FA Cup Final - Manchester City 6-0 Watford FC - 18/05/2019 Match Thread

You shouldn't get too hung up on the Gomes issue. Was he the reason we lost? No, he in fact made a couple of decent stops and was really unlucky with the shot that he pushed onto the post. That would have been an amazing save.

The was left ruthlessly exposed by a dreadful defence. Foster would probably have kept the score down and he does make amazing saves, but that's above and beyond really. Gomes was not the reason we lost, he was like a coconut at the fairground.

The exact same thing happened in the second half at Chelsea. They could have score 8 goals in the SECOND HALF alone. It was ridiculous. Only 3 amazing saves from Foster and two dreadful misses from Giroud kept the score down to three.

Gomes is a good keeper, and had the defence done it's job he would have been fine. He had only conceded three goals in the tournament before then, and none of them were his fault.

 

Foster may well have stopped the first 2 goals. If Silva's shot had hit the inside of the post, fair play. It hit almost the back corner of the net. Gomie was lined up more or less on the near post, leaving a lot of goal open. The Kiko deflection cruelly highlighted this.

 

Gomes was at fault for the first (poor positioning) and second (too slow), and the great save you mention was a poor save which Foster would have tipped round the post, not onto it, so saving that too, he was too slow getting down to the ball. There may have been others but I made myself watch the highlights once and I'm not watching them again !! He WAS a great keeper. The guy was great for us and a lovely bloke, but he's 38 now and it showed on saturday.

 

Can't help feeling that the manner of the Wolves win in the semi did for us to an extent.

The comeback sent everyone delirious and left the players thinking they were world beaters. That, along with having half a mind on the cup, was probably the reason for the end of season wheels off extravaganza. Had we won the semi 2-0 with a goal in each half, we might have kept our feet on the ground.

I think they got to the final and the poor league performance caught up with them. They basically shat themselves.

 

The problem with gomes wasnt so much his shot stopping and positioning as his distribution. I honestly think I can kick a ball further than him. It really puts us on the back foot.

It's not his fault we lost, but it is his fault we lost by a world record margin I reckon.

 

Gomes could have played for City, and the most he would have conceded would have been one goal, but probably would have kept a clean sheet. You cannot leave any keeper that exposed and expect them to save everything. The team had to give him greater protection. You cannot fire in 11 shots on target and expect him to save everything.

 

Need to run this world record claim past Norris McWhirter.

 

I don't disagree with what you've said but if we had scored that early chance, if we'd got the pen, if Foster had between the sticks and we hadn't conceded those first 2.......I think we'd have gone on to win 4-1

 

If we’d had six penalties awarded to us I doubt the match would’ve gone beyond normal time

 

I think we would have needed about 10 pens to score the 6 needed for ET.

 

It's the Roy Castle & his trumpet bit which is the official seal of approval.

 

Troy's good at pens.

That's how he scores his goals these days.

 

Despite the chants before the game, I really hope that Luton town weren’t watching

 

This especially regarding the midfield; Capoue & Doucoure had to play effectively every game once it was clear neither Cleverley or Quina were fit, so no surprise Capoue picked up a groin injury which I'm certain is not 100% cleared & that Doucoure has lost that extra bit of dynamism he needs to perform how he did when we were playing well. Add that to RP going missing for vast tracts of games & Hughes not being sure exactly what his role was meant to be & we got overrun. Even then, if RP scores as easy a chance as you're likely to get vs Citeh, things would probably have ended up considerably closer.

But it was a Cup Final so both teams were "meant" to be sort of equal....really? And the City team we played on Saturday had no need to conserve any effort; their players had all said they were desperate to win the Cup; and that team had already beaten the side who finished 3rd in the Prem 6-0 & in that game could have had more also.

Of course we're disappointed, but some of the lack of perspective is nothing short of infantile.

 

Actually, that's a little tough on him. This season he only had 2 penalties, yet still scored a healthy 11 goals, so that's 9 in open play. This is a big improvement.

 

They weren't until they heard the score was 0-4. From then on the record button was pressed with feet up and popcorn.

My L*ton supporting mates loved it.

 

Still misses a few - understandably.

 

Doesn't fit the narrative, so I'm out.

 

Sorry, you have Luton supporting MATES ??

 

Indeed.

Maybe because we have scored so many spectacular goals this year, I'm struggling to remember all of Troy's.

 

Well.....contacts through work. They are actually quite nice chaps.

 

https://www.monster.co.uk/

 

They were "mates" a minute ago.... sorry but I think this may result in a temporary ban.

 

List who have beaten them this season...

 

Tj

That's my view too, but HB1 made a very good case for the choice of Gomes being the sort of thing that has enabled Javi to bring the squad together in a way that previous head coaches have not been able to do. Quite a dilemma.

 

lyon, crystal palace, leicester, newcastle, spuds, chelsea.

I had no idea how many games they won only 1-0 or 2-1 too.

Makes our world record thrashing even more embarrassing.

 

Reading between the lines, this is quite revealing from Gray

https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/s...hester-city-cup-final-defeat-says-andre-gray/

"It's the quality of the players, it's not just about the money, it's the way they play, the way they press."
"They probably run more than any other team in the league as well. I think you've seen it today and it's just evident, the difference. "

That is quite disappointing. Even a player is admitting they didn't run as hard as City. Now I accept you can be beaten by better quality, but there is no reason why we should be out run.

You have to level the playing field in any way you can when you play a side like City. But if you're not even going to match them physically, you have no chance, as it proved.

 

I'm not very good at posting but I thought I would give it a go! I guess I am still feeling a bit down and there is something I would like to say. Did the players truly believe they could win on Saturday? I read on here a few weeks back a mini-report about a Fans Forum. There was a discussion about winning the FA Cup versus coming 7th in the league and getting into Europe. Many fans wanted to win the FA Cup but Troy said 7th in the league. When asked 'why?' he said something like "We could get to the final and then play City!" I remember at the time thinking that shows just how much our players rate City. I'm not criticising the players because 'belief' comes from within, you can't manufacture it, you can tell others you believe but deep inside you can't kid yourself. Maybe that early Pereyra would have given our boys some real belief and something to hang onto?

 

The Leicester win was partly a perfect storm of all the usual suspects having severely disrupted seasons. Obviously, Leicester did everything right to win it, but it's noticeable they haven't got close since. And that season forced City, Liverpool etc to hoover up as much more latent as possible to ensure it never happens again.

 

Here is a good well-balance report from the Standard.

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/fo...-cup-final-drubbing-by-man-city-a4146616.html

 

I reckon Foster would have blocked the second and would have been able to get up quicker after the ball hit the post. Not Gomes' fault we lost, but with Foster in goal I don't think we would have lost as heavily

 

It was Silky David Silva...there were a couple of similar fouls 15 yards inside our half when we had a chance to break on them as ALL their players were in our half also, but the ref did not even consider a yellow card. That's another very cute aspect of how high they press...because any such foul will be so far from their half, refs will hardly ever book anyone for them.

 

If I was a top player, why would I want to play for a manager that is willing to handicap the side in a huge final? These are professional athletes who put winning above everything else.

I personally think that the decision pushes the ambitious players further toward the exit door.

 

With respect to goalkeepers and cup games, the best thing to do is get rid of this nonsense where the no 2 plays in the FA Cup. I know lots of clubs do it but its noticeable Man City aren't among them. And for League Cup, City played their no 3 (as Bravo was injured) throughout until the final when he was benched. No sentiment from Pep there.

 

Disgusting. How does Pep sleep at night.