If the rot continues what happens ?

[manimanc]

And we will get a really mint Kappa kit and sign old fogies on free transfers. It’s gonna be mega.

I've still got my yellow kappa kit from 98/99.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

And Bobb. And Rodri. So that's 7 out of 19 who are just out entirely. Then you've got players who are unfit but still on the pitch like Walker and Lewis.

You're so close to getting it

Yeah, I wonder what would be made of the Dippers, The Arse 'n The Rags were their seven top line first choice were unavailable. I suspect the RDAHMEEDYA would be asking Parliament to postpone the fixtures until they were all back!

 

[robbieh]

Posted in the Pep thread, but seems apropos for here.

Lest anyone forget, while I live in Chicago now, I grew up watching City in the 60s and spent my summers in Rusholme, two streets from the ground, watching the lads train. I turn 61 this weekend and thus have lived through both the 44 years and the subsequent glory years we’ve been enjoying.

This is, therefore, not a knee jerk reaction, but something I have touched on repeatedly over the last two seasons, as I’ve felt we have been spackling over the cracks by scraping wins.

No more, it appears, and those cracks are starting to look and feel like fissures.

To wit….



I think most people thought Rodri being out for the year was going to make this season a bridge too far, but NO-ONE could foresee that City would be breaking NEGATIVE stats this season instead of positive ones.

Yes, we have a very large group of injuries, and a team with some walking wounded being forced to play, but some of that HAS TO be laid at Pep’s feet.

Every week, we see teams blooding youngsters and players making debuts. Sadly, Pep trusts his old, slow and walking wounded over the young players who have been training with the squad all season. If not now, when?

And, maybe it sounds stupid, but when you desperately need to keep a clean sheet, away, in the Champions League, why is it the HOME team can play a back 4/5, but we persist with a back 3 that leaks like a sieve and is susceptible to both the fast counter and a cross into the box?

One clear reason: NO-ONE we play in midfield has the ability to play as a box to box midfielder for 90 minutes. No-one. Not a single player on the field. So, we have to try to play the “overload game,” where we keep and move the ball SLOWLY into the opposition half, pin them back, and then allow us to try to CREATE an overload by shifting the ball around to the open man. Sadly, even the bottom third of the teams in the Premier League, let alone the best managers in the world of European football, have learned OVER THE LAST 5 YEARS how to blunt this approach, then spring into attack and stuff us with the same old “one shot, one goal” that is as common today as LEE ONE PEN was in the 70s!!!

Pep is a football genius.

Or, maybe Pep WAS a football genius and it has taken the coaching disciples a decade to learn his methods, mark out their training grounds with his rectangles, and learn his systems…all while developing their own bigger, stronger, faster players to both blunt his plans and exploit his way of playing?

I have said for a few seasons now that football was leaving this slow, aging squad behind and that the “Three S’s” were the future of football…Size, Speed and Strength!

Yes, of course, technical ability is a requirement, but at the apex of the game, this is a given. However, as age takes over, the speed of the game robs you of your technique, because you simply cannot play that fast, don’t have the strength to hold off younger, stronger players, and then lack the size, speed or strength to retrieve the ball.

I think, in Nunes, Txiki saw the Three S’s and believed he could be a good addition to the midfield, but Pep doesn’t trust him to hold onto the ball, won’t take the leash off him to run at teams, and thus has blunted the advantages he MIGHT be able to bring to the team…just like Jack, Phil, Savinho and Doku on the wings!

We love to have wingers who hug the touchline, but we don’t have the speed in getting forward to help them be one on one or be able to play the ball inside the full back and set them away!

Son at Spurs has made a career out of setting up wide and being played in, but he would be another Jack Grealish in this team set up…just like Cole Palmer would be driving sideways, not forward into the box if he were still here.

My fear is that Pep honestly believes it is a simple matter of getting his injured players back, his half-fit players fit, and getting back to where we were at the start of the season after Christmas. If so, he is deluded.

Sadly, I don’t believe it is just age, pace, size and nagging injuries that have doomed this season, I believe it is THE LACK OF ANY TACTICAL PROGRESS AND THE REPETITION OF ONCE REVOLUTIONARY, BUT NOW MERELY STALE, IDEAS coming from the coaching staff.

We lack dynamism.
We lack speed.
We lack strength.
We lack size in the middle of the park.
We lack a second goal scorer.
We lack a safe pair of hands.
We lack an on field leader.
We lack any Plan B when Plan A hadn’t worked for 75 minutes…although I actually think Pep thinks a few subs and shuffling half the team into a different position IS a Plan B!

This season, 2024/25, is a season too far for this team. I don’t know if 115 concerns has stopped us doing the business that has been needed. Maybe the club has been amassing FFP funds for the rebuild they THOUGHT could wait until 2025 IF/AFTER Pep signed a new deal? Or, maybe there is some other, unknown, internal, executive reason why we have been hoarding FFP monies, such as wanting the wage bill clipped when older stars on millions per month move on?

Whatever the reason City have not consistently and systematically introduced players who are ready-made replacements and younger, high quality potential improvements, has been the ONLY MAJOR MISTAKE OF THIS EXECUTIVE TEAM SINCE THEY ARRIVED…unless they have actually been flying too close to the sun and they know (even though they refuse to admit it) that we are about to be schwacked and will need every penny and more to build their way back out of the mess they have created?

Whatever the reason we find ourselves here, THEY are the only ones that can fix it, be it by coaching, a coaching change or the injection of personnel that will turn the ship around.

The complete lack of midfield strengthening, while ignoring the blooding of internal, Academy talent, has IMHO been down to Pep’s stubbornness and nothing more.

