Will we win the league this season?

[Mr Ed (The Stables)]

We desparately need a right back at least before the window shuts.

 

[brian the blue]

Clearly not.

To win a title you have to win big games.

There’s no way we’re beating Liverpool or Arsenal. The away fixtures to those 2 will be comfortable, quite large defeats, similar to last year.

How we do against the likes of Spurs, Chelsea, Newcastle, Villa, Brighton, Forest etc will determine whether we’re top 4. Unfortunately the early signs aren’t good!

 

[Chris in London]

I never have and never will understand why all you armchair experts analyse one match and work out our entire season's prospects based on that.

Yes, we were awful today, probably worse than most of the matches we lost last season but Spurs didn't offer that much for all the hype, they were gifted two goals but didn't do much else, so considering how poor we were on the day it doesn't say a lot about them. First goal was a little unfortunate I felt, the second, well the sooner that's forgotten and we move on, the better.

But I saw enough last week to show that we can be real challengers. This is a new set of players playing only their second PL match and against opposition who have always been tough to beat in most recent years, and I rate Thomas Frank very highly too.

Dias has missed a lot of game time and Rodri has just come back from a serious injury so it's ridiculous to judge him after a few minutes of his second match back, especially as Pep has warned it's going to take time. No doubt that's exactly why he didn't put him on earlier.

Even last week you could see we were watching a team that is still getting used to each other yet everybody expects a bunch of players who barely know each other to hit the ground running against Premier League opposition. You should all know by now it rarely happens like that.

What Spurs did exceptionally well yesterday was press us hard for the whole 90 minutes. And one of the (few) positives of yesterday is that there are few teams in the league who have the technical ability to be really good when in possession but press the life out of you when they don’t.

More importantly, if your game depends upon maintaining a suffocating press for the whole game, it’s one thing to do that in the first three or four months of the season when everyone is fresh. It’s much more difficult to maintain that through the winter months and into the spring especially if there isn’t much depth in the squad and you arent able to rotate.

It’s one of the reasons we have done much better in the second half of the season over the past few years.

We haven’t seen enough so far to say who the title contenders will be come April. But I still don’t see Spurs maintaining that sort of challenge over 9 months

 

[Boris Yeltsin]

If Peps tactics are the problem, and we can. All agree Haaland is a better striker than marmoush based on historical performance, then isn't the thing that should change the tactics? Not the player?

What else can you do with haaland? Hes always been the same one dimensional player. Marmoush contributes far more in general play like aguero did. Marmoush enables the rest of the team to function properly. It's not just about scoring goals.

 

[Moss Side's Finest]

We will have to disagree then my friend. I mean Khusanov has played about five minutes of football... I don't think anyone sane would call him world class.

Yes, I'm also sane thanks. World class doesn't have to mean he is in the top 10 players in the world now. If you know football at a technical level, then you know Khusanov has all the attributes that make him world class, and probably will result in him being an elite level talent.

 

[Moss Side's Finest]

No balls, desire, tempo, urgency or fight in this team at the moment.

What a perfect summary in a single sentence

 

[madloaf]

What else can you do with haaland? Hes always been the same one dimensional player. Marmoush contributes far more in general play like aguero did. Marmoush enables the rest of the team to function properly. It's not just about scoring goals.

Im having a similar conversation with someone else. If you think removing someone who guarantees 30-50 goals a season across all competitions will make the team better then you are entitled to that opinion. I think we use him better as he's otherworldly.

 

[alexmcity]

Things are going as I have expected.

Predicted a slow start in previous posts, lots of criticisms directed against Pep and some players, then significant improvement, and then being the best after December/January.

Whether that would be enough to win the title depends on how slow the start is: if we are within 7 pts off the favourites come January, we may well win it.

We had a slow start in 20/21 as well, and fans were pessimistic. We won the title, the league cup, reached the CL final and were 3 wins off the quadruple.

Everything to play for.

 

[normskih]

I’m City through and through, it’s in my family’s veins but I’m honest enough to concede I think Arsenal or maybe L’pool have a better team than us, so no. I don’t think we will win the league this season. I hope I am proved wrong though.

 

[Sibierskii]

What a difference a week makes lol

 

[VOOMER]

Not a chance with the current squad. However the transfer window hasn't closed

 

[brian the blue]

Things are going as I have expected.

Predicted a slow start in previous posts, lots of criticisms directed against Pep and some players, then significant improvement, and then being the best after December/January.

Whether that would be enough to win the title depends on how slow the start is: if we are within 7 pts off the favourites come January, we may well win it.

We had a slow start in 20/21 as well, and fans were pessimistic. We won the title, the league cup, reached the CL final and were 3 wins off the quadruple.

