Another transitional season? No.

[bugsyblue]

It's not that bad but in the summer we do need to bring in a CB, LB and Striker.

We could start like this next season and we'd be laughing:

Ederson
Cancelo New CB Laporte New LB
KDB Rodri B.Silva
Sterling New Striker Sane

Subs: GK, Stones, Walker, Aguero, Jesus, Mahrez, Foden

We'd be laughing.

 

[waspish]

When pep leaves hope comes out and calls out the utter bias and the refereeing in the premier especially mike riley.

 

[willipp]

I think Sane's injury is hurting us much more than i thought it would. It feels like we have lost so much of our attacking threat with Sterling out left and Mahrez on the right. We looked very very flat and slow yesterday and you could see where the game was going after 10/15 minutes. Sane has that ability to go past a full back which Mahrez cant do and with Sterling on the left, it just means he cuts inside time after time and Wolves knew that and defended accordingly.

 

[alexmcity]

now the dust has settled a bit and most people are asleep I’ll post what I think;

I think Transitional is the wrong word.

I'd say a recovery season. The lack of recognition and plaudits for what we’ve achieved in the past 2 seasons diminishes the effort put in to it by everyone at our club.
This isn’t France or Germany, the British season is a war of attrition, and the past two years we have pushed further than any team in history. Our players are young, sure. But we’re talking two straight years of playing at the peak of the game. Add to that every year there’s been international games; we were the club most affected by the World Cup.
We’ve had injury after injury, cup game after cup game. Last year our heroic quadruple required us to play a game every 3 days.
Even with our quality laden squad we can only rotate so much, and that isn’t enough.

we as fans never see what’s going on, on the inside. These guys are human after all, and whilst they do have all the fanciest medical technology going I sincerely doubt anyone’s body could go through all that and it not eventually catching up to it.

What we’re seeing now is the result of being the best team in the world for back to back years. And it upsets me to see city fans calling for players head’s, some calling for pep to fuck off, and most of all arguing amongst themselves because we should be proud of what we’ve achieved over recent years and we should cut the players some slack particularly in a year where we seem to be getting injuries every week.

Let’s not live in the past, but let’s get some perspective.

Top post.

Yes, 'transitional' might be the wrong word.

The idea was to make the transition from a team with legends like Kompany, Ferna, Dave and Kun to a team without them as smooth as possible. It's a big ask though. They have been incredible. The bad injuries to Eric and Leroy, and the injuries to Stones and now Kevin are making the league season extremely hard for us. We won't give up but we might not have enough quality in defense to compete for the title again. Hope we are still within 8 pts when Eric returns.

The other side of the coin is that if we are out of the title challenge come April, we will be able to concentrate entirely on the CL.

 

[TheThirdDeano]

Top post.

Yes, 'transitional' might be the wrong word.

The idea was to make the transition from a team with legends like Kompany, Ferna, Dave and Kun to a team without them as smooth as possible. It's a big ask though. They have been incredible. The bad injuries to Eric and Leroy, and the injuries to Stones and now Kevin are making the league season extremely hard for us. We won't give up but we might not have enough quality in defense to compete for the title again. Hope we are still within 8 pts when Eric returns.

The other side of the coin is that if we are out of the title challenge come April, we will be able to concentrate entirely on the CL.

Personally, and I’m sure I’ll get slated for this, I’d take top 3, a cup and a decent CL run. But the rate our players are dropping I don’t think that’ll be doable haha!

 

[TFC]

now the dust has settled a bit and most people are asleep I’ll post what I think;

I think Transitional is the wrong word.

I'd say a recovery season. The lack of recognition and plaudits for what we’ve achieved in the past 2 seasons diminishes the effort put in to it by everyone at our club.
This isn’t France or Germany, the British season is a war of attrition, and the past two years we have pushed further than any team in history. Our players are young, sure. But we’re talking two straight years of playing at the peak of the game. Add to that every year there’s been international games; we were the club most affected by the World Cup.
We’ve had injury after injury, cup game after cup game. Last year our heroic quadruple required us to play a game every 3 days.
Even with our quality laden squad we can only rotate so much, and that isn’t enough.

we as fans never see what’s going on, on the inside. These guys are human after all, and whilst they do have all the fanciest medical technology going I sincerely doubt anyone’s body could go through all that and it not eventually catching up to it.

