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

average start, however after the CWC and the very little preseason it was always going to take us a few weeks to get up to speed, things are starting to settle down, big pluses for us are kus and nico at fullback, gvard at CB, reindeers has swung between excellent and average, but think he is starting to get into the rhythm, shame about cherki and marmite , big erl,phil and doku are another big pluses, big erl looks like he has gone up another level.

Good to have rodri back , slowly and surely he will start to dominate again imo

Pep has learnt a few lessons from last season, but that's what the best do

Don't think we will win the league however top 4 and a decent champions league run is certainly doable , and next summer get a few more quality players in
 
We’re ahead of where I thought we would be. The team seems to be gelling well and demonstrating good resilience despite a few key injuries. There’s depth in the squad once everyone is back.

Top four and a good CL run (QFs at least) should be our minimum target this year.
 
Win the next 6 games in the league (the 6th is Liverpool) and we are champions. It's that simple.

Our aim is to be relatively close to the top, say, no more than 5-6 pts off the top after the game at Anfield in February. Then we'll have a good chance to compete for the title. That's what I expect to happen, barring injuries.
 
Not a great start, dropped more points than we have gained. However, win the next 5 which is certainly doable and that Liverpool home game becomes massive. Beat them and it’s game on. But to be in a title race, we need to win the next 5.
 
alexmcity said:
Win the next 6 games in the league (the 6th is Liverpool) and we are champions. It's that simple.

Our aim is to be relatively close to the top, say, no more than 5-6 pts off the top after the game at Anfield in February. Then we'll have a good chance to compete for the title. That's what I expect to happen, barring injuries.
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I hope you're right but I think you're going a bit too far. Let's win the next 2 games (League Cup and League).
 
What’s more important is our next 5. We’ve had a cracking week after the international break and we now have a run of good fixtures. Win all 5 and we will be right in the mix with Liverpool at home after that.
 
Marvin. said:
I hope you're right but I think you're going a bit too far.
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Nobody can be sure what's going to happen. Personally, I think we are going to put in some great performances and achieve consistency earlier than expected. Donnarumma's arrival has helped the team big time.
 
Noticeable City over the last few games against United and Arsenal the team has set up to play a lot deeper. Maybe it’s solving two problems, the high defensive line that can be opened up with a few passes and quick runners. Also what we do going forward, when we sit on teams playing a low block and the area of play condensed up with everyone camped in the oppositions half it doesn’t give our players the opportunity to play to their strengths. Haaland’s goals this season look similar to what he was doing at Dortmund charging into big spaces to be able to finish. Doku as well is getting a lot of joy too.

When we were having that run of horror results in November and December, Pep wouldn’t change his tactics and make the team harder to beat. Maybe he has learnt from that experience and instilling new ways of playing into what the team does.
 
Lots of people getting worked up about City conceding possession and playing on the counter for the last 2 PL games.

It is worth acknowledging that many teams have adopted Pep's style of play over a period of time where they are actually getting very good at it. So you end up cancelling each other out with 987 sideways passes in your own half.

I think Pep has looked into this and realised that the teams that sucker punched him in the past and stole points, did so by soaking up pressure and hitting on the counter.

It is also worth noting that Haaland is unrivalled in world football when it comes to hitting teams on the break. Give him half a pitch to run into and he will not be caught. He thrives on 1v1's.

So I'm not surprised that Pep is now utilising his best asset.

Some people need to get away from celebrating procession stats. It means nothing when you've just lost 3-0.
 
The beginning of managed decline in order to arrest it as soon as possible and once a new manager is in/Pep signing another 4-5 year contract when we might start talking about the future.
I don't see us being serious contenders to win anything big with this set of players.
 
Pep from mancity.com

“What can I say? I’m really proud, satisfied, I don’t know the right word. We recovered many things that we missed last season. We have incredible spirit. Of course, we can’t sustain the way we played all season, we don’t want it, but I give incredible credit to the opponent, Arsenal"

“They’re able to do that to the opponent, I always want to learn to celebrate when we draw and the way we draw away to Arsenal, a Champions League semi-finalist, big contenders for the last seasons, I want to celebrate that point

“Since I started my manager career in teams, I ask to give everything to the pitch and in some moments last season we didn’t do it. This season, especially since I would say the USA but also since against United we started to recover many things that defined our teams for many seasons.

“When this happened, I wouldn’t say I don’t care, it’s not the right word but I could not care less that fact we can do better. We will do it and can do some things better.

“We could make better decisions? Yeah, we do it. Play more with the ball? Yeah, we do it. But first comes the spirit that we’ve shown this week.