Everything to play for.

The difference between now and 20/21 is that in that year, a lot of teams were a mess and whilst Liverpool had just won the league, they lost their best defender to an ACL and didn’t really sign anyone.

This time round Arsenal look like an absolute machine who are very hard to beat. Liverpool have gone again spending on top of success and always have a great home record. Neither of those teams are losing at home to the likes of Spurs.

 

[bellsouth]

What a difference a week makes lol

As good as we were going forward last week, there were signs that we still have the same issues at the back, being exposed to the counter-attack. Wolves had two goals ruled out for marginal offsides and despite how poor they are had other promising counter-attacks. Spurs are just one of about 8 decent counter-attacking sides that we’ll come up against and will all cause us problems. For that reason I can’t see us getting anywhere near the title.
As others have said, getting a proper right back is essential, but the high line and slow central defenders is going to be a problem

 

[Tomblue]

Armchairs experts? Lol. Do you know me? I attend every home game and many away games, I am a foot coach, I have studied football. Am I a professional elitesl coach? No, but I am not armchair fan. If you are saying spurs were average then that makes our dire performance even more dire surely?

Regarding the Wolves game, yes we played well in parts, but Wolves are probably going to be whipping boys this season judging by their performance again yesterday, so that's no yardstick to measure us against. Plus, we were hardly amazing throughout that entire game.

Yesterday was worrying because, we looked like a side who didn't know each other, that didn't know what our own manager wanted. And I'm not talking about the new players, I'm talking about players we've had for years. Is that disastrous? probably not in terms of doing reasonably well in the season once we get sorted, but this league now with the improvements other teams have made, time is a luxury we don't have if we want to become champions again.

If you don't think those players are world class, then we'll have to agree to disagree

At what point has Marmoush or Nico shown themselves to be world class!?

 

[alexmcity]

The difference between now and 20/21 is that in that year, a lot of teams were a mess and whilst Liverpool had just won the league, they lost their best defender to an ACL and didn’t really sign anyone.

This time round Arsenal look like an absolute machine who are very hard to beat. Liverpool have gone again spending on top of success and always have a great home record. Neither of those teams are losing at home to the likes of Spurs.

Arsenal have already had injuries to Havertz, Odegaard and Saka. Too early to tell about them or Liverpool. Any of the teams will have problems and critical periods.

We won the title in 2021 with 86 pts while playing heavily rotated teams after March. We won it because we had a great team, not only in the PL. We started slow, though. We were midtable after the first 8-10 games.

 

[Goater101]

The title winning city sides always had a feeling of inevitability. I think we’ve lost that now. I honestly couldn’t predict the next game. That’s the thing for me which puts major doubts on whether we will compete for the big trophies

 

[bugsyblue]

Yes, I'm also sane thanks. World class doesn't have to mean he is in the top 10 players in the world now. If you know football at a technical level, then you know Khusanov has all the attributes that make him world class, and probably will result in him being an elite level talent.

So you admit then that he’s currently not world class?

 

[brian the blue]

Arsenal have already had injuries to Havertz, Odegaard and Saka. Too early to tell about them or Liverpool. Any of the teams will have problems and critical periods.

We won the title in 2021 with 86 pts while playing heavily rotated teams after March. We won it because we had a great team, not only in the PL. We started slow, though. We were midtable after the first 8-10 games.

If Arsenal keep Raya, Saliba, Gabriel, Rice and Zubimendi fit all season, they have a real chance of going unbeaten, regardless of what happens with their forwards.

It would be very Arsenal under Arteta for them to go undefeated but still not win the league!

 

[alexmcity]

If Arsenal keep Raya, Saliba, Gabriel, Rice and Zubimendi fit all season, they have a real chance of going unbeaten, regardless of what happens with their forwards.

It would be very Arsenal under Arteta for them to go undefeated but still not win the league!

If a real chance means 1%, you might be right :)

As you say, it would be funny if they went unbeaten and finished 2nd.

 

[Marvin.]

I think Arsenal and Spurs will be in the top 4. Probably Liverpool. Liverpool will find the season challenging if they don't sign Isak. Hitherto, I thought City would be champions if we could get Rodri and Stones fit. My confidence after the Spurs game has been dented, largely due to the quality of Trafford and Cherki. Of the midfield 3 who started vs Spurs, who impressed? Only Reijnders. Rodri is going to take time to get fit. His return will help but Kovacic is also out. We don't know whether Foden will get back to his best. He seems to be dogged by ankle injuries.

The evidence from the start of the season is very limited but the quality of the performance against Spurs was below what I expected. Should we ignore it?