Are we improving?

we remind me of the 1st full season (2010/11) under Mancini, 3rd in the league (71 pts) with an FA Cup win. I cant help feeling that our season is going to be very similar this year. we lost 9 times in the league that season

A 'usual' XI that season:

Hart
Zaba - Lescott/Richards Kompany - Kolarov
Johnson - Barry/de Jong - Ya Ya - Milner
Tevez - Dzeko/Balotelli

what's changed? we got better in between and regressed.
 
shemnel said:
we remind me of the 1st full season (2010/11) under Mancini, 3rd in the league (71 pts) with an FA Cup win. I cant help feeling that our season is going to be very similar this year. we lost 9 times in the league that season

A 'usual' XI that season:

Hart
Zaba - Lescott/Richards Kompany - Kolarov
Johnson - Barry/de Jong - Ya Ya - Milner
Tevez - Dzeko/Balotelli

what's changed? we got better in between and regressed.
Click to expand...

The 'smaller' teams have improved making it harder on the road plus the managers and players now seem disinterested, due to the inevitable change in management come the end of the season.
 
DJBusinesscake said:
The 'smaller' teams have improved making it harder on the road plus the managers and players now seem disinterested, due to the inevitable change in management come the end of the season.
Click to expand...

the 2nd part about managers and players i can totally agree with but the rising quality of the smaller teams? not sure about that. Reducing quality of supposed top teams maybe (and ok, Stoke and Palace are better than they were but Swansea and Soton are not!) .
 
shemnel said:
the 2nd part about managers and players i can totally agree with but the rising quality of the smaller teams? not sure about that. Reducing quality of supposed top teams maybe (and ok, Stoke and Palace are better than they were but Swansea and Soton are not!) .
Click to expand...
Watford, Leicester?

Thats already 4 'smaller' teams who are more competitive now. Then youve got Everton, Spurs, United, Arsenal to worry about, and now Chelsea look to be back to winning ways.
 
DJBusinesscake said:
Watford, Leicester?
Click to expand...

i think they are just filling the gaps until Everton and Liverpool get their acts together again. in all fairness, there are a clutch of smaller teams who are better than you would consider them to normally be but there are no doubts that the group of City/Utd/Chelsea/Liverpool/Spurs/Everton are just not as good as a few seasons ago.

now, if smaller teams are are taking more points of these 'bigger' teams, is it bcos one set has got worse? one set has got better? or a mix?

god knows. but i am fairly certain that this last 2 seasons the prem has not reached the heights it did a few years back
 
shemnel said:
i think they are just filling the gaps until Everton and Liverpool get their acts together again. in all fairness, there are a clutch of smaller teams who are better than you would consider them to normally be but there are no doubts that the group of City/Utd/Chelsea/Liverpool/Spurs/Everton are just not as good as a few seasons ago.

now, if smaller teams are are taking more points of these 'bigger' teams, is it bcos one set has got worse? one set has got better? or a mix?

god knows. but i am fairly certain that this last 2 seasons the prem has not reached the heights it did a few years back
Click to expand...

I totally forgot to mention them haha. All the top teams seem to have or will soon have a new manager, i dont think this has helped.
 
We are not improving, we have the best PL players but are not playing as a team. I suspect many of the squad fear for their future at the club. MP has lost some authority under PG's shadow. This PL should have been won easily with so many rivals in difficulty. We look like we could gift it to Arsenal.
 
As a Club - Yes
Manager - No
Players - Yes
Performances - No

Conclusion Manchester City as a Club are infinitely better than in years gone by and have a squad of players to envy, however the manager seems incapable of getting the best from the team and has no idea how to organise the defence.

Under Mancini the Club was going forward the team work improving and the squad being tweaked then along came Sinclair, Rodwell and Maicon because the Spanish hierarchy did not like Roberto's methods and would not sanction the purchasing of the players he wanted. In came Pellegrini and we got the new manager bounce but since then it has all been downhill despite signing some really good players, Manuel is a lovely man and that is the problem.
 
