Back on the forum after nearly 6 months.
Sad what could have been an awesome Final is now a Quarter Final.
Anyways - our season has been fairly meh despite us leading by 7pts.
Aug/Sep -
Season ending injuries for our starting CBs and GK.
Very lackluster, leggy, slow and pedestrian performances.
Huge gaps in midfield put pressure on DM and backup CMs. Bailed out by a brilliant Jude and lucky that our opps couldn't score.
Vini & Rodrygo play too wide and Jude regularly drops deep which means for large periods of the game, opposing CBs are unoccupied.
The 3-0 loss against Atletico was our true level.
Took us two months to learn the new diamond formation.
Oct/Nov/Dec/Jan -
Solid 3 months of good football.
Midfield had learned to become compact.
No more kamikaze-style runs by fullbacks - one always stays back to make a midfield 3: generally Mendy-and 2 out of Kroos/Tchou/Modric/Cama.
Feb -
The team goes back to playing lackluster football. This season Carlo has not been rotating the team well and it shows with some of the injuries and leggy performances.
Mar/Now -
Solid start to the month with a 4-0 victory. Hopefully this is the beginning of an upcycle.
Going forward:
Madrid....................City
Osasuna (A, 10th)...... Newcastle (H, QF, 10th)
Bilbao (H, 5th)..........Arsenal (H, 1st)
............................Villa (H, 4th)
............................Palace (A, 14th)
....................RM v City
Mallorca (A, 15th)......Luton (H, 18th)
....................City v RM
Barca (H, 3rd)..........Tottenham (A, 5th)
You are the favorites but you also:
- have a greater mental/physical exhaustion of being in a 3-way title race compared to us.
- have 2 challenging games with little rest before the first leg and even Luton will fight like hell before the second leg.
- 2 extra games before the first leg.
- are somehow less scary than last season. Haaland/Alvarez/Silva look a level below this season. The only player who has gone up a level is Foden.
I'd say the ties are 52-48 in favor of City.