is the last 30 minutes that stood out for me. To continue the close pass and moves which define our play and success when 5 or 6 down was brave and shows how committed the players are to achieve something long term. Braves.

There were many seasons when we stayed up in the prem when we still.got beat 6-0 by city so do not use this as a barometer for going down.

PremierLeagueClass wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 18, 2023 9:26 pm

It’s been easy to get carried away this season but the fact is, the standard of second tier football is very poor. The Premier League is light years ahead.

There’s a reason Dyche is so highly regarded by many in the game. It can’t be underestimated how well he did to keep us in the Premier League as long as he did.

Yep, the PL has been light years ahead of the second tier for about 25 years now.

We can only beat what’s in front of us, and we’ve done that without really getting out of second gear.

We only have to be better than 3 teams next year.

For a start we should be stronger than the other 2 promoted teams, and we’ve already proven that we can beat a PL team that is down there fighting relegation.

We’re far better equipped to take on the PL next season than any of our previous 3 promotions.

And I’m not really sure why a defeat against arguably the best team in the world right now is making us doubt we can’t compete next season.

Conroy92 wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 18, 2023 10:04 pm

There were many seasons when we stayed up in the prem when we still.got beat 6-0 by city so do not use this as a barometer for going down.

True. Our highest ever points totals resulting in 7th and 10th place finishes include a 5-0 at Arsenal, a 5-0 at City (obviously, because it's cursed) and a 5-0 a Spurs, and all this with our best PL side before the decline set in. It happens against those clubs.

andyh wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 18, 2023 8:54 pm

I know this is a weird take on it but have we saved ourselves £30m. All the talk before the game was about buying Breyer, Tella and Maatasen for upwards of 15m a pop. I think that match has shown they are nowhere near that bracket and Tella alone possibly halved in value in one game. From £20m + star to a Championship bully that may be worth around £10m….

Ok maybe I’m exaggerating but it will help rather than hinder our negotiations if we go in for them.

Oh and BPF needs to be moved on. He cannot play our system and we missed Muric just when we needed him the most

Nice cast!

Think today might be one of the youngest starting XIs we’ve fielded this season. Beyer is 22 and Al Dakhil & Maatsen gave only just turned 21. Then the front 3 were 22,23 & 22.

It was tough once City got going, but unlike in seasons gone by there’s loads improvement in this team.

We surely know before this game that we are quite a way off Premier League level and will need some serious investment to strengthen in the summer.

Even then we will still risk a good kicking off City - as do many PL teams of course.

But the game did at least serve as a kind of reminder, to those getting carried away a bit, that the standard of the Championship is the worst it has been for a good while and that you have to make decisions and execute at a much faster pace in the Premier League.

agreenwood wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 18, 2023 10:53 pm

Think today might be one of the youngest starting XIs we’ve fielded this season. Beyer is 22 and Al Dakhil & Maatsen gave only just turned 21. Then the front 3 were 22,23 & 22.

It was tough once City got going, but unlike in seasons gone by there’s loads improvement in this team.

Hopefully a clear example for the board of the areas we need to strengthen in

Bin Ont Turf wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 18, 2023 8:08 pm

Funnily enough I thought one of the positives was Peacock.

I don't really like goalkeepers having to play football but he did it pretty well.

In fact some of his passing was brilliant.

He was garbage! Christ and I’ve witnessed Mark Kendall.

Certainly the young loans struggled today but did well in that first third of the game.

I would be wanting to buy all our loan players but the prices quoted are indeed silly as the above poster said. As an example despite their potential and exciting style THB, Beyer and Tella would be worth less than (say) Tarkowski 4 years ago when a bit younger, or Cornet. Even Chris Wood is worth more. None are worth more than £10m now.

That’s no criticism but being proven in the Premier League is massive, and they aren’t. Paying for potential has a price but cannot be a huge price. Really Maatsen is in the similar category.

It’ll be fascinating in the summer because for the first time we are trying to sign players whose value isn’t just about how good they are now, or even what they will be in the future, but that they play a style like the top teams do. Should that matter? It gets back into that debate about whether Pope, Tarky, Mee and Wood should have had big valuations or not (I think yes).

Well I thought that generally we played well, certainly in the first 30 minutes and glad that we continued to stick to our passing game even when you could have expected heads to drop. We were beaten by a team who have been playing the system a lot longer than we have. We will not become proficient overnight at Prem League level. Pep didn't have success in his first season in the Prem League. We will continue to improve over time. This is where patience is required. We are having a great season but we are still a Cgampionship team. Next season we will start again as s Premier League team. Vinnie will continue to improve us but don't expect overnight success. Personally I believe that VK will guide us to a top half finish but of course I could be wrong, just a gut feeling. I did think that Bastien did particularly well even though he came on at a difficult time but I think, considering the opposition it was to me his best performance to date and maybe he will be a better player up a level. We will see, but nit everyone will.

