Will we win the league this season?

[Marvin.]

Completely agree, but we're over a full season without him now and its hard to say when he'll be back and if he'll be back with any kind of consistency. Nico is looking the business to be fair, but we need a plan B.

Pep said last night he was close to a return.

 

[Stoned Rose]

Every team grows into the season surely, so that by March they are winning game after game. Rather than the start where's all a bit bitty and finding the right combination of players. Maybe I am misunderstanding growing into the season. Consistency deffo.

A team could be bottom of the league with about 6 points after 12 games but pull themselves together and “grow” over the remaining 26 games and finish says 6th from bottom. Huge growth but they wouldn’t be winning the league. Pep is talking shite.

The team who is most consistent always wins the league, mate!

 

[Stoned Rose]

If we don't get stronger, we won't win the title. We are inconsistent at the moment.

Arsenal are likely to be solid and remain at this level although they may like many teams suffer emotionally later in the season. As a young developing transitional side, I do expect City to get stronger.

Doku, Foden, O'Reilly, Reijnders, Cherki are all new or recovering. Rodri is out, and due back.

Agreed mate but “growing the most” still doesn’t win you the league. Being the most consistent over 38 games does.

 

[Stoned Rose]

Its exactly to do with growing and getting better as the season goes on.

This is what we've done under Pep since he's been here.

See my reply to Gorton Tubster, mate.

 

[Danny Tiatto]

A team could be bottom of the league with about 6 points after 12 games but pull themselves together and “grow” over the remaining 26 games and finish says 6th from bottom. Huge growth but they wouldn’t be winning the league. Pep is talking shite.

The team who is most consistent always wins the league, mate!

The team that is most consistent but consistency also comes with handling expectation and pressure which some clubs are traditionally far better at than others

 

[Urzu1234]

A team could be bottom of the league with about 6 points after 12 games but pull themselves together and “grow” over the remaining 26 games and finish says 6th from bottom. Huge growth but they wouldn’t be winning the league. Pep is talking shite.

The team who is most consistent always wins the league, mate!

Well obviously. But the league doesnt end here. Consistency is judged after the 38th game. So City could very well go on to be the most consistent from this point onwards and win it.

 

[thomas1307]

He's no more than a bench player imo. Age is on his side, but he's got a long way to go.

okay, personally i think he's been class this season definitely upped his game, but this is the beauty of football we all have very different opinions

 

[Gray]

Any team that ships goals like we do is certainly not winning anything.

 

[MCFC1993]

Assuming we play to our best and you find your hard games tough, I'd go:

City	Arsenal
Leeds (H) - Win	Chelsea (A) - Draw
Fulham (A) - Win	Brentford (H) - Win
Sunderland (H) - Win	Villa (A) - Loss
Palace (A) - Loss	Wolves (H) - Win
West Ham (H) - Win	Everton (A) - Draw
Forest (A) - Win	Brighton (H) - Win
Sunderland (A) - Win	Villa (H) - Win

18 points City - Losing to Palace (A)
14 points Arsenal - Drawing to Chelsea (A), Everton (A) and losing to Villa (A).

I think the timeslot of the Everton game makes it tough for you.

I also think our Sunderland (A) game is a lot easier than it was for you, they have 8 or 9 at AFCON. 4 of which started against you and 2 came on.


That's my optimistic view, realistic is we get about the same points.

This is still on, hanging by a thread but I assume Arsenal win tonight to make it 4/4.

 

[Tb1981]

Let’s overreact right off the back of one crazy game lol

Or maybe it’s a reaction to letting Leeds back into the game, Fulham back in, Brighton back in
Somehow getting beat by spurs at home again
Getting beat by Newcastle
Conceding an injury time equaliser at arsenal

Maybe for all our improvement we are still a bit shit at managing games and too easy to score against
Maybe in my opinion that means we’re likely to drop loads more points

 

[Marvin.]

Or maybe it’s a reaction to letting Leeds back into the game, Fulham back in, Brighton back in
Somehow getting beat by spurs at home again
Getting beat by Newcastle
Conceding an injury time equaliser at arsenal

Maybe for all our improvement we are still a bit shit at managing games and too easy to score against
Maybe in my opinion that means we’re likely t drop loads more points

The target is Arsenal, not perfection. We are a work in progress, 2-5 points behind Arsenal and are not dead in the water.

 

[Roachy]

Or maybe it’s a reaction to letting Leeds back into the game, Fulham back in, Brighton back in
Somehow getting beat by spurs at home again
Getting beat by Newcastle
Conceding an injury time equaliser at arsenal

Maybe for all our improvement we are still a bit shit at managing games and too easy to score against
Maybe in my opinion that means we’re likely to drop loads more points

The defence isn't covering itself in glory, but most of this is stemming from a passive midfield. Lacking a bit of steel and tenacity is compounding the fall off in creative players we've had in there in previous seasons.

 

[Paladin]

A team could be bottom of the league with about 6 points after 12 games but pull themselves together and “grow” over the remaining 26 games and finish says 6th from bottom. Huge growth but they wouldn’t be winning the league. Pep is talking shite.

The team who is most consistent always wins the league, mate!

Just not true. How many times have we come strong in the new year to overtake the leaders and win the league? We've not always had full season consistency.

