Will we win the league this season?

roy.or.r said:
I think people here have also underestimated Walker’s contribution massively during our title wins. He literally stopped every counterattack and teams didn’t even bother attacking on that side.
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He was a top top RB. The leagues best!!

The way Vinicious surrendered to him at the Etihad was glorious.

That's what we miss now. Unreal, raw pace. And he was a decent footballer. Neat and tidy on the ball. And as you say, wingers facing him were psychologically beaten before a ball was kicked.
 
Another top 6 team we have failed to beat today.

I still think we will be an 80 point team this season, but we are a couple of elite level signings away from really competing.

It's quite alarming how dependant this team is on Haaland and Donnarumma, in addition the sheer panic and chaos in midfield whenever we play a decent team and Rodri isn't in the team.

There is no guarantee Rodri will ever be the player he was for us, let along whether or not he will be here next season. No chance the club allow him to run his contract down.

I really think this team needs a League or FA Cup to get back some sort of winning mentality once again.
 
Bluescholar said:
We're nowhere near good enough, we'll see off enough fodder to keep us in with a top 4 chance , but any decent team we play will beat us, Bournemouth next week is a big challenge for this team.
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Yeah just like Arsenal and Napoli did
 
quite a few mediocre players or players way below/past their best are regulars for us while couldnt see them starting for PSG, Bayern, Real, Barca currently.

lets be honest this version of Bernardo would not walk into those line ups. 3/5 years ago? probably yes.
Foden in this form? no way...
Nunes RB, Savinho, Doku on the wings? no way

in CL we will be in for a shock imo later stages. in PL if we manage lesser games well and some bigger home games we will be ok for top4 but its more and more competetive, mid clubs dont need a miracle to beat a top5 club, they just need to trust their system and have great mentality, desire to run more, win second balls etc.
travelling to Brentford Palace, Fulham, Villa, Brighton , Bournemouth are fucking hard journeys and often you will be content with a draw or with not losing and stats/xG wont be too one sided ever.

what Arteta seems to picked up is that defence can be the most important bit currently, and he made his team are hard to create big chances against and score. this is costing them going forward, and lack of exciting style with added focus on corners, set pieces etc, and requires lot of off the ball work from even their creative players which aint there at City...
but they aint gonna go down at places like Brighton, Spurs, Brentford losing by two or chasing a game late on vs lot lesser sides.

I assume when we visit Palace, Spurs, Bournemouth, well could be very similar to our Brighton, Villa games.

Pep wants to make us quicker, pressing again well with the help of Lijnders, but we just dont have the personnel and midfield stability and power and athleticism.

my hope is Ait Nouri, Cherki and Marmoush, Khusanov can be turned into regulars, and that could make Bernardo, Foden, Savinho, Nunes etc feel like they need to turn up their performances if they want to be selected otherwise play a limited role. this early injuries to those tho didnt help at all, they are now weeks behind in fitness and getting used to the side etc. their bedding in period delayed like 1.5/2months now.

not sure Pep could answer what his absolute best 11.

for me its Donnarumma, Ait Nouri, Gvardiol, Dias, Khusanov, at the back with Ait Nouri having more license to join attacks while other three CBs forms a kind of back three in possession.
midfield of Rodri, Reijnders, Foden
with Marmoush/Haaland/Cherki up top
(Cherki/Foden swapped around maybe)


dont think its fully balanced as workrate off the ball of Reijnders, Foden, Cherki, Marmoush can leave Rodri with too much work and also its not the type of wingers Pep prefers but I would rather have wingers than can score or create than ones that are "real" wingers without regular end product. the next goal or assist from Doku/Savinho might come before Christmas might not. thats not good enough.
 
Stoned Rose said:
This side is nowhere near the standard of previous seasons either technically, physically, mentally or desire wise.

We’ll do well to finish top 6 imo.
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The recruitment and squad planning has been horrendous. If last season wasn’t a wake up call to the powers that be, I think this one will smack them in the face like a wet football from the 60’s.
 
Axel Freed said:
Yeah just like Arsenal and Napoli did
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Napoli are very average. If we’d not parked the bus in a way we’ve never done in years I think Arsenal would have beaten us. I’m not really slagging anyone I’ve just thought for weeks we’re miles of genuinely challenging for the title. I didn’t expect us to win today because as we’ve seen for a good while now when a team are half decent with legs we really struggle physically. To be fair today we started very well with our press. Once they started to break it though they could run straight through. We’d over achieved really with the run we’d been on as eventually Harland wouldn’t be able to carry us.
 
A lot needs to happen, and it needs to happen now.

Despite all our recent recruitment, we've still got 3-4 new signings who've hardly kicked a ball, and not really had the time to adapt to the pace of the Premier League.
However, that's more to do with individual potential which isn't the subject of the thread.

To be anywhere near genuine title contenders we need a fully fit Rodri performing somewhere near his previous consistency, and we need Foden to start scoring goals.
That's also assuming that Haaland maintains his current form and fitness, and that Marmoush and Cherki both start contributing goals and assists.

Arsenal might still drop silly points, but without all the above, I just can't even see City anywhere near the top of the Premier League
 
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Scaring Europe to Death said:
A lot needs to happen, and it needs to happen now.

Despite all our recent recruitment, we've still got 3-4 new signings who've hardly kicked a ball, and not really had the time to adapt to the pace of the Premier League.
However, that's more to do with individual potential which isn't the subject of the thread.

To be anywhere near genuine title contenders we need a fully fit Rodri performing somewhere near his previous consistency, and we need Foden to start scoring goals.
That's also assuming that Haaland maintains his current form and fitness, and that Marmoush and Cherki both start contributing goals and assists.

Arsenal might still drop silly points, but without all the above, I just can't even see City anywhere near the top of the Premier League
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3 defeats already has left us needing to be almost perfect for the rest of the season, this squad isn’t even close to the level required to do that. Title over for us and it’s not even November.
 
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