Feelings towards the current side

[sky_blue]

I know it’s common in the modern game but the fact that after such a gutless performance some of our players were all smiles hugging and joking around with some of their players is taking the piss

Must have watched a different match. I saw 11 players playing like absolute warriors for 90 minutes when we have come to identify this City team as "fragile". The kind of team that concedes one counter attack, completely capitulates and goes down 3-0 by 30 minutes.

What I saw was a team which never lost concentration, no matter how many times the opposition tried to bait us. Strong powerful characters, who believed in themselves and the manager and stuck to the plan despite their instincts telling them to attack every second. Don't mistake calmness for weakness and aggressiveness for strength.

 

[domalino]

Good post. However, the table is starting to take shape of where teams are going to likely finish now, after a bit of a crazy start to the season.

Most other teams seem to be getting results and lying in the table where you’d expect them to be now. Apart from us!

These problems and worries can’t just be for problems and worries for us.

I don't get posts like this. Win our game in hand at home vs. Villa and we are 5th, 3 points off 1st.

Considering we had less time between the seasons than any of them, no preseason whatsoever, and went into the season with 8 first team players injured, we are pretty much where we should be. A slow start was inevitable.

Are the other teams getting results? Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs aren't. Liverpool have won 2 of their last 5 (like us). Chelsea 3 and Spurs 3.

No one is hitting their stride noticeably better than us, we've built a rock solid defence and now will push on.

 

[bugsyblue]

How come every time we don't win there's 2-3 new threads talking about how everything's going wrong for the club and how doomed we are?

Well It would be really weird if that happened after we won.

 

[Grealish’s Shinpads]

Must have watched a different match. I saw 11 players playing like absolute warriors for 90 minutes when we have come to identify this City team as "fragile". The kind of team that concedes one counter attack, completely capitulates and goes down 3-0 by 30 minutes.

What I saw was a team which never lost concentration, no matter how many times the opposition tried to bait us. Strong powerful characters, who believed in themselves and the manager and stuck to the plan despite their instincts telling them to attack every second. Don't mistake calmness for weakness and aggressiveness for strength.

Must have done. But suppose there’s always a minority!

 

[asahartford1]

Gary Neville summed up my feelings perfectly “a shadow of their former self”

following Gary Neville is not the path i would recommend.

1 month ago he was telling me how poor our defence was. It has not conceded a goal since he said it. However it seems many City fans agree with you, i hope you do not look silly in six months time.

 

[FantasyIreland]

Must have watched a different match. I saw 11 players playing like absolute warriors for 90 minutes when we have come to identify this City team as "fragile". The kind of team that concedes one counter attack, completely capitulates and goes down 3-0 by 30 minutes.

What I saw was a team which never lost concentration, no matter how many times the opposition tried to bait us. Strong powerful characters, who believed in themselves and the manager and stuck to the plan despite their instincts telling them to attack every second. Don't mistake calmness for weakness and aggressiveness for strength.

 

[Paladin]

following Gary Neville is not the path i would recommend.

1 month ago he was telling me how poor our defence was. It has not conceded a goal since he said it. However it seems many City fans agree with you, i hope you do not look silly in six months time.

A couple of months ago, we were a bit of a shambles in defence, and that look was exacerbated by conceding five to Leicester. However, three of those were penalties, and either soft or down to naïvety.

Since then, it is fair to say our defence has been much better. In fact, it has been brilliant. I no longer fear every opposition attack as I used to.

We are still in touch with the leading teams. We have our defence sorted, which has to be the first to get right when a team is underperforming. We now need to sort out our midfield so that they start creating more chances, and then our attack will fall into place.

This is a period of rebuild for us. We will emerge stronger, and we are still in contention for honours this season. I would take a Carabou Cup win this season. Plus the PL. And the CL would be a nice bonus too.

 

[GoatersLeftShin]

Let's be honest, for the last year our defence has been our achilles heal. It's stopped us stone dead winning the CL and last year killed our PL chances. Quite a lot of people on here were getting bored by us dominating games then getting the sucker punch - and last year we would've lost the united game yesterday.

I know we are disappointed to draw with united but at home they set up to draw the game and - let's be absolutely truthful - have some very good players. De Gea, Maguire, Wan Bisaka, Pohba, Fred, Fernandes and Rashford would all find places in our squad and most other PL teams. Their manager is useless, but his players aren't.

