Palace (A) | PL | Post-Match Thread

OB1 said:
My issue with the squad is that it has not really improved in a significant way for a few years and, at the moment, you would be hard pressed to argue it isn’t weaker than last season.

Gundo, Riyad and Laporte were experienced top quality players. The first two though were on the older side and City have invested mostly in much younger players whose full potential will only be realised in the future. City also let Cole Palmer go, his choice, which doesn’t have great optics at the moment but I don’t think he gets into City’s best XI I can’t say City were wrong to grant his wish to move.

After several seasons, I have hoped City would go into the transfer market and make the moves that would pull us even further ahead of our opponents but, generally, it seems like we let them close the gap. Although, I do believe that signing 3 or 4 players that would instantly give the team a quantum leap forward is almost impossible.

I think this summer will be particularly difficult because we may need to replace both Bernardo and KDB and how the heck you improve on those two players is beyond me but we’ve seen Yaya, Sergio, Sane and Merlin to name but a few go and have still gone on to greater prosperity.

I think City have at least been laying the foundations for another successful team (we have plenty of talent that is under 25) but I would like to see Pep move to a slightly bigger squad and City to flex their muscles in the next transfer window.
Click to expand...
Bravo. Agreed 100%!

If we don't keep on moving, the chasing pack will soon close the gap & if we're not careful they'll eventually pass us.

It's tme to step up our squad rebuilding game after not adequately replacing Gundog & Mahrez. With question marks over Bernardo & KDB's fitness, we've a big summer ahead regardless of what we do or don't achieve this season.
 
OB1 said:
We have conceded 3 more than Liverpool and played one more game so that is not a big difference.

Arsenal are further ahead defensively as they have conceded 7 fewer.

You mention injuries and they have been significant this season. I’m sure if we still had Gundo and Grealish had played more, we would have conceded less, because we would not have given away cheap possession as often.

City are currently 25 games unbeaten so not too much is wrong. I think the key factor for City will now be concentration levels and keeping them extremely high. To have achieved what they did last year and to be where they are right now is an incredible achievement, regardless of how things pan out for the rest of the season. To have done what they have so far must have been mentally (as well as physically) sapping. The competition in the league has been so tough and City are trying to maintain standards in a way no one has done before.
Click to expand...
I agree with nearly all of this. I would actually amplify the point you make about the "mentally sapping" effects of last season. Every year since the end of the Centurions season (and that's now 6 years ago!) I have felt that our lads will never be able to reach the levels of motivation, determination and mental energy required to reach again the heights of the previous season and I have been shown to be wrong by a mile. But last season was so mind blowing - 8 points down in the league to winning it by 5, winning the cup without conceding a goal until (a ludicrous penalty in) the final and winning the CL after a near faultless campaign. But here we are again! Unbeaten since December. So "not too much can be wrong"!

I don't think too much is wrong though yesterday, as Pep said, we were not as solid defensively as normal. In the first half we kept our usual high line but - and this is most unusual - Rodri and Stones gave the ball away with careless, inaccurate passes. Palace looked dangerous on the counter throughout the first half and I was tempted to put this down to injuries - though we played a back four which had never played together before and they kept a clean sheet against Arsenal!

We are certainly in the mix for all three again, but if we don't win any there'll be no complaints from me.
 
StillBluessinceHydeRoad said:
I agree with nearly all of this. I would actually amplify the point you make about the "mentally sapping" effects of last season. Every year since the end of the Centurions season (and that's now 6 years ago!) I have felt that our lads will never be able to reach the levels of motivation, determination and mental energy required to reach again the heights of the previous season and I have been shown to be wrong by a mile. But last season was so mind blowing - 8 points down in the league to winning it by 5, winning the cup without conceding a goal until (a ludicrous penalty in) the final and winning the CL after a near faultless campaign. But here we are again! Unbeaten since December. So "not too much can be wrong"!

I don't think too much is wrong though yesterday, as Pep said, we were not as solid defensively as normal. In the first half we kept our usual high line but - and this is most unusual - Rodri and Stones gave the ball away with careless, inaccurate passes. Palace looked dangerous on the counter throughout the first half and I was tempted to put this down to injuries - though we played a back four which had never played together before and they kept a clean sheet against Arsenal!

We are certainly in the mix for all three again, but if we don't win any there'll be no complaints from me.
Click to expand...
This is the physical & mental fatigue setting in for Rodders. John's returning from yet another spell out, so it may take him a couple of full games to get back up to speed, but Rodri looks physically & mentally shot. It's no wonder he's beginning to make uncharacteristic mistakes.

He had this haunted look on his face when he came off on Wednesday which was seriously concerning. We can't continue to rinse him dry the way we've been doing the last three seasons. He needs genuine world class help in there, to help rest & rotate him.
 
After Villa, this result was a real boost and after the other results this weekend, we're in a great place now and both Liverpool and Arsenal know who the masters are in the final games.

Once we went 1-4 up at Palace I was hoping we'd go on and get another 2 or 3 as they just seemed to collapse and we were rampant. Grealish is really coming good at just the right time and of course, Pep is going to unleash KdB and Foden on someone soon and it feels like we might be turning a corner now. Our tails are up, the big names are coming up with some massive performances and we're starting to get big numbers on the goals again.

My only worry though is the defence. Quite honestly, we just looked like we'd concede 3 or 4 v Palace towards the end. Dias seems well off the boil to me and I suspect he's carrying an injury. When Rodri came off it felt like we had practically no control on midfield and they seemed to be going for it. Maybe I was just feeling nervous, but as soon as Rodri goes off we simply have NO ONE who can even put in a competent central midfield performance. We just lost control.

Anyway, I don't want to moan - 2 great results and a very tricky game against Real coming up but these are the games you dream of. I fancy us to go and get a result there to be honest.

I said at the start of the season we'd win The Treble and I'm sticking by it. We still are the best team in Europe.

COME ON CITY!!
 
IrishBlueSince92 said:
Grealish always seems unlucky in that today for example he had a hand in 3 of the goals at least, maybe all 4 but ended with 0 assists

Seems to happen him a lot. It’s why you can’t judge every player on stats alone
Click to expand...

I can sort of understand why he didn't get an assist on the Rico goal since it was deflected off a defender. But on the first goal, he drives to the byline, plays it back to Kevin and then he takes one touch and scores. Makes no sense why it isn't an assist.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top
✖
  AdBlock Detected
Bluemoon relies on advertising to pay our hosting fees. Please support the site by disabling your ad blocking software to help keep the forum sustainable. Thanks.