Season Predictions

Right now I'd be happy with one cup final and a top-three finish. Please not fourth again or the 'Pep hasn't improved City' brigade will be out in force.
 
manimanc said:
I know what you mean mate but it's been going on for so long that it's just second nature now. They can get all the dodgy decisions they like but we'll still be above them come May. I'll stick my neck out and say we'll win the league. It'll be tough but we'll do it, pep has experimented these past few weeks and I think he knows we haven't got the players for three at the back. We get vinnie back and keep him fit and we've got a new centre back kind of , Fernandinho and kun return and we stick to a back four then watch us go. I got no worries .
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It has been going on for so long that it is taken as read but this season has seen it elevated to the most blatant heights. The variation in 'consistency' for want of an incorrect word by referees is just staggering, and even this dyed-in-the-wool cynic is left a little incredulously wide-eyed.
 
Agree officials even worse this year. But we came out ok Sunday on another day both of our goals could have been chalked off
 
Exeter Blue I am here said:
The pre-season prediction notwithstanding, my biggest surprise is that Pep has been so surprised (if you see what I mean) by the robust nature of the Premier League. The man himself at least has the excuse of never having managed in England before and he did try to buy another centre half in the shape of Laporte, but as we were stockpiling young slightly built midfielders at considerable expense whilst eschewing the full back positions and the dearth of physicality up front and in the engine room, it's perhaps a surprise that Txixi, who'd had plenty of first hand experience of what English football was all about, didn't tip him the wink as to what to expect. Or maybe he did?!

Klopp had similar problems in his first 6 months at Candlepool in that whilst his manic press worked well against those opponents (and City in particular) prepared to try and play the ball out, they came unstuck repeatedly against teams with big powerful counterattacking players, who just hoofed it downfield and outpaced and outmuscled their defenders, ie Newcastle - Cisse, Sissoko, Wijnaldum; Palace - Zaha, Sakho; West Ham - Sako, Valencia, etc etc.....in short the exact same problem City have now. Lukaku, Costa, Hazard, Wickham, Llorente, Vardy, and even those who didn't score against us like Josh King and Sam Vokes, have all gone one on one with City's last defender and either beaten them with relative ease or held the ball up to then facilitate others to do so.

The sheer quality of some of our attacking players is such (as it was under Pellegrini) that we'll probably see off virtually everybody in the bottom half of the table, but as per last season I expect virtually nothing against those in the top half. The only decent side we've beaten in the Prem in recent memory are the rag mannequins and even they've improved immeasurably since that encounter. I don't see that changing this season, because even though Pep has now publicly acknowledged that we will concentrate on winning the 2nd phase ball (ie after the opposition have hoofed it downfield), we've assembled a group of attacking midfield players ill equipped for that purpose. Next season with a big powerful centre half (or two), a couple of mobile full backs and a Fernandinho clone all hopefully onboard (and Clichy, Sagna, Kolarov, Otamendi and Fernando, all heading for the exit), we might see a resurgence, but until then perhaps not so clever
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Some things never change now do they John. I'm definitely more optimistic than you are and as usual I differ opinion about the numbers of players that need to go or to be brought in. Other than Spurs and Leicester away I think we should have won all our games simply because we were the better side with many more chances to out score the opponent. And for me that is what football is all about. Scoring more and entertain.
 
eversince 76 said:
Some things never change now do they John. I'm definitely more optimistic than you are and as usual I differ opinion about the numbers of players that need to go or to be brought in. Other than Spurs and Leicester away I think we should have won all our games simply because we were the better side with many more chances to out score the opponent. And for me that is what football is all about. Scoring more and entertain.
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Believe it or not, I'm not unoptimistic (if that's even a word) long term. I just think this season's gonna be all about a battle to finish top 4 rather than top of the tree, because of the squad's shortcomings. I'd be surprised by any City fan who doesn't think we need all of the upgrades I refer to (ie. 2 full backs, a centre half, a powerful central midfielder, and even a centre forward and another goalkeeper) to become the side Pep wants, and the fact that he was actively looking at Aubameyang, Alaba, Bonucci and Laporte last summer - none of which itches he got to scratch - suggests he thinks the same.

