I know we got smashed, but for me, there's a lot of positives there. Man City are the best team in the land and I think we were playing at around about 60% of what we actually could do, save for some poor passing options and general play.
- Mustafi and Sokratis weren't terrible!
- Cech played very well, except with his feet
- By the end of the 2nd half, we had worked out how to press a bit. Man City made 3 or 4 mistakes we should've capitalised on.
- Guendouzi grew into the game. Very raw, but you can see the potential. He's a player who get better game to game. It was hugely impressive that even after errors, he did not let those compound and 'define' him in the match - he pushed hard until the end, and by the end of the game looked like a player who belonged.
- Torreira made a difference coming on. Expect him to start next week in place of Xhaka.
- Lich did quite well at FB even though he obviously felt unnatural there.
- Laca did well after coming on. Made a huge positive difference to our structure, which Ramsey really was struggling with.
Now, the big negatives;
- Ramsey. Ran hard, pressed OK, but left HUGE gaps at the back. Ozil was forced to track because of this (because Mkhi never really did).
- Ozil. This was his time to step up, but he was, quite frankly, horrid going forward. There were a number of opportunities to put Auba through and he never even got close. Really disappointing.
- Mkhi. Barely tracked back. Poor going forward. Just typical Mkhi inconsistency.
- Xhaka. I don't think he should be in the first team at all, and was shown how to play by a bloody 19 year old. Largely anonymous except for his mistakes, he didn't add anything to the team defensively or offensively and is perhaps the most pressable player in the league.
-Cech and passing out from the back. He played terrifically overall and kept us in it, but he's never going to learn how to pass like a 'modern' keeper now. This is why we bought Leno. Either be confident in him, or do not play like that.
A lot to work on, but for me - mostly personnel issues. The general idea of how we're playing, I can certainly get around.