Gray said:
As a Club - Yes
Manager - No
Players - Yes
Performances - No

Conclusion Manchester City as a Club are infinitely better than in years gone by and have a squad of players to envy, however the manager seems incapable of getting the best from the team and has no idea how to organise the defence.

Under Mancini the Club was going forward the team work improving and the squad being tweaked then along came Sinclair, Rodwell and Maicon because the Spanish hierarchy did not like Roberto's methods and would not sanction the purchasing of the players he wanted. In came Pellegrini and we got the new manager bounce but since then it has all been downhill despite signing some really good players, Manuel is a lovely man and that is the problem.
Click to expand...

As a Team - No
 
## BORING GRAPHS ALERT ##

here are some interesting plots (if you're a sad act like me) showing a) the amount of shots per goal scored and shots per goal conceded and b) pts per game and goals scored & conceded per game.

(these are 8 game means, i.e each point plotted represents an 8 game run)

a)
S4BhnFP.png

this shows how many actual shots it's taken to score a goal and concede a goal. The blue line (City) should be lower than the red line (opponents).
These are 8 game means, the dotted lines show the season average.

  • Mancini's title winning season is a good example; we had a good team balance and you can see the March wobble as the blue line creeps above the red line but is quickly rectified with the strong finish
  • the 3 large peaks represent periods of sustained clean sheets (interestingly all 3 are followed by wobbles in results, is this a sign of City mentally switching off? or is this a natural mental lapse following success?)
  • Pellegrini appears to have nailed it in his opening season but towards the end of last season things a bit awry (despite all the wins). Opponents now require less shots on average to score than City do and for the 1st season post takeover, the season long averages are the wrong way around
what about goals/pts per game?
b)
ynohQ5G.png

a hectic graph i grant you but the blue line needs to be above the red this time.

  • Since the departure of Mark Hughes, City have never scored less goals a game than the opposition (on rolling 8 game means) until this season.
  • A recent rapid decline in City scoring and increase in opponents scoring against us is a worrying trend (but could quickly change)
  • Pts per game is its worst in 5 seasons

However graphs don't tell you about players' attitude, ref blunders, how the rest of the league is constricting etc etc. But you can pick out an overall decline in Pellegrini's tenure.
 
shemnel said:
## BORING GRAPHS ALERT ##

here are some interesting plots (if you're a sad act like me) showing a) the amount of shots per goal scored and shots per goal conceded and b) pts per game and goals scored & conceded per game.

(these are 8 game means, i.e each point plotted represents an 8 game run)

a)
S4BhnFP.png

this shows how many actual shots it's taken to score a goal and concede a goal. The blue line (City) should be lower than the red line (opponents).
These are 8 game means, the dotted lines show the season average.

  • Mancini's title winning season is a good example; we had a good team balance and you can see the March wobble as the blue line creeps above the red line but is quickly rectified with the strong finish
  • the 3 large peaks represent periods of sustained clean sheets (interestingly all 3 are followed by wobbles in results, is this a sign of City mentally switching off? or is this a natural mental lapse following success?)
  • Pellegrini appears to have nailed it in his opening season but towards the end of last season things a bit awry (despite all the wins). Opponents now require less shots on average to score than City do and for the 1st season post takeover, the season long averages are the wrong way around
what about goals/pts per game?
b)
ynohQ5G.png

a hectic graph i grant you but the blue line needs to be above the red this time.

  • Since the departure of Mark Hughes, City have never scored less goals a game than the opposition (on rolling 8 game means) until this season.
  • A recent rapid decline in City scoring and increase in opponents scoring against us is a worrying trend (but could quickly change)
  • Pts per game is its worst in 5 seasons

However graphs don't tell you about players' attitude, ref blunders, how the rest of the league is constricting etc etc. But you can pick out an overall decline in Pellegrini's tenure.
Click to expand...

Chart sums it all up really
 
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