The Title Race - 2023/24

How many points will be needed to win the league?

  • Total voters
    446
  • Poll closed .
Brightwell Bros. said:
There's a small but very vocal core of our fanbase that would prefer, season after season, the psychological security of saying we won't win to avoid the possibility of saying we have a chance and it hurting if we lose. Like you say, cowards. And getting to say "see, I knew 10 games ago we weren't going to do it" is a fucking lame "prize" to fall back on.
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They haven't had much opportunity to do that, really. This selfish team keeps frustrating them.
 
feedmpenzaandhewillscore said:
This, we’ve signed four players in the summer and not a single one of them has nailed down a position in the starting 11. You take out the contributions from Gundogan and Mahrez, that’s a lot of goals and assists you have to find elsewhere. Foden has stepped up but no one else has. Gundo always turned into one of the big game players around this point of the season, next transfer window will be important addressing where City have gone backwards quality wise.
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But only whisper it. Its obvious to anyone analysing it, but plenty don't like the reality.
 
feedmpenzaandhewillscore said:
This, we’ve signed four players in the summer and not a single one of them has nailed down a position in the starting 11. You take out the contributions from Gundogan and Mahrez, that’s a lot of goals and assists you have to find elsewhere. Foden has stepped up but no one else has. Gundo always turned into one of the big game players around this point of the season, next transfer window will be important addressing where City have gone backwards quality wise.
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We are transitioning from one great team to hopefully another great team

this takes time, all the while we are still in the mix for all the big trophies

the scouse bastards can’t string two good seasons together, the rags have been transitioning for a decade and Arsenal have had to give Arteta 4 years before he’s got his act together

theres no guarantee that big names will slot straight in anyway but I would expect we will see another season like this one next year when De Bruynes minutes have to be managed more closely and Walker is also nearer to the end of his time with city
 
Brightwell Bros. said:
There's a small but very vocal core of our fanbase that would prefer, season after season, the psychological security of saying we won't win to avoid the possibility of saying we have a chance and it hurting if we lose. Like you say, cowards. And getting to say "see, I knew 10 games ago we weren't going to do it" is a fucking lame "prize" to fall back on.
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Spot on , luckily our team and manager have more about them and never throw the towel in
 
gordondaviesmoustache said:
I’m not sure all of them have celebrated those many, many victories all the same. For many, the fear of failure must be suffocating and must have prevented them taking it in sufficiently. When it’s over and the race is run, the overriding emotion for some is relief, not joy, - still a great feeling mind, but I don’t get the sense that a decent minority of our support have taken anywhere near as much in as they could have done while Pep has been at the helm.

I think some prefer, or feel more comfortable existing in, a ‘typical City’ space - even though logic and experience should point them away from it. It’s actually a genuine shame for them because these times we are living through will be fleeting. Sure as night follows day.
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Hadn't thought about it like that!

Now I just feel sorry for them!
 
Coatigan said:
That is a bit of a pointless claim. In all our transfer windows since Pep arrived, only 2 players have ever nailed down a position in the starting 11 the year they arrived. Haaland. And (arguably) Dias.

That's two. In 18 windows. This one is hardly an exception.
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Bernardo, Sane, Laporte, Mahrez, Gundogan, Ake, Rodri etc they were trusted to start games even in their first season. It doesn’t feel like Pep trusts the new signings unless it’s a cup tie of relegation fodder. Gvardiol will be good, Kovacic looks like a squad player, Doku has a lot to learn and hopefully the penny will drop, Nunes was a panic buy due to Paqueta falling through and and KDB being injured (where will he be in the pecking order if Paqueta rocks up next summer?)
 
I never pay much attention to the 'rivals' so I wouldn't know just how much they have improved. Their results seem to suggest they have, and as Pep said the other day that we have more points now than at the same time seems to indicate that the only one who knows who's gonna win the title is that guy Fuck - Fuck knows and he's keeping quiet about it.
 
feedmpenzaandhewillscore said:
Bernardo, Sane, Laporte, Mahrez, Gundogan, Ake, Rodri etc they were trusted to start games even in their first season. It doesn’t feel like Pep trusts the new signings unless it’s a cup tie of relegation fodder. Gvardiol will be good, Kovacic looks like a squad player, Doku has a lot to learn and hopefully the penny will drop, Nunes was a panic buy due to Paqueta falling through and and KDB being injured (where will he be in the pecking order if Paqueta rocks up next summer?)
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I tend to agree. The consequence is we're relying on a pool of 8-10 players to perform to an unbelievably high standard on a consistent basis throughout the season. It's imperative that those other squad players come in and do a job when needed just to lighten the load a little.
 
feedmpenzaandhewillscore said:
Bernardo, Sane, Laporte, Mahrez, Gundogan, Ake, Rodri etc they were trusted to start games even in their first season. It doesn’t feel like Pep trusts the new signings unless it’s a cup tie of relegation fodder. Gvardiol will be good, Kovacic looks like a squad player, Doku has a lot to learn and hopefully the penny will drop, Nunes was a panic buy due to Paqueta falling through and and KDB being injured (where will he be in the pecking order if Paqueta rocks up next summer?)
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As Alex points out. Short memories.
 
feedmpenzaandhewillscore said:
What’s your timescale on Kalvin Phillips coming good then?
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What does Phillips prove?

Pep didn't play him!

But Pep played Gundo and Rodri, we won trophies with them and fans were still moaning they weren't good enough.

And Pep plays Gvardiol, Doku, Kovacic and Nunes, they are not comparable to Phillips, right?
 
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alexmcity said:
What does Phillips prove?

