De Bruyne?

[Neville Kneville]

He has to have seen that by now. Has to.

Let's hope so.

 

[Phil1]

I

Think we will win the league if we just keep everyone fit anyway but in terms of kicking on and challenging for the CL I think we have left ourselves really short if that's what we go with

Yeah I'm a pretty positive City fan on the whole but I don't think I'll be booking time off for next years CL final.

 

[Smithy_]

I think due to our poor performances against the best sides, people have an over-inflated opinion of how good the best teams in Europe are. They have a core of world class players, and I think we have, but a lot of it is team unity, experience and belief. I think that will come. With knockout competitions you can never say "we will win it this year", but I think City will reach a final within the next 2-3 years and of course, anything can happen from there.

I'd liken it to the year we won the league in 2012. At the beginning of that season there was a mutual "we are still way off United" opinion amongst a fair number of fans. I remember argueing like mad on here the season we won the FA Cup that we had already overtaken them.

Think back to our last 16 games against Barca we weren't exactly at our best in either game and lost by only one goal in both. Aguero missed a penalty (shit happens) that if scored could have possibly led to a different end result, we'll never know. The groups we've had in the past 2 years (when you could actually say we was up there with the best teams in England) in the champions league have been extremely tough draws and we've managed to qualify from them. Compare our groups to the recent groups of Chelsea and Arsenal who's draws have been a lot nicer. You can't blame the luck of the draw but would both teams have qualified both times if the had been drawn our groups?

I wouldn't class our last 2 appearances in Europe failures yet the media and a large amount of pundits will. Hence we will again this year go into Europe with the title of underdogs riding on nothing but 'failure' in Europe so far since the Sheikh came. However we should use this to thrive off and make the rest of Europe take note of us. With a bit of luck this year particularly if we make it into the last 16, we get a kinder draw like them stuffy twats from Salford always get then it gives us a better chance of progressing. This will then allow us to properly measure where we are in regards to the top competitors in Europe.

I have a good feeling about our performance in Europe this year. Fingers crossed

 

[Neville Kneville]

I sincerely hope so because if they dismiss the Stuttgart result as ''pre season'' and don't up the work rate the value of that wake up call from yet another German side will have been wasted.

Tbf though, Vinny & Kolarov both had nightmares & poor ol George Evans was left to do all the running for Silva & Nasri. When we moved to a more realistic team, we were probably the better side, maybe actually more energetic than they were.

 

[BertTrautmann'sParachute]

He's German, an alcoholic, compulsive gambler and a former scouser, enough said!

Nowt wrong with being a German, alcoholic gambler.

 

[Keeper!]

Nowt wrong with being a German, alcoholic gambler.

Exactly, its the final bit that makes him a cnut

 

[domalino]

Indeed, but no way will they include those 3 when calculating it.

They never included Pozo last season, despite his 4 games, but always included Wright, who's never played. As always, the manipulate eveything to suit their agenda.

However - I think Denayer will play in 20+ games this season, and wouldn't be surprised if Lopes and Iheanacho did the same, mostly off the bench.

Lopes in particular offers something off the bench, his running in broken up play against tired defenders will be something I think Pellegrini will use. And Nacho should get game time just by virtue of being third striker, and Aguero is likely to pick up an injury at some point.

Anyway, my point is that they should play enough games that even the biggest agenda-pushing **** couldn't ignore them in such calculations.

 

[SilverFox2]

Tbf though, Vinny & Kolarov both had nightmares & poor ol George Evans was left to do all the running for Silva & Nasri. When we moved to a more realistic team, we were probably the better side, maybe actually more energetic than they were.

Agreed but as you say 2 first team players had a collective nightmare which should be a little worrying regarding defensive duties this season in the PL never mind CL.

 

[fairyfeet]

Nowt wrong with being a German, alcoholic gambler.

Possibly the best comment i have ever read on here. Absolute quality.

 

[Chi-town blues]

No cone spotters today?