the title race

[bernabias home shirt]

We don't have a killer instinct in games like last night.

Same as game against west ham. Gets to 70 mins no change in tactics, no urgency, maybe one or two chances creates....game fizzles out into draw.

Rodwell for tevez? What was that all about. Surely kolorov was the sub with dzeko told to stay in the box.

2 points down the shitter that one but if someone had offered us 6 wins and a draw in the 8 games from Newcastle most would have taken it.

As for rags, no one really knows what not having rvp would have done. Hernandez scores almost every game he plays so he would have scored some, Rooney some. They would be 4/5 points lower maybe but still in front.

At the moment ferguson is still a better manager than Mancini and that is the bigger difference between the teams.

As much as it hurts, I have to agree, if we'd swapped managers at the start of the season we'd be well clear of them, even with van Persie

And here we go again
We just have a nice little run six wins then a draw and we dropped a bollock keeping mancini.

 

[Lancet Fluke]

Bottom line is take RVP away and we are way in front. If we come second because of RVP's contribution, well there's absolutely nothing we can do about it other than sign 2 world class strikers in the summer in a move to do what RVP is currently doing for United. It is what it is.

What 2 world class players are you talking about Ronaldo or Messi which will never happen.

We can debate the term world class all day but the bottom line is that Cavani or Falcao would improve us immeasurably. We wouldn't need to sign Ronaldo or Messi to improve the team. My main concern is why are our current strikers mis-firing? They are all very very good players yet all of them seem off the boil at the same time. Having said that, I don't think it's just the stikers. They are missing chances, for sure, but I genuinely don't think we are creating as many chances as we did last season.

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

We are still in with a shout but we do need the rags to crumble. We have a significant weakness in the team because we have no width and there are certain matches where we need it. Between them Clichy and Milner had around ten opportunities to deliver balls into killer areas last night. It doesn't make them bad players..they are just not wingers. For all his faults we should have kept Adam Johnson or at least give Sinclair a proper chance. It pains me to say it but the rags are probably the best team in Europe at delivering balls into the box, often from quite deep positions rather than the byeline. Virtually all their goals are scored this way by Hernandez, Rooney and RVP. Giggs, Scholes, Valencia, Carrick, and even the bone-idle Nani can all play the ball in at pace. If Maicon had been fit last night we would have won 3 or 4 nil. We had almost 70 pc possession.

 

[jonny689]

Difference is they have Van Persie carrying them through the season and our strikers are completely hit and miss at the moment. We just aren't putting our chances away and although i don't think it's over yet the chances are getting slimmer with every game we drop points.

 

[Churchill123]

Difference is they have Van Persie carrying them through the season and our strikers are completely hit and miss at the moment. We just aren't putting our chances away and although i don't think it's over yet the chances are getting slimmer with every game we drop points.

Everyone keeps on saying he's due to be out for a few months with an injury.. when the fuck is this going to happen? - Who's gonna cripple the prick?

 

[I'm no cynic but...]

On the upside, our defence is back to it's best, even with our crop of injury and ACoN absentees. It's usually the teams with the best defences that win the trophies, not the highest scoring teams. But on the downside, we still need at least a goal a game to bag the three points and even though we were on top for most of last night's game, our efforts up front have been quite moderate after what we were accustomed to last season, though it has also to be said that at this moment, our current GD is only inferior to the rags by one goal.

The reasons for this are many, probably going back to last summer's botched up transfer dealings, though it could also go down to Mancini's Italian mentality in that the swings in some games, eg vs Spurs and QPR scared him to bits and he's regressed into the manager of the season before that whereby he was ordered to get us into the Champions League, and maybe he's under similar orders again which can only enhance his pragmatic approach to the game.

For what it's worth, if we finish the season on the classic Champion's Formula, 'Win at home and Draw away', this will only leave City with 80 points which has been enough to win the title in five of the last seventeen seasons, and I would be happy if City became the sixth team to achieve this feat, but as long as other teams lie down for the rags and allow them to steal a march on us, I am fearing that second place is all we can now expect.

 

[BluessinceHydeRoad]

I think we have to keep calm! There's a lot of rubbish in the press about City and some of it infects some of our fans. We are not playing as well as we did last season but, in terms of results, we're doing pretty well. Before last night's match we had one point more than last season from the same fixtures: now we have a point less. We've got the tightest defence in the PL by quite a way. We aren't scoring as many goals as last season, but this time last year we had scored more goals than any team in the top flight since the 1880s! This season the rags have scored 12 more than we have, Chelsea 2 more and Arsenal 1 more. At the moment we look to be somewhere near to Roberto's 90 point target, and this will win the title at least 2 out of every 3 seasons.

Last night we dropped 2 points to a side bottom of the PL. That is seen as disastrous. But QPR are not playing like a side that belongs there. They have a new manager, who, since his team's lamentable performance at home to L'pool on 30 December has concentrated on defensive organisation. The result is a resolute, dogged, determined team who no longer capitulate. In the 4 league matches since the Liverpool debacle they hace played 2 home and 2 away games in the PL, and three of these matches have been against the sides in 2nd, 3rd and 4th positions! They have only scored 2, but have not conceded a single goal. We are proud of our clean sheets: they should be proud of theirs!

The league is decided over 38 matches. At the moment we are some way behind, but Sergio has been out for a considerable time with injury and has had "personal problems", Carlos has had a dip in form and hopefully both will soon be back to their best. Edin has played well but the goals to match his play just haven't come yet, whule RVP is "having a good run", as are his teammates who have been helped by having opponents sent off against Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal.

I am not going to give up until the fat lady has at least belted out a good few choruses.