I can hold my hands up

[urban genie]

We are now in the giddy as fuck stage(see top 6 predictions) due to a very good run, candlepool having a dodgy period and the surprising scum result. Let’s hope we can create a gap while the wind is in our sails.

This run has put us in contention if we can keep it going through February it could be decisive.

Draws is what fucks up any team, early on we were missing chances and drawing, same has happened to the scousers, there is at least 6 points dropped for lack of putting it away pre christmas.

 

[Horlocksleftpeg]

A 15 point swing on the scousers in just a month of football. Lovely stuff.

 

[Blue Maverick]

February is the telling point if we can get through that unbeaten I think others will drop away, I’m not saying we will win every game and I still think Covid is going to play a huge part in this season, with more teams going down and fixture congestion, but the biggest thing for me is our defence. Yes we are playing great football but we look solid at the back, which bodes well for a Europe as well, it would be typical City to win a quadruple when no one is there!

 

[urban genie]

I still think it will be very close between us and Liverpool, they themselves will go on a similar run to the one we are on once they get a few players back imo. We have had a very nice run of fixtures and we have been excellent. Looking ahead to February and start of March we play Liverpool, spurs, West Ham, arsenal and united as well the champs league games etc. If we are still top by middle of match I will be getting very giddy indeed.

I am not so sure, liverpool are based on high energy and built up this momentum in 2018/19 season and carried it through last year like a stream train, a break in that momentum may see them take time to to get it back on track.

They will be in there and push us, but I would say we need to worry qboutpurselves fuckimg about rather than liverpool , if we keep this consistency won't matter what them or others do.

 

[jay_mcfc]

Never had any doubt that we'd win the league. I thought we'd win it before the season, during our dullest patch and now. It was obvious to me Liverpool would have a massive drop off, it was all about us finding our groove. Although I thought it would be down to a Laoporte Dias partnership that won it for us, wasn't expecting this Sir John of Stones resurgence. The WBA home game was depressing though, that seemed like a real low point of the Guardiola era. Not so much the result but the lacklustre way we played that had been building to that point. Seems a line had been drawn in the sand after that game and we started to get back to our old attacking ways with fluidity, intensity and pressing. Quite ironic that WBA away the other night was the pinnacle of this run, 11 games and 11 wins after that home game.

Now we just need to stick at it and keep an eye on Leicester, the sneeky cunts.

 

[balotellishaircut]

Hopefully spuds v dippers is a boring draw, with one or maybe two red cards, and a couple of hamstring injuries.

 

[Tricky_Trev]

Don't disagree with any of that Dave, the biggest change for me though is getting rid of the inverted winger's, everything was narrow and congested into small spaces early season, everything had to be eye of the needle stuff, now we have some width again it creates a lot more space centrally and allows players like Gundogan and the others room to work in, Cancelo has also been a revelation playing this inverted full back role.

I don’t think inverted wingers will have completely gone to be honest. We don’t have enough options to keep going without inverted wingers. Foden can’t play every single game. He is the only natural width on the left we have. Other options are inverted (Sterling, Ferran, Jesus). With the run we have coming up, we are going to be playing inverted wingers quite often. As a compromise, we can try to always have at least one side with natural width, but there’s no chance we can keep it as both sides. We have more natural options for the right (Sterling, Ferran, Cancelo) than the left.

 

[KS55]

It would be facinating to analyse how this transformation came about. Some of it was force of circumstances, some of it the genius of Pep.
So, our preferred CB partnership was probably Eric plus Ruben. Stones on his way?
Eric gets injured and Garcia also. Step up Stones. Blimey, we suddenly have a magic CB partnership. Hmmm, thinks Pep, with that in place we can go back to inverted FBs. If we do that, wide players must stay wide, so I'll move Raz to the right and try Foden left as Ferran is injured.
Oops, Sergio not coming back any time soon. What to do? Youngsters not ready, Jesus poor goal scoring record.
How about false 9? Done it before. Yup try that.
So, with inverted FBs and the back door firmly locked, move Gundog up the field and let Rodri play as sole DM.
Suddenly, we are playing 2-8-0.
Genius , Pep.

 

[willipp]

Its a weird game at times isn't it. In mid december i was genuinely fed up with footy, watching City painfully grind out any kind of performance was no fun at all and i genuinely started to worry we'd ever make top 4. I was critical of pep and any of the players and just couldn't see how it was going to change. The guy is a genius he really is. He's stuck to his guns and certain players are repaying that with incredible football.

Gundo, Cancelo, Stones are three who could easily of gone and i wouldn't of given it two thoughts (though i have always voiced i thought there was a great player in there in stones), but have played for me without doubt their best football since they've been at the club. To do all this without a striker is remarkable and i honestly cant wait to see us play again. Im not gonna get overly carried away just yet as Feb is a very tough month, but if we come out of that in a similar position to now or better then there is no stopping us.

As we all know, the media will disregard any acheivements we have domestically and put all their chips on us failing in the CL. BMG will be a tough game, but if we keep this form up then there is only really Bayern i fear in Europe.

What it just re-empahasises to me is that i know fuck all about football and Pep is a true genius.

 

[City Raider]

Still can’t believe the amount of people that bailed on Pep after first bad run of games after shed load of trophies.