We have the best squad.....

Best players, but best squad logistically? No, not really. Most would say our best players are Kompany, Silva, De Bruyne, Aguero & Toure, you could throw Sterling in there too given his expected future & good form most of the season; which are their favoured positions? You could argue Silva, KdB, Toure & Sterling would all want to play in the same position if they were offered the choice (behind the striker); on top of that Nasri is a good player, but also wants that position.

Having a significant portion of your best players wanting one spot means inevitably most of them play out of position, not really ideal. Similar failings at Real Madrid, look at Isco & James, they've got more star players than Barcelona I'd argue, but they can't shoe horn them into a team whereas Barcelona have their 3 star players in arguably their favoured positions (Messi up for debate whether he prefers right or central) with the 8 other players also playing where they want to (natural positions).

Our rumoured transfer targets this summer pose even more questions, if we got Sane & Isco what exactly would we do with them? Same problems. We need to start being sensible about who we buy rather than buying shiny toys that we don't need. Whilst KdB is a fantastic player & a great acquisition, he's not exactly what we needed & we've been forced to unbalance our team to accomodate him & Silva starting.
 
IMO Arsenal has the best squad in terms of quality and work rate. Chelsea and us probably about the same level.
 
cityboy1 said:
This, surely were allowed to critisise the team when they havent consistently played well for months and we have the best squad in the league and somehow were third behind arsenal and leicester we should be running away wih this league considering how bad the rags and chelsea have been
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I don't subscribe to the view that we should be running away with it but we should at least be on top and hard to be pushed off it by now
 
citymad said:
IMO Arsenal has the best squad in terms of quality and work rate. Chelsea and us probably about the same level.
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If you went through it player for player you woudn't get many Arsenal in it.

Cech arguable, and Sanchez for sure. (I don;t like Ozil before you say it)
 
stablemcfc said:
Best players, but best squad logistically? No, not really. Most would say our best players are Kompany, Silva, De Bruyne, Aguero & Toure, you could throw Sterling in there too given his expected future & good form most of the season; which are their favoured positions? You could argue Silva, KdB, Toure & Sterling would all want to play in the same position if they were offered the choice (behind the striker); on top of that Nasri is a good player, but also wants that position.

Having a significant portion of your best players wanting one spot means inevitably most of them play out of position, not really ideal. Similar failings at Real Madrid, look at Isco & James, they've got more star players than Barcelona I'd argue, but they can't shoe horn them into a team whereas Barcelona have their 3 star players in arguably their favoured positions (Messi up for debate whether he prefers right or central) with the 8 other players also playing where they want to (natural positions).

Our rumoured transfer targets this summer pose even more questions, if we got Sane & Isco what exactly would we do with them? Same problems. We need to start being sensible about who we buy rather than buying shiny toys that we don't need. Whilst KdB is a fantastic player & a great acquisition, he's not exactly what we needed & we've been forced to unbalance our team to accomodate him & Silva starting.
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Hart, Otamendi, Kolarov. Zabalata (when properly fit). We've got players like Delph, Mangala, Fernando, Clichy who I think are terrific players, or can be. Clichy when he's playing regulalrly can be really really good. I remember the end of the 2010-11 season, he was immense in the run in.
 
When you're a mid-table team (or lower), you accept that not every player is flawless. For some reason, when your team has loads of money, you think your players shouldn't have any flaws. SO:
1) We have the best squad of players
2) No player is perfect
 
We have the best squad but that doesn't mean we don't have problems or things can't improve. The two points the OP is trying to make aren't mutually exclusive. I don't know whether it's still the small club mentality refusing to die with some people that are willing to just sit back and enjoy the ride because we used to be shit or there's sides struggling more than us but at the very top in any walk of life you always look to make improvements and can never be truly satisfied if you want to remain there, as shown when teams win the league and do nothing with their team the following year.

Aside from Chelsea (who have drastically improved since getting rid of Mourinho) we're comfortably the most under-performing team in the league. Our current healthy situation, despite performances only shows the potential we could be reaching if we performed even anywhere near our potential nevermind exceeding it like most of the teams at the top this season are doing.
 
