Five key games where City lost the title

[moomba]

25% less attempts-on-target than last season tells you all you need to know.

That's a lazy excuse.

Try a slow and failry average midfield barring Yaya.

Try a one size fits all approach which teams have sussed.

Try a terrible, terrible plan b or lack of it and also factor in poor man management and unhappy players. Dzeko and Nasri needed to be pivotal in our squad yet both have been poor, one was treated badly and rotated whilst in good form and the other is constantly played out of position and publicly criticised.

Did you not say a week ago that you were happy with our progress under Mancini?

 

[NipHolmes]

Plenty were too busy wanking over our unbeaten start to realise that draws are shite in this league.

We have been sloppy all season starting with Southampton at home, a game we would have lost had we been playing a more premier league savvy team.

Qpr at home was sloppy.

The wins against Swansea, reading and Wigan very unconvincing.

Not being able to beat the same old teams away Sunderland, Everton, Liverpool, stoke.

Crap at qpr and west ham with no urgency to take the required risks.

Southampton was shambolic.

We have only played really well about 7/8 times this season. Nowhere near as good as last season. Much work to be done.

I called it early yet got called a clueless kneejerker.

People failed to comprehend 5 draws = 5 points and that winning two games and losing three is actually better off points wise by 1 point.

Blue tinted specs mate, people simply see what they want and believe what they want when all that's needed is some balanced perspective and common sense.

Depends who the defeats are too. if it's against your rivals, draws are better

Depends who your wins are against and so to the losses. Wins against rivals and losses against relegation fodder?

Should would coulda, Mancini is at fault for setting up too negative and prioritising a solid back-line rather than an ambitious attacking strategy. We play much to defensively and that in turn allows teams to press us high. When that happens we struggle, just like we do when we are facing 'park the bus teams' who then counter. Top managers suss this out and adapt. Some of us saw these problems LAST season rather than this season, tactics are just as important as playing staff.<br /><br />-- Tue Apr 23, 2013 6:47 pm --<br /><br />

25% less attempts-on-target than last season tells you all you need to know.

That's a lazy excuse.

Try a slow and failry average midfield barring Yaya.

Try a one size fits all approach which teams have sussed.

Try a terrible, terrible plan b or lack of it and also factor in poor man management and unhappy players. Dzeko and Nasri needed to be pivotal in our squad yet both have been poor, one was treated badly and rotated whilst in good form and the other is constantly played out of position and publicly criticised.

Did you not say a week ago that you were happy with our progress under Mancini?

Happy with what we have won but progress has stalled. I lost my faith in him when we finished last in CL. My mate who supports Inter educated me and said and I quote 'Nip, I promise you, Mancini will reach a limit and that's it, Europe is a glass ceiling'.

He was right, since I've studied him more he seems to make the same mistakes over and over.

 

[Marvin]

25% less attempts-on-target than last season tells you all you need to know.

That's a lazy excuse.

Try a slow and failry average midfield barring Yaya.

Try a one size fits all approach which teams have sussed.

Try a terrible, terrible plan b or lack of it and also factor in poor man management and unhappy players. Dzeko and Nasri needed to be pivotal in our squad yet both have been poor, one was treated badly and rotated whilst in good form and the other is constantly played out of position and publicly criticised.

You continually ignore the facts when given to you on a plate

The one aspect of the team that has dropped significantly from last season is chance conversion.

We are still creating chances a lot of chances. Last time I looked we were 2nd to Utd, but quite close to them but our chance conversion had dropped from 1st to about 6th.

The league table tells you the problem this season has been goal scoring but that could be down to creativity, and or taking chances. The OPTA stats show its goal scoring

This has been a problem all season

And mancini has alluded to it several times. You just choose to ignore it, but it's actually very obvious and valid. If you wanted you could argue that poor chance conversion is actually the manager's fault due to poor management of Mario and Dzeko. I am surprised you haven't done so as it would have much more weight than the current generalised "Mancini isn't good enough" rubbish

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

25% less attempts-on-target than last season tells you all you need to know.

That's a lazy excuse.

Try a slow and failry average midfield barring Yaya.

Try a one size fits all approach which teams have sussed.

Try a terrible, terrible plan b or lack of it and also factor in poor man management and unhappy players. Dzeko and Nasri needed to be pivotal in our squad yet both have been poor, one was treated badly and rotated whilst in good form and the other is constantly played out of position and publicly criticised.

You continually ignore the facts when given to you on a plate

The one aspect of the team that has dropped significantly from last season is chance conversion.