Pep has - rightly in my view - made the defence the priority. Put simply, without a good defence you won't win trophies, simple as that. There's going to be a lot of teams now realising our defence is becoming a strength and that's something we've missed since Kompany left. I don't know what has happened but Dias has come in, Stones has been eating Weetabix and we look solid now. Throw Walker in there and I'd have Ake at left back and teams are going to have to work HARD to break that defence down. I'm sure it will give Ederson much more cover and allow him to sweep up far more effectively that he's been allowed to.

If the defence is sorted, it gives us a platform to win the CL and PL this year. Personally, I don't think we will win the PL and think Mourinho will with Spurs - sorry. However, I do think we will probably get to the final this year in the CL. Pep's cracked what we need to do in defence and whilst it's changed how we play, we're 3 points from the top after a poor start.

Of course, it's cost us our free flowing attacking game but I honestly think this year the Sheikh's told him that we have to finish top4 and win the CL.

For me, we've had a few years of bombing forward and creating 20 chances a game so no wonder Sterling, Aguero, KDB, Silva, Sane, Mahrez etc have looked good - they've been eating on caviar and champagne thanks to the service they've been getting. Now, it's bread and water for a bit and they are going to have to frankly work harder to get chances and take them - just like every other f**king forward does when they play against us.

I've said for a couple of seasons now if we're going to create 20 chances a game, we don't need Haaland or Mbappe, we just need a Goater or Defoe who do nothing except score goals. The forward players frankly have let us down as much as anyone. How many chances - easy chances - have we missed in the last couple of seasons?

I do think they squad needs gutting and I would not be precious about pretty much any player. We need to raise funds to do that so if we can get big money for ANY of our players, I'd consider it. We need fresh blood.

I'd be looking to move Mendy, Zinchenko, Cancelo, Mahrez on in January. They aren't good enough, simple as that. I'd be warning Bernardo Silva he has 3 months to show me he has a future at City as well - he's not good enough at the moment.

Sterling and Stones would be ones I'd -consider- selling if they are playing well. Sterling can be world class or awful and Stones is brittle. This will be as unpopular as a kiss from Fergie, but KDB is another who I'd be tempted to cash in on if we can get £150m from Real etc as he is a player who we can get big cash from to help with the rebuilding and is 29/30. We can't afford for players to walk out of the door free as their replacements cost a fortune.

I always remember - and you should as well - the scorn we got when Mancini took us to Arsenal to play for 0-0 and we did. The press called us negative and a disgrace but what that game showed was that our defence was something to be scared of - we could shut up shop and be impossible to score against if needed. That gave us the confidence and defence to launch the title bid. I believe Pep is doing the same. We know we can play champagne football, but we need to be able to go to Real with a 1-0 lead and hold it, just like the European teams do to us.

I fully back Pep, he knows what he is doing. Sure, it's not great at the moment but he's got the track record to prove that once the team adapts to his thinking, the trophies pop up like daffofils in spring!

 

[bugsyblue]

following Gary Neville is not the path i would recommend.

1 month ago he was telling me how poor our defence was. It has not conceded a goal since he said it. However it seems many City fans agree with you, i hope you do not look silly in six months time.

You hope we don’t reach the heights of some of the best football the premier league has ever seen? Strange, because I hope we do!

Let’s cut the polite shit, of course you fucking hope I look silly. And I hope I look silly because I’d love to see us tear up the league again. However you have to be a fool to think that’s happening this season.

 

[Greenjob]

Some interesting and valid points across the board. However, we surely ALL agree that: Our set up, approach, ability to dominate and kill teams off has dropped off - for whatever reason but the same for Teams. Surely Pep must take some of the blame? Square pegs in round holes, puzzling team selection, no plan B, poor sub strategy etc etc? I think as fans we must take it on a 'game by game' basis and see where we are at comes the end of season.

 

[Blu3m00n91]

Some interesting and valid points across the board. However, we surely ALL agree that: Our set up, approach, ability to dominate and kill teams off has dropped off - for whatever reason but the same for Teams. Surely Pep must take some of the blame? Square pegs in round holes, puzzling team selection, no plan B, poor sub strategy etc etc? I think as fans we must take it on a 'game by game' basis and see where we are at comes the end of season.

