Are City complacent?

[nellyonthewing]

We are 2nd in the league just 8 points off where we sat last season at this point.

At Wembley in the league cup final again.

In the FA cup still.

Knock out of the CL coming up.

Posters are going off half cocked and should maybe see where we are come the actual end of the season instead of making predictions?

Yes lets all go off the Forum and come back in May ?????

 

[Roachy]

I don't think we're complacent, but as I posted throughout last summer and got called names for it, I think we should've refreshed the team and we're suffering the consequences of not doing so.

There is a famous (and very successful) American basketball executive named Pat Riley who in one of his books coined the phrase "the disease of more" to explain the phenomenon of a team losing focus after winning a title. This is it, paraphrased from a blog post:



Seems like it fits doesn't it? It's pretty intuitive if you think about it. Off the top of my head, after we won we have: Leroy looking to move to Bayern, Otamendi wanting to leave last summer. Mahrez, Walker, and Stones all caught in some sort of extramarital affair in the last few months. Zinchenko, Ederson, and KDB are off getting married or having kids. And on top of that we lost leaders in Kompany and Delph. To be clear I'm not saying we should've blown up the team, but after 198 points in two seasons it's pretty natural to lose a bit of the edge we had, and we didn't really do anything to counteract it.

That last sentence is an interesting point. If the drop off in form was predictable then why didn't we make moves to address it. I suspect that Pep has maybe been caught slightly off guard in relation to how some of our players have fell away. Of course things have occurred that he cannot control, VAR, injuries and the form of Liverpool. A few posters are repeatedly saying after the past 2 seasons this fall off in form was to be expected, but this is only because it's now happened. Very few offered this view at the start of the season. I think we're all frustrated because we know what this team can do. I'm hoping for a successful season in the cups anyway. The CL looks a tough ask with no room for complacency.

 

[Sky Blue]

Yes lets all go off the Forum and come back in May ?????

Please...

 

[Deleted member 77198]

The only thing I would say where we have been "complacent" is the transfer market.

Toure
Kompany
Silva
And soon to be Aguero

Have not been replaced with the same quality wise.

Kompany’s long term replacement should be seen as Laporte
Silva’s long term replacement should be seen as Bernardo.

You don’t replace a player after he’s left, you replace them by getting someone in long term before they go.

 

[SamBlue]

No, we are profligate, a disease Pep currently doesn't have cure for!

 

[Cobwebcat]

No. Unlucky.

 

[Bobby Heaton Moor]

We haven't used what we have to our full advantage, in my opinion.

We won the league with 100 points, breaking all sorts of records with Pep as our manager and yet that summer we only added Mahrez rather than improving the first eleven. A lot of people point out that it was hard to improve on that team but there's ALWAYS a way to improve the starting xi.

Last summer, after a thrilling title race and a fantastic season, we again failed to kick on and make a statement. De Ligt was available, for example, and having lost our leader and best defender, we just simple weren't in the race to get him...why not? Was Rodri REALLY a necessity when we have Fernandinho there and Gundogan doing a great job as backup during the run-in? A waste of money if you ask me.

Not that Rodri has been a flop or anything but if resources were that thin, why spend what we have there and leave a gaping hole behind? Add to that the ludicrous decision to spend money on swapping Danilo for Cancelo. Just baffling considering Danilo provided fine backup on both sides without much fuss. That money plus the Rodri money could've bought a top class defender and if we had a De Ligt or Koulibaly now, with Fernandinho having spent the whole season in his proper position, you can't pretend we wouldn't have been in a better position than we are now!

So in short, the board and the planning department in general are the complacent ones here.

 

[cjn]

Yes lets all go off the Forum and come back in May ?????

Probably the best idea in here to be honest

 

[kaz7]

First time for 2 seasons I can question the desire of the players. This was an ever present theme under Mancini and pellegrini.

It's new. Players need calling out for it. Hopefully pep is addressing it.

Winning the title 3 times in a row has only been done once in the prem for a reason,it's almost imposible to maintain the intensity needed,also winning everything domestically has only been done once,i expect it's harder to go again,the players don't need calling out for anything,you need to understand they are not robots

 

[kaz7]

We haven't used what we have to our full advantage, in my opinion.

We won the league with 100 points, breaking all sorts of records with Pep as our manager and yet that summer we only added Mahrez rather than improving the first eleven. A lot of people point out that it was hard to improve on that team but there's ALWAYS a way to improve the starting xi.

Last summer, after a thrilling title race and a fantastic season, we again failed to kick on and make a statement. De Ligt was available, for example, and having lost our leader and best defender, we just simple weren't in the race to get him...why not? Was Rodri REALLY a necessity when we have Fernandinho there and Gundogan doing a great job as backup during the run-in? A waste of money if you ask me.

Not that Rodri has been a flop or anything but if resources were that thin, why spend what we have there and leave a gaping hole behind? Add to that the ludicrous decision to spend money on swapping Danilo for Cancelo. Just baffling considering Danilo provided fine backup on both sides without much fuss. That money plus the Rodri money could've bought a top class defender and if we had a De Ligt or Koulibaly now, with Fernandinho having spent the whole season in his proper position, you can't pretend we wouldn't have been in a better position than we are now!

So in short, the board and the planning department in general are the complacent ones here.

Dinho is old,we needed a proper replacement,rodders is a great player,he needs a season to settle,gundy is not like either of him or dinho
De Light didn't want to come here
Danny asked to leave