Thoughts on the start to the season? | October thoughts (p12)

Look really solid at the back if we can avoid playing Nunes at right back and Pep can fully invest in Khusanov. Reilly started v well. My concerns are the midfield partly as Rodri hasn't got up to speed yet(not his fault). Cherki injured. Reijnders needs time we haven't really got in this league. Foden kids to be turning a corner. Bernardo looks like he's got more fire in his belly than ever but I just don't think he's doing enough in that final third and looks very slow in the league games. He's goals/assists output has never been elite tbh
Haaland and Doku doing well too.
 
I think the derby was a tipping point. If we'd had a horror show it would have signalled we were still stuck in last seasons problems. But we didn't. In fact I think we're looking stronger every game. Thank feck.
 
Its a work in progress. Points wise we are about where I thought wed be. Id have thought we'd have got a point at Brighton, but had zero hope of one at The Emirates so swings and roundabouts.

Plus points

- The Keeper gives us a much more solid back line.

- In Khusanov and O'Reilly - by accident largely - we have found the best 2 full-back options available for the big games.

- The spine of the team is much more solid; just by standing there Rodri makes us 25% better. Hes coming off an ACL so I wouldnt expect to see him anything like himself until Jan/Feb tbh

- Haaland has started the season brilliantly and looks invigorated

Minus Points

- The Right back situation was laughably never addressed so we are always in a square pegs in round holes situation there

- The injury situation is ridiculous; Stones is always injured so thats no surprise, but to lose Cherki, Ait-Nouri, Marmoush, Gvardiol and Savinho alongside Kovacic only 5 games in is quite daft

The key now is to win the games we should win and we have a few of those coming up. Over to you City. I dont for one minute see us being title challengers this season but the Cups are on the table as the team evolves.
 
Manchester1894 said:
Look really solid at the back if we can avoid playing Nunes at right back and Pep can fully invest in Khusanov. Reilly started v well. My concerns are the midfield partly as Rodri hasn't got up to speed yet(not his fault). Cherki injured. Reijnders needs time we haven't really got in this league. Foden kids to be turning a corner. Bernardo looks like he's got more fire in his belly than ever but I just don't think he's doing enough in that final third and looks very slow in the league games. He's goals/assists output has never been elite tbh
Haaland and Doku doing well too.
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Bernado is in purely for his work ethic. He's obviously a tidy player but he's lost all the pace and acceleration that made him so dangerous. He's just an extra body on the pitch now, but one that works himself into the ground and doesn't lose the ball.

In an ideal world cherki or marmoush will step in and work just as hard. We will see.
 
Gareth Barry Conlon said:
Bernado is in purely for his work ethic. He's obviously a tidy player but he's lost all the pace and acceleration that made him so dangerous. He's just an extra body on the pitch now, but one that works himself into the ground and doesn't lose the ball.

In an ideal world cherki or marmoush will step in and work just as hard. We will see.
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I know, and whilst those players are injured we know he'll give it his all. Just looks like an easy side to shut down when he's there.
 
They're coming together.

There's a lot of younger players who are being primed for positions of responsibility. Rodri still isn't fully fit, Marmoush and Cherki are major players who are out too amongst others.

I'm fine with it for now. People made a big deal about the first 3 games being our worst start since 04/05, despite it only being 1 point worse than the 20/21 season (one of those games was a 5-2 loss at home to Leicester btw) which we won the league with games to spare.
 
MCFC1993 said:
Thoughts on the start to the season?

I think we've had tough games to start the season.

Last year we only got 3 points from the same fixtures:
Wolves (A) - Won
Spurs (H) - Lost
Brighton (A) - Lost
United (H) - Lost
Arsenal (A) - Lost

4 points gained on last season.
Plus a win v Napoli.

Happy enough with that, wish we had 2-3 more points but solid enough.

Next 5 league games feels like that's where our season starts:
Burnley (H)
Brentford (A)
Everton (H)
Villa (A)
Bournemouth (H)
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I think the next 5 games will tell us how we should view the first five games. The first five still felt like we were waiting for things to settle down, the transfer window closing, players to get fit and players to get in form. Its not lost on me that pep has picked the same starting 11 for the last three games. He's clearly settled on his best 11 (injured players withstanding) and for me it's beginning to look like a solid team.

If we win the next five and are on 22 points from 30, then for me it'll have been a good (not amazing) start to the season. If we're on less than 20 then it'll have been a bad start to the season. I know the difference if small but thats the case in top level football. Win 5 from 5 and i'll believe we can do something this season. It'll be an uphill struggle still and if Liverpool also win 5 from 5 probably a step too far, but it'll bring belief back that we're seeing a new team emerging and not the same issues from last season.
 
