The Title Race - 2024/25

[Axel Freed]

Squad looks very light with injuries to key players, Ake, Bobb, KDB, Rodri all out for long time/ possibly all season, Foden with some weird virus and several players not good enough in the squad Carson, Nunes etc. and jury possibly out on a few others. We are an injury to Haaland away from missing out on top 4

I can only forsee many more injuries with such a threadbare squad and so many games, sorry to be so doom and gloom, we need 3 world class players in January Sales.

Agreed, you make some good points

Without spending possibly up to a quarter of a billion pounds on 3 stellar signings in January I can see us being nearer to the relegation zone than the top 4 and if Haaland gets injured I think we’ll probably be relegated

 

[KDB Fan]

We will still win. How many times have we lost KDB for a season or half a season and won the league. We lost Gundo for a season and got a 100 points. We need to have more faith in the players.

 

[CheshireExpat]

Rodry our for the rest of the season,KdB Ake and Bobb injured... Hallo darkness my old friend...

We definitely need nunes, grealish, doku to step up massively. I think if they bought 1 more squad player the impact wouldn't have been as huge.

The issues we've had with Calvin, João, Sergio are such a shame. If Calvin was what he appeared to be we would be okay.

 

[bridgeno1]

City still outright favourites at 7/5 with Arsenal at 7/4 and Dippers at 6/1.

 

[IrishBlueSince92]

City still outright favourites at 7/5 with Arsenal at 7/4 and Dippers at 6/1.

I've kept an eye on it.
Before we played Arsenal on Sunday we were 8/11, then 4/5 after the game and yesterday as Rodri news came through we drifted out to evens, 11/10 and 11/8 this morning.

Arsenal have gone from 2/1 to 6/4

Liverpool have gone from 13/2 to 11/2

Funnily the rags have gone from 50/1 to 66/1. I suppose they'd benefit more from a Bournemouth or Palace player getting injured these days.

Liverpool will be happy with the last few days. All the drama and fall out from our game, Rodri injury, people starting to tip up Arsenal now. They're sitting quietly.

 

[Nevizade]

Going to sound like Sybil Fawlty stating the bleeding obvious (anyone?) but it's even more important to win the 'easy' home games. We have to accept without Rodri we're going to struggle in games against Liverpool, Tottenham. Newcastle and the like both home and away. We really can't afford games like we had against Palace last year just before Christmas when we chucked a 2-0 lead away.

 

[supercity88]

It will certainly be a tough test without Rodri. We're never as dominant without him. We were levels above Arsenal before he went off. He is always there making things happen outside the box, creating passing triangles and enabling everyone else to pass and move and any out ball is hoovered up by him with his physicality and height. That's where Kovacic or Rico just aren't physically able to do the same job. Pep could unearth something, so I would never write us off but without Rodri I would say it's going to be Pep's biggest challenge to win the league this season. And he fucking loves a challenge.

 

[Damanino]

with Alvarez gone and the bad news of Rodri thats a total package of 19 goals and 17 assist just in PL last season. them two basically scored 20%+ of our PL goals or have almost 30% of the total assists we were credited with. (guess we dont get some when it comes from opponent, or pens, free kick goals, own goals etc., we scored 96, but have been credited with 94 goals and 69 assists as a team)

the top4 players in order for G+A were Haaland, Foden,JA, Rodders last season (PL only)


Kovacic unfortunately aint high on these numbers, 1 goal all last season in PL, so if he is a Rodders replacement now, others will need to raise their numbers even more. Gundo can rack up useful numbers depending where he plays, if an 8, often arriving into the box, and end of crosses, passes, or even false 9, if more of a 6, setting tempo from deeper then not so much.

Doku, Grealish, Savinho, Bobb, they all need end product, no excuses, in ratio with their playing minutes. Grealish likely to play more than that 1000 minutes only last season, it needs to be at least 10+ in G+A total from. Doku had 3+8, albeit 4-5 assists of those were in one game for him maybe Bournemouth we beat 6-1, and then bit dry 2nd half of the season for him, but now after bedded in, want him to be closer to 15 in total, that rawness has to turn into end product more this season. happy with Savinho so far, has an eye for an assists, just bedding in, he can hit those Mahrez type numbers eventually from right wing which were very useful from Mahrez. Bernardo imo will play further away from the box this season, bit deeper imo centrally with Savinho taking up lot of minutes on the right (and then Bobb), wont likely hit the 15 from last season.

overall it needs a big effort even just to replace in G/A what is now out with JA and Rodders and possibly bit of a drop from Foden-Bernardo..

we need more way of scoring when Haaland fires blank or marked out or injured.

defenders chipping in with some long shot goals and from set pieces will come handy but happens rarely. even these flipper goals Stones just scored could help a lot.

 

[N1985]

I reckon we go for it and try and twat everything out of sight by half time.

 

[balotellishaircut]

Think we need a siege mentality from City to win a big trophy this season, ban the players from giving interviews and talking to the media, even Pep could fuck em off after games sometimes, just my opinion.