Our midfield/attack changes every week and it’s been an issue for the team and Pep. 17-19 you could be pretty certain Leroy/Kun/Raz would start up front with Kev/Fern/Silva behind. The inconsistency of individuals of the last 18 months is frustrating which is affecting our team selections because we don’t know what player is gonna turn up

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

It's a funny one for me. When 'Boys In Blue' came out, and they sang "Maybe in another generation, when other lads have come to take our place" I couldn't imagine anyone ever truly replacing the likes of King Colin, Buzzer, Franny Lee, Skip, Glyn Pardoe, Tommy Booth, Alan 'The Tank' Oakes, Mike Doyle, Willie Donachie, etc.

Over the years players like Dennis Tueart, Peter Barnes, Gary Owen, Joe Royle, Kinky, Uwe, Ali B, Eyal Berkovic, The Goat, Andy Morrison became legends in their own right. But that 1970's squad was the one, for me anyway, where the whole squad WAS City.

The only time since then I've felt we had a squad to match that one was the last 10 years with the likes of Joe Hart, Zabba, Micah, Vinny, Joleon Lescott, Nige, Gaz Barry, Milner, Dave, Fern, Yaya, Sergio, Dzeko, even Mad Mario. In the next couple of years all of those will have gone. And I don't mean 'match' in terms of playing ability but in terms of being one with the fans, as a squad, who were genuinely proud to wear the shirt, who were the club, rather than a collection of individuals just passing through Manchester on their football journey.

I was a teenager when Boys In Blue came out. Now I have two kids in their 30's and I'm a grandfather. Finally I've seen a group of players that I rank with the players who sang 'The Boys In Blue' and who have fully lived up to that line in the song. And bar two, most have gone and I just don't see their replacements in quite the same way.

I feel now like I felt in the late 70's/early 80's when the last of that great squad that sang 'Boys In Blue' left us. It may be a long time before we see another group like the one we've had the privilege to watch since 2010.

 

[blusull]

can anybody tell me how many games we have won and lost sice grandma became peps assisstant

 

[samarasra]

It's a funny one for me. When 'Boys In Blue' came out, and they sang "Maybe in another generation, when other lads have come to take our place" I couldn't imagine anyone ever truly replacing the likes of King Colin, Buzzer, Franny Lee, Skip, Glyn Pardoe, Tommy Booth, Alan 'The Tank' Oakes, Mike Doyle, Willie Donachie, etc.

Over the years players like Dennis Tueart, Peter Barnes, Gary Owen, Joe Royle, Kinky, Uwe, Ali B, Eyal Berkovic, The Goat, Andy Morrison became legends in their own right. But that 1970's squad was the one, for me anyway, where the whole squad WAS City.

The only time since then I've felt we had a squad to match that one was the last 10 years with the likes of Joe Hart, Zabba, Micah, Vinny, Joleon Lescott, Nige, Gaz Barry, Milner, Dave, Fern, Yaya, Sergio, Dzeko, even Mad Mario. In the next couple of years all of those will have gone. And I don't mean 'match' in terms of playing ability but in terms of being one with the fans, as a squad, who were genuinely proud to wear the shirt, who were the club, rather than a collection of individuals just passing through Manchester on their football journey.

I was a teenager when Boys In Blue came out. Now I have two kids in their 30's and I'm a grandfather. Finally I've seen a group of players that I rank with the players who sang 'The Boys In Blue' and who have fully lived up to that line in the song. And bar two, most have gone and I just don't see their replacements in quite the same way.

I feel now like I felt in the late 70's/early 80's when the last of that great squad that sang 'Boys In Blue' left us. It may be a long time before we see another group like the one we've had the privilege to watch since 2010.

Great post. It took me years to physically get to Manchester, I made it and hoped retirement would allow many visits but that's on hold now. That late '60's/ '70's team were as dear to me as if I knew each one personally. No 25 man squads back then but that's not the reason I can still name and visualise every regular player and most of the subs, in an era when I had to try to tune in to the BBC radio on a Saturday afternoon in hope our match was the "commentary" match, then wait for my father to bring home an English Sunday paper to read a report on the game (an era when reports were descriptions of what happened in the game,not opinion pieces by some biased "journalist"). I can name the full team that beat Leicester City in the '69 FA Cup, more easily than I can manage to name last Saturday's team. I cannot define why I loved City since '66, was it the blue shirts, the sweet cigarette cards with pictures of City player's, UK comics ,but one of my prized possessions is a pull-out from, I think a Hornet comic, with a photo of Johnny Crossan holding the Second Division winner's trophy in '66 I also loved my nearest local Senior team and by a strange twist, the late Dave Bacuzzi who played on that winning team at City with Crossan became player manager of that team, Cork Hiberians in 1970 and gave us over 3 great years of success before they disappeared a la Leeds Utd for financial reasons. Is it possible to feel close to a club from afar, definitely yes, although sometimes a little isolating being blue in a predominantly red country,maybe that makes it easier to accept the good with the bad. Like you, that '70's squad was City to me and still is, maybe "first impressions", those player's from other eras you mention fondly remembered but I have similar feelings about the last great squad and great hopes that the current squad will evolve into another great squad and I hope that Covid and other life threatening barriers will allow me to see this new squad at the Etihad in the not too distant future. Maybe not being a local means I cannot feel the closeness local fans feel, but neither do I feel the separation some express. It's like an old teacher seeing new kids come in, go through the system to be replaced by the next squad, following the progress of the graduates and looking forward to the potential achievements of the newbies, successes, failures and everything in between.

