Little Trip Down Memory Lane

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lasereyes

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On Dec 7, 2013, Pellegrini's City played their 15th game. At the end, their record stood at P15, W9, D2, L4, Pts 29. They were 5pts behind the leaders and the sages of the Bluemoon Forum were calling for Pellegrini's head.

Fast forward 728 days and our record happens to be identical. And surprise, surprise, the flappers are out in full force.

Now you can argue that the games we lost that year were close and even that we deserved to win some of them. But against that, we had nothing like the injury ravages we have had this season.

Does that mean we will go on a storming run and take the league? I'm not predicting anything of the sort. But in a year where nobody is stringing consistent form together, we are still very much in the race. And if we can get a good result at Arsenal in 2 weeks time (which with their injury situation is a certainly a possibility), we will go into the Xmas period fairly handily placed.

Our fate is going to depend on Kompany staying fit. If he plays most of the rest of the season, then we still have a great chance.
 
One would have expected some improvement in that time though. It doesn't look like any team is going to run away with it this season, so we're still in with a good chance if we can get the spine of our team back and fit.
 
Good post. Still a few blues too raw from today and too full of booze to cope with common sense and perspective just yet though.
 
One thing I will predict is that Liverpool's form will tail off. Teams will study and learn to combat Klopp's style. Increasingly, you will see them let Liverpool have the ball and play like an away team.
 
Helmet Cole said:
Good post. Still a few blues too raw from today and too full of booze to cope with common sense and perspective just yet though.
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I was pissed, and in my drunkeness I thought, it couldn't be that bad, let's watch motd, and find the positives, now I'm sober and pissed off again
 
Sorry you can compare two seasons ago stats as much as you want - we have spent 200 mill since then and are playing a lot worse. We didn't lose two games 4-1 that season playing absolutely f'in sh*te
 
B
lasereyes said:
On Dec 7, 2013, Pellegrini's City played their 15th game. At the end, their record stood at P15, W9, D2, L4, Pts 29. They were 5pts behind the leaders and the sages of the Bluemoon Forum were calling for Pellegrini's head.

Fast forward 728 days and our record happens to be identical. And surprise, surprise, the flappers are out in full force.

Now you can argue that the games we lost that year were close and even that we deserved to win some of them. But against that, we had nothing like the injury ravages we have had this season.

Does that mean we will go on a storming run and take the league? I'm not predicting anything of the sort. But in a year where nobody is stringing consistent form together, we are still very much in the race. And if we can get a good result at Arsenal in 2 weeks time (which with their injury situation is a certainly a possibility), we will go into the Xmas period fairly handily placed.

Our fate is going to depend on Kompany staying fit. If he plays most of the rest of the season, then we still have a great chance.
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The difference now is in our actual performance though.

Even when we are winning, we go through periods in the game where we look absolutely woeful. Newcastle should have been 2-0 up, Bournemouth should have been a goal and a man up. Southampton could have got back into it last week. Liverpool could have had 8, Stoke today could have had 5 or 6, we lost 4-1 to Spurs, we failed to beat Villa despite then not winning since Dalian Atkinson played for them.

Stats can be dressed up to suit whichever angle you're coming from, but we know what we are seeing with our eyes. Sevilla aside, when was the last time we actually performed to our capability for the full 90? Furthermore, how many games could we have been on the end of a hammering? Liverpool, Stoke, Gladbach, Spurs.

I remember the Stuttgart game the week before the season and how much of a sham we looked. It was brushed aside because we started the season so well, but when you look back at that game we have since put in 3 or 4 performances which have been equally as worrying.
 
dasein said:
I was pissed, and in my drunkeness I thought, it couldn't be that bad, let's watch motd, and find the positives, now I'm sober and pissed off again
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lol. Serves you right. Did you honestly think motd was going to be happyvviewing tonight?
 
So the op's point is that we've made precisely zero improvement or progress since then, despite hundreds of millions spent?
 
onceabluealways said:
Sorry you can compare two seasons ago stats as much as you want - we have spent 200 mill since then and are playing a lot worse. We didn't lose two games 4-1 that season playing absolutely f'in sh*te
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Everyone has spent big. United has spent more than we have. And I already addressed the point about losses in 2013/14 being closer in my original post.
 
johnny on the spot said:
So the op's point is that we've made precisely zero improvement or progress since then, despite hundreds of millions spent?
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Newsflash that may have escaped you. You don't get to win the league by just showing up. Every year the standard gets tougher. Look at Chelsea. Shows how difficult it is to stay even in the top 3, let alone be champions every year.
 
johnny on the spot said:
So the op's point is that we've made precisely zero improvement or progress since then, despite hundreds of millions spent?
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Yeah well depending on who you are you can see it both ways, yeah we have spent a lot and made little improvement, and yeah we could still win the league because history points towards that. But I think we will be lucky to not fall like Chelsea have in the next month or so, we have a load of players that can't play together and a manager that can't motivate them to play in a system that doesn't seem to fit the players we have. We have been found out Royal, and all I takes is a false 9 and a battle (that we are not up for) and we are beat. It's not rocket science
 
lasereyes said:
Everyone has spent big. United has spent more than we have. And I already addressed the point about losses in 2013/14 being closer in my original post.
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Yes but you seem to indicate that the situation isn't that bad. personally I think we have better players than we had then yet we are in a worse state.

I always felt this season we would win the league closely followed by arsenal. For the first time this season I actually think we will not win the league as I think we will have to many other performances like the one today. Hope I'm wrong
 
Again it's not the defeats but the manner of the defeats. Regardless of injuries, we are still (usually) fielding 11 players that I consider to be superior to the opposition's 11. Yet frequently their manager's have them functioning better than the sum of their parts and we have ours performing well below.

What annoys me most is the lack of tactical change to accommodate the players available. For example if you have Kompany, Mangala, Clichy and Sagna playing you can get away with playing a high defensive line usually but put in MD, Kolarov and Otamendi and using the same tactics leaves them exposed.

You have to look at the players and see which system gets the best from them, not just continue to use the same tactics as if you had your best 11 available.
 
ono said:
B

The difference now is in our actual performance though.

Even when we are winning, we go through periods in the game where we look absolutely woeful. Newcastle should have been 2-0 up, Bournemouth should have been a goal and a man up. Southampton could have got back into it last week. Liverpool could have had 8, Stoke today could have had 5 or 6, we lost 4-1 to Spurs, we failed to beat Villa despite then not winning since Dalian Atkinson played for them.

Stats can be dressed up to suit whichever angle you're coming from, but we know what we are seeing with our eyes. Sevilla aside, when was the last time we actually performed to our capability for the full 90? Furthermore, how many games could we have been on the end of a hammering? Liverpool, Stoke, Gladbach, Spurs.

I remember the Stuttgart game the week before the season and how much of a sham we looked. It was brushed aside because we started the season so well, but when you look back at that game we have since put in 3 or 4 performances which have been equally as worrying.
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Let's look more closely at these games. Newcastle's "second" was offside. The call against Bournemouth was 50/50 - and we have had plenty of such calls go against us (including a clear handball today btw). Spurs were hugely flattered by a bent linesman. Opponents are going to get chances, and just because Joe Hart is called into action doesn't mean "they should have scored". Last time I checked, he was a contracted CIty player and is paid quite a nice salary to keep goals out. You are also being very selective on 2013/14. We lost 1-0 to Chelsea in February - that was little different to this year's Liverpool game; if Liverpool could have had 8, then Chelsea could have had 6 or 7 that day. And against Liverpool that year, we could have been 2-0 down if Sterling were not wrongly flagged for offside.

So you are right - stats can certainly be dressed up to suit - and you are as guilty as anyone of that, bud.
 
I don't remember seeing us so totally outclassed in the premier league that season as we have been against Stoke, Liverpool and Spurs. I remember some poor results like Cardiff etc but can't remember us looking so poor creatively as well as defensively that year.

All will be forgotten and forgiven though if we win a trophy or 2 (or at least come close). I really hope Pellegrini can turn it round again though as we aren't going to making a managerial change before the end of the season anyway.
 
What's amazing is that this is our worst season in five years in terms of performance yet we are only 3 points off the top and already qualified for CL. Football hey!
 
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