“We have to take care of these things like a father or mother takes care of their sons. It’s the only thing to be a stable team, step by step, when important injuries come back, we will learn to do better, and Gigi and James will settle better, the team will grow up.”
 
I am optimistic, and i recognize the talent on this team is immense. But i don't like how we play.

There is a Galactico 'Madrid' type feel to our style of play currently. Its disjointed and heavily dependent on individual brilliance. The cohesion and progressive control and incisiveness is lacking.

Haaland is great, Donna is great, Foden is great, Doku is great, Rodri is regaining form and Gvardiol looks great. Khusanov and O'Reilly look defensively superb in fullback roles. But overall the chemistry is off. The midfield 'barring Napoli' hasn't been dominant. And got dominated by Spurs with energy and by Arsenal with cohesion.

Our collective press is weak, even though time and time again, our opposition makes defensive mistakes that we don't punish because we weren't naturally in press mode.


Foden, Rodri and TJN have to work harder on better chemistry. There is too much talent between those 3 to not dominate midfield whether as a possession team or a quick strike counter team.

While i love how Khusanov has played so far, id rather he plays RB like an RCB and let the right winger ( preferably Bobb) play on the touchline more like a wingback. The O'Reilly play Wingback on the other side allowing Doku a free role on the right side similar to foden on the left with TJN/Gonzo and Rodri playing as CMs or CM and a DM role. Either way, i want Doku, Foden Rodri and TJN to form a dangerous 4 ready to either dominate or counter the opposition with intensity. The latter being a preferred style.

But regardless of our style of play, we must press better as a team..it was too easy for Arsenal this weekend. I can excuse this on the basis of conserving energy because of the miles we had played last week. But going forward, we have to be gong ho about pressing collectively.

Arsenal made 3 errors even though our press was weak. Imagine how many more we can create with a decent press.

Oh, Haaland shudda crossed to Foden... We need that instinctive chemistry back.
 
My thoughts are, good point arsenal away, always great to beat the rags, spurs dont know what i was watching, it was painful, and tje Brighton game shown at the time we couldnt see out a game like we used to, once they equalised we were like a punch drunk boxer clinging on, signs now we are improving, but overall 7.points out of 15 is not a great start
 
Dax777 said:
I am optimistic, and i recognize the talent on this team is immense. But i don't like how we play.

There is a Galactico 'Madrid' type feel to our style of play currently. Its disjointed and heavily dependent on individual brilliance. The cohesion and progressive control and incisiveness is lacking.

Haaland is great, Donna is great, Foden is great, Doku is great, Rodri is regaining form and Gvardiol looks great. Khusanov and O'Reilly look defensively superb in fullback roles. But overall the chemistry is off. The midfield 'barring Napoli' hasn't been dominant. And got dominated by Spurs with energy and by Arsenal with cohesion.

Our collective press is weak, even though time and time again, our opposition makes defensive mistakes that we don't punish because we weren't naturally in press mode.


Foden, Rodri and TJN have to work harder on better chemistry. There is too much talent between those 3 to not dominate midfield whether as a possession team or a quick strike counter team.

While i love how Khusanov has played so far, id rather he plays RB like an RCB and let the right winger ( preferably Bobb) play on the touchline more like a wingback. The O'Reilly play Wingback on the other side allowing Doku a free role on the right side similar to foden on the left with TJN/Gonzo and Rodri playing as CMs or CM and a DM role. Either way, i want Doku, Foden Rodri and TJN to form a dangerous 4 ready to either dominate or counter the opposition with intensity. The latter being a preferred style.

But regardless of our style of play, we must press better as a team..it was too easy for Arsenal this weekend. I can excuse this on the basis of conserving energy because of the miles we had played last week. But going forward, we have to be gong ho about pressing collectively.

Arsenal made 3 errors even though our press was weak. Imagine how many more we can create with a decent press.

Oh, Haaland shudda crossed to Foden... We need that instinctive chemistry back.
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I think it will take all season to get the cohesion and chemistry back. Too many new players and young players.

I just want to see us play more exciting football. Last season was Turid to watch.

I saw glimmers of a faster style of play against United in the first half and am hoping we see more of that.

Be interesting to see how we do against the inevitable Burnley low block.
 
alexmcity said:
We need to be close to the top come March. Plenty of games before that, winning the next 5 would help but is far from necessary.
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But if we can’t but a serious run together we won’t be near the top come March anyway. Already dropped 8 points, our next 5 are more than winnable so we need to gain maximum points before Liverpool.
 
cleavers said:
We've actually gained 4 points more from the equivalent games last season.

Wolves A - 0
Spurs H - 0
Brighton A - 0
united H - +3
arsenal A - +1
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That’s not what I’m saying. We have 7 points, we have dropped 8.
 
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