I agree, even some of the games we won this season were not comfortable well managed wins in the league.
when we hosted Soton talk before the game was are we beating them by 7-8 or 10 goals given their manager said upfront he wont change tactics, he will try to play out from the back and will commit players forward rather than setting up a big bus which was what happened yet bit bit of luck they could have got a draw and we won 1-0 only.
then that Fulham game where they cut us open few times...
Brentford too.
big problems tactically partially due to injuries but also our level of play and intensity is not good enough. pressing is not good enough and that kills us as it lets opponents time to simply pass and run through our midfield which is a killer for our high line defence especially with unexperienced Lewis, Pusey etc
also our attacking setup has been found out a bit, slow which lets opponents sit back and defend a smaller area well, while we simply revert back to the ball being passed around by our least technical CBs and they are far from creative creators big time. also most of their passes are safe options to each other or out to the wingers who then choose the safe option and pass back to CB. we literally do this numerous time in every attack, and opponents love it when our winger with his back to the goal passing to our CB. but then lose the ball and panic sets in and one pass kills our entire team and we face a 1 on 1 or 3 vs 2 chance which Ederson will not save 9 of 10 times if its on target.
we became slow, age plays a role, you cant compare current Gundogan to Gundogan of 2021-2022, Grealish too looks shadow of his 22-23 self, KDB hardly fit enough and certainly aged a lot, Walker the same, lack of Rodri cover etc.
while the ones you would expect hell of a pressing and energy from like Foden, Doku, Savinho, well they are in shit form and allergic to score goals currently. but even beating a man and getting a shot or cross is rare for them these days.
we very much needed big transfer that can inject energy into the team with his play. Gundo was never gonna be that, Savinho with only his decent Girona experience is a bit lost now at this high stage. we needed some of that what Rice added to Arsenal in midfield, or Bellingham to Real last season, or Palmer last season to Chelsea. come in, deliver and overperform most of the season, be reliable.
too comfortable in the window where our main thing was to keep Ederson, KDB from Saudi offers, rather than strengthen on what we had. selling Alvarez too without anyone similar brought in, even in a younger, cheaper version. feels like we couldnt have done a worse window if we wanted to weaken City if we tried on purpose.
Palmer showed at Chelsea even one man can have huge affect on a team despite another 20 transfers they had that some flopped, some not hit the ground running, some taking longer to deliver etc but one that is a big hit makes a big difference.
Haaland was a transfer like this and we didnt win the treble in his debut season just because of him, but the mentality he came with, the goals, the momentum he gave us played a big part.
very much doubt Txiki looks back to window of 23 summer and 24 summer and thinks how great he did more like we could have done so much better.
add the Philips transfer total bombing, and Palmer turned into what he turned into once we sold him while jury very much out on Nunes, Doku, Savinho none of them is ahead of anyone in the starter of the City team that won the treble or the one we had in 2018...
