It isn't the result, it's the manner as well...

[dancity19]

Not at all. When do we ever come back. I am not unbelievably blinkered. Think of the times the top teams come back to win games, compared with us. That was my point, on top of the fact we didn't shut birmingham out. Perhaps conceding late goals isn't that regular.

Newcastle home. Blackpool away

Well if you can't accept that it is hugely rare for us to do something akin to what united did against blackpool, or villa (at villa park) or what Arsenal did last night. Or chelsea last night, then I believe its you who is being blinkered. You are seriously looking through blue tinted specs.

 

[dancity19]

I can never imagine us doing what United did agianst Blackpool or what Arsenal did yesterday against Everton.

If we score 1st it's fine, but like against Everton, Aston Villa, Wolves we never come back from losing positions.

Exactly, I can't really believe Sabster is arguing this.

 

[Sabster]

Newcastle home. Blackpool away

Well if you can't accept that it is hugely rare for us to do something akin to what united did against blackpool, or villa (at villa park) or what Arsenal did last night. Or chelsea last night, then I believe its you who is being blinkered. You are seriously looking through blue tinted specs.

I agree we will never do that. But we would never play that bad in the 1st half. But you don't have to be comeback kings to win anything.

 

[Sabster]

I can never imagine us doing what United did agianst Blackpool or what Arsenal did yesterday against Everton.

If we score 1st it's fine, but like against Everton, Aston Villa, Wolves we never come back from losing positions.

Exactly, I can't really believe Sabster is arguing this.

I am not arguing that, I am arguing that we concede more late goals than anyone.

 

[Andouble]

I can never imagine us doing what United did agianst Blackpool or what Arsenal did yesterday against Everton.

If we score 1st it's fine, but like against Everton, Aston Villa, Wolves we never come back from losing positions.

few teams can. We're not as good as United or Arsenal, on paper ok maybe we can compete but titles aren't won in a notebook or on PlayStation. Those two & Chelsea have been good for ages and ages, they know how to win. We're learning. That's not what you want to hear since we spent so much money but that's the way it is.

 

[dancity19]

Exactly, I can't really believe Sabster is arguing this.

I am not arguing that, I am arguing that we concede more late goals than anyone.

I don't think I ever claimed we condede more goals than anyone. You have spun that completely. I just say there is a difference between what us and united/arsenal etc do. I compared the games of those 2 and arsenal last night to ours tonight. Chelsea were losing 2-1 at a place we lost, they won. We were losing to Everton, as arsenal were, we lost, they won. I never claimed we condeded more late goals than anyone.

 

[GaudBlessYa]

Dancity - I think you make some good and relevant points. 2-2 at Birmingham isn't a bad result but when you are 2-1 up at half time against an inferior team we need to be playing with more conviction, not inviting the opposition onto us all the time. This would be acceptable as a one off but we do it far too often and always have tended to under Mancini - Notts County and Leicester have proved recently that you don't have to be top class to cause us problems because we invite teams onto us with our laid back approach and lack of pace throughout the team.

The added frustration tonight is that two weeks ago things were looking rosy in the league and now all of a sudden we seem up against it - I like Mancini but I think we are all kidding ourselves if we think we have been convincing certainly of late.

 

[dancity19]

Dancity - I think you make some good and relevant points. 2-2 at Birmingham isn't a bad result but when you are 2-1 up at half time against an inferior team we need to be playing with more conviction, not inviting the opposition onto us all the time. This would be acceptable as a one off but we do it far too often and always have tended to under Mancini - Notts County and Leicester have proved recently that you don't have to be top class to cause us problems because we invite teams onto us with our laid back approach and lack of pace throughout the team.

The added frustration tonight is that two weeks ago things were looking rosy in the league and now all of a sudden we seem up against it - I like Mancini but I think we are all kidding ourselves if we think we have been convincing certainly of late.

Ye, exactly. Looking at their results against the 'bigger' teams, a draw wouldn't have been the end of the world, but its the fact that they are notorious for being defensive, and are statistically the worse attack in the league, that makes it so hard to swallow, as we were leading. Add this to Sunderland, the FA cup games, Villa, Blackburn, Birmingham at home, Wolves away and Wolves at home was hardly convincing. We have had a poor January really.

 

[DSonBlue]

few teams can. We're not as good as United or Arsenal, on paper ok maybe we can compete but titles aren't won in a notebook or on PlayStation. Those two & Chelsea have been good for ages and ages, they know how to win. We're learning. That's not what you want to hear since we spent so much money but that's the way it is.

Agreed.

Fair enough: the squad are talented as individuals (for the most part).

But - as mentioned above - the reality of building a team that can cope with any situation and still win (including a very kind ref) takes time together.

..these tough "experiences" are what enable the team to improve.

And lets face it, Arsenal and Man U have both had some very kind refereeing decisions go their way this season as well. It all reflects in the points tally.

As for what happens between now and (for example) the beginning of March, if you look at the key games to be played - focusing on the top five - depending of course on how City do against them (and the other, potentially easier games at home), the standings could get a whole lot closer (from 1st-4th). And after March... who knows eh? Time will hopefully make the team more consistent and help forge a winning mentality?

The BBC Premier League Table Predictor - bringing hope when it's needed most!

 

[Danielmanc]

Dancity - I think you make some good and relevant points. 2-2 at Birmingham isn't a bad result but when you are 2-1 up at half time against an inferior team we need to be playing with more conviction, not inviting the opposition onto us all the time. This would be acceptable as a one off but we do it far too often and always have tended to under Mancini - Notts County and Leicester have proved recently that you don't have to be top class to cause us problems because we invite teams onto us with our laid back approach and lack of pace throughout the team.

The added frustration tonight is that two weeks ago things were looking rosy in the league and now all of a sudden we seem up against it - I like Mancini but I think we are all kidding ourselves if we think we have been convincing certainly of late.

Ye, exactly. Looking at their results against the 'bigger' teams, a draw wouldn't have been the end of the world, but its the fact that they are notorious for being defensive, and are statistically the worse attack in the league, that makes it so hard to swallow, as we were leading. Add this to Sunderland, the FA cup games, Villa, Blackburn, Birmingham at home, Wolves away and Wolves at home was hardly convincing. We have had a poor January really.

We aren’t as good as we thought we were. Defense looks shaky and Joe begins to look poor at times. There is a lot of the season to go and I’ll always be behind the team but unless we start to turn things round we may find ourselves in a scrap with Liverpool for 5th rather than having to worry about a CL place. Chelsea are getting stronger and Spurs ground out a hard away win (something we can’t do at the moment) and our last 2 results give out 2 main rivals (Spurs and Chelsea) a real boost. Now we’re playing catch up with Chelsea (given their match in hand) rather than the other way round. In fact, our performance tonight gives all teams a boost – they’ll come at us and fancy getting something.

We were supposed to be ‘gelling’ and getting better as the season progressed – at the moment we are very clearly getting worse – I lost count of the number of misplaced passes. For anyone who says it’s a hard match and it doesn’t matter, Mancini disagrees, he wants to know why we “only played for 15 minutes”