Our Old Friend Mr. Mentality

[BobKowalski]

I blame Vinny for this. His post match comments really bugged me. Yeah the ref was crap so what else is new. Yeah City fans were not allowed in but hey its not exactly done us the world of good when the fans did schlep up.

I also blame Tevez. Well not so much blame but I do recall his comments on the CL and the unbelievable pressure to do well. And that pressure is the issue. After 4 seasons, the seemingly uncomfortable truth is the players can't hack it when it comes to the CL. So ok playing a formation that a 38 y/o Totti can waltz through unimpeded doesn't help nor seeing Bayern stuff the aforementioned dancing Italians 7-1 and clearly we are not preparing for these games in a way that makes a difference so two coaching regimes need to have a long look at themselves. But no matter how you cut it the CL for us is like a virus that makes previously good players visibly deteriorate before our very eyes.

At the first hint of pressure, adversity, or a 38 y/o Italian strolling through our midfield, we collapse like a Masterchef soufflé. This was the PL we would woman slap these teams into submission 9 times out of 10 but as soon as that fucking awful music starts we piss down our legs.

It was away to Real Madrid that did for us. We should have won that fucker and that would have been our moment. But we didn't. We tossed the game into the crapper and we have been tossing them into the crapper ever since.

Something or someone has to convince the players and the club that they can compete in the Champions League. And when they have convinced them they can compete we can then start to win matches and actually look like we belong because right now we have our grubby noses pressed against the window pane looking in on everyone else enjoying the party inside.

So the question is. How the hell do we instil the mentality necessary to actually compete in the Champions League?

 

[Why Always Ste]

The mentality gets installed by leaching out the corrupt bastards who run the competition (UEFA)

And instilling a genuine "competition" which involves "Champions" and ridding of all this

[bigimg]http://paulflynnmp.typepad.com/my_weblog/images/2007/11/27/f_bribery.gif[/bigimg]

 

[John.des]

Mentality and tactics go hand in hand. We have problems in both regarding CL. There is a certain expectation about our club, we are seen as one of the biggest spenders in recent years, also paying one of the highest wages to its squad, and we perform generally well in league so they look at our squad, or just the bench where Sagna was a fix RB at Arsenal for years, Jovetic would start for Juve regularly or Milan or Inter etc, Fernandinho cost 30m, and this is only our bench...

Yet I am not sure if we would have 2 more 30m pound player in the first eleven we would really do lot better in CL. So what? Do we need 4 more 30m player and two 60m player? Really? For me not. Its all about mentality and tactics. Set up the right tactics, adapt to the opponent (Pelle really doesnt do this 95% of the time), get ready mentally.

This is the only chance for any team actually if you think about it. The stronger your squad is of course helps a lot, but if your mentality isnt good and your tactics are just mediocre even strong squads will look mediocre.
We have the luxury to maybe think who will be the next 30-40m sigining next summer but most teams dont have this luxury. Atletico, Dortmund will only buy someone for 40m pounds if they sell two top players maybe.

Yet their successes in CL recently shows whats needed with not elite squads. Great tactics where every player knows their role, works the way he asked to do, has the dicipline to go with full self belief for full 95 minutes and also great motivators on the bench.

They didnt win CL but got to the final while lot stronger squads with lot higher wage list didnt even come close to the final. They actually lost the finals because they met teams with the right mentality, good tactics and lot stronger squads. (Real, Bayern).

If there would be two totally same squad in football in a tie and they played together the one with better tactics and mentality would win. Short term maybe luck would play a part. Not the long term.

Our problems in CL are becoming long term problem because not much is changing since the first Napoli game and that was around 2011 September.
Now in 2014 October we still arent really close to the few elite clubs. In spending on transfers, wages yes. We are really close or even over them.

But thats not my problem, as if we meet Barca, Real, Bayern and lose in a close tie I can accept that. I wouldnt have had problem with last years Barca loss if its little bit closer game both times. (Barca were in really shit form that time in the league, yet they didnt have huge problems to beat us twice just for to lose two times next round vs Atletico.)

