Mistake, After Mistake, After mistake! Why Can't We See Games Out?

[Marvin.]

We look like some of the newly promoted teams you sometimes get that play good football and look pretty decent but they're not streetwise enough. Unbelievable really after the last few seasons.

We've lost quality players in key positions: Rodri, Walker and KDB. The KDB we are watching is not the player we knew. I couldn't believe that Pep started him ahead of Foden and Marmoush. We had 4 players who I thought played very well: Gvardiol, Stones, Haaland and Foden. Possibly Grealish would have made a big difference because he very rarely gives the ball away. Add Rodri, and have some confidence to play a more progressive game.

There are some positives:

1) We have some young players now including possibly a right back that has been a huge problem for us all season. I think Khusanov is going to be strong defensively but what is his offensive game like? We have to start playing him.
2) Stones has returned and played very well. I had given up on his return.
3) Savinho though poor last night, has shown recently that he is going to be a strong player for us.
4) Marmoush stats suggest he is a world class player. We haven't seen that yet.

If I was Pep I would play Khusanov now, and also try and find a role that enables Marmoush to settle in. And use KDB off the bench.

 

[chesterbells]

It's the only solution.

Lovely part of the world (this world).

 

[Bluesince1979]

Whats the definition of madness? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome?
Finishing the game with kovacic, gundogan and lewis was always going to result in a fuck up.
For all gundo offers, may as well have kept a decrepit KDB on.
Kovacoc always has that shit house ball in him, because, well, hes a shit house.
And rico, aah i love the lad and dont proportion any blame to him for the winner because he was given an horrific ball by kova, but the kid aint good enough.

We looked solid enough until the substitutions forced by injuries but i think now we bed in the new lads. Get em in and trust them now ready for next season rather than next season being the bedding in season!

But what do i know.

Pep is making erratic decisions weekly, but hey, we aint allowed to question him without being labeled a plastic by the gatekeepers eh

 

[Boris Yeltsin]

Lovely part of the world (this world).

Stunning. We're lucky to have it. So are they.

 

[Blue Calx]

You never know with City. We might go there next week and shut every **** up.

 

[Burtonblue]

I may be mistaken here but my impression is that most of our errors are coming from the right side of our defense.
I think the lack of a quality right back is costing us massively.
Walker was injured and out of form during this time and now is obviously gone.
A specialist right back who can learn the inverted role is absolutely essential in the next transfer window.

 

[Le Havre Oswald]

Also must be one of the worst teams at corners. Do we practice them or have any plan? Not been good on corners since we had Steve Howey

 

[uwe rosler 28]

Comes from the top!! We should be sitting deep and playing long and on the counter at 2-1 taking a lead to Madrid where we can play counter attacking football instead we now have to chase a game and will be humiliated.

 

[BlueMoonz1977]

The start of it all came when we couldnt secure our first choice targets in the transfer window - and we ended up plugging round holes with square pegs such as Kovacic and Nunes and bringing a worn out gundogan back.

Then we let high quality players leave without actually replacing them and all this has coincided with a fair few of the rest of the team being at the end of the road and hitting a brick wall after consistently going at it 100% for 3 years...the legs and mental ability just are not there to do it anymore.

Then we have the situation not knowing if Pep was actually staying, and the 115 charges saga hanging over the club.

Throw all this together and we have a season we are witnessing every week.

We no longer have teams beaten before they take to the pitch, they now sense our weakness and know we can be got at with ease right up to the final whistle.

It actually remains to be seen if it will be fixed by next season, as next season is the start of the so called transition phase imo

 

[jacko74]

We're like the polar opposite of the rags.

They play absolute shite but win games thanks to an isolated moment of individual skill.

We play OK (certainly compared to them) but lose games thanks to isolated moments of individual sloppiness.

 

[LangleyBlue1970]

Thread, after thread, after thread!

 

[il_Cecchino]

Your midfielders are old. So you can't play a full match at best.

 

[Blue Maverick]

It wasn’t an intentional short kick, he fucked it up. Story of the entire season.

Eddie rarely kicks the ball out of his hands, usually rolls it then hoofs it, now I know why. He doesn’t give a fuck anyway he wants out, rushing out if his net for the last one is not the first time this season, he’s forcing City to get rid at the end of the season.

 

[Exeter Blue I am here]

We’re a 75 minute team playing 90 minute games.

Our lack of fitness is a massive issue.

If games lasted 75 minutes, we’d probably be in for quite a few trophies this season. Unfortunately for us, they aren’t. It’d genuinely do us good to go out of the CL and even the FA Cup and just concentrate on getting enough points from our 75 minutes we have in us each week and see if we can get that 5th spot in the league.

I feel sorry for the lads. Some of them only have an hour in them.

We were even hanging on late on against Leyton Orient the other day. Their fitness shone through over ours towards the end.

