I agree with you, it seems a lot of teams seem to really put it in against City but drop their levels playing against our other title contenders. Stuart Pearce has recently alluded to this too.. I also remember when Man United had a successful side back in their day.. teams would roll up at Old Trafford and have their belly’s tickled even when they played them at home.
Yep definitely hence the teams playing Man U would be like not bothering to show up and save themselves for other teams who they thought they could get a result against them. Diffent when we played them. We always had go and wouldn’t make it easy for them back then. But then again City had to show up or our fans would not be happy.also this shows up what we are now in the fact that we are a truly amazing team and probably the best champions the world has ever seen.United was playing in a shit league back then and the top 4 was a closed shop, The rest was miles away from them and knew how to play the 40 points game and that was their season aim,
I remember somebody talking about when England won the World Cup in 1966 and Scotland claimed to be world champions because they beat us a Wembley the following year in the home nations, Everybody wants to beat the best club in the world to claim our scalp
Funny how the RDAHMeedya and Johnny Fanboy always seem to come up with wanting to play the Rags if they are fans of minnows and have just got through to the FAC3! Never heard anyone over the last ten years say they want to play the champions at The Etihad. Might be that they fancy their chances more at The Swamp.United was playing in a shit league back then and the top 4 was a closed shop, The rest was miles away from them and knew how to play the 40 points game and that was their season aim,
I remember somebody talking about when England won the World Cup in 1966 and Scotland claimed to be world champions because they beat us a Wembley the following year in the home nations, Everybody wants to beat the best club in the world to claim our scalp
I agree with you, it seems a lot of teams seem to really put it in against City but drop their levels playing against our other title contenders. Stuart Pearce has recently alluded to this too.. I also remember when Man United had a successful side back in their day.. teams would roll up at Old Trafford and have their belly’s tickled even when they played them at home.
I don’t watch much of the other sides but I constantly get the impression that teams do far more bus parking against City and seem to raise their games more than they do against our rivals.
Football law makers repeatedly get a hard on for certain rules, a few seasons back it was holding at corners, we had 2 goven against us at stoke! Then within weeks it was gone.Wow if true and on Webbs watch. It’s spoiling the game. Give a pen every time and it stops all this crazy hands on. If our defenders did this I’d be like same it’s a penalty you just can’t go hands on. Also once again sick of the linesmen not flagging straight away when it’s obvious offsides. Stupid new rules.
Fair point, the late 90's was awful..didn't help a new manager every 10 x months it seemed...we also signed some bang average players - real decline from when Reidy had us finishing above Utd!He's barely played this season, and we're one point off the top spot "basically so poor", goodness knows what you thought in the late 90's.
and so transparent...they take fans for fools..as though we have never watched a game in our lives..the worst for me was a few seasons back when literally every foul = booking! Now its certain fouls (basically Rodri rule I think their calling it!) the game is rife for manipulation...Linesman are the new refs who were put behind the goal line for a few weeks = waste of timeFootball law makers repeatedly get a hard on for certain rules, a few seasons back it was holding at corners, we had 2 goven against us at stoke! Then within weeks it was gone.
Post world cup added time was the thing. Thats back to 3 minutes when the goaly had wasted 10 mins himself!
Kicking a ball away, again lasted 2 weeks
Its pathetic.
True also i don't think teams 'try harder' against certain teams - they are selfish ruthless professionals - when you think of the competition to get in a prem league squad. Basically nearly ALL the best players from a global population of 4 billion males! I think it's our style of play makes it look like that. we shuffle passes meaning we have 8 or 9 players in their half...needs a lightening quick counter to exploit the empty half a pitch. As we are not really a quick powerful side the ball wide and through quickly or one of the top needs fast powerful runners = looks like their trying harder. Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool play more of a fast attacking through ball style - so when they score I bet they have a good 8 men behind the ball and possible half of those near their own box = no counter attacking vulnerability.United was playing in a shit league back then and the top 4 was a closed shop, The rest was miles away from them and knew how to play the 40 points game and that was their season aim,
I remember somebody talking about when England won the World Cup in 1966 and Scotland claimed to be world champions because they beat us a Wembley the following year in the home nations, Everybody wants to beat the best club in the world to claim our scalp