My problem is that teams that arent closer to the elite than us and arent close to us in terms of luxury options in terms of spending and investing into the club a lot, the likes of Napoli, Roma, CSKA, Ajax, Dortmund, or the awful EL losses vs Sporting, D. Kijev.
In Europe we arent better then them. They arent Bayern, Real...

The bad thing is I dont see us getting better than them in last 3 years. We have CL experience now, we made lot of changes to the squad last 3 years, third of the squad are now Txiki transfers.
Yet that City-Roma was worse performance than the City-Napoli 1-1 game. If Roma-City will be similar to Napoli-City what is easily possible we are out again in the group stage.

If its like this I would really want to listen to Txiki, what he thinks, whats our problems in CL. Does he really have CL ambitions or the owners, because what we offered up so far in CL that maybe could have been done by Tottenham too.
He led a team earlier that was winning the CL and reaching later stages always.
He must see that currently our mentality/tactics arent even good to comfortably get out of group stage, what about reaching the semifinals, or even the final? Winning it is very far...

 

[waspish]

Would also help if we had an "easier group" like chelsea arsenal and Liverpool! We have win the league twice in 3 years and had the toughest groups, at least that's going to change

 

[blueinsa]

OP blames our captain whilst I blame UEFA and the corrupt cunts running it.

The same captain that's lifted a FA cup, Capital One Cup and 2 Premier Leagues is mentally weak?

Who needs fucking enemies eh when we have more than enough in house!

 

[BillyShears]

OP blames our captain whilst I blame UEFA and the corrupt c**ts running it.

The same captain that's lifted a FA cup, Capital One Cup and 2 Premier Leagues is mentally weak?

Who needs fucking enemies eh when we have more than enough in house!

This is going to morph into the "Vincent Kompany is not a leader because leaders don't tweet and it pisses me off when he tweets" thread.

Way way way too much self flagellation going on this morning. We weren't good enough and drew a football match. It happens. It's not like we're out of the group yet anyway. Probably best to save the end of season review of the end of the season! :)

 

[blueinsa]

OP blames our captain whilst I blame UEFA and the corrupt c**ts running it.

The same captain that's lifted a FA cup, Capital One Cup and 2 Premier Leagues is mentally weak?

Who needs fucking enemies eh when we have more than enough in house!

This is going to morph into the "Vincent Kompany is not a leader because leaders don't tweet and it pisses me off when he tweets" thread.

Way way way too much self flagellation going on this morning. We weren't good enough and drew a football match. It happens. It's not like we're out of the group yet anyway. Probably best to save the end of season review of the end of the season! :)

When I saw who the OP was I knew it would be having a go.

 

[Bluebee2]

OP blames our captain whilst I blame UEFA and the corrupt c**ts running it.

The same captain that's lifted a FA cup, Capital One Cup and 2 Premier Leagues is mentally weak?

Who needs fucking enemies eh when we have more than enough in house!

Just to point out that Tevez was Captain when we won the FA Cup.

 

[without a dream]

This is down to that players. When it was Mancini in charge we could look at his record in Europe and say 'that's pretty poor we need a new manager to make an impact in the CL'. Pellegrini has taken teams who are far, far worse than us further than we've ever been.

Vinny, Zaba and Yaya need to lock them in a room and fucking sort it out. It's the same game but we play like a bunch of terrified kids and each shit result is now a huge blow to sorting the problem out. Time for the leaders to lead and for the rest of them to take some responsibility.

 

[sir baconface]

OP blames our captain whilst I blame UEFA and the corrupt c**ts running it.

The same captain that's lifted a FA cup, Capital One Cup and 2 Premier Leagues is mentally weak?

Who needs fucking enemies eh when we have more than enough in house!

Maybe the OP is just trying to stimulate a debate.

It wasn't a corrupt UEFA that threw away a two-goal lead last night or failed to beat Roma on our own manor.