We are still creating chances a lot of chances. Last time I looked we were 2nd to Utd, but quite close to them but our chance conversion had dropped from 1st to about 6th.

The league table tells you the problem this season has been goal scoring but that could be down to creativity, and or taking chances. The OPTA stats show its goal scoring

This has been a problem all season

And mancini has alluded to it several times. You just choose to ignore it, but it's actually very obvious and valid. If you wanted you could argue that poor chance conversion is actually the manager's fault due to poor management of Mario and Dzeko. I am surprised you haven't done so as it would have much more weight than the current generalised "Mancini isn't good enough" rubbish

You are ignoring what people have been seeing with their own eyes.

We have been much worse than last season.

Take reading at home. We were dross and lucky to win. Same with Swansea and same with Wigan.
Last season at home we pissed on sides.

Unless you can show a comparison of clear cut chances then the stats mean jack shit.

Some games it says we had 20 attempts and I can recall about 4.

 

[peoffrey]

The Southampton and Everton ones are the ones which stand out the most. A club determined to defend it's title would have come back from that United defeat and ensured there weren't anymore this season, or at least not lost in the way we lost at the clubs i've just mentioned. The ref may as well have had a City shirt on too during that Everton game, but we still couldn't win. Champions defending their title don't put in shifts like those games.

Lessons learned.

Was it fair to expect a result at Everton? We rarely win there. The 0-0 draws at West Ham and QPR were disappointing for me.

 

[mancityscot]

The Southampton and Everton ones are the ones which stand out the most. A club determined to defend it's title would have come back from that United defeat and ensured there weren't anymore this season, or at least not lost in the way we lost at the clubs i've just mentioned. The ref may as well have had a City shirt on too during that Everton game, but we still couldn't win. Champions defending their title don't put in shifts like those games.

Lessons learned.

Was it fair to expect a result at Everton? We rarely win there. The 0-0 draws at West Ham and QPR were disappointing for me.

think i'd be best betting my whole student loan on everton beating us at goodison. it always happens

 

[jimharri]

The games at Stoke, QPR and Southampton, along with the last minute defeat to the twats at the Etihad (thanks a bunch Samir) and the draw at home to the red mickeys were the title killers. Sunderland? Well; every team gets a shock result against them at some stage (Norwich beat the vermin) and we always lose at Everton. I won't count sunday as we had lost the title weeks (months?) before that.

 

[AlgarveBlu]

Balotelli leaving withiout a replacement left me with a sensation of we only have two strikers left to win this title...

 

[peoffrey]

Balotelli leaving withiout a replacement left me with a sensation of we only have two strikers left to win this title...

This is probably another discussion for another thread but I'm not remotely convinced Balotelli could've been called on to do anything this season. His passion for City had gone.

 

[Marvin]

That's a lazy excuse.

Try a slow and failry average midfield barring Yaya.

Try a one size fits all approach which teams have sussed.

Try a terrible, terrible plan b or lack of it and also factor in poor man management and unhappy players. Dzeko and Nasri needed to be pivotal in our squad yet both have been poor, one was treated badly and rotated whilst in good form and the other is constantly played out of position and publicly criticised.

You continually ignore the facts when given to you on a plate

The one aspect of the team that has dropped significantly from last season is chance conversion.

We are still creating chances a lot of chances. Last time I looked we were 2nd to Utd, but quite close to them but our chance conversion had dropped from 1st to about 6th.

The league table tells you the problem this season has been goal scoring but that could be down to creativity, and or taking chances. The OPTA stats show its goal scoring

This has been a problem all season

And mancini has alluded to it several times. You just choose to ignore it, but it's actually very obvious and valid. If you wanted you could argue that poor chance conversion is actually the manager's fault due to poor management of Mario and Dzeko. I am surprised you haven't done so as it would have much more weight than the current generalised "Mancini isn't good enough" rubbish

You are ignoring what people have been seeing with their own eyes.

We have been much worse than last season.

Take reading at home. We were dross and lucky to win. Same with Swansea and same with Wigan.
Last season at home we pissed on sides.

Unless you can show a comparison of clear cut chances then the stats mean jack shit.

Some games it says we had 20 attempts and I can recall about 4.

But from Dec/Jan last season it became a struggle

I'm trying to take some subjectivity out of it and analyse it properly. Stats suggest it's the forward play, nit midfield play that has deteriorated and when taken together with the personnel changes: AJ, Balotelli gone and Dzeko playing poorly, and Aguero injured.I'd say the case is pretty convincing