The Top Five Race 2024-25 (poll added)

Will we make the top 5?

  • Total voters
    1,364
  • Poll closed .
pbueno16 said:
Can 5th qualify for next season without an English team winning it this season? I can stomach not winning the title, but that on top of Liverpool or Arsenal winning CL would be sickening.
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At the moment, England is in pole position to get one of the two extra places in nest season’s CL as a consequence of this season’s coefficients. It looks almost certain that it will be two out of England, Spain and Italy. If we can somehow knock out Real Madrid, it would be potentially very damaging to Spain’s chances in addition to helping England’s.
The big irony is that we might ultimately be dependent on good results for the rags and dippers in order for fifth place to be enough to qualify.
 
With our constant ability to shoot ourselves in the foot.. I'm still not seeing top 4.

Maybe if other teams shoot themselves in the foot better than us.. we might have a chance!

But on a more serious note.. it's amazing the defensive stability Ake at the back and Stones in midfield brings. If those 2 can stay healthy going forward.. we should be able to get there!
 
expect serious go for top 4 or 5 places from Barcodes and Villa. these clubs need this new CL prize monies...
they need it more than us and I bbet they will try everything to get 5th at least. Villa did do a great window too to support it...

saw some charts on twatter showing Villa already earned around 65m pounds from the CL and thats league stage only. Liverpool about 90m pounds already for topping it. further prizes if they go one more round. and even more if they go really far. plus all the home games bringing extra cash.

while last season Newcastle with their rubbish group stage performance and shit coefficient collected 30m pounds total from CL. (4th place in group)

Forest is in a rare season where they do their best season in last 3 decades or more, bit lik Leicester few years ago.
plus Chelsea and us. and Bournemouth still close ad actually very decent side, modern tactics, good manager.

I dont expect many points from Barcodes, dippers, Spurs games in this month, this will allow others to bypass us but then last 10 games we really should put together a serious run with the help of new signings.

we throw away about 60-70m pounds revenue if we do
not get top5. Soriano will be mad.
bit more actually but difference would be brought in by Europa League if we finish 6th or win the FA-cup.
 
Not being in the Champions League is going to do us a huge favour. You're talking about a potential 6 more huge games midweek that we won't have to play. Could be vital for squad fitness. We can also go full tilt at the FA Cup.

Being in the Champions League latter stages is too much for this squad where they are fitness wise this season. Concentrate on securing top 4/5 and our place in the competition next season and plug away with the rebuild in the summer for another go at things next year.
 
that Forest-Chelsea fixture in the 38th round can be sick as long as its a decider for top5, stakes would immense if it happens to be a decider that like City easily 3rd, Newcastle already 4th and Forest-Chelsea on 5-6th on same points and only the winner gets into CL otherwise with a draw between them, Villa just be able to jump to 5th from 7th. :)

the 5th place makes it so much easier this year to get CL.

I expect Barcodes making a serious push and sadly they will get something at the Etihad too with us thinking on how we lost to Real and how we gonna play in Bernabeu next...
 
wolfie1988 said:
Not being in the Champions League is going to do us a huge favour. You're talking about a potential 6 more huge games midweek that we won't have to play. Could be vital for squad fitness. We can also go full tilt at the FA Cup.
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Had a thought related to this last night and decided to look at our league form this season when we've had to juggle a midweek cup game and a league game at the weekend.

2-0 W vs Chelsea
4-1 W vs Ipswich
3-1 W vs West Ham
2-1 W vs Brentford
---- D 1-1 Champions League vs. Inter ----
2-2 D vs Arsenal
---- W 2-1 League Cup vs. Watford ----
1-1 D vs Newcastle
---- W 4-0 Champions League vs. Bratislava ----
3-2 W vs Fulham
2-1 W vs Wolves
---- W 5-0 Champions League vs. Sparta Prague ----
1-0 W vs Southampton
---- L 1-2 League Cup vs. Tottenham ----
1-2 L vs Bournemouth
---- L 1-4 Champions League vs. Sporting ----
1-2 L vs Brighton
0-4 L vs Tottenham
---- D 3-3 Champions League vs. Feyenoord ----
0-2 L vs Liverpool
3-0 W vs Forest
2-2 D vs Crystal Palace
---- L 0-2 Champions League vs. Juventus ----
1-2 L vs Manchester United
1-2 L vs Aston Villa
1-1 D vs Everton
2-0 W vs Leicester
4-1 W vs West Ham
---- W 8-0 FA Cup vs. Salford City ----
2-2 D vs Brentford
6-0 W vs Ipswich
---- L 2-4 Champions League vs. PSG ----
3-1 W v Chelsea
---- W 3-1 Champions League vs. Club Brugge ----
5-1 L v Arsenal
---- W 2-1 FA Cup vs. Leyton Orient ----
---- L 2-3 Champions League vs. Real Madrid ----
Seems pretty obvious actually when it's laid out like that. At the start of the season when we were playing every seven days we were doing brilliantly. As the season's gone on, midweek games have hit us harder and harder. Hopefully once we're out against Madrid and back into a weekly run results and performances should pick up again.

That run at the start of the season when we had no other commitments is the best we've played this season, and that run of games between the Juventus and PSG ties is when it started to feel a bit like City again... until the Champions League came back and we started looking leggy and tired and devoid of ideas again.

