The Title Race - 2023/24

[Brightwell Bros.]

A couple of seasons ago, I seem to recall Pep saying he had two first class players for every position. Rotating the players didn't seem to have too much effect on the team performance. Now, it seems we are too dependent on one two players and their absence is causing our current below par performance.
Perhaps we are missing the recent departed players more than we realised?

The two world class players in every position has always been a bit of a myth with City and there have always been players you worry about picking up a knock. Used to be Fernandinho, Aguero or Silva. The fact of the matter is the sorts of players we sign these are days are very hard to replace and it's hard to find players happy to miss big games who couldn't walk into any other top side in the league or around Europe.

 

[Brightwell Bros.]

If we are still in touch by the end of the year, which I would expect, then City will change gear, as we always do, and it will be an exceptional team that can keep up.

I haven’t seen an exceptional team.

I think this is true, no team has stood out so far, but I get the feeling Arteta is trying to "pace" it this year. Easier said than done, mind.

 

[Wirral Blue8]

If we are still in touch by the end of the year, which I would expect, then City will change gear, as we always do, and it will be an exceptional team that can keep up.

I haven’t seen an exceptional team.

Agree with this. We need to be within 7-8 points of the top of the League going into the New Year and no more than 6 points behind going into the last 10 games of the season

 

[KingGeorge]

Stuart Pearce is convinced we won't win the league. That means we almost certainly will. He stated this again today. lol

"Newcastle will win the league"

Pearce said after they smashed Villa in week one lol

 

[youngbob]

The two world class players in every position has always been a bit of a myth with City and there have always been players you worry about picking up a knock. Used to be Fernandinho, Aguero or Silva. The fact of the matter is the sorts of players we sign these are days are very hard to replace and it's hard to find players happy to miss big games who couldn't walk into any other top side in the league or around Europe.

Even under Mancini when we had a bigger squad with (arguably) two world class (or, at least, promising) players in every position, there were noticeable drop-offs whenever the likes of Kompany, Barry, Yaya, etc. didn't play.

Hart
Richards, Kompany, Lescott, Clichy
Nasri, Yaya Toure, Barry, D. Silva
Aguero, Dzeko

Pantilimon
Zabaleta, Savic, K. Toure, Kolarov
Johnson, De Jong, Pizarro, Milner (Hargreaves)
Balotelli, Tevez

And even then, Tevez fucked off for six months, Yaya didn't hit peak form until after Mancini left, Johnson would fade in and out of games at the best of times, Hargreaves was a mental signing who played about three games, and Pizarro was only here for a couple of months.

There's always been deficiencies in our various teams down the years but because we've either won trophies or done alright, all the complaints just get lost to time. Like how going into the 21/22 season without a recognised striker would cost us a top four spot and then we ended up getting 93 points and winning the league.

During the 19/20 season our squad was probably the biggest it's ever been under Pep and we were miles off Liverpool, dumped out of the Champions League and FA Cup in pretty miserable games, and we just about scraped past Villa to win the League Cup. We had a huge squad that season but it didn't help us much.

Ederson
Walker, Fernandinho, Otamendi, Mendy
De Bruyne, Rodri, D. Silva
Mahrez, Aguero, Sterling

Bravo
Cancelo, Stones, Garcia, Zinchenko (Laporte, injured)
Bernardo, Gundogan, Angelino
Foden, Jesus, (Sané, injured)

Pep gets his best results when he's working with a tight group of 15-20 players with a few academy lads filling out the gaps in the squad. Looking at that 19/20 squad, even the likes of Garcia and Angelino only played about 30 games between them in all comps. We had a much smaller squad the following season but almost won the Premier League, League Cup, and Champions League treble.

Ederson
Walker, Dias, Stones, Zinchenko
De Bruyne, Rodri, Gundogan
Sterling, Jesus, Foden

Steffen
Cancelo, Laporte, Ake (injured), Mendy
Bernardo, Fernandinho, Zinchenko
Mahrez, Aguero (injured), Torres

And the team that won the actual treble was even smaller when you consider the options we actually had available in each position.

Ederson
Walker, Stones, Dias, Akanji
De Bruyne, Rodri, Gundogan
Bernardo, Haaland, Grealish

Ortega
Cancelo (departed), Laporte, Ake, Gomez
Lewis, Phillips, Palmer
Mahrez, Alvarez, Foden

 

[shemnel]

i hold two, perhaps contradictory, views;

1. Currently we are contenders every season under Pep, that's the bottom line.
2. Football is naturally cyclical, if it's our turn to have a slightly off season, so be it, we've been amazing for years.

believe in both and the stress simply drifts away..... :D

 

[JewelZee]

Agree with this. We need to be within 7-8 points of the top of the League going into the New Year and no more than 6 points behind going into the last 10 games of the season

Where the fuck is this projected deficit coming from?...

 

[JewelZee]

i hold two, perhaps contradictory, views;

1. Currently we are contenders every season under Pep, that's the bottom line.
2. Football is naturally cyclical, if it's our turn to have a slightly off season, so be it, we've been amazing for years.

believe in both and the stress simply drifts away..... :D

Not our turn...it's not decided on a whim...over 38 games the best side wins...and we're the best side...

 

[jimharri]

Reading this forum since sunday evening, I'm tempted to insert (Oo-err) a "no hope" option in the poll.

;-)

 

[KingGeorge]

Reading this forum since sunday evening, I'm tempted to insert (Oo-err) a "no hope" option in the poll.

;-)

We are a fanbase of manic depressants. We win the fanbase is sky high. We lose and the fanbase is in the fetal position.