 

[itisrising]

Thinking about it in more detail, I think my main disconnect stems from the lack of academy integration.

United started the derby game with 4 academy graduates, we did not have a single one involved. That alone is a shocking fact. It wasn't even particularly about the derby itself but we had a dead rubber game against Marseille and there was no academy involvement whatsoever. It's becoming clear that there will continue to be a lack of synergy between our academy and our first team and we will not have a team that has a genuine connection to the fans and club. We have a potential golden generation of players coming through that have a genuine bond to the club and its fans and I have no faith that any of them will actually be given a chance. This is totally juxtaposed by the treatment of Eric Garcia at the club which has, at least personally, been a frustrating chapter that I want to close. We have given away Tosin, a life long City fan, and Angelino, an academy success story, and given significant playing time to a player that does not want to be here. It genuinely boggles the mind and it is all making me very distant from this current crop of players.

 

[Gray]

Feels like we are still playing pre-season warm up matches to me, having no crowds adds to that effect.

We need to up our game and speed things up. Finishing is shocking, do they actually work on it during training sessions?

 

[Chippy_boy]

Feels like we are still playing pre-season warm up matches to me, having no crowds adds to that effect.

We need to up our game and speed things up. Finishing is shocking, do they actually work on it during training sessions?

I said the same in the match thread. It felt like a pre-season friendly, not a bloody derby against the old enemy.

And I am sorry but I really don't get the media's Raheem Sterling love-in. As someone on here quaintly put it, he's never a striker as long as I have hole in my arse. The moment we saw the line up on Saturday, you could have predicted we'd been struggling to score for 90 minutes.

And sorry, but whilst having a whinge I might as well get it all off my chest. Why the fuck does Mahrez allow himself to get muscled off the ball by anyone who weighs more than 7 stone? I mean man up FFS Mahrez. A defender has only got to look at him and he's on his back. I wouldn't mind so much if it was because he'd been fouled and we won a free kick, but that's never the case. He just has the ball taken off him, constantly.

 

[mccity]

can anybody tell me how many games we have won and lost sice grandma became peps assisstant

Last season post restart after he joined we had the most points, goals, and fewest goals conceded to close out the season.


Our issues this season are almost certainly unrelated to him, much to yours and many others disappointment.

 

[JRockBlues]

This season cannot be compared to any other that's gone before. Teams, like us, that are playing in Europe are playing every 3 or 4 days every single week. Optimum recovery time for top class footballers has been set around 72 hours in a normal season which will often have a full week mixed in without midweek games for all players to recharge. We're asking too much from them this season so the quality isn't there and standards will drop from their norm. Also because of this constant barrage of matches coaches are less able to work on the small things which make a big difference.

So in saying all that, I'm not going to have a go at our team for not performing to the levels that we all know they can reach under normal circumstances. They are certainly not that at the moment and allowances should be made.

 

[greasedupdeafguy]

This season cannot be compared to any other that's gone before. Teams, like us, that are playing in Europe are playing every 3 or 4 days every single week. Optimum recovery time for top class footballers has been set around 72 hours in a normal season which will often have a full week mixed in without midweek games for all players to recharge. We're asking too much from them this season so the quality isn't there and standards will drop from their norm. Also because of this constant barrage of matches coaches are less able to work on the small things which make a big difference.

So in saying all that, I'm not going to have a go at our team for not performing to the levels that we all know they can reach under normal circumstances. They are certainly not that at the moment and allowances should be made.

Fair enough, so why start a 35 year old twice in a week?