Where is the improving in CL?

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Getting out of the group would be an improvement.

As this is now a very long shot then no we are not improving.

In fact we are getting worse.

Mancini piling pressure on himself

 

[Chippy_boy]

It's not about the CL.

For whatever reason - changes to formation, injuries, player unrest (not that I know of any) - whatever - we just are not playing well this year.

I don't think we played worse last night than many of the performances we have seen in the league. In fact I think we played rather better.

 

[cheddar404]

Is the Pope Catholic? A very silly question.

Is the Pope on Mancini's radar for the January transfer window? That's a silly question.

 

[bapi]

Can you say one thing where we improved in CL from last year?
Anything?

(Dont talk about Real, as they were in semifinal last year only going out on penalties, so they did have a good campaign last year after all.Plu won the league)

Ajax was unlucky not to go trough from group stage last year, and they got very unlucky again this year with this group but they are not total outsiders as most of the football fans thought at the draw.
(Also their squad got weaker the summer, selling some of their best defenders and playing Ajax youngsters in their place now.)

Dortmund made big mistakes last year finishing behind Arsenal/Olympiakos/Marseille in their group with only 4 points!
But this year they get a lot harder group and seems they will be top of the group or at least go trough on 2nd place.

That's what I call improving. And that was Klopp's first year in CL. He was an inexperienced coach in CL. (Not like Mancini.) This is his only 2nd year in CL. And he beats Real at home, Ajax at home, they dominated us at Etihad big time, only Hart made us avoid a horrible loss. They get a draw at the Bernabeu.
(Dont even say their best earning player would on the lower part of City's wage list...)

Also their player didnt have experience in CL. Lewandowski, Reus, Götze, Gundögan, Subotic, Hummels etc never played in CL before. Maybe only Kehl.
While we had some players who played 20-30-50 CL matches before. Nasri, Silva, Tevez, Yaya, Balotelli, even Dzeko at Wolfsburg, Agüero maybe at Atletico.

Really dissapointing CL campaign for City. Can we say next year we will be better? Last year we said, and then this happened...

We can be lucky with an easier group meaning getting Dinamo Zagreb and and like Anderlecht in the group to make sure we not fail again as they are even lot weaker than Ajax.

But we wont be closer with that to the elite (Real, Barca, Bayern) or to the really strong teams (Dortmund, Sahtar, Napoli, Juventus) or even the good ones like Ajax.

We didnt improve in anything. Defence is not better, attacking is not better, we had problems with corners too, this year as well, we knew exactly where we made our mistakes last year (not beating Napoli at home was the biggest imo) and then now we go out at home and play like shit against Dortmund now against Ajax we concede silly joke goals from corners. Frank de Boer probably couldnt belive at that moment they are 2-0 up after 25 minutes.

The only thing changed for us is we got a harder group and for that reason we get lot less points.

Agree with you, mate. 100%.

 

[Deleted member 14625]

Our group this year is in a different league to last year, so it's hard to judge.

Last year we had one of the top four sides in Europe in there, plus one team who finished 23 points of the top of their league and another team who were relegated from their league.

This year we've got two of the top four sides in Europe in there, plus one team full of quick passing and quick running young talented midfielders who we tend to struggle against.

There's really no comparison with the quality of the groups.


Both years we've looked very naive, sometimes tactically and very much so player-wise. Some of our players are very good in the Premier League but simply aren't good, or quick (of thought, of feet, of running) enough at this level against some of the very best in Europe.

I'd like our squad to evolve for another year or two before i start putting demands on them in the Champions League. We won the Prem one year earlier than i thought we would. We'll likely get another tough draw next season but hopefully we will start to see some improvements by the end of the group phase next season.

So far we've played ten CL games...ten. It took Roberto - after winning three Serie A titles in a row - a good season and a half to really suss out the Prem (and he still struggles in certain areas, that i'm sure he'll address over the coming years). So i'm sure he will (and our players too) suss out a formula in the CL at some point soon too.

Things just don't happen, you have to work hard for things to work out. Some things take longer than others.

 

[sears1234]

One improvement: Tevez doesn't refuse to play this time. :)

 

[baildon blue]

It's not about the CL.

For whatever reason - changes to formation, injuries, player unrest (not that I know of any) - whatever - we just are not playing well this year.

I don't think we played worse last night than many of the performances we have seen in the league. In fact I think we played rather better.

Spot on again Chippy-boy you are the main man on the forum

 

[Corky]

We are two years in, we will get better and better.

Has any team, spending money or not, won the CL at the first or second time of asking? How long did it take the Mighty Stretford, or those arrogant farts Munich? And at the second time of asking did MANUre get a group which reflected the quality of the group we're in this season?

Olympic Marsiille
AC Milan
Ajax
Real Madrid

It was easier to do when it was new :)

 

[Bluemoon115]

We are two years in, we will get better and better.

Has any team, spending money or not, won the CL at the first or second time of asking? How long did it take the Mighty Stretford, or those arrogant farts Munich? And at the second time of asking did MANUre get a group which reflected the quality of the group we're in this season?

How about winning a game?

 

[ob]

Think draw has been unkind to say least