If the rot continues what happens ?

I would quite happily be the first team to work through a massive drop in form and stick together. Something few if any other teams have done before. Just another record to add, not doing anything drastic when an inevitable drop-off happens.
 
robbieh said:
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.
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pretty sure Rodri was missing as well
 
Spurs (A) - Carabao Cup with kids. Very tough game.
Bournemouth (A) - toughish game but should win if we want to win the league
Brighton (A) - very tough game.
Sporting (A) - toughish game but should win if we want to win the CL.
Spurs (H) - bogey fixture.
Liverpool (A) - our hardest game every season
Juventus (A) - very tough game.
Forest (H) - lots of players back. Good win.
Feyenoord (H) - stinking result. Worst of the lot.
Palace (A) - toughish game.

Consider how many difficult games we've played, the fact that 7 of them were away, all the injuries and the relentlessness of our schedule before making any rash judgements.
 
Bluewonder said:
Spurs (A) - Carabao Cup with kids. Very tough game.
Bournemouth (A) - toughish game but should win if we want to win the league
Brighton (A) - very tough game.
Sporting (A) - toughish game but should win if we want to win the CL.
Spurs (H) - bogey fixture.
Liverpool (A) - our hardest game every season
Juventus (A) - very tough game.
Forest (H) - lots of players back. Good win.
Feyenoord (H) - stinking result. Worst of the lot.
Palace (A) - toughish game.

Consider how many difficult games we've played, the fact that 7 of them were away, all the injuries and the relentlessness of our schedule before making any rash judgements.
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People forget this. That's a fucking tough run of games when we were fucking brilliant. We have enough games left against shite to scrape 40 points.

This fucking forum
 
The Christmas schedule is going to be a laugh. If it carries on I can see the "Pep Out" stuff starting, which I think would be a mistake
 
I was just looking back to Pep's first season and we have on paper a very good first 11: Bravo, Zab, Kompany, Stones, Kolarov, Ferdandinho, Silva, KDB, Sane, Sterling and Aguero. We can think back to how bad we were in that season at times despite some very good players in that 11. It stems from the full backs being a long way off what Pep needed and we are seeing exactly the same now. We also had problems with GK and to a lesser extent we are seeing that now with Ederson. For the start of the following season we had 3 new full backs, a new GK and Bernardo with LaPorte joining in Jan and we were transformed. Pep's football doesn't work if the full backs are weak
 
The form will get better probably we will drop a bit away from the top 4 in the next 3-4 weeks, but some players back and a couple of new bodies in and fully expect we will have enough to get back to 4th by May.

For me the top 3 are out of reach now with how I expect things to go from now to January. It’s a battle with Villa/Brighton/Forest etc for 4th. Looking at it objectively our best 11 plus a couple of decent additions should be able to outperform those sides in the second half of the season.
 
They do say the best way to get through a perfect storm, is to sit out and wait for it to pass.
 
alexmcity said:
Players will come back, we will start winning.

The club won't fire Pep, if that's what you are asking here.
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Absolutely this.

At one point in this run we had something ridiculous like 13 players doubtful for a match.

Having Ake, Akanji and Stones out at the same time as Rodri, and Kovacic is always going to leave us struggling. Walker may be losing pace, but he's also been struggling for fitness since the Summer, and hardly training. He's out on the pitch because there is no choice. Similar with Ake, Akanji and Stones - they were already struggling with injuries when they were playing, but were used when there was little choice. Dias has been injured and is only just back. Rico in the middle, can never cover left back properly when there isn't a proper DM, or a fit, fast defence behind him.

Gundo was brought in to play occasional attacking midfield, and is instead playing twice a week as defensive midfield - Remember that one of the reasons he left was that he was finding the PL pace tough. One of City's strengths, is that they mentally wear teams out in games and then can control the final thirty minutes. You can't do that if the players aren't getting any rest between games.

We've also just had a run of 7 away games in 10, with the away games almost all against teams who don't often lose at home.

There's very little Pep, or any of the players can do, because we haven't had a fit back 4/5 at any time in this run, some of the players filling in are clearly exhausted, and the teams we've been playing have been good enough to take advantage.

The reports coming from the club are that they realise they should have refreshed this Summer, but it's taken by far the worst run of injuries we've had for years for it to really show up. Not a lot to do, except keep going, till either players get fit, or we can look at bringing in someone in January.
 
decmancity said:
He's doing a good job tarnishing his own legacy. Shit performance after shit performance. Extreme stubbornness and refusal to change.
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Would you like to see him get sacked?

Honest question, fully accept any answer.
 
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