Our record in Premier League games after a full 5-7 days rest this season is W7 D1 L3 (70% win rate - gets you roughly 75-78 points over a season). Our record in Premier League games after 2-4 days rest is W5 D4 L4 (39% win rate - gets you roughly 57-59 points over 38 games). Hopefully we can trend up again once Madrid knock us out.

When we look back at this season I think Pep's decision to go strong at Spurs, which resulted in Akanji and Dias both getting injured, started this bizarre run that's seen basically everyone except Haaland, Gundogan, Bernardo, and Gvardiol go down with some kind of injury. Hopefully we can just get the next two weeks out of the way.

But on the other hand, we just have a squad that's full of players who can't manage the schedule of two games per week anymore. The rest of this season should be about consolidating what we've got (top 4-5, go for the FA Cup if we can) and focusing on next season instead of over-extending ourselves in the Champions League.
 
youngbob said:
Had a thought related to this last night and decided to look at our league form this season when we've had to juggle a midweek cup game and a league game at the weekend.

2-0 W vs Chelsea
4-1 W vs Ipswich
3-1 W vs West Ham
2-1 W vs Brentford
---- D 1-1 Champions League vs. Inter ----
2-2 D vs Arsenal
---- W 2-1 League Cup vs. Watford ----
1-1 D vs Newcastle
---- W 4-0 Champions League vs. Bratislava ----
3-2 W vs Fulham
2-1 W vs Wolves
---- W 5-0 Champions League vs. Sparta Prague ----
1-0 W vs Southampton
---- L 1-2 League Cup vs. Tottenham ----
1-2 L vs Bournemouth
---- L 1-4 Champions League vs. Sporting ----
1-2 L vs Brighton
0-4 L vs Tottenham
---- D 3-3 Champions League vs. Feyenoord ----
0-2 L vs Liverpool
3-0 W vs Forest
2-2 D vs Crystal Palace
---- L 0-2 Champions League vs. Juventus ----
1-2 L vs Manchester United
1-2 L vs Aston Villa
1-1 D vs Everton
2-0 W vs Leicester
4-1 W vs West Ham
---- W 8-0 FA Cup vs. Salford City ----
2-2 D vs Brentford
6-0 W vs Ipswich
---- L 2-4 Champions League vs. PSG ----
3-1 W v Chelsea
---- W 3-1 Champions League vs. Club Brugge ----
5-1 L v Arsenal
---- W 2-1 FA Cup vs. Leyton Orient ----
---- L 2-3 Champions League vs. Real Madrid ----
Seems pretty obvious actually when it's laid out like that. At the start of the season when we were playing every seven days we were doing brilliantly. As the season's gone on, midweek games have hit us harder and harder. Hopefully once we're out against Madrid and back into a weekly run results and performances should pick up again.

That run at the start of the season when we had no other commitments is the best we've played this season, and that run of games between the Juventus and PSG ties is when it started to feel a bit like City again... until the Champions League came back and we started looking leggy and tired and devoid of ideas again.

Our record in Premier League games after a full 5-7 days rest this season is W7 D1 L3 (70% win rate - gets you roughly 75-78 points over a season). Our record in Premier League games after 2-4 days rest is W5 D4 L4 (39% win rate - gets you roughly 57-59 points over 38 games). Hopefully we can trend up again once Madrid knock us out.

When we look back at this season I think Pep's decision to go strong at Spurs, which resulted in Akanji and Dias both getting injured, started this bizarre run that's seen basically everyone except Haaland, Gundogan, Bernardo, and Gvardiol go down with some kind of injury. Hopefully we can just get the next two weeks out of the way.

But on the other hand, we just have a squad that's full of players who can't manage the schedule of two games per week anymore. The rest of this season should be about consolidating what we've got (top 4-5, go for the FA Cup if we can) and focusing on next season instead of over-extending ourselves in the Champions League.
Click to expand...

8 wins, 3 draws, 12 defeats over our last 23

1739472481006.png
 
I still think it's as simple as a fit squad and we make the CL. Continued injuries and we don't. Marmoush and Nico improve us now, Khusanov and Reis provide cover but are ones for the future. If we can play Ake, Dias, Stones, Akanji as a back 4 and they're all fit we will be okay.

If we are still having to piece things together based on who is fit enough to play we will struggle as shown with our form in the past couple of months.

Get knocked out the CL would help us qualify next season but I would expect Pep to rest players this weekend to give it all we can against Real.

I still see Villa as the biggest threat but they might be in Europe a while yet. I think we will do it, and 5th will be enough anyway.
 
supercity88 said:
I still think it's as simple as a fit squad and we make the CL. Continued injuries and we don't. Marmoush and Nico improve us now, Khusanov and Reis provide cover but are ones for the future. If we can play Ake, Dias, Stones, Akanji as a back 4 and they're all fit we will be okay.

If we are still having to piece things together based on who is fit enough to play we will struggle as shown with our form in the past couple of months.

Get knocked out the CL would help us qualify next season but I would expect Pep to rest players this weekend to give it all we can against Real.

I still see Villa as the biggest threat but they might be in Europe a while yet. I think we will do it, and 5th will be enough anyway.
Click to expand...
Go read up about akanji.
 
If we could fast forward 1 year, City might have a spectacular squad. We have been focusing on the struggles of an ageing and injured squad. But in the pipeline are a number of young players who are the best in their age group. I think a few City fans have watched Echeverri at the U20s and every single one will be trying to contain their excitement. Better days lie ahead
 
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