The Title Race 2022/23

[Tony - MCFC]

Seen a few say “made my peace with this season…”

Naff attitude, it is Feb right… not May…

 

[Cheesy]

yes, unless there is significant improvement in form and results we aint winning this league. Arsenal currently easily can say they can drop a few more points as City will do as well and they are not wrong.

they lost to Everton, were maybe scared we capitalize and what we do? Lose to Spurs away with not even testing Lloris who went to Leicester next round and conceded 4.

they beat Villa in a lucky manner last minute after struggling earlier the game, how do we react? by missing everything vs a rubbish Forest who had third of their squad out injured.

we either put together a 4-5-6 game winning run starting from Bournemouth or this will be a sad season with a lot lesser squad winning it (Arsenal) or even worse the fucking rags with Ten Hag's first ever PL season will do it.

what really worries me is the away games left:
Brighton, Palace, Soton, Brentford, Everton. they can all hurt us and can be the 1 shot = 1 goal masterclass for them. actually Brighton is different, they can even dominate us and have multiple chances the way they made other big teams suffer already few times but the rest can sit back, park the bus, have 1-2 shots of all game and score.
and that is assuming we aint making fuck ups at Bournemouth and at Fulham.

I truly believe we're finishing third. I also have a horrible feeling that it may just be Utd who win it :-(

 

[Deleted member 77198]

Seen a few say “made my peace with this season…”

Naff attitude, it is Feb right… not May…

It’s also not really February in a normal season. Week 24 is often in the last weekend of January but that stupid World Cup means the season was disrupted (and ruined!).

However, we look more like 2016-17 or 2019-20 this season than we do title winners. And the strange thing about that is there’s a three year gap between each of these seasons.

2016-17 we got 78 points
2019-20 we got 81 points
And this 2022-23 season we are on course for 82 points.

We don’t look like a team about to go on a 14 game winning run to the title at all.

 

[Mr Blue Moon]

Looks like it’s shaping up to be a 3 horse race.
The bookies are making PGMOL the favourites…

 

[Roachy]

It’s also not really February in a normal season. Week 24 is often in the last weekend of January but that stupid World Cup means the season was disrupted (and ruined!).

However, we look more like 2016-17 or 2019-20 this season than we do title winners. And the strange thing about that is there’s a three year gap between each of these seasons.

2016-17 we got 78 points
2019-20 we got 81 points
And this 2022-23 season we are on course for 82 points.

We don’t look like a team about to go on a 14 game winning run to the title at all.

Been anticipating a run all season tbh. Thought Wed night was lift off but alas, no. Still think this title is all about what we do, but quite possibly we're not far off the point where there is very little margin for error.

 

[citymad]

It’s also not really February in a normal season. Week 24 is often in the last weekend of January but that stupid World Cup means the season was disrupted (and ruined!).

However, we look more like 2016-17 or 2019-20 this season than we do title winners. And the strange thing about that is there’s a three year gap between each of these seasons.

2016-17 we got 78 points
2019-20 we got 81 points
And this 2022-23 season we are on course for 82 points.

We don’t look like a team about to go on a 14 game winning run to the title at all.

Not with Mahrez and Grealish (although he is playing well) slowing up our attacks and allowing defences to become organized. Doesn't look like this is our year. We do need to get Champs league though so top 3 should be the target at the very least. Need to make plans for a left back and two quick wingers to help keep Haaland happy.

 

[Deleted member 81382]

It has seemingly become a three horse race between us, Arsenal and United. If we did come out on top, the fact that it would be at the expense of two media darlings would make it that much sweeter.

We've edged United to the title once (2011/12) and Liverpool three times (2013/14, 2018/19, 2021/22) but to deny two of them in the same season would boil an unprecedented amount of piss.

Please get it won City.

 

[Deleted member 81382]

It’s also not really February in a normal season. Week 24 is often in the last weekend of January but that stupid World Cup means the season was disrupted (and ruined!).

However, we look more like 2016-17 or 2019-20 this season than we do title winners. And the strange thing about that is there’s a three year gap between each of these seasons.

2016-17 we got 78 points
2019-20 we got 81 points
And this 2022-23 season we are on course for 82 points.

We don’t look like a team about to go on a 14 game winning run to the title at all.

We've won the league with 86 points on two separate occasions and I think we're capable of reaching that total but obviously it depends on how Arsenal and United perform as to whether that's relevant. If we had taken just one of those countless chances we somehow missed against Forest we'd all be feeling a lot more positive.

 

[ChicagoBlue]

It’s simple when you play parked bus defensive teams you got to let them have the ball more let them come into your half then you get more space to attack! Possession football gives teams chances of putting 11 men in the pen area! Saying all that we had enough chances to win

As should be patently obvious, “park the bus” (which I put in quotes in the original post for good reason) is something different for City, who will always use a possession based game.

What it means is not playing 3-4-3 and playing a more reasonable 4 (or even 5 when necessary) back line with 5 (or 4) strung across the middle. None of that suggests we collapse into our box, only that we don’t commit 8 players to the attack when holding a slender 1-0 lead, the crowd is baying for a goal, they are starting to play hood ball with their big target man now on the pitch and the 3 points are far more important than a 2nd or 3rd goal to pad the GD!

We can still maintain a possession based game. We can still use a 4-5 man attacking front. But, we hold a 4 man back line with a DM to shield them.

It beggars belief how many times we get done on the counter by teams who, on paper at least, are not fit to lace our boots! And, on this occasion, it wasn’t even a real counter, it was just persistent players getting their heads down to try to get something out of the game, and being allowed to waltz through our box, put in a low cross, and us have NOBODY in a position (INSIDE THE SIX YARD BOX) who could cut out a ball that went beyond the far post to the clogger they brought on!

 

[ChicagoBlue]

We've won the league with 86 points on two separate occasions and I think we're capable of reaching that total but obviously it depends on how Arsenal and United perform as to whether that's relevant. If we had taken just one of those countless chances we somehow missed against Forest we'd all be feeling a lot more positive.

We have to play them both at home. If we don’t beat them on our home patch when desperately needing the points, then that speaks to the season and maybe we don’t deserve it.

Our problem never seems to be Top 6 teams, but bottom half teams who play 4-5-1/5-4-1 counterattacking football and City not taking their chances.



Those statistics do not turn into a 1-1 result for ANY TEAM other than City!