Mister Appointment said:
It's completely unrealistic to expect us to dominate every game from minute 1 to minute 93, without giving the opposition any opportunities to score. Strikes me as lazy an argument as you can get when you start micro analysing matches and then lambasting the players/management because the game didn't unfold in the manner in which you expected it to. The opposition will always have a say.
With regards to complacency/luck - it's also fair to say we have been on the receiving end of some awful awful officiating this season which has cost us points up to and including Burnley. It's all part of the rich tapestry of Premier league football though.
Our capacity for blame during the most successful period in our history continues to amaze me.
Its not about blame (your word NOT mine) its about responsibility. I cringed as I saw what was unfolding in the 2nd halves against both WBA and Burnley and what I saw was our levels of commitment and intensity drop way below the requirements of the Premier League.
From running rings around them for the majority of both first halves, they were doing the same to us jn the 2nd periods. I never 'expect' us to win every match we play as I'm still scarred by the many years of City cock ups to ever be so arrogant as to expect the opposition to just bend over and take one up the shitter just because the boys in sky blue have rolled into town.
I accept you were ok with what you saw as just 'part of the rich tapestry of the Premier League', but I would appreciate it if you could accept that I saw a worrying trend of us dropping too far below our own exacting standards against opposition that all things considered we should beat with the talent we had on the pitch and on the bench, strikers or no strikers.
No-one apart from your good self mentioned anything about Burnley not having a say or opportunities to score. Personally I couldn't give a rats arse about Burnley as any team in the Premier League is capable of beating any other. In fact any team in the world is capable of beating any other given a stroke of luck, but where I am concerned is when I see us being completely out fought and looking so disjointed in defence basically 3 games on the trot as I believe every single goal we score, concede and every point we win or drop will have a major effect where retaining our championship is concerned. One game ok, 2 games Mmmm, but not 3 and points being lost in the process. Its just plain sloppy and I expect better from us.
Evidently our opposition have sussed something out, so its time for our professionals to readjust what we're doing to counteract these Jackal and Hyde halves we've had over the last 3 games. Every last one of these games is going to count come the last day of the season.
