I Know It’s Over

[Mon Autre]

You are correct. But you can see the signs are now clearly evident.
This is different than before. It has a watershed moment feeling to it, somehow.
Maybe Pep has told the squad he's going and theyve slacked off, which is worrying. If he's told them he's staying and this is the reaction, then that's even more worrying.

From what you've said. It sounds like they're just not playing v well regardless of what he's said. And that's actually just a normal thing that happens to teams sometimes.

 

[youngbob]

OK then
We're going to have to score around 90 goals to secure enough victories to win the league
Which of our players are you confident of scoring twenty + and which do you see reaching double figures?

Once again, we said exactly the same last season. Mahrez and Gundogan leaving apparently cost us 25-30 goals, Alvarez playing in midfield was costing us creativity and stopping him from scoring goals. I didn't notice those 30 goals missing when we lifted the title in May.

Look at this tweet from this exact day last season.

Haaland on 15 goals, Alvarez on 7, everyone else on 5 goals or fewer. 42 goals overall.



And here are our scorers this week.

Haaland on 15 again (after Brighton), everyone else on 3 goals or fewer. 35 goals overall.



It's easy to point at that second tweet and say Alvarez is obviously the missing piece, but bear in mind that Walker, Dias, Stones, Akanji, Bobb, Ake, Grealish, Doku, De Bruyne, and Rodri have all missed quite a few games already this season and would have made up the difference. The injuries have absolutely killed us in recent games.

Obviously there's nothing we can do about Rodri, but with De Bruyne, Doku, and eventually Bobb back in our attacking line-up (plus Echeverri) things will get better from January onwards. You imagine Savinho will pitch in more once he breaks his duck. And that's if we don't sign an attacker in January, which we might.

Not all is lost!

 

[burning blue soul]

We said exactly the same thing in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023. You can say "It's different this time!" until you're blue in the face, but you can find posts exactly like yours at this exact stage of every season for the last few years.

Again, let's see where we are in February and March before we start coming out with these grand hyperbolic statements that the Pep era is over, that the players have downed tools and given up.

We're normally up and down from September to November in every season. Throw in the fact that we're facing an unprecedented injury crisis and you can understand why we're not at our best levels.

If we've got everyone back fit in the new year and we're still struggling, we can start to talk about this era maybe coming to an end, but while 10/11 players remain injured I'm not listening to this kind of talk.

I'm no doom-monger, but I can tell the level of players we have now are not the type to sustain an unbeaten run.
You say "let's see" and of course we will.
But I know what I am watching, and it isn't anything to do with injuries. We don't have individual brilliance at the moment, from any player.
Individual brilliance puts fear into the opposition. It has them doubting their own strategies. A goal from nowhere is a powerful tool to wield. Just think of Phil or bernie last year curling them in from all angles. Big Earl is missing more chances. Our ruthless side is jaded.
Our mojo is gone right now. Gonna be a struggle to get it back.

 

[youngbob]

You say "let's see" and of course we will.

Nothing else needs to be said.

 

[burning blue soul]

Nothing else needs to be said.

A lot needs to be said.

 

[EL APACHE TEVEZ]

We’re doomed all doomed

 

[TinFoilHat]

It’s so easy to laugh, it’s so easy to hate…


Time to focus on the chumps league?

 

[Mon Autre]

I'm no doom-monger, but I can tell the level of players we have now are not the type to sustain an unbeaten run.
You say "let's see" and of course we will.
But I know what I am watching, and it isn't anything to do with injuries. We don't have individual brilliance at the moment, from any player.
Individual brilliance puts fear into the opposition. It has them doubting their own strategies. A goal from nowhere is a powerful tool to wield. Just think of Phil or bernie last year curling them in from all angles. Big Earl is missing more chances. Our ruthless side is jaded.
Our mojo is gone right now. Gonna be a struggle to get it back.

The long and short of it is, not many of these players would get into the Kompany, Toure, Silva, Aguero side. There was a time where we were recruiting players as good as Dzeko and Sane and they were still ending up on the bench. We were really savvy with our signings but also lucky at how good they all turned out. This is a dip and it was inevitable really.

 

[Invisible Man's Bandage]

A lot of things need to go in our favour for us to get back on track this season. Lots of players seem unable to be fit and available on a regular basis and we have several senior players who seem to be near the bottom of the hill rather than just over it.

We could go on an immense unbeaten run in the New Year and break the opposition but if I was a betting man (I'm not) I'd be looking for generous odds.

Eez football as Bobby Manc would say.

 

[youngbob]

A lot needs to be said.

Nothing needs to be said by any of us. The forum could shut down and it wouldn't make a difference to City's performances on the pitch. The team's just in a bad moment but will come out of it, like always.

For what it's worth, I think this will be the year we don't quite get enough together to win the league, but does that mean the Pep era is over? Was it all over, forever when we finished a mile behind Liverpool in 2020? Of course it wasn't. We just dusted ourselves off, bought Ruben Dias, and walked the league again.

No team in English football history had ever won four league titles in a row before we did. By extension, no team in English football history has ever won five league titles in a row, so City not winning the league this year will be consistent with the 150 years of football that has been played in this country.

At worst, we'll finish in the top four and have a good go at the FA Cup and Champions League. Then we'll regroup in the summer, sign a few players, and go again. We might be "going again" with a new manager, or even in League Two depending on the 115 court case, but as a club we will regroup in whatever situation we're faced with and go again.