Manchester City 2-1 Watford Tues 24/09

Get a messy 1-0 and go through on away goles.

 

New EFL cup rules mean Man City get to pick their opponents themselves, so we are likely to play them every year, unless we can smartly get knocked out before 3rd round.

 

That's analogous to Pep saying I can't be arsed with this race whilst driving a Ferrari whilst we're going for it in our Reliant Robin.

 

Yes of course they didn't want to go through! I know what Pep said before the game and I just took it as another entitled big club manager whining about fixture pile-up despite having a multi billion pound squad. To be fair I think a lot of Watford fans don't really care about the League cup. We have quite a thin squad and the league is far more important and it appears that Clevs feels the same give the amount of changes he made last night. Just to clarify I didn't even say we didn't care about going though I said we probably cared less than City as they will be genuine contenders for the trophy. Even if Pep says he don't care.

 

If we'd won, Guardiola would have been kicking his seat, waving his arms and crying about too many fixtures or that the FA are trying to destroy City.

Entitled and "I don't care", but would have thrown a hissy fit. You can tell him and Arteta the king of whinging worked together.

 

*his backup Ferrari

 

Phil Foden’s fall from grace should be studied. From stinking up the Euros final to stinking up a game against lowly Watford.

 

Okay, but anorak-ish on my part - but I've been seeing/reading some justification for Baah's goal being disallowed last night on the basis that he'd used his arm to 'barge' the defender off the ball.

The clip linked below is the Haaland goal against Brighton in Oct 2022. You can clearly see in the video and the stills that Haaland uses just as much arm as Baah did.

https://x.com/Sam_ucko/status/1838662750446457286




One goal stood, the other didn't. So how was this reported? Lets have a look.....

This is the BBC's Simon Stone on Haaland's goal: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63267139



This is the BBC's Simon Stone on Baah's 'goal': https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/live/czegp16denyt



The Mail's Jack Gaughan report on Haaland's goal: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/l...ghton-Premier-League-2022-23-Live-Result.html



The Mail's Jack Gaughan report on Baah's 'goal': https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/f...rdiolas-advance-Carabao-Cup-fourth-round.html



And Sky's take on Haaland's goal: https://www.skysports.com/football/...remier-league-team-news-free-match-highlights

https://www.skysports.com/football/...uyne-on-target-as-city-survive-seagulls-scare






Yeah I know - doesn't tell us anything we don't already know - that the 'big club' bias exists in both referees and the media. But rather than just claiming that, this proved very easy to demonstrate.

 

Sam Ucko is a simpleton, mate.

 

He’s lying. He totally cares. There’s no way he would have fielded Stones, Walker, Count Doku, Foden, Grealish last night if he didn’t care.

He’s obsessed with winning everything and he would be the only manager to have won it 5 times.

His comments are just making another whingy point about too many fixtures. he is totally ungracious in victory as a 2-1 win for them is a poor result and it’s easier for him to say I don’t care. Childish.

 

I never understand why Guardiola has to make it so bloody difficult for whichever tv reporter is sent to ask him the obligatory few pre-game questions, week in, week out, as a matter of course.

No other coach feels the need to make the same childish, twisting, faux-esoteric dog and pony show of giving some straight forward answers to what are incredibly basic questions, purely to remind everyone what place they are in and what a lofty genius he truly is.

They're paid a fraction of the published salary you receive from your petrostate masters, Peppi, and an even smaller fraction of what you likely actually receive from them. Just give them the bloody quotes with a tiny modicum of grace and get on with it. It's a cousin of the 'how do they treat waiting staff' paradigm.

 

Guardiola is a ****. Thats the answer.

 

Oh I don't know . Ten Haag would make a good used car salesman , Mourinho can be prickly to say the least . Nuno wossisname at Forest the same . We have had a few interesting characters at the wheel here who could spin a yarn .

 

To be honest, most of the questions managers (and players) get asked are pretty inane.

 

He most certainly is not. He may annoy people with some of the things he says but he is one of the best coaches in the business right now

 

Shouldn’t any decent manager hate it when they lose?

 

I should imagine all professional sports person hate losing .