Are we clearly suffering from a lack of striker this season? Have midtable sides figured us out?

[blueparrot]

but you think other teams don't improve and learn how to play us. we can never guarantee city winning every game. sometimes the pressure can get to much on players being asked to be our main goal threat when its not natural to them. you can work and work hard on finishing to make you better. but strikers are born to the role and eat sleep dream smell it they just don't have any fear in missing or they do miss but never let it get to them

Probably we will get one for when they work us out. They haven’t yet though so no rush and a daft thread.

 

[wolviedinho]

but you think other teams don't improve and learn how to play us. we can never guarantee city winning every game. sometimes the pressure can get to much on players being asked to be our main goal threat when its not natural to them. you can work and work hard on finishing to make you better. but strikers are born to the role and eat sleep dream smell it they just don't have any fear in missing or they do miss but never let it get to them

Good point. We do miss that CF goal mentality.

Felix won’t change that but Haaland most definitely will. Tough choice if both are genuinely an option. If we do go with Felix we will probably be having the same conversations next season ;)

Or do we wait for another option to present itself?

 

[manimanc]

lee we don't killed games off like we should be doing ? chances made to goal ratio is crazy and pep knows it

Steve mate we've killed the last 12 games with 3 pts every time but I know what you mean.
Chelsea, wolves and Brentford we rode our luck slightly but I'll counteract that by saying the bulk of the last 12 games was all about getting points on the board by hook or crook as the Christmas period of games transforms the table dramatically.
The thing is with this team we can quite easily do another unbeaten run, we know it, pep knows it and I know the rest of the top 6 definitely knows it.
We'll have a blip, like Saturday, but we'll bounce back and how.

 

[Johnny Mars Bar]

sorry to bring this up again, but these are the exact kind of games that show us what we are missing in our team. as I said before southampton press us differently to any other english side. they do not high press and at the same time won't drop back, they block the middle of the pitch and press the center of the pitch and prevent the ball moving through the middle.

When our false 9 came deep to receive the ball there was no one near their box and at the same time they have double marked our wingers out of the game. so essentially there was only two way to progress the ball and both of it involves using a striker who can hold up the ball under pressure and also score. because of the way they press the free men for us will be our fullbacks. so essentially you either use the free fullbacks inside and make them pass to the big center forward who can hold the ball and pass to midfield runners who go beyond him or you use the fullbacks outside to cross to the forward in the box. we had neither today.

I feel southampton have given a very good blueprint to beat our false 9 system and I feel we are in for a tough season end without a forward and the decline of our false 9 system has started. I think right now this system we have makes tight matches a 50/50 game we might not score and lose some of the important games I feel and especially in the CL it is going to be tough.

Lol

 

[Brightwell Bros.]

doing it once can be luck but doing it twice the same way creates a blue print other coaches can take a closer look at. watch how the coaches adapt in the second part of the season. but for your information spurs and palace also used very similar tactics but not as well executed as southampton.

A 4-2-2-2 isn't a secret against teams that like to play out from the back with width, it's in the coaching manual. It's why they're attempting it at Old Trafford. Also playing a flat back five or a 4-4-2 is a good way of defending against City Pep gets all of that. But it's a system you need to play with regularly, and when it doesn't work it really doesn't work, particularly in this league, and you get battered. And critically when City are at their best it still doesn't guarantee you'll win.

 

[bluealf]

not only to score goals but also to use our wingers better. when we use Foden and sterling in the natural side we need a focal point in the middle to bring them more into the play

this is the exactly correct spot on response that no one here seems to understand. I the tight and tough games we no longer have the consistent clear cut chance creation because there is no focal point and if by some miracle we get into that position we mess it up like sterling did in the last game. this is why the final stages of the league and the CL are going to be difficult for us as the lack of striker makes our result a 50/50 chance even though we are completely dominating the game in a possession sense.

wow that is terrible. who exactly are we crossing to?

City, We are top of the league, City, top of the league, City, Super City top of the fucking league and also top scorers.

City boiling the piss of not only opposition fans but of some of our own weird fans as well.

 

[Coatigan]

You have to laugh I suppose

How's the statue coming along, do we know when it is expected?

 

[Chippy_boy]

There's some smug people on this thread for sure.

Some posters are just constructively debating whether we might need to make some tweaks in order to improve us further still, and yet they are met with derision or ridicule? Top of the league, la la la.

I just hope by the end of the season their faces are still smug and not thinking well we fucked that up didn't we.

 

[Bluemoonadam]

Think we've looked a bit iffy in our last 3 away games, could of quite easily of dropped points against Brentford and got out of jail against arsenal.

 

[Akira]

Sure we could use a proper striker, obviously. Looking at the table and results, we sure aren't suffering without one though.