I didn’t think we played too badly in the first half but once the second goal goes in it becomes a training game for them and damage limitation for us with the Liverpool game fresh in the memory.

City’s squad cost £800mil and ours £150mil with significant proportion of that spent in 16/17.

that is all true, but Ayew was trying to do the Benteke role and doing it very badly - Benteke is better in the Benteke role, so why play Ayew if you want a Benteke-type job done? The link up play between Eze, Ayew and Townsend was non-existent, early on it opened up for us and we were a bit tentative, later in the game we were just as tentative going in their half never mind their penalty area, and it wan't a Pulis-like clever surrender of possession, it was giving the ball away due to going nowhere in midfield. There were even times when going forward was the safe option, but they weren't 'on it'. You don't keep the score down by surrendering the ball due to lack of bottle/belief - that's why the gripes are justified imho.

We’ll have to agree to disagree on Benteke and every time I see his name mentioned to justify people’s narrative about the manager it just undermines their argument IMO. He’s got the touch of a rapist, continually loses the ball, a feeble shot and joke goal scoring record.

Ayew on the other hand scored more goals last season than Benteke has managed in three, works harder for the team and is better at retaining the ball. However, we’ve not seen much of that this season and I’d concede that choosing between him and Benteke at present is akin to choosing which bollock to have cut off

Ultimately Benteke probably suits the way set up best and offers height from set pieces which, with hindsight, may have helped last night but arguments either way are tenuous.

The lack of link up between the three players is down to quality, age and energy IMO even Eze is guilty of giving the ball up easily and the first two goals actually came from us trying to overplay in our half.

Edited by Rachid Rachid Rachid (18 Jan 2021 11.34pm)

I concur with these sentiments.

Aged defenders who lack pace and as such we have to defend deep and cannot advance up the pitch.
Lacking in balance down the right hand side so the majority of our attacks are down the left.
Midfielders with no creativity at all.
A 'Target man' whose scoring record is abysmal and a 'Loan' striker whose is only noticed when he is flagged offside.
An old squad, lacking in pace,mobility,energy and creativity and Mr Hodgson has to try and get the best out of them.

Liverpool, high press, destroyed us, Wolves the same, Man City the same.

What’s the easiest way to beat a high press, take them out of the game and get them turning round and chasing the ball by playing it long to two target men and look to the two wide men to pick up the knockdowns.

So what did we do against Citeh? We play Ayew on his own who can’t win the ball in the air and can’t hold it up. The reason the midfield looked terrible was because there was no out ball. We are not good enough to pass it round them and everyone knows it, so that left us looking congested in our own half and they just picked us off with their midfield hunting the ball in twos and then utilising their quick passing and movement to cut us apart.

We couldn’t have set up any better to play into their hands and we got what we deserved from the game, absolutely nothing.

2 goals for their centre half who wouldn’t even be there if we had two forwards offering an out ball on the last shoulder of defence.

I can’t believe people are blaming individual errors for their goals either. If you are under sustained pressure for the entire match, eventually mistakes will occur. How often do you see error free defensive displays.

No questions over the ability of Man City, they are a damn good team and will probably win the league, but we made it easy for them.

For those who have the time, look back at the games where we were terrible and you will see it is mostly instigated by teams playing a high press against us. We panic, and end up giving the ball away.

I don’t disagree about our ageing side and their limitations as they are clear to see, however I do see the same mistakes being made against certain teams and certain tactics. Now whose responsibility is that I wonder?

If you take a four goal deficit as a drubbing then that is now 3 this season against the supposed top teams. With only a half of the season gone might well be one or two more. Seems a little more than previous seasons ?

“ [T]here are known knowns; there are things we know that we know.There are known unknowns; that is to say there are things that, we now know we don't know.But there are also unknown unknowns – there are things we do not know we don't know. ”
—United States Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld