What do you think is wrong?

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Marvin said:
I keep reading that we didn't match their work rate. I thought we did. Maybe I am wrong

I thought the goals we gifted them at the start (from our point of view were awful defending) and from there it was very difficult. We were the team taking the game to Stoke all game, but at 2-0 they could just sit back and pick us off.
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There was no intensity to our performance at all. Everyone knows Stoke is a tough place to go and they will be well up for it so you collectively roll your sleeves up with an almost siege mentality. If it was a one-off then I'd accept it but this happens for too often. It reminded be of Burnley away last season when we HAD to win and just didn't look interested. I can't help but think that we have missed a chance to completely dominate the Premier League with this group of players. United, Arsenal and maybe even Liverpool won't be as weak for long. Even Chelsea have been up and down.
 
I think we rely too much on Yaya.

If we compare our wins ratio with & without him we will see a big difference.
 
shemnel said:
i think it's 6th best but anyway, i still think attack is more important than defence, but we'll agree to disagree!
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I think attack and defence are just as important as each other and being better at one makes you even better at the other. So if a team wants to be an exciting attacking side, the first thing they need to be good at is being tight at the back with a high line and winning the ball back high up the pitch quickly, putting pressure on players and trapping them in certain areas of the pitch. From there, a team can then be more effective with the ball. Also because of the formation we play with when we do get the ball back, our players are too far away from each other - because we aren't a tight defensive unit, making the pitch narrow and small - so our passing can be too slow and we are easy to put pressure on or sit off.
 
1. When we concede, you can see the confidence completely drain out of the players, its been like this for a couple of seasons
2. I don't think we use sterling properly, if we don't start hitting him early, there is no point in him being in the team. It frustrates me that he is used as a "one two" with kolarov, then we should be using his pace to counter attack
3. We don't press as a team anymore, we look very lack lustre at times
4. They don't look a happy bunch, considering we were top of the league, through to the semis of the league cup, and qualified for the champions league
 
KippaxCitizen said:
I think attack and defence are just as important as each other and being better at one makes you even better at the other. So if a team wants to be an exciting attacking side, the first thing they need to be good at is being tight at the back with a high line and winning the ball back high up the pitch quickly, putting pressure on players and trapping them in certain areas of the pitch. From there, a team can then be more effective with the ball. Also because of the formation we play with when we do get the ball back, our players are too far away from each other - because we aren't a tight defensive unit, making the pitch narrow and small - so our passing can be too slow and we are easy to put pressure on or sit off.
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yep, think i stated on the previous page that both attack and defence must be of a decent standard, no doubts, but if i were to prioritise either attack or defence to take it to the 'next level', then i would always come down on the side of attack. As you say, you cant perform consistently well up front if you cannot put a foot right at the back, as the team is connected on the pitch, but i do believe scoring goals is a more important factor in football than keeping them out.

City's season of 102 league goals was interesting cos we were not particularly good at the back for parts of the season but generally the defence was functional (conceding a goal a game on average) however they did work more as a connected unit. i agree wholeheartedly that a team performing well will generally be one that is performing well all over the pitch but for me you can/should prioritise one area to give you that extra push, and for me thats attacking.
 
cheddar404 said:
There was no intensity to our performance at all. Everyone knows Stoke is a tough place to go and they will be well up for it so you collectively roll your sleeves up with an almost siege mentality. If it was a one-off then I'd accept it but this happens for too often. It reminded be of Burnley away last season when we HAD to win and just didn't look interested. I can't help but think that we have missed a chance to completely dominate the Premier League with this group of players. United, Arsenal and maybe even Liverpool won't be as weak for long. Even Chelsea have been up and down.
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I was looking at Joey Barton's analysis of Liverpool at Newcastle on the BBC website(surprisingly good). Got the stats on all Liverpool's recent performances, and they indicate Liverpool put more effort into our game than any other.

I think clubs are looking at City, knowing we have injuries, knowing we have midweek games, and they know that we are going to find it difficult to match their intensity.

Having said that I am sure that had we had Mangala or Kompany in defence, we would not have been 2-0 down after 15 minutes and we'd have had a good chance of getting something out of the game.

We need a settled back 4 with the right players and we'll stop leaking goals.
 
I think Pellegrini should also play Kelechi a bit more - especially when he can't play in midweek.
 
Very poor defending again. Martin's legs have gone, We need to sort this out urgently.​
 
Cheadle Blue said:
1. When we concede, you can see the confidence completely drain out of the players, its been like this for a couple of seasons
2. I don't think we use sterling properly, if we don't start hitting him early, there is no point in him being in the team. It frustrates me that he is used as a "one two" with kolarov, then we should be using his pace to counter attack
3. We don't press as a team anymore, we look very lack lustre at times
4. They don't look a happy bunch, considering we were top of the league, through to the semis of the league cup, and qualified for the champions league
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good point about Kolorov, he's rarely further up the pitch enough with Sterling anyway, how many times have you seen Sterling check his run waiting for Kolorov to arrive, only to pass it to him then Kolorov passes it back to Sterling-by which time the attacking emphasis is lost. I'd like to see Sterling take on players more and cut inside, like you say get the ball to him earlier which is what happened away at Sevilla.
 
If I were to try and pinpoint the major issue i'd say it begins with Martin Demichelis and ends with Alexander Kolarov. Neither player is good enough as a defender to play in our side and with both of them playing we'll conceded goals.

The decision to let Denayer go on loan looks a very poor one now - and I did say when it happened that I hoped it didn't come and bite us on the arse and it looks like it is doing.

One more thing on the 'problems' list is that worryingly this season we've very quickly become very predictable as an attacking team. That's on the manager's shoulders. But again with the shadow of Pep looming larger and larger and Pellegrini looking more and more fraught, I'm not sure what can be done. We need our best players back asap, Pellegrini needs to drop Bony, and we need to see much more fluidity in our attacking play rather than simply Kevin the right winger, Raheem the left winger, and Silva the play maker.
 
I don't think we have been up to scratch technically for a while.

In the game on Saturday, Stoke's passing was crisp and their touches were sharp. Well for us every other pass was ending up at knee height.

We looked like we were playing in a hurricane while Stoke looked like they were playing in a gentle breeze, why is that?
 
BillyShears said:
If I were to try and pinpoint the major issue i'd say it begins with Martin Demichelis and ends with Alexander Kolarov. Neither player is good enough as a defender to play in our side and with both of them playing we'll conceded goals.

The decision to let Denayer go on loan looks a very poor one now - and I did say when it happened that I hoped it didn't come and bite us on the arse and it looks like it is doing.

One more thing on the 'problems' list is that worryingly this season we've very quickly become very predictable as an attacking team. That's on the manager's shoulders. But again with the shadow of Pep looming larger and larger and Pellegrini looking more and more fraught, I'm not sure what can be done. We need our best players back asap, Pellegrini needs to drop Bony, and we need to see much more fluidity in our attacking play rather than simply Kevin the right winger, Raheem the left winger, and Silva the play maker.
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Pellegrini doesn't seem to have a dogs of war game in him, we are powder puff all over the pitch, our tackling is fucking atrocious , with our injury list we should be setting up to not lose games, take a draw, the less said about Kolorov the better mate, i keep shaking my head in disbelief at him every week, granted Clichy has been injured recently but Clichy finds himself firmly on the bench for that fucking oaf-he's so bad its become fucking comical. Clichy is twice the defender he is but Manuel has a hard on form him offensively.
 
masterwig said:
We should win the league. Nobody else looks outstanding like Chelsea did last season. Even when we briefly went top around new year last season there was a sense that that Chelsea team was a machine built to win the league and was running smoothly.

This year we've been well below par on too many occasions but we are still right up there. Football is about players. In individual games a manager can lead an inferior team to victory but over a season this very rarely leads to a championship. We have the players who can win us the league regardless of who is in charge. If we can get Kompany, Aguero and Silva fit for 75% of our remaining games we will win the league. Simple as that. If you have the best team/squad you are more likely to win the league than a team with inferior players regardless of their manager.

How many times in the last 20 years has the best 15 players failed to win the league? 2013 stands out to me and is a warning to us this season but it's a rare example as far as I can see.

Of course an exceptional player in an exceptional season can elevate the rest above what you would expect (Suarez 13/14 and to an extent RVP in 12/13) but the only player approaching that kind of form is Jamie Vardy and he isn't good enough to win the title on his own. Sanchez is injured, the rags have a culture of driving players with the potential to do that kind of job away (Di Maria), Liverpool have the manager but not that talisman or the all-round quality it takes.

The question we must ask is a) will the side underperform all year ala 2013 and b) is there a team good enough to take advantage?

I hope the answer to part a) is negative and when we get over this injury crisis we'll power away from the rest. And the answer to part b) is already in evidence at the relatively low points accrewed by the leading sides. 75 points looks like it'd be more than enough to win the title this year.
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Good post!
 
It doesn't help when opponents play out of their skin against us which happens a lot - often when I see them in their next game I have to ask myself ' how the 'eck did they beat or draw with us'.
 
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