Snippet from MEN report of the first 30 minutes…

‘There are Premier League teams who have shown considerably less ambition at the Etihad than Burnley did on Saturday evening. Plenty of teams come here, defend their penalty area and show little inclination to engage City further up the pitch.

That was not the way of the Clarets and maybe we should have expected it given the identity of the man in their technical area. Vincent Kompany is so wedded to some of Guardiola's principles that he told his players to calm down and keep possession when they couldn't find killer passes on the edge of the opposition area.

Burnley pressed with intelligence and aggression from the off, identifying moments when it triggered a sudden rush to close down Stefan Ortega and the central defenders. They also took an aggressive man-marking approach in midfield, making it difficult for City to play out.

That aggression led to a couple of errors from City in their half and some promising openings for the Championship leaders. Had they taken one it might have been a different game. They didn't deserve the scale of this defeat on their first 30 minutes alone‘

RVclaret wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 18, 2023 8:11 pm

I thought we were brilliant for those 30. Lacking quality in some key moments but the press and shape kept them away from areas they usually really like.

Consider how often this season we've reached half time at 0-0 or even a goal down, then over-run the opposition during the second half because they're now knackered from having run themselves into the ground to compete with us during the first half; City did what we've been doing all season in the Championship, but in addition they have the players to clinically finish the chances that were being created

Swizzlestick wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 18, 2023 8:15 pm

...Really should’ve played Muric. BPF looked nervy with distribution all night and just isn’t as good a goalkeeper.
...Got to play your strongest team away to City.

I really don't think Muric would've changed the result and dropping BPF for him now we've reached the business end of the cup would've no doubt caused ill feeling.
My take on it - along with those commenting about the 'youth' of our side, was that rather than our 'strongest' team, VK started with our fastest; AB & JC had half a chance of keeping up with the City players once they'd played 45 minutes, but wouldn't have done during the first 45 minutes if they'd started.

I thought we started outstandingly-it was like I had hoped we would play and eventually go on to lose by the odd goal or two. However that first goal seemed to break our hearts, but we could well have gone in just 2-1 at half time.
We lost our shape, press and control in the second half and it exposed a few frailties/question marks against certain individuals. At 6-0 it was starting to look like men v boys. Man City were certainly doing to us, what we do to most Championship sides, ie dominating them.

Because VK is so intelligent he will learn from this performance, it was a proper reality check, but it will tell him where we are strong and build, and who the players for the future are.It will also cinfirm what he already knew about several others I am not going to identify where we were weak, but focus on the real positives. as it may come over negatives. If we needed any further proof I thought Beyer, Al Dakhill, Cullen, Tella showed themselves as right for the PL. With a bit more defensive work so is Maatsen.It will also provide VK further evidence in the case of players coming up for contract extensions

One thing the game did is show how superior Muric is with his feet than BPF. The amount of times he kicked out of play or to opposition player was really poor .Very disappointing distribution. Sure , the pressure is high but Muric’s feet are real “ elite modern template “ level .

Thought we did well for half an hour, and generally didn't do too much wrong during the 90. Their quality showed in the end.

I did think at times the occasion got the better of us. A couple of times in that first half we had great chances to break but looked a little nervy and played stray passes. Young players, big occasion. They'll get used to it.

In our three games against Premier League opposition this season I think we've seen more than enough to suggest we'll be competitive next season. A few quality signings and we could flourish.

Proud Claret.

The MEN report is spot on. I’d rather we stuck to our principles and gave them a game for 30 minutes than show up for a beating. The game was much closer than the pure scoreline and we could definitely have been within one goal or even level at half time with a bit of luck/more belief.

The last thing we needed was a day less to prepare for this game. Definitely collapse like similarities with the Sheff U game after a similar days less rest than the opponent. The fact that we can now play so well against a vastly superior opponent shows our progress since the Sheff U game. We are getting better and better.

Vegas Claret wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 18, 2023 8:00 pm

we were really good, a few signings and we will be very competitive in the PL. City beat a team that would beat us 10 times out of 10 7-0 in midweek. LOADS of positives today and proof that some wont be good enough. Great from the fans too

I cannot agree more. It's a shame it ended up how it did, however like you say plenty of positives to be taken away. Hopefully they see it like this.