Wright, O’Reilly, Simpson-Pusey (and THB before him), Bobb and McAtee have been given a little lip service and a seat on the bench for the season (which means they aren’t playing hardly any games anywhere for any team) and have thus gained almost ZERO FIRST TEAM EXPERIENCE. What’s the point? Where will our Conor Bradley come from?

This weekend’s derby looms very, very large indeed.

Amorim is the big new thing. His team is faster, stronger and hungrier than ours, even with its multiple flaws. And, their position in the table has probably only one direction to go, while we (with the exception of Forest) look to be in free fall now that the rest of the Top 6 have basically caught up and even overtaken us.

If we defend like we are, we are sunk.

If we lack the midfield bite needed for the second ball, we are sunk.

If we miss the opportunities we do create, we are sunk.

And, if, God forbid, we lose big, maybe Pep, too, will be sunk!

It’s all fine and dandy talking about 6 of 7 and more trophies under Prp than in our entire history before him, but time and tide wait for no man and football (and the business of football) is ALL about “What have you done for me lately?”

I’m not sure Pep and at least half of this team want to give an honest answer to that question.

That is a brilliant analysis.

 

[hogismuir]

Me too, and I mean that 100%.

I love the positivity! But in some ways this is the issue. It's as if City are only valid if we're winning the league. Personally I very much doubt we will. 5 in a row always sounds ludicrous anyway. It's not the SPL! I'm not sure I'd mind someone else winning if it wasn't likely it'd be that mob from Merseyside.

As others have said the last few years have been surreally brilliant so this equally bizarre slump seems a million times worse than it is. It's only really been a few weeks, but the amount of games successful teams play has amplified everything.

 

[Sir Joe Aguero]

Has pep lost at least some of the dressing room? Seems that way to me no longer are players running through brick walls for him. Could he walk?? I think he could.

I don’t think he has lost the dressing room, but if he has, I’d sooner get replace all 25 than Pep.

We’ve dropped the ball on recruitment for the past 3 years and Pep’s papered over those cracks. We’ve spend far too much on bang average PL players (Grealish, Nunes, Phillips etc) who may have looked alright in mid-table teams, but have never had to play in a team full of stars or 3 games every 7 days.

Take Palmer out of Chelsea and they don’t have a single world class player. Liverpool’s got Salah, Van Dijk, Allison and maybe Trent to replace over the coming years. United’s still laughably a mess. Arsenal’s still got the strongest squad but their mentality is poor.

If we’re ruthless with our recruitment, we should be right back at the top. In 1 season, Pep took us from barely getting top 4 to unprecedented success. Give him what he needs and we’ll flourish again.

 

[Blu3m00n91]

Sell the players, Keep Pep and go again.

 

[thismeansfour]

Anyone seen @kaz7 ?

Tough one with last night, we didn't actually play too badly overall but it highlighted our weaknesses greatly. How easy teams can sit back and sucker punch us is frightening. Ederson wouldn't be anywhere near my starting 11 moving forward. Even whilst winning we was dull to watch and was riding our luck. You would like some innovation from the best manager in the game. Can't be just for when the goings good.

My biggest fear is momentum and it works both ways. Leicester won a league on spirit and a winning momentum, I fear we may be spiraling he opposite way where we cannot get out of the not winning habits. Sunday is a worry, if United play their quick players then they will be able to get at us quite easily. Fingers crossed it can be a turning point for us though. Every man needs to stand up now.

 

[LangleyBlue1970]

I love the positivity! But in some ways this is the issue. It's as if City are only valid if we're winning the league. Personally I very much doubt we will. 5 in a row always sounds ludicrous anyway. It's not the SPL! I'm not sure I'd mind someone else winning if it wasn't likely it'd be that mob from Merseyside.

As others have said the last few years have been surreally brilliant so this equally bizarre slump seems a million times worse than it is. It's only really been a few weeks, but the amount of games successful teams play has amplified everything.

I just think it’s too early to start throwing in the towel. It’s certainly too early to start crying about.

Plenty of twists and turns. That one spark of form is needed and we’ll go on that run that has seen opposition wilt and buckle. Starting Sunday.

 

[The Norfolk Blue]

That is a brilliant analysis.

I agree, and hard to argue with tbh?

 

[CC1]

The only players missing yesterday were
Foden, Kovacic, Stones and Akanji and Ake.

Foden has been in as much a malaise as anyone. Kovacic is a miss I grant you. And Akanji is preferable to Walker and Lewis. Stones and Ake are so injury prone I wouldn't count on them playing enough to halt the slide we are on.
And yes Bobb should be available in the NY.

I admire your confidence. But for me this is a mental thing as much as physical. And not just the players. Other teams have copied and adapted the way we play and so far we are just rinsing and repeating a style that has served us well but is probably past its sell by date.
The purchases of Haaland, Doku, Savinho hinted that Pep and Txiki knew this.

ONLY????? Oh is that all? Also - what about Rodri & Bobb

As I’ve said in another post & I repeat on here to quieten down all the moaners who can’t get their head round the situation -


We’re having a bad spell - probably a genuine transition period (unlike some teams who are always in transition as an excuse for their poor management); we have lost the worlds best player for the season (after the transfer window closed); we have had 3 defenders out at the same time (Ake, Akanje & Stones) plus Dias was out for a while; we have had Foden & Kovacic out for weeks; & Doku KDB & Jack are clearly not fully fit but having to play.
NO TEAM IN EUROPE could cope without all these players - many of whom have been out at the same time.

Why are fans complaining about everything instead of understanding & supporting?

It’s shit but it’s fact. Things will get better; we’ll use the transfer window to help & players will come back, helping the “older” players to cope.