I wouldn't disagree that we should have won every game this season bar Spurs and Leicester, but the fact is we didn't. We didn't beat Southampton, we didn't beat Everton, we didn't beat Chelsea, we didn't beat Boro, and we barely got past Sunderland. Yes, we created more than any of those teams, but that was as much a trade off between our commitment to load up on midfield numbers going forward and go short handed defensively, as anything else. We don't have the personnel yet with the strength, pace or nous to defend big spaces at the back IMO and that's going to require an overhaul. I'll be surprised if Clichy's still here next year, or one, if not both, of Sagna and Zaba, whilst Kompany's future will probably owe much to whether he is fit enough to play any meaningful part from here on in this season. And on a purely personal level I'd sell Otamendi in a heartbeat. Delph will likely be another casualty. That's a fair few vacancies mate.
 
Exeter Blue I am here said:
Believe it or not, I'm not unoptimistic (if that's even a word) long term. I just think this season's gonna be all about a battle to finish top 4 rather than top of the tree, because of the squad's shortcomings. I'd be surprised by any City fan who doesn't think we need all of the upgrades I refer to (ie. 2 full backs, a centre half, a powerful central midfielder, and even a centre forward and another goalkeeper) to become the side Pep wants, and the fact that he was actively looking at Aubameyang, Alaba, Bonucci and Laporte last summer - none of which itches he got to scratch - suggests he thinks the same.

I wouldn't disagree that we should have won every game this season bar Spurs and Leicester, but the fact is we didn't. We didn't beat Southampton, we didn't beat Everton, we didn't beat Chelsea, we didn't beat Boro, and we barely got past Sunderland. Yes, we created more than any of those teams, but that was as much a trade off between our commitment to load up on midfield numbers going forward and go short handed defensively, as anything else. We don't have the personnel yet with the strength, pace or nous to defend big spaces at the back IMO and that's going to require an overhaul. I'll be surprised if Clichy's still here next year, or one, if not both, of Sagna and Zaba, whilst Kompany's future will probably owe much to whether he is fit enough to play any meaningful part from here on in this season. And on a purely personal level I'd sell Otamendi in a heartbeat. Delph will likely be another casualty. That's a fair few vacancies mate.
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Agree but isn't guardiola here to build on the foundation of free flowing attacking play which pellegrini tried to implement whilst also progressing some of the youth players into the first team equation.
Therefore I feel aradabajo (?) or denayer will be kompanys long term replacement......Angelino,clichys and maffeo,zabaleta's.
Roberts will fill navas boots and Garcia will fill delphs.
A couple of marquee signings per season would be sufficient enough now long term.
Expect guardiola to lose navas zabaleta Clichy nasri hart Delph and toure asap with Fernando and Sagna not far behind.
Two maybe three maximum signings needed in the next two windows.
Alaba and a double raid on Dortmund for Reus and aubagyemang(?) I'd hope.
 
david whites spike said:
Agree but isn't guardiola here to build on the foundation of free flowing attacking play which pellegrini tried to implement whilst also progressing some of the youth players into the first team equation.
Therefore I feel aradabajo (?) or denayer will be kompanys long term replacement......Angelino,clichys and maffeo,zabaleta's.
Roberts will fill navas boots and Garcia will fill delphs.
A couple of marquee signings per season would be sufficient enough now long term.
Expect guardiola to lose navas zabaleta Clichy nasri hart Delph and toure asap with Fernando and Sagna not far behind.
Two maybe three maximum signings needed in the next two windows.
Alaba and a double raid on Dortmund for Reus and aubagyemang(?) I'd hope.
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By the law of averages alone, it's unlikely that any youth academy might produce more than 1 or 2 players per age group good enough for the exalted level we now operate at. Of the crop you mention above, Garcia has looked pretty solid, but the others are all maybes at best in my book. Not that they're not good, just not elite good. Chelsea gave us a good legging in consecutive youth cup finals and yet their best players from that side - Abraham, Solanke, Masonda, Brown - are all out on loan or in the stiffs, and there's not one academy graduate in the current starting XI's at Klanfield, The Emirates or the Swamp either. Rashford is as close as any of the top team's get. The crop on behind, containing Diaz, Foden and Sancho, perhaps offer more promise, but in the main I think we'll produce someone truly top drawer every now and then, whilst producing one or two others, schooled in the way the first team plays, who can step in when required and do a job, and make a bob or two on some of the others
 
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