What we’re seeing now is the result of being the best team in the world for back to back years. And it upsets me to see city fans calling for players head’s, some calling for pep to fuck off, and most of all arguing amongst themselves because we should be proud of what we’ve achieved over recent years and we should cut the players some slack particularly in a year where we seem to be getting injuries every week.

Let’s not live in the past, but let’s get some perspective.

It's refreshing to know there is still sense among the fanbase, excellent post.

 

[Marvin]

now the dust has settled a bit and most people are asleep I’ll post what I think;

I think Transitional is the wrong word.

I'd say a recovery season. The lack of recognition and plaudits for what we’ve achieved in the past 2 seasons diminishes the effort put in to it by everyone at our club.
This isn’t France or Germany, the British season is a war of attrition, and the past two years we have pushed further than any team in history. Our players are young, sure. But we’re talking two straight years of playing at the peak of the game. Add to that every year there’s been international games; we were the club most affected by the World Cup.
We’ve had injury after injury, cup game after cup game. Last year our heroic quadruple required us to play a game every 3 days.
Even with our quality laden squad we can only rotate so much, and that isn’t enough.

we as fans never see what’s going on, on the inside. These guys are human after all, and whilst they do have all the fanciest medical technology going I sincerely doubt anyone’s body could go through all that and it not eventually catching up to it.

What we’re seeing now is the result of being the best team in the world for back to back years. And it upsets me to see city fans calling for players head’s, some calling for pep to fuck off, and most of all arguing amongst themselves because we should be proud of what we’ve achieved over recent years and we should cut the players some slack particularly in a year where we seem to be getting injuries every week.

Let’s not live in the past, but let’s get some perspective.

Not seen anyone calling for pep to f off. Also the prevailing opinion has been supportive of the players e.g. Gundogan,Rodri etc arguing that they are good players but as a combination the midfield isn't the best.

We have undoubtedly been hit by injuries hard this season. I think we all knew we'd take a big hit from Laporte's injury and the task was to keep Liverpool in sight until he returned however have we really managed the situation as best as we could have done.

Despite injuries we had Jesus, Foden and Bernardo on the bench. We'd have been better off had at least 2 of them started.

 

[Marvin]

Personally, and I’m sure I’ll get slated for this, I’d take top 3, a cup and a decent CL run. But the rate our players are dropping I don’t think that’ll be doable haha!

I would take CL qualification and a Cup.

The CL is doable because the CL latter stages are in sight and by the time the latter stafes commence, laporte and Sane should be back. We are the best side in Europe with a fit squad. The task now is to at bare minimum retain our CL place so that we can go again.

 

[mosssideblue]

Not seen anyone calling for pep to f off. Also the prevailing opinion has been supportive of the players e.g. Gundogan,Rodri etc arguing that they are good players but as a combination the midfield isn't the best.

We have undoubtedly been hit by injuries hard this season. I think we all knew we'd take a big hit from Laporte's injury and the task was to keep Liverpool in sight until he returned however have we really managed the situation as best as we could have done.

Despite injuries we had Jesus, Foden and Bernardo on the bench. We'd have been better off had at least 2 of them started.

Really Marv!
I take it you dont read many player performance threads if you believe that

 

[TheRemainsOfTheDave]

Personally, and I’m sure I’ll get slated for this, I’d take top 3, a cup and a decent CL run. But the rate our players are dropping I don’t think that’ll be doable haha!

After two absolutely amazing seasons I said, before the first game, that I'd not be too disappointed if we won nothing this season (as long as we challenged for the honours as we should always do), and that I would like this season to be about getting more chances for the youth players so we can avoid future Sancho situations. My fear is that I don't believe Pep will risk it as he will want to go out with a CL trophy either this year or next.

As such, I think we ARE in a transitional season, not in terms of personnel, but in terms of leadership both on and off the pitch. Reacting to the loss of Kompany, preparing for life after El Mago & Pep.