If the rot continues what happens ?

rebuild is needed in the sqquad but also tactically. if we cannot go back to being great at pressing we need to forget the high line. cant see that happening under Pep.

our pressing were great and slowly deteriorated to being dog shit over last 6 years.

defences hated us when we had Sterling, Sane, Jesus, Kun upfront and having the energy to run fter them to get the ball back. later on it changed but even in the false 9 season, Sterling, Jesus, Gundo, Bernardo, Fernandinho did hell of a pressing, and KDB was more fit that time, Mahrez also managed to press.

slowly the pressing became bit less and less but our control improved due to very strong aand intelligent midfield with Rodri, Gundo, KDB, Foden all able to move the ball around with speed while winger able to hold onto ball well so we just didnt press that well but had hell of a control and we could suffocate opponents by properly camping at their half.

for this season all of this is lost, players aged badly, lots of injuries, Rodri out who was central piece on all this, no one these days to snuff out danger in midfield, Haaland, aint pressing, he makes 1/2 runs but doesnt matter as its not a team effort of pressing, easily bypassed...
this leaves a midfield in trouble a midfield that is a mess big time with a slow Gundo/Lewis duo trying to do what they cannot do. KDB walking around a lot off the ball. we cant afford that unless we have 2x Fernandinhos with that type of energy level to clean up behind him.
Foden also aint pressing much which is sad, while Doku and Savinho in theory should have the energy to press well but its aint their strength either.
Bernardo just flogged to death at this point.

dont know how but I think the rebuild need to focus around this, going back to the pressing days, any other solution will be temporary and probably cost us long term and just delays what needs to be done..

if we dont press well upfront, the high line defence will face lot of uncomfortable situations and they are not Paolo Maldini level of defenders as we can see all kind of positional errors every game from them.

Gundo, KDB, Walker cannot be part of the rebuild, but due to squad building or lack of it, we cannot even use this season as a transitional one, this is more of a write off season now.
and Grealish, Bernardo, Stones also needs to be considered if they should be part of first 11 next 2 years. if not sell them. Bernardo is the most reliable of them, but feels like he got burnt out.
 
Tuearts right boot said:
Yep, Liverpool did it a couple of seasons ago under Klopp, came back, then changed management. Hopefully we can do similar, it's been done before .....
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Liverpool have done fuck all. Comparing them to us is irrelevant …… we’ve been the dominant force in English football for over a decade, they’ve won a couple of cup competitions and won the league the same amount of times Leicester have.

Let’s hope we don’t do anything similar to them.
 
mancityscot said:
it is starting to make the pep renewal decision slightly peculiar now. We need a complete refresh, and I’m not sure him extending for another couple years gives us that.
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we’ve clearly made a mistake after two months of bad form. The best manager in the world probably isn’t the best person for a refresh
 
It’s quite poignant that the match that finally brings home to roost what a mess we’re in (even to happy clappers like myself) should be a derby against one of the worst rags teams in living memory.

With the benefit of hindsight it now seems clear that the cup final catastrophe wasn’t only due to some over the top celebrations in the days before the game. It was more a case of the whole squad being mentally and physically spent from the efforts of doing something unparalleled in English history over the previous 4 seasons. They had nothing left on that day and they’ve got nothing left now.

I might not have spotted this but the guys in charge should have.
 
BolinCell said:
Its not the norm to fall of a cliff form wise.
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It is. It’s completely normal.

Like I said a few pages back:
M23 Citizen said:
It is very sad, but it’s completely normal.

We’re the only team who has retained the title since 2008-09.

I’ve said a number of times that winning the league title even once takes a monumental effort:

2013 United Champions, 2014 7th
2015 Chelsea Champions, 2016 10th
2016 Leicester Champions, 2017 12th
2017 Chelsea Champions, 2018 5th

City after 100pts and 98pts in 2018 and 2019 (with a domestic quadruple) - 2020 81pts
Lpool after 99pts and 97pts in 2019 and 2020 (with 2CL finals, winning one) - 2021 69pts
Lpool after 92pts in 2022 (and a CL final) - 67pts in 2023

1968 City Champions, 1969 13th
1937 City Champions, 1938 relegated.

Can go through history and see it happening regularly.

