Has it been a good/poor season?

[Millo]

To quote Alf Garnett “Bloody poorer that’s a fact”.

 

[Silva_Spell]

Whilst I have largely acclimatised to being a successful club I'm not young enough to have missed the dark days and not old enough to have memory problems so if our poor seasons include a trophy I'm not gonna go mental

Utd and Chelsea used to do that. If they didn't win the PL for a year or 2 they still won 1 or 2 cups. We need to keep building up the trophy cabinet regardless.

The season does become more disappointing given just how amazing we were for the best part of 2.5 years, the best side this country has ever seen, I don't give a crap what anyone says, but for me the disappointment of Kompany, Silva, Sane leaving in the last 12 months or so is harder to take than not winning the PL or CL. I loved watching them play and we don't have replacements to make me only look back at them with a sense of gratitude. The club needs to fix that.

 

[city986]

Having watched us for years and thought we would never win anything in my life time to win something makes it a good season for me

 

[BarnsleyManc]

Has it been a poor season, a good season or an average season.

2nd in the league to a better team
Won the League Cup
FA Cup semi finalists
CL QF

On our day we are magnificent, but we have too many off days and on those days we don't grind out results we find ways to lose. Often we lose even though we have dominated games, created loaded of chances, missed loads of opportunities and been punished for our mistakes.
Last night was typical of our season, we were profligate again and got punished again. We were In the ascendency and Jesus and Sterling missed great opportunities, Lyon pump a ball forward and score on the break just like so many other times this season. Then Ederson fucks up and its game over. Football at the very top is very fine margins, we are an elite team and against other good teams it can happen. Its frustrating because we know we can be so much better. No football team has ever been perfect, because in football perfection is impossible and I think Pep's drive for perfection is actually a hinderance because its an unachievable aim. He is a footballing romantic brought up believing in the football of Cruyff. yet the football of Cruyff's Holland team whilst being magical and sublime never achieved winning the world cup because it lacked the pragmatism of Argentina and West Germany at that time.

It then becomes a question of principle, does he sacrifice his principles and be pragmatic or does he stick with what he believes, I think as fans we would like to see more pragmatism, but when he is pragmatic like last night when he alters the team to deal with an opponent we call for him to stick with his beliefs and play like we have done over the last few years. The key is finding a mix between pragmatism and principle.

We also have to accept that football is inherently a game of mistakes, every goal comes from a mistake because the perfect game of football would end 0-0 and it is the capacity of football to be prone to mistakes that makes it such a fascinating sport. You can be the most wonderfully gifted team on the planet but lose because of one mistake to a team that on paper shouldn't even be in the same league.

If you accept football is a game of mistakes then what you do is either try to eliminate the mistakes or take advantage of the other teams mistakes and that is where footballing philosophies come into play. The high press is used to create mistakes by the opposition, but it leaves you prone to mistakes at the back because you are invariably undermanned, the low block aims to eliminate mistakes at the back but means you have less mistakes upfront to capitalise on. You only have 10 players to decide which way you wish to approach the game and last night we were caught in the middle of being principled and pragmatic but it was mistakes that cost us because whatever approach you take its always mistakes that settle the game.

Can you eliminate mistakes? to a point yes I think you can but you cant eliminate every mistake and not every mistakes is taken advantage off because the other team makes mistakes too. Case in point is we induced mistakes from Lyon to create an open goal for Sterling who then somehow managed to balloon it over the bar. None of this was done on purpose its football and its why its so fascinating because it exposes human frailties and reminds us all of the time we also ballooned a great chance over from 5 yards out playing against the Dog and Duck third eleven.

I thought I would have a look at some stats for some seasons

Mancini title F93 A29 L5

Pellers Title F102 A37 L6

Pep title F106 A27 L2

last season F102 A35 L9

There is remarkably not much difference between the stats for any of those years apart from one obvious one, somehow we contrived to lose 9 games last season despite the stats not being that much different.

Conclusion is last season we got punished far more for our mistakes than in the other seasons, shit happens

I fucking love City, only us could beat the Spanish champions and CL KIngs and then lose to a team who finished 7th in the French Farmers league.

Don't ever change City.

Good season in general, expectation to finish teams off but we don’t, odd tactical decisions by PG, Lyon result very disappointing but avoiding Bayern could be a blessing especially in the form they are in, need to beef up defence and cut out stupid mistakes at the back if we want to progress again next season.

 

[21silva]

I always said after our first trophy after 35 years I’ll try not to be an entitled fan, one trophy a year would be fantastic and champs league place would for me be a good season.

Problem with some fans is they fall into the trap most fans do when you start to dominate leagues winning trophies consistently your thinking changes to one trophy isn’t good enough then the criticism starts towards players manager.

our past is irrelevant. Accepting mediocrity when our team is world class with our manager is poor form. We can admit it was a poor season and move on. We aren’t entitled, we are capable of more, not winning everything isn’t the issue. The manner in which we lost the trophies is

 

[Blue Theatre]

Hmmm...trick question?

Lets put it into context:

We lost out first PL title in 3 seasons, but came a very comfortable 2nd, even losing more games than in the last two seasons combined.

We lost our first domestic trophy in 3 years, but won the other one.

We got further in the CL, but fell to a clinical Lyon team that magnified and capitalized on our well-known Achilles heel...while our top scorer missed the chance of a lifetime and our Golden Gloves keeper spilled his first ball of the night on a soft shot that landed at the foot of an attacker.

If you add to that the VAR debacle for their 3rd goal, it almost summed up the season.

We were the architects of our own downfall, and didn’t get a single decent break when we needed it, even in super slo-mo, where it becomes even more obvious!

