Mentality

[hutton who blue]

It's the only thing that's got me through the last few months to be honest, when it comes to City anyway. After the Rags game, I actually said I wouldn't watch another City Prem game until next season, but alas the sucked me back in and then punched me in the dick with that Southampton performance. I have faith in Pep though, it can't get any worse, right? ;)

Future's bright. We have Pep in charge. Watch us go. I can hardly wait.

 

[Steve68]

So where does everyone stand on this? I had an argument at work (quite heated as I was still pissed off from last night) with a fellow blue who thought we did OK because we only lost 1-0 over two legs against Real, who supposedly have a good goal-to-game ratio. He mentioned how I should stop for a second and think how lucky we are to get to watch City in the Champions League semi final, when in our lifetime we have also had to watch us in Division 2.

'The only reason I felt 'lucky' on Wednesday was because we only lost by one goal. We were a big club back in the seventies and are a big club again now. We are expected to go toe to toe with any club in the world. That's not entitlement or whatever, it's both ambition and a reflection of how big we now are.

There's no other way to paint things recently other than the players and manager together have let us, themselves and the owners down big time.

 

[East Level 2]

If you win the lottery and buy a Rolls Royce you don't accept it breaking down every couple of months just because your old Fiat used to break down every couple of days.
I'm sure Forest fans miss the glory days of twice winning the European Cup but accept they aren't going to be repeating the feat any time soon as they don't have the players or manager. We should be basing our expectations on our current squad and circumstances not the shite we endured through three decades of crap managers, players and chairmen.
We've spent over 80% of our history in the top division and only one season at the third level. Only 7 English teams have won more trophies than we have. We are not Accrington bloody Stanley.

 

[Mikejl]

Some good psychology in here (I'll try and leave out the pretentious terminology) as fans and as a club we have been going through a fast paced period of transition, from perennial no hopers/comedy club to challengers and expectations of being as dominant as the Dippers in the 70s 80s & Rags post 1992. So we have players who are also at those stages, maybe we have a squad that is mostly still in the challengers mindset, quite a lot of the spine of this team were bought over 4 years ago.

In a similar vein when we tumbled out of the top division in the early 80s we were a seriously big fish and it took a few years to adapt to watching the shite being served up throughout most of the 80s a feeling the rags are probably going through now.

the whole club needs a boost of something and hopefully Pep is it, MP (dead man walking since Feb last year IMO should have been fired off at Christmas and Benitez should have put in on a fixed short term deal, I'm certain had that of happened we'd have put up a stronger challenge to Leicester (FFS) - CL performances we can say we've improved which statistically we have, but apart from Sevilla away did we really experience any real sense of optimism until we met PSG, and in hindsight we got an okay passage through to the semis.

Sorry, thought dump over, roll on next season sick to the back teeth of this season, this manager and most of this squad

 

[Keeper!]

Anyone who found loosing to Madrid 1-0 on Wednesday acceptable should go and support another club.

As a club we were weak and pathetic, I though we were an embarrassment to our owner.
I would rather in the 2nd half have gone after Madrid and lost 4-0, rather than loose like pussys 1-0.
As a club we are far too nice, we have become a happy clappers club, not a club for winners.

When Vasquez smashed into Sterlings ankle at the end of the game , I did not see one of his teammates react, I would love to see Fernando, Otamendi etc go up to Vasquez and react...show passion, show you care!

 

[franksinatra]

Fans react to what they see on the field. I have seen lots of big european matches and a performance with intensity and passion generally provokes the same reaction from the fans. The Villareal coach highlighted how difficult it was facing a side playing with such intensity last night, a charge I have never heard labelled about City.

The fact that this team turned a showpiece occasion such as a Champs Lge semi-final into a game with as much passion as a friendly speaks volumes.

There is an apathy about the club at the minute. Managers and players are both seeing there time out. It has transmitted to the fans who, if like me, are bored to tears of this slow, methodical build up.

 

[Walking on the blue moon]

Some good psychology in here (I'll try and leave out the pretentious terminology) as fans and as a club we have been going through a fast paced period of transition, from perennial no hopers/comedy club to challengers and expectations of being as dominant as the Dippers in the 70s 80s & Rags post 1992. So we have players who are also at those stages, maybe we have a squad that is mostly still in the challengers mindset, quite a lot of the spine of this team were bought over 4 years ago.

In a similar vein when we tumbled out of the top division in the early 80s we were a seriously big fish and it took a few years to adapt to watching the shite being served up throughout most of the 80s a feeling the rags are probably going through now.

the whole club needs a boost of something and hopefully Pep is it, MP (dead man walking since Feb last year IMO should have been fired off at Christmas and Benitez should have put in on a fixed short term deal, I'm certain had that of happened we'd have put up a stronger challenge to Leicester (FFS) - CL performances we can say we've improved which statistically we have, but apart from Sevilla away did we really experience any real sense of optimism until we met PSG, and in hindsight we got an okay passage through to the semis.

Sorry, thought dump over, roll on next season sick to the back teeth of this season, this manager and most of this squad

Interesting theories! In retrospect it does seem we need some time to adjust the mindset. A few years ago in Champions League we seemed rather nervous when facing Napoli, not to mention the biggest teams. And then it's been two years group stage and two years round-of-16. This year is quite a huge jump to the semi-finals, and playing in Santiago Bernabeu might be quite a pressure for some of our players, especially those who haven't played there yet. Coupled with some gap of quality we have in the team against Real, I'm not that aghast about the performance. Next year should be better because we've already got experience as a semi-finalist.

 

[GaudinoMotors]

Think we're all confused how we're supposed to think.
One minute we're being told to ditch the "lickle City" mentality then we're being told we're "spoiled brats" and "raggish".
East Level 2 sums it up for me.

 

[BrianW]

I seem to recall that when I studied management many moons ago, there was a style of management called 'country club' where the employees enjoyed themselves, but very little was achieved. I can't help but think City have gone 'country club'.

I suspect Pep's arrival will come as an uncomfortable shock to some people at the club, and there will be tears before bedtime. I expect radical change, and some players (not necessarily ones that get slagged off on here every week) wanting to leave.

But ultimately, it will be for the best.

 

[sir baconface]

Amid the gloom, I can find one thing encouraging about Wednesday. That is, we have finally broken the hoodoo about advancing in this competition. We could even have made it to the final if we'd shown more balls.

This might change our mentality in Europe where we've seen ourselves as underdogs and pretended we're not interested.