‘We’re Man City, we fight til the end’ has never been so far away from this team.

I posted on the post-match thread last night to pretty much the same effect. Brighton, PSG, United, Feyenoord, Sporting, Brentford, Juventus, Arsenal, Madrid. That’s 9 games since the start of November in which we’ve conceded 26 second half goals, 15 of them in the last 15 minutes, and in 7 of the games we duly turned winning positions into defeats.

The individual error count is off the scale (the sheer brainlessness of Ederson attempting a risky scissor volley goal kick last night, when a simple up and under would have sufficed, was mind blowing, and he then topped it off by racing out to the edge of his box so Vinicius could lob him with ease for the third), but the lack of organisation and professionalism is as big an issue as age and fitness, and part of the blame for that lies with Pep. Defenders shoved up on halfway, so younger, quicker opponents can run in behind us willy nilly when we’re desperately trying to see games out, inexplicable substitutions (Rico Lewis didn’t play badly last night, but you know if you bring him on, at some point he’ll need to win a key challenge, but instead he’ll get brushed aside), and a general unwillingness to trust in young legs and minds - how DeBruyne stayed on the pitch as long as he did last night was incredible.

It’s staggering how far we’ve fallen, albeit that so much of it is self-inflicted, but to fail to heed the lessons of the United and Feyenoord defeats in particular, in a game of that magnitude last night, was unforgivable.

 

[Stoned Rose]

Mistake after mistake after mistake is a consequence of giving up control of football matches, imo, which is the bigger problem.

For years we've had a side which didn't always win but, particularly at home, penned opposition sides in for 95 minutes. Created chances, tested their goalkeeper, corner after corner etc.

This season has seen that element of control completely disappear and with it comes more pressure on our defence than we've watched for the last decade. Mistakes are following in turn.

We had more control last night than we’ve had for months.

Individual mistakes and shit decision making cost us the result.

 

[Stoned Rose]

We’re a 75 minute team playing 90 minute games.

Our lack of fitness is a massive issue.

If games lasted 75 minutes, we’d probably be in for quite a few trophies this season. Unfortunately for us, they aren’t. It’d genuinely do us good to go out of the CL and even the FA Cup and just concentrate on getting enough points from our 75 minutes we have in us each week and see if we can get that 5th spot in the league.

I feel sorry for the lads. Some of them only have an hour in them.

We were even hanging on late on against Leyton Orient the other day. Their fitness shone through over ours towards the end.

‘We’re Man City, we fight til the end’ has never been so far away from this team.

I posted re the collective conditioning issue about 5 games in. Not much has changed.

 

[AndyP68]

We had more control last night than we’ve had for months.

Individual mistakes and shit decision making cost us the result.

Whats the definition of madness? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome?
Finishing the game with kovacic, gundogan and lewis was always going to result in a fuck up.
For all gundo offers, may as well have kept a decrepit KDB on.
Kovacoc always has that shit house ball in him, because, well, hes a shit house.
And rico, aah i love the lad and dont proportion any blame to him for the winner because he was given an horrific ball by kova, but the kid aint good enough.

We looked solid enough until the substitutions forced by injuries but i think now we bed in the new lads. Get em in and trust them now ready for next season rather than next season being the bedding in season!

But what do i know.

Pep is making erratic decisions weekly, but hey, we aint allowed to question him without being labeled a plastic by the gatekeepers eh

Yeah putting Gundo on caused Eddie to fuck up his kick.

 

[ayrshire_blue]

We had more control last night than we’ve had for months.

Individual mistakes and shit decision making cost us the result.

We conceded 20 shots and could easily have conceded another 2 or 3 goals. At the other end, fortunate to get what we did.

As I say, I don't disagree we're making mistakes but they're a consequence of us often being on the back foot.

 

[GaudinoMotors]

Whats the definition of madness? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome?
Finishing the game with kovacic, gundogan and lewis was always going to result in a fuck up.
For all gundo offers, may as well have kept a decrepit KDB on.
Kovacoc always has that shit house ball in him, because, well, hes a shit house.
And rico, aah i love the lad and dont proportion any blame to him for the winner because he was given an horrific ball by kova, but the kid aint good enough.

We looked solid enough until the substitutions forced by injuries but i think now we bed in the new lads. Get em in and trust them now ready for next season rather than next season being the bedding in season!

But what do i know.

Pep is making erratic decisions weekly, but hey, we aint allowed to question him without being labeled a plastic by the gatekeepers eh

Or gatekeepers unable to understand how the psyche of those subs changes things for the players already on. Causes uncertainty.

 

[Fordyboy46]

The fitness problems start with Kev, he's carrying so much timber this season that he's blowing out of his arse earlier in a game than ever. He can only be used sparingly from now on, he just can't do it anymore from the start. Marmoush has to be given his role now with Foden next to him