City under Pep have a huge target on their back and too many other teams managed to hit the bullseye this season, even though we had a wonderful season by the standards of any other team.

• We bested 18 other teams in the PL.
• We bested all but 2 other teams in the FA Cup.
• We bested all other teams in the Carabao Cup.
• We bested all but 4 of the best teams in Europe.
• And, we scored more goals than any other English team...yet again.

That said...

• We may be the most profligate team in the world, given the supposed world class
attacking talent and chances we create.
• We may have the most expensive, yet most suspect, defence in the history of football.
• We are on the verge of the last throes of the post-2008 City built to get us here and serious rebuilding is needed to take us further and get us to the next level, especially in European competition.

By comparison to 99% of clubs in Europe, we have had an extraordinarily good season. However, by the standards upon which we are now measured, by both our own fans and other serious football people, we fell far short of expectations.

We are knocking on the door of Europe’s elite, and it appears we are currently seen as gatecrashers, not simply accepted as belonging to the Elite 8-16 every year. To do that takes time, and we are getting there, but aren’t there yet.

When one thinks of European elite, I don’t think anyone outside Manchester places City there. We have to face that fact and change it. That takes being in the last 8, the last 4, the last 2, and eventually the winners of the Champions League. Until then, we will remain “almosts” or “could bes,”even if we are regularly touted as supposed favorites!

Next season, I think we go all out for the PL and CL, placing the Cup competitions in their rightful context...troubling additions to an already overstuffed season culminating in a European Championship.

The squad is going to be vitally important and the ability to rest/rotate players and keep the players (especially the key players) fit and healthy may determine our fate.

If we can be more clinical in front of the opposition goal and tighter in front of our own goal, then any team in Europe will find it hard to go toe to toe with us.

My main fear is that football has completely embraced Pep’s philosophy, but some teams have turned it up to 11 in the areas of speed, strength, stature...and we are not that squad today.

City are there or thereabouts. For Mansour and Khaldoon, and Pep’s reputation, thereabouts isn’t good enough for City in 2020,

This is a great summary.

It still feels like we are constantly striving to prove ourselves and be considered "good enough" by everyone outside the club ... which is odd when we've now done a Quadruple, reached 100 points, and scored the most goals ever in an English season.

You feel that the next 2 or 3 seasons may be crucial to where we eventually "settle" in the football hierarchy ?

 

[ChicagoBlue]

This is a great summary.

It still feels like we are constantly striving to prove ourselves and be considered "good enough" by everyone outside the club ... which is odd when we've now done a Quadruple, reached 100 points, and scored the most goals ever in an English season.

You feel that the next 2 or 3 seasons may be crucial to where we eventually "settle" in the football hierarchy ?

I feel like the expectations increased exponentially when they not only brought in Pep, but gave him £100Ms to buy the defensive wing backs, LCB, RW, and DM he wanted.

It is sometimes forgotten that Rodri and Mahrez are our two most expensive players, yet always struggle to shine in the eyes of many fans. Meanwhile, the whole world knows our starting price for a top defender is now £50M. Hell, we just paid £40M for a lad who finished the season injured and got relegated!

Accordingly, no matter what we do, especially under Pep, anything less than the CL will be seen as a failure and that City couldn’t even buy the title of Champions of Europe. The lazy script has already been written, and is just trotted out every year!

What the myopic miss is that in England, in any given season, one of 4 or perhaps as many as 6, clubs can win the PL, and this not only makes it the longest and hardest league in the world to play and win, but on any given day, the bottom team can beat the top team!

100 point season and yet our winning streak stopped by industrial tackling of the lowest order, yet we needed a penalty save to salvage a point...at Palace!

Last season, Norwich come up, 3 shots, 3 goals later, their biggest victory in living memory!

The PL is the pinnacle of domestic club football, in the world.

From there, we usually get an horrendous fixture list around big European nights! People then talk about “the squad,” yet all teams have the same squad size! In some countries, they help they CL standard bearers by rearranging games to Fri night before a big Euro midweek, giving the team at least 1 extra day of rest to represent the country. Look at the CL Final this year...yes, PSG vs BM, but France against Germany!

Lastly, there are only so many trophies to go around. There are 3+1 in England and 2 in Europe, of which you can only win 1.

That’s basically 4 trophies...and every PL team wants to win 1, a handful are expected to win 1, and 4 teams are expected to compete for all 4 every year!

I’d say, based on the odds of winning anything, we have done spectacularly well winning almost everything domestically multiple times in the past 3 years, but the best team’s in the world are measured against each other on the night. Therein lies a mentality.

I think we didn’t have the mentality to beat Lyon. I think that started with Pep and went from there, as multiple players were asked to change their game on the highest stage in the world. That’s not the time for 60 minute experiments that have been shown to be failing after 15 minutes.

Playing on that top stage is what Pep was brought here for, and is paid more than any of the players to do. Until he succeeds on that stage WITHOUT Messi and the Barca team than ran the table back in the day, he will not be considered to have been nearly as successful as his domestic trophy haul would suggest.

To my mind, the domestic cups are to give the fans bragging rights and Pep likes the players to win “titles.” For the club, it is ALL about the PL and then the CL. And, truth be told, I think Mansour (and Pep!) would trade all the PL trophies for one CL trophy, no matter what he says.

I don’t personally grade our season on the CL, because all 50+ of my seasons would have been a disappointment. Alas, if City want to be considered with Liverpool and United, then they have to break into the Club of Champions League winners.

I thought we were going to do it last year, but VAR and a missed pen at their place combined to beat us, as VAR did the year before, but we have to overcome the obstacles and take it out of the hands of officials and happenstance...because then NO-ONE can ever say Pep wasn’t successful or that City are not part of the new European Elite.