2015 - The Big Games.

GX Blue said:
We should have that record though!
We shouldn't hardly ever lose a Prem Lge game. We have the best squad in the league.
A surprise result here and there ok, but to be smashed 4-1 twice and lose at home to WHU. I'd also consdider drawing 0-0 with Villa a basic loss as we are the only team in last 9 games they haven't lost against!!!
Click to expand...

The match against Liverpool was a disgrace. No excuses for it and all at his door. The other 2 times we have conceded 4 against Spuds and United the result has been assisted by the referee. In both games we went 3-1 down with 2 blatant offsides so I'd rather gime him some slack there.

I think we have the best squad or certainly the best 1st 11. Strange that at the start of the season in the eyes of the media, other supporters and the bookies we weren't favourites.

As for everything else I think we have to be careful with expectation EVEN IF we have the best squad. The best teams and squads drop loads of points in the Premier League.Its the way sport and football works. Look at Ferguson, in his Premier League management career he failed to win 284 games. Think about that number - its like 7 1/2 seasons. They consistently dropped shit loads of points and almost always they had the best team/squad. Out of all those titles they won they always dropped points in at least 10 games a season.
 
Pablo ZZZ Peroni said:
Nice post. I get the frustration. My postion is I hate excessive criticism of anything to do with City.

Despite the Chelsea blip you would expext the Big 4 in the Premier League to continue to be Arsenal, United and Chelsea. Financially they are the biggest 4. Spurs are making agreat fist of it this season with their more limited respources and Liverpool now have Klopp and the expectation levels (again) have gone through the ceiling.

Our record in the last 4 games against the other Big 3:

United DLWW
Chelsea WDDW (I've included the cup game in there :) )
Arsenal LDDW

I make that W5 D5 L2 and that is not a disaster in my eyes as far as the big picture is concerned.
Click to expand...
I agree, excessive criticism isn't productive.

Feel like both you & the OP have been slightly selective with the choices of matches though, realistically it's probably in a middle ground between your stats & his, meaning we do "OK" against the top sides in the PL. I think the bigger problem has of course been Europe, we have been consistently wrong with our tactics for years (not just under Pellers) until our last match (which is hard to see as anything other than a fluke rather than suddenly we have conquered Europe). Even in the PL though we are the best team for me & performing "OK" against the other top sides isn't as good as we should be doing, there's been many a match under Pellegrini where you look at the two line ups & think "this doesn't favour us" as the opposition manager seems to have countered what we always do, and many a match where it's been evident on the pitch.

I think Pellegrini is a good manager & was the right one to bring in at the time, but I don't think he gets the best out of the players at his disposal - this season the PL is as weak as it's been for some time, Chelsea are useless, United are playing some garbage stuff, Arsenal are being their usual inconsistent selves, Spurs look improved & Liverpool whilst improved still will struggle; we really should be cruising to the title this year on paper for me, and to be fair to Pellegrini it looked like we would until we got decimated by injuries, hence I think we should save judging until much later in the season anyway, but it's been a consistent theme that he can get it wrong in the tougher matches, whether someone is going to come in for next season & improve on that remains to be seen.
 
GX Blue said:
Yep. Next 'big game' is Arsenal home on Dec 21st.

Hopefully a fully fit Kun, Silva, Kompany will be available for that game to help Pellers improve his dreadful recent 'big game' record.
Click to expand...

The way we are playing the next big game is Southampton. They have lost 3 in 13 so I would say that unless Kompany and Silva are back or at least the latter then beating them is 50/50 at the moment.
 
We struggle to compete in the big games because we're too soft and too easy to play against. We don't work hard enough at stopping opposing teams playing. Liverpool didn't win on Saturday because they're more talented than us, they won because they were prepared to battle, they won because they forced us into mistakes and they won because they wanted it more than we did.

You have to earn the right to play, even Barcelona and Bayern work their socks off to get the ball back as soon as they lose it. They press aggressively as a team, they don't have any players who aren't prepared to sacrifice themselves.
 
fatbloke said:
We struggle to compete in the big games because we're too soft and too easy to play against. We don't work hard enough at stopping opposing teams playing. Liverpool didn't win on Saturday because they're more talented than us, they won because they were prepared to battle, they won because they forced us into mistakes and they won because they wanted it more than we did.

You have to earn the right to play, even Barcelona and Bayern work their socks off to get the ball back as soon as they lose it. They press aggressively as a team, they don't have any players who aren't prepared to sacrifice themselves.
Click to expand...

You may be a fatty, but you know your onions.
 
fatbloke said:
You have to earn the right to play, even Barcelona and Bayern work their socks off to get the ball back as soon as they lose it. They press aggressively as a team, they don't have any players who aren't prepared to sacrifice themselves.
Click to expand...

Bayern has enough players on the bench that are willing to step in if the stars do not fight and work. Heynckes got Ribery to put in a big defensive shift and Robben had to follow because he would not have gotten match time without. Lewy and Müller - even if they scored 39 goals together in all club competions already this season - do not mind to put in big defensive shifts. Defensive not just in tracking back but in relentless pressing when necessary.
 
fatbloke said:
We struggle to compete in the big games because we're too soft and too easy to play against. We don't work hard enough at stopping opposing teams playing. Liverpool didn't win on Saturday because they're more talented than us, they won because they were prepared to battle, they won because they forced us into mistakes and they won because they wanted it more than we did.

You have to earn the right to play, even Barcelona and Bayern work their socks off to get the ball back as soon as they lose it. They press aggressively as a team, they don't have any players who aren't prepared to sacrifice themselves.
Click to expand...

Liverpool stopped our play a number of times with fouls and took the bookings that came with them. Our players need to be doing this more. De Bruyne's non challenge last night was criminal in their goal.
 
Maldeika said:
Bayern has enough players on the bench that are willing to step in if the stars do not fight and work. Heynckes got Ribery to put in a big defensive shift and Robben had to follow because he would not have gotten match time without. Lewy and Müller - even if they scored 39 goals together in all club competions already this season - do not mind to put in big defensive shifts. Defensive not just in tracking back but in relentless pressing when necessary.
Click to expand...
I think that part is relevant to our current problems, we're down to the bare bones in the senior squad and the players turning out know by now that Pellegrini is very reluctant to give a youngster a start so some of them have little if any threat to their places.
 
To be honest I don't think we've ever been amazing in big games away from home. Not beaten Liverpool since 03, Chelsea since 2010 and only once in the league at Arsenal after they had a man sent off after 10 mins. However, at home I always felt like we could take on any team, particularly under Mancini. You always felt we would take the game to a team at home and you wouldn't be fearful of getting beat. But under Pellegrini, we have just gradually lost confidence. More and more teams come to us knowing they can cause us damage and that we're susceptible.

Until we learn to defend as a unit and become more balanced in terms of attack and defence, I don't see it changing. I end up thinking more before games about how the opposition are going to hurt us and not how we're going to hurt them, and that's not the mentality for a team that wants to dominate this league.
 
and last big game (sort of as Leicester are second in table) of 2015 - draw. Not very good reading in 2015 is it.
 
Last 6 games - away. - Starting with Spurs 4-1 - Utd 0-0 - Villa 0-0 - Stoke 2-0 - Arse 2-1 - Leic. 0-0. Goals scored 2 - Goals against 8.

This is not title winning form - at all.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top