Pep didn't play him!

But Pep played Gundo and Rodri, we won trophies with them and fans we're still moaning they weren't good enough.

And Pep plays Gvardiol, Doku, Kovacic and Nunes, they are not comparable to Phillips, right?
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Phillips seemed an odd acquisition from the off..i kept seeing him slide tackle everywhere at Leeds..bit better for England staying on his feet but really just recycled the ball a lot.. really didn't seem like he had the quality to play in tight boxes (pep's football is all about rectangles isn't some of which are only 3 - 4 wide!) you need proper players for that..seems a nice bloke to have around the squad ..but so was Les Chapman..
 
gordondaviesmoustache said:
I’m not sure all of them have celebrated those many, many victories all the same. For many, the fear of failure must be suffocating and must have prevented them taking it in sufficiently. When it’s over and the race is run, the overriding emotion for some is relief, not joy, - still a great feeling mind, but I don’t get the sense that a decent minority of our support have taken anywhere near as much in as they could have done while Pep has been at the helm.

I think some prefer, or feel more comfortable existing in, a ‘typical City’ space - even though logic and experience should point them away from it. It’s actually a genuine shame for them because these times we are living through will be fleeting. Sure as night follows day.
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Great post.
 
gordondaviesmoustache said:
I’m not sure all of them have celebrated those many, many victories all the same. For many, the fear of failure must be suffocating and must have prevented them taking it in sufficiently. When it’s over and the race is run, the overriding emotion for some is relief, not joy, - still a great feeling mind, but I don’t get the sense that a decent minority of our support have taken anywhere near as much in as they could have done while Pep has been at the helm.

I think some prefer, or feel more comfortable existing in, a ‘typical City’ space - even though logic and experience should point them away from it. It’s actually a genuine shame for them because these times we are living through will be fleeting. Sure as night follows day.
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Great post.

I'm certain plenty of football fans have a similar mentality. It's hard to stay relaxed when there's so much at stake and the higher your hopes the harder the fall, so it's easier to expect the worst and then win than be confident and bullish and then lose out. Perhaps with City it's a more common mentality because of the hardships we've been through. Most pundits are still backing City because they objectively look at what we've done before, it's harder for many of our fans to take that view. I think Arsenal fans are similarly downbeat. They wouldn't openly admit they are confident they'll win the league, when they've got an excellent chance to.

And then you have the dippers. Part of the reason they're so detestable is the fact they will go the other way. They'll happily say they'll win the lot. They're not bothered. If they don't they'll just make an excuse for it.

At the moment, I'm relaxed. I'm not confident we'll win it, but I think we're in a great position to. No one has ever won 4 in a row. The fact we have a chance to is testament to how brilliant our manager and squad of players is. They won three in a row as part of a treble. That's fucking absurd. And whilst we might not be blown away by the performances so far, we've won every CL game and are in the quarters. We've got a home game this weekend to make the FA Cup semi finals. And we're 1pt off top and play one of the teams above us in our next league game.

That despite our captain going in the summer, Mahrez also leaving and plenty of key players missing through injury/suspension.

Most teams would have coasted through this season buzzing off what happened last year. We've got a chance of doing back-to-back trebles! Soak it up. If we don't we don't, but to be in this position is unbelievable and why the fuck wouldn't we back ourselves to do it.
 
bondsman said:
I agree re: injuries but don’t think our squad is as strong. The new signings haven’t improved us. We aren’t scoring as many and we are not the defensive unit we were. Performance wise I don’t think we’ve hit the levels we did last year.
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We are still very capable of scoring numerous goals in short bursts. As it had been mentioned a couple of seasons back we clawed back's Liverpool's advantage very late on in the season.
 
gordondaviesmoustache said:
I’m not sure all of them have celebrated those many, many victories all the same. For many, the fear of failure must be suffocating and must have prevented them taking it in sufficiently. When it’s over and the race is run, the overriding emotion for some is relief, not joy, - still a great feeling mind, but I don’t get the sense that a decent minority of our support have taken anywhere near as much in as they could have done while Pep has been at the helm.

I think some prefer, or feel more comfortable existing in, a ‘typical City’ space - even though logic and experience should point them away from it. It’s actually a genuine shame for them because these times we are living through will be fleeting. Sure as night follows day.
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Strumming my pain with his fingers
Singing my life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly with his song
Telling my whole life with his words
Killing me softly with his song

Tw*t
 
RayCTID said:
We are still very capable of scoring numerous goals in short bursts. As it had been mentioned a couple of seasons back we clawed back's Liverpool's advantage very late on in the season.
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True but I think my point remains that we had better squads. I don’t see Doku, Nunes Kovacic stepping up as Gundo and Mahrez did and Laporte for that matter who was vastly under appreciated imho. I know it’s a pointless comment as he chose to leave but Palmer is a much better player than Doku and Nunes and I think had he stayed he’d have been a real asset this year and played a lot of football. That said now I’ve found out he’s a rag I’m less bothered!
 
bondsman said:
True but I think my point remains that we had better squads. I don’t see Doku, Nunes Kovacic stepping up as Gundo and Mahrez did and Laporte for that matter who was vastly under appreciated imho. I know it’s a pointless comment as he chose to leave but Palmer is a much better player than Doku and Nunes and I think had he stayed he’d have been a real asset this year and played a lot of football. That said now I’ve found out he’s a rag I’m less bothered!
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Doku was a tad unfortunate that he didn't win it for us when his shot hit the woodwork. There are still goals in the current squad. We are currently missing Grealish who could chip in.
 
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