1981 Villa Champions, 1982 11th (although they won the EC).
1991 Arsenal Champions, 1992 4th, 1993 10th.
1992 Leeds Champions, 1993 17th.

Yet we’ve won four in a row and been to 2 CL finals, winning one, and won a host of other trophies. The drop off this season is not unexpected after those efforts. Let’s just work hard as a club and a set of fans behind them to get into the Top4.
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It’s actually unusual to keep challenging at the very top year-after-year. Only George Ramsey, Revie, Paisley, Ferguson, Wenger and Guardiola have ever achieved it over more than 5 consecutive years in English football history.

Clough didn’t, Busby didn’t, Shankly didn’t, Mourinho didn’t, Klopp didn’t, Kendall didn’t, Robson didn’t, Chapman didn’t, Cullis didn’t, Mancini didn’t, Pellegrini didn’t, Mercer didn’t, Wild didn’t…


BolinCell said:
The snugness in our backroom staff congratulating each other after the 40 million off loading of Palmer to Chelsea is one reason for our recent drop off, complacency in the recruitment department. A few years ago we would of been snapping at Madrid's heels for Mbappe these days were asking Wolves for Nunes.
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I do agree, but like I also said a few pages back:

M23 Citizen said:
Peaks and troughs happen, and have with us throughout this era.

We signed excellently between 2009-2011 (on the whole) and then followed it up with Maicon, Sinclair, Rodwell etc.

Signed well again in 2013 but followed it up with Bony and Fernando.

Signed excellently between 2015 and 2017 (on the whole) and then followed it up with a bunch of hits and missed.

Time to take it seriously again and have an excellent run of signings.

One thing to learn from Txiki’s time at the club, is to keep improving even when we’ve achieved big things. But I have every faith the club will turn it around and Pep will win more with City.
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argyle said:
Yeah let's sack Pep because of a bad two months. Who cares about the decade of domination....
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That’s really not what I’m saying at all mate, I would never want him sacked.
We could lose every game from now until the end of the season and I’d still never want him sacked.

I think I was just a bit surprised about the 2 year renewal. I felt that it was probably a good time to go our separate ways, as it’s clear we’re needing a complete rebuild. Pep will always have my full support after everything he’s given us though, no doubt about it.
 
mancityscot said:
That’s really not what I’m saying at all mate, I would never want him sacked.
We could lose every game from now until the end of the season and I’d still never want him sacked.

I think I was just a bit surprised about the 2 year renewal. I felt that it was probably a. good time to go our separate ways, as it’s clear we’re needing a complete rebuild. Pep will always have my full support after everything he’s given us though, no doubt about it.
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I got you. I misunderstood.
 
M23 Citizen said:
It is. It’s completely normal.

Like I said a few pages back;


It’s actually unusual to keep being at the top year-after-year. Only George Ramsey, Chapman, Paisley, Ferguson, Wenger and Guardiola have ever achieved it over more than 5 years in English football history.

Clough didn’t, Busby didn’t, Mourinho didn’t, Mancini didn’t, Pellegrini didn’t, Mercer didn’t, Shankly didn’t…



I do agree, but like I also said a few pages back;
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there has been hubris in the recruitment last summer and this is not altogether mitigated by the uncertainty surrounding Pep. As has been mentioned Nunes hasn't been good enough and we've been happy to recruit 2/3rd tier players that in the past wouldn't have been considered.

This is a dip of 2 months and it will stop with the return of our defense even though I cannot see us going on a winning streak of 13/14 games. So cutting to the chase when will the rot effectively stop I would predict end of Jan/ start of Feb with dramatic improvements as early as next week if Stones and Akanji can play
 
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