I can agree with the op, but for me it's not so much the high expectations rather than the sheer overreaction thats surprizing me. Good day and players get praised to the sky with comments like this player better than Messi, we have a bad day and we have people shouting like the apocalypse has arrived and just turned all our players in second grade fertilizer. There hardly is a middle ground, this forum is more extreme than bloody ISIS.

However i do enjoy it i must admit. It leaves room for sacrastic humor. And i do think the immage of the down to earth foul mouthing Manchesterian has charm, providing i don't get my dick kicked off. Don't think things really need to change, this is our private own pollitically incorrect dirthole and its ok.
 
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I can accept criticism and debate are the whole point of a forum but two things surprise me, the ferocity of the criticism, of both the team and manager, and the amount of criticism.

What I also find peculiar is the wide criticism of a large portion of our squad in terms of capability or that their best days are behind them, whilst at the same time saying we have the best squad.

Either the players we have are good enough and the manager isn't getting enough out of them, or the squad isn't quite of the quality we need to meet our ambitions, or, you could be in my camp in that the players are good enough, as is the manager, they are just slightly underperforming due to a myriad of factors, not least losing our best players for good periods of the season and some very dubious refereeing decisions going back as far as Spurs at WHL.

I do wonder just when we will get a game changing decision actually given in our favour and why fans don't take into account injuries, poor refereeing and difficult away fixtures into consideration.

I'm also suggesting that fans enjoy the moment we are in because we really have never had it so good.
 
Marvin said:
Hart, Otamendi, Kolarov. Zabalata (when properly fit). We've got players like Delph, Mangala, Fernando, Clichy who I think are terrific players, or can be. Clichy when he's playing regulalrly can be really really good. I remember the end of the 2010-11 season, he was immense in the run in.
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Yes, the guys you've mentioned are good players, and yes we have a good squad; but are any of those players you mentioned top for their positions in the league? Be surprised if you think yes (other than Zab; but this season that's clearly not true either).

I was saying our "star" players don't all fit our first 11 in the formation we attempt to play without them some/most being played out of position.
 
Danish Blue said:
I moan when we lose and cheer when we win. It was the same in the third tier, I am not sure my feelings about watching City have changed that much, yes now it's Barcelona instead of Lincoln City, and it was a nice day out to see the nou camp (and the big poncy church) but can't say the emotions really changed. I retain the right to be miserable or ecstatic depending on the result.
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Exactly right plus it costs a damn sight fucking more these days too so id say we would take that to a higher extreme because to be as boring to watch as we are nowadays paying the money we pay to watch it, we're going to have something to say!

I do actually think the quality of our squad has gone backwards though (other than innattacking midfield, everywhere else we're worse off than we were four years ago.
 
For me ever since the takeover it's christmas every day,I have just entered my 50th year as a city supporter and never in my wildest dreams did I ever think we would be where we are now,yes I do get pissed off when we lose,yes I do think we should be doing better with the squad and the set up at the club now,but at the end of the day I don't let it get to me too much as I know that just around the corner there's another trophy that city will pick up,let's face it we are alive and supporting city in extraordinary times best squad in the league or not."sit back and enjoy the ride baby" I know I will !
 
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We have the best collection of individual players, absolutely no doubt about it.

The problem is we've had two managers in succession (Mancini and Pellegrini) who have failed to pick players based on merit, instead relying on the big name players to try and get instant success.

If you want long term success you have to breed a hard working, competitive culture within the squad so they're all driving each other on. By picking players based on merit and not talent, you're forcing the more talented players to work harder. Hard working talented players will inspire the squad players and academy players to be the best players they can be.

It's really that simple IMO.
 
Blue Mooner said:
I can accept criticism and debate are the whole point of a forum but two things surprise me, the ferocity of the criticism, of both the team and manager, and the amount of criticism.

What I also find peculiar is the wide criticism of a large portion of our squad in terms of capability or that their best days are behind them, whilst at the same time saying we have the best squad.