Don't think we're going to win the title, we are too fragile and conceding late goals whereas our title rivals are themselves scoring late

Think it's going the right way, think Rodri is coming along, Haaland and Phil look more themselves, Donnarumma looks good and khusanov is firmly in Pep's plans which is only good news

Downsides are Reijnders, Ait Nouri, Cherki, Marmoush all looking a bit soft, they have their talent but need more from them

Think we'll finish 3rd
 
We're 3 points short of where we should be, brighton game, and liverpool going 5 from 5 compounds that. That said, Liverpool have got pretty lucky so far and that wont just last indefinitely.

Personally my feeling is we'll fall short, but will improve greatly from last year
 
With just a bit more luck we'd have 12 points and be sitting pretty for a title challenge.
 
We should finish in the top 4 in the PL without breaking sweat.

Having a bit more variety in our tactical approach in certain games (like yesterday), we can win the CL. Just need a bit of luck here and there, and perhaps pick up a dominant attacking midfielder in January.

I'd be happy to see a mix of youngsters and benchwarmers for Carabao and FA Cup games, and see what happens.
 
Gareth Barry Conlon said:
Bernado is in purely for his work ethic. He's obviously a tidy player but he's lost all the pace and acceleration that made him so dangerous. He's just an extra body on the pitch now, but one that works himself into the ground and doesn't lose the ball.

In an ideal world cherki or marmoush will step in and work just as hard. We will see.
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Are you talking about the same Bernardo? He never had pace or acceleration, his magic left foot and work rate were always his 2 main attributes and he still has both.
 
Could have been better, losing to Spurs again was disappointing, but losing to Brighton was worse considering we were leading.
We now have a decent run of winnable fixtures, prior to Liverpool in November, so hopefully we can start to move up the table.
 
Manchester1894 said:
Look really solid at the back if we can avoid playing Nunes at right back and Pep can fully invest in Khusanov. Reilly started v well. My concerns are the midfield partly as Rodri hasn't got up to speed yet(not his fault). Cherki injured. Reijnders needs time we haven't really got in this league. Foden kids to be turning a corner. Bernardo looks like he's got more fire in his belly than ever but I just don't think he's doing enough in that final third and looks very slow in the league games. He's goals/assists output has never been elite tbh
Haaland and Doku doing well too.
Click to expand...
Foden turn the corner as a 10 then gets shoved out wide. Not his fault
 
Was always going to be a difficult start after last season’s woes and the re build . The last 3 games have been very encouraging and we look to have something about us again . We are also playing several different styles which again is great and important showing more flexibility within the system and squad . 7pts is about right after 5 games 9pts would have been fantastic given the fixtures and where we are at plus a great start to the CL campaign. We have a nice run of fixtures now leading up to the home game with Liverpool. If we continue to progress the way we are we should be bang on for that fixture, beat them and it blows the league wide open !
 
Not quite up to par, but not far off. The fact that we're adapting our game is a huge positive - shows Pep isn't going to go quietly into the night

We're miles off the fitness levels of everyone else, which is to be expected. Whilst Trafford can feel hard done by, the Donnarumma looks as transformative as when Dias signed - who funnily enough seems the biggest beneficiary this time around.

I don't see us stringing together the long winning runs of previous seasons so the league is beyond us this season, but maybe we should just be concentrating on the sweet sweet Carabao
 
GXCity said:
What everyone seems to have totally overlooked is that we had zero pre-season. We would normally have 4-5 games to get up to speed, we have that under our belts now and you can see the improvement. Get 13-15 points out of the next 5 and we will be on a run
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That, and we've had a lot of injuries already too. Savinho, Gvardiol, Ait-Nouri, Marmoush, Cherki, Foden, Stones have all had periods injured. Plus Rodri still getting back to full fitness. Even yesterday Khus and O'Reilly getting knocks.

Because of that, I don't think we can really judge the whole 5 games as a sign of where we're at. Being positive, I'd look at the last three as evidence we can compete this season. A home derby, the Serie A winners and then Arsenal away. Decent three results there.

This has to be the start of things. We're in better fitness, we've got a good group of players available and simply need to kick on.

We need to win the next 4 - Huddersfield, Burnley, Monaco and Brentford. Do that and it's a great start to the seasons considering the above.

Then it's another international break and we should be looking more like the City of old.

League-wise we aren't winning it. We got a good result yesterday but we had to play a style of football a million miles away from what we'd expect. Pep will want us dominating those games with the ball so it's still longer term that we're going to be challenging for the league. But what is encouraging is that we can get results in a game like that - there's no reason we can't go and win the CL if we have the ability to play with more versatility.
 
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