 

[.db.]

Or maybe it’s a reaction to letting Leeds back into the game, Fulham back in, Brighton back in
Somehow getting beat by spurs at home again
Getting beat by Newcastle
Conceding an injury time equaliser at arsenal

Maybe for all our improvement we are still a bit shit at managing games and too easy to score against
Maybe in my opinion that means we’re likely to drop loads more points

Sometimes it can just be a bit of a run where these things seem to happen a fair bit.

Late in 2021-22 and early 2022-23 it was the other way around and were seemingly often two goals down in games and had to come back:
FA Cup semi v Lpool was actually 3-0 down and we got it back to 3-2
West Ham away 2-0 down, ended 2-2
Villa home 0-2 down, ended 3-2
Newcastle away 3-1 down, ended 3-3
Palace 0-2 down, ended 4-2

It could just be a bit of form, a short term mindset thing and one result (maybe last night!) drags you out of it.

 

[bridgeno1]

Lol. I like your sense of humour, pal. I think it's Arsenal's to lose, and you've been in this position before more than once. Are you worried about us?

Still far too early in the season yet for me to think we'll win the league as we're letting in too many goals Arsenal are not, but things will change. But right now i think we'll finish runners up.

Am I worried about City? I'm an Arsenal fan - City-related PTSD is in our DNA! Even though I watch what happened last night on a replay and think 'what the holy hell is going on?', at the end of the day it was 3 points at a tough place to go and nobody would care that last night it looked like your defence had been in the pub all day if you lift the trophy in May!

 

[thomas1307]

PL record since end of August ie when Don arrived and we began to catch up conditioning wise with the rest of the league .....

W8 D1 L2

The two defeats were narrow ones away to good teams

Explain how a "soft" team which "collapses at the slightest touch" and which is liable to "panic" and "hand out goals like gifts" puts together that kind of record.

before the international break no one was questioning the second half collapse, the defence or the goalkeeeper, something may of happened after the international break that's broke the momentum.

 

[Axel Freed]

before the international break no one was questioning the second half collapse, the defence or the goalkeeeper, something may of happened after the international break that's broke the momentum.

Our customary mid November to mid December slump ?

If two defeats in four games, one where we played the reserves and one where the officials did us, constitutes a slump.

 

[BlueMoonAcrossThePond]

If we start putting 8 goals past teams every single game, then maybe I will believe and we know that 8 goals or even 5 won't happen every game. Because right now, we collapse at the slightest touch. The moment any team shows even a hint of resistance, they suddenly grow in confidence. They realise we’re soft. They realise we panic. They realise all they need to do is press a bit, push a bit, and we’ll start handing out goals like gifts.

And that’s the worst part: even when teams are getting battered, even when the scoreline is a cantar, they do not fear us. They stay calm because they’ve seen us crumble before. They’ve seen us blow leads. They’ve seen us lose control and composure as soon as the pressure rises.

Going from 5–1 to 5–4, and nearly 5–5 if not for Gvardiol’s heroic clearance… that is not elite mentality. That is not title-winning mentality. That is garbage mentality. This is not bad luck. It’s psychological fragility.

Our players are far too soft, far too easy to disrupt, and the repetition of these collapses is becoming genuinely alarming. You can see it, the fans can see it, opposition teams can see it — everyone knows the moment pressure hits, we wobble.

This has to be addressed. Because no amount of goals scored will matter if we keep inviting chaos every time we should be putting games to bed. I hope we bring in players that are tough as steel in Jan and we go on a title charge!

Agree.

From my perspective, Pep has had a change in philosophy. No longer does he always value ball control as a primary means of defense. This is reflected, for example, in the signing of Donnarumma - fantastic shot stopper but average plus on the ball for a keeper.

Our press, too, has changed. We're no longer super aggressive, but instead, most games, seem to still press high albeit with a bit less intensity. Perhaps some of this is by design, for example against Arsenal, where we were content to sit back defensively.

And yet, against most sides, we're still way up the pitch with a high line on offense, pretty much like we've always been under Pep. Except now, our press isn't nearly as effective. And our ability to retain the ball under pressure isn't nearly as good. And these defects don't apply to just one or two players - multiple players on our side aren't extremely press resistant nor are they able/willing to press aggressively when we lose the ball.

As a result, we're often high up the pitch with a very high line and when the ball turns over we can't get it back quickly and the opposition plays through us. Too, when on offense and need to build from the back, often we have problems because we're not press resistant and are prone to giving the ball away. We now are more willing to try long balls to play over the press - sometimes this works out extremely well, but often it leads to a 50-50 or worse long ball leading to loss of possession.

So the short of it is, IMO, we're nowhere near good enough to make a solid run at the title, barring some sort of additional changes to our system when facing sides where we play high up the field (which is most sides).

 

[GOULDYBOBS]

If one of the red shite held on to win that Fulham game like we did, all we would hear about is "sign of champions".

We will be there

 

[Stoned Rose]

Just not true. How many times have we come strong in the new year to overtake the leaders and win the league? We've not always had full season consistency.

Nowhere do I suggest anybody needs to have “full season consistency”.

I’ve said the most consistent team, results wise, wins the league. Are you suggesting that’s not true?