Either the players we have are good enough and the manager isn't getting enough out of them, or the squad isn't quite of the quality we need to meet our ambitions, or, you could be in my camp in that the players are good enough, as is the manager, they are just slightly underperforming due to a myriad of factors, not least losing our best players for good periods of the season and some very dubious refereeing decisions going back as far as Spurs at WHL.

I do wonder just when we will get a game changing decision actually given in our favour and why fans don't take into account injuries, poor refereeing and difficult away fixtures into consideration.

I'm also suggesting that fans enjoy the moment we are in because we really have never had it so good.
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I don't buy into any of those excuses.

We've struggled with injuries more than we should because our manager is incapable of adapting. When the entire defence falls apart because of one man missing, especially when you've got two centre halves at over £30 million each, or we can't score a goal because one man upfront is injured, or we can't create chances because Silva is injured despite having spent £100 million on 2 attacking midfielders in the summer then imo you look at the manager and question why he can't cope. Yes, anybody would miss players of the calibre of Kun or Kompany but not to the extent we have given our squad. Arsenal have had more than their fair share of injuries this season too and seem to cope so much better, and not wanting to make excuses for them but the rags have been decimated with injuries this season too.

Everybody suffers from poor officiating, i don't believe we've had more decisions go against us than anyone else, and we've had our fair share of decisions go in our favour too it's just far far easier to remember the ones that don't go our way. there's no hidden anti-City agenda that the FA and the refs have devised.

As for the last one, Yeah we've played more of the top teams away than at home but it all evens itself out eventually, we've still only beat 2 of the top 10 home or away so far this season, even if they were all away games that is nowhere near good enough and not a record you can win titles based on.
 
My view is that football has changed in a way that is not good for a team like City, our reliance on players who are highly skilled but approaching their twilight years and cant physically match younger players. Spuds will be knocking on the door of the top spot imo as they have the age profile that suits the all-action high pressing game that is so hard to play against with an ageing squad like ours.
 
ninjamonkey said:
I don't buy into any of those excuses.

We've struggled with injuries more than we should because our manager is incapable of adapting. When the entire defence falls apart because of one man missing, especially when you've got two centre halves at over £30 million each, or we can't score a goal because one man upfront is injured, or we can't create chances because Silva is injured despite having spent £100 million on 2 attacking midfielders in the summer then imo you look at the manager and question why he can't cope. Yes, anybody would miss players of the calibre of Kun or Kompany but not to the extent we have given our squad. Arsenal have had more than their fair share of injuries this season too and seem to cope so much better, and not wanting to make excuses for them but the rags have been decimated with injuries this season too.

Everybody suffers from poor officiating, i don't believe we've had more decisions go against us than anyone else, and we've had our fair share of decisions go in our favour too it's just far far easier to remember the ones that don't go our way. there's no hidden anti-City agenda that the FA and the refs have devised.

As for the last one, Yeah we've played more of the top teams away than at home but it all evens itself out eventually, we've still only beat 2 of the top 10 home or away so far this season, even if they were all away games that is nowhere near good enough and not a record you can win titles based on.
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You've made a couple of statements about decisions that you can't really back up. Find me any of our rivals who have conceded a goal when a player receiving the ball is 3 yards offside in front of the linesman, or the myriad of fouls we have suffered in the box where there's contact but no penalty given I think there has been one of those in about the last 6 games including Arsenal.

As for arsenal coping better, they have gone out of the capital one cup and scraped through their champions league group with a far easier set of teams.

I can accept that at the half way mark we are probably slightly below par but it's only a handful of games different from where we likely could be and I don't share the doom and gloom that this group of players, particularly those like silva and Aguero getting back up to speed, that we won't come on far stronger in the 2nd half of the season.

It's a fantastic time to be a City fan and frankly I am absolutely loving us challenging on all fronts and going into games feeling like the favourites. It's taken some getting used to, but the days of 8 goals at home all season under Stuart Pearce are now a distant memory and there isn't a week goes by when I don't forget where we as a football club have come from. I find it keeps me grounded and stops me going rag like.
 
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