Negative players or negative tactics...

[Didsbury Dave]

You're all over the place mate.

-- Mon Mar 15, 2010 2:44 pm --



A squad is a collection of players.

I can't believe I'm even having to argue this point.

I think if you sat down 100 people who were either knowledgeable fans of those three clubs or professional pundits, and asked them who had the strongest squad,I reckon you'd get 90% plus who would say us.

Yet some of our own fans don't rate players like Barry, Ireland and Lescott and claim they wouldn't get into those teams.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised....

By squad I am referring to a cohesive and balanced unit that compliments the way the team is structured to play. Villa are a good example of this and so are Chelsea. Chelsea tried to play a more expressive game under Scolari and the wheels came off so they reverted back to type.

I do not think Hughes bought players with a specific gameplan in mind. I am not even sure he had a gameplan so yes it is unbalanced or if you like a collection of players. Real Madrid is also a collection of players rather than a squad so you know exactly what I mean.

I also said that despite the lack of strategy in terms of buying players we have a very good squad and is comparable to any other PL team so I have no idea why you are getting so stressed. Pointing out some shortcomings in the makeup of the squad is not grounds for getting your panties in a bunch.

I'm not stressed, I enjoy reasoned debate.

And my contribution to the debate is that we have a strong squad who are good enough for the top 4.

The point of this thread, which we got waylaid from, was to discuss whether we are going into games too negatively.

I believe we are. I think we're better than our recent results and I think we should be outperforming our rivals for 4th spot.

 

[moomba]

I think we should be outperforming our rivals for 4th spot.

We are

 

[Didsbury Dave]

I think we should be outperforming our rivals for 4th spot.

We are

Well we're not because we're not in the top 4.

But we're doing OK. No worse, no better.

 

[2sheikhs]

It allways pisses me off when a team(not just City)are player for player miles better than the opposition,but still don't win.If the rags played Barcelona tommorow,they'd probably beat them even though their team is littered with average players.It might be time to bite the bullet with some of our squad and just accept that they are surplus,i.e,too many players who do the same thing.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

It allways pisses me off when a team(not just City)are player for player miles better than the opposition,but still don't win.If the rags played Barcelona tommorow,they'd probably beat them even though their team is littered with average players.It might be time to bite the bullet with some of our squad and just accept that they are surplus,i.e,too many players who do the same thing.

The time for that is summer mate.

I'm sure it will happen. Plenty of Ins and Outs.

Let's hope the person/people making the decisions make the right ones.

 

[Anonymous]

I think a lot of parallels can be drawn between the way we play under Mancini and the way Liverpool play under Benitez.

I'm going to out on a limb here and say about Mancini what I said about Benitez two or three years ago....he'll never win the Premiership playing football like that. Not whilst Wenger and Fergie are still in their respective jobs...

 

[buzzer1]

It allways pisses me off when a team(not just City)are player for player miles better than the opposition,but still don't win.If the rags played Barcelona tommorow,they'd probably beat them even though their team is littered with average players.It might be time to bite the bullet with some of our squad and just accept that they are surplus,i.e,too many players who do the same thing.

The time for that is summer mate.

I'm sure it will happen. Plenty of Ins and Outs.

Let's hope the person/people making the decisions make the right ones.

Especially where the manager is concerned, ie not sacking him.

 

[poyntonblue]

.

We're short on a box to box midfield player, and a solid right and left back. But we still have two very very good if not top class players for each position.

The "balanced and cohesive unit" which you talk about will not come from adding or subtracting more players, it will come from the manager knowing his best XI, and using them to the best of their capabilities, on a consistent basis...

For what my opinions worth I have to agree with this. The rags (it pains me to say) have Fletcher, who I believe is an above average player, yet does so much running 'box to box'. We don't have one at the moment. Again for what its worth

 

[The Fat el Hombre]

LOL @ writing the manager off and his style of football. He's been here, what, less than 3 months?

We've got a new manager who's in a new league with a new squad, so to think that what we've got now is gonna be as good as it gets after such a short space of time is fucking idiotic. It's gonna take time to get things right, but it's already plain to see we're a much more organised outfit. Under Mancini I feel that it's only a matter of time before we really get things right, whereas which is in stark contrast to Hughes' tenure when evry game I felt as though it was gonna fall apart (at spurs it finally did).

Yes, yesterday Mancini got the balance wrong and we didn't set up correctly from the start, but I think it was just a case of mis-judgement as opposed to purposely setting up negatively. At least he changed it and put RSC on although I s'pose that was the least he could do

To me yesterday showed how desperately we need a centre midfielder who can really impose himself on the game. Zabaleta is a flimsy midfielder and de Jong just doesn't impose himself enough. As a pair they seem to do a lot of running around and chasing the ball but don't ever really come up with anything that might trouble the opposition. I think Barry is capable of this, in fact I know he is but we need a good solid partner to help him out, cos de Jong ahsn't done so for a long time.

I also thought we were piss poor down the right. I gave SWP, Micah and Bridge the benefit of the doubt by syaing that their Miami trip might do them good but they let us down yesterday, particularly Micah and SWP (assuming Bridge's injury was legit. Micah seemed to be doing ok again but was poor against Chelsea and really poor yesterday, for me he's got til the end of the year to really prove that he's up to the job otherwise I'd bring a proper right back in and relegate him to a squad palyer for now.

 

[2sheikhs]

The time for that is summer mate.

I'm sure it will happen. Plenty of Ins and Outs.

Let's hope the person/people making the decisions make the right ones.

Especially where the manager is concerned, ie not sacking him.

I promise you,I in no way I want Bob sacked.I just feel his hands are tied by the fact that some members of the squad expect to be in the first 11,and they might start making noises or cause disruption if they weren't.When only 3 out of 11 are offensive minded,it sends out the wrong signals.