Which is the more desperate scenario?

[SOUTHSTANDINGSTANDER]

Its clearly much more difficult for City to win 12 consective games than to win 6. Given the number of games and our form its almost certain we will drop further points. If, say, we win 11 and lose 1 of our remaining fixtures we would have done very well.

That would still mean that United would have to lose 5 of their remaining 12 fixtures. Its not that unlikely that they will have a dip in form similar to last season and drop 6-8 points. Any team can have a run of 3 games without winning. But they would have to have major slump for them to lose 4 or 5 games out of 12. That appears to be extremely unlikely.

We need to get away from this "if Utd lose" situation, there are effectively 9 points between us now IF we win the Derby (10 if you count goal difference).

Although it is an almost impossible task to win the league from here, the one thing we don't want to be doing is give up. We need to fight right until the end. A couple of weeks ago we were almost just 2 points behind and look how quickly things have changed. A couple of draws even for Utd and a couple of wins for us and it's back on again, We are running out of games and I fully expect Utd to win it from here as most do, but the one thing we mustn't do is give in while there's still a mathematical chance.

Strange things can happen in football and we have to keep going right until the end.

Let's get behind the lads! CTID!

 

[A man called sun]

The size of the gap and number of games left doesn't really matter when your playing as badly as we are at the moment.

 

[Citizen52]

Does it really matter what the attitude on here is when the players attitude currently stinks (bar a few)?
Correct me if I am wrong but you dont get points for having a good attitude on your forum?

You're pretty much basing all this on one piss poor performance. It is a premature conclusion. The proof of the pudding will be in the reaction. I'm sorry to keep harping back to last season, but it is undeniable that the exact same things were being said about the players now were being said last April with six games to play.

Look at what we had already done to some teams last season by this point - hammered Spurs and United away and hammered a number of sides at home. We are not playing anything like as well as that this time round.

Last term to me it was inexplicable how we went from that to being behind like we were but as soon as we beat WBA 4-0 and Norwich 6-1 the football we had displayed for the majority of the season had come back to the fore. Plus there was the second derby win.

I know a bad performance like on Saturday can exaggerate a situation and we were close until recently but I just feel there are certain signs you look for in champions (like the games and key performances we displayed last term) and I'd be surprised if we are looking at this as a title winning season. They may well be looking at RVP as their catalyst.

Hopefully we can claw it back but my head says one thing and my heart another - need to have a serious crack at the FA Cup and regroup in the summer and see where we can improve.

 

[City Raider]

we were the best team last season, this season we're not

 

[Pam]

Its clearly much more difficult for City to win 12 consective games than to win 6. Given the number of games and our form its almost certain we will drop further points. If, say, we win 11 and lose 1 of our remaining fixtures we would have done very well.

That would still mean that United would have to lose 5 of their remaining 12 fixtures. Its not that unlikely that they will have a dip in form similar to last season and drop 6-8 points. Any team can have a run of 3 games without winning. But they would have to have major slump for them to lose 4 or 5 games out of 12. That appears to be extremely unlikely.

We need to get away from this "if Utd lose" situation, there are effectively 9 points between us now IF we win the Derby (10 if you count goal difference).

Although it is an almost impossible task to win the league from here, the one thing we don't want to be doing is give up. We need to fight right until the end. A couple of weeks ago we were almost just 2 points behind and look how quickly things have changed. A couple of draws even for Utd and a couple of wins for us and it's back on again, We are running out of games and I fully expect Utd to win it from here as most do, but the one thing we mustn't do is give in while there's still a mathematical chance.

Strange things can happen in football and we have to keep going right until the end.

Let's get behind the lads! CTID!

They don't necessarily have to lose five games at all. A couple of entirely feasible defeats together with an admittedly less likely succession of draws would get the job done on their end of things. It would be a tall order for us to win our last eleven or twelve, of course, and I accept that on present form, this is unlikely. But after what happened in the 2011/12 season, I refuse to say all is lost. An eight point lead was surrendered over the course of just four games and the gap was breached in breathtakingly short order (by which I mean literally within the space of a fortnight or less).
Don't forget we went from an eight point deficit to being back on top of the table by GD before our final two fixtures of the season were even played.

Needless, to say, I am hoping against hope that history will repeat. If there is even the merest sniff of a raggy bad patch, our players won't need asking twice about fighting on. I am absolutely convinced of this. We have virtually the same group of players that must have been thoroughly off with the scum fans antics of wearing their "Why Always We (20)" T-Shirts" and banging on about being given a guard of honour at ours and wondering out loud about which of their fringe players had played enough games to be given a winners medal. And then this utter twuntiness was capped by the load shooting paying out of bets by the usual raggy suspects. I really think this got to our team last year and went some way to explaining how we managed to win those last six games by hook or by crook. If they do let us back into it, we'll have them. And if not, there's always next year. Oh how I would love to win it from here, though.

 

[MCFC BOB]

You're mixing the scenario we faced last season and the one we face this season. Last season we did all we could to win the league, but United wouldn't fuck off. In the end they did what we're doing now and fucked it all up, and we capitalised. The way we're playing now, United could still fuck up but we won't be there to capitalise because we're playing shit and are not doing what is required of a team to A) defend it's title and B) catch the team in front of it.

spot on - plus last season hurt fergie and he won't let them slip up like that again

Its not about how hurt Fergie is, its about whether they can sustain the run they're on. I say they can't. Their squad is aging and punching above its weight.

God, how many times since 2008 have we been saying that United don't deserve to be where they are because they're "shite really and only top because of FA bias" or "punching above their weight"? Face it, United are an effective side with quality where it matters. Whereas we're currently nowhere near in terms of effectiveness, togetherness and, to put it bluntly, putting the ball in the fucking goal. This meltdown and utter capitulation has been coming all season, and the men in charge (messrs Mancini, Marwood, Kidd and Platt) have done nothing to avoid it. Even after the disastrous summer we had, we had a chance to sort things out, to change the system - and for a week or so after the Sunderland loss, we did. We stuck Milner out wide, Dzeko in the middle, Javi Garcia in midfield and won four games on the trot without conceding a goal. But then Nasri comes back into the fucking team, does half the job Milner did and we go back to the slow, ponderous football that has seen us fall to 2nd in the first place. Milner then has to fit back in at right-midfield, re-adjust, and our defence suffered as a result. Southampton? No words. Kompany passed a fitness test before the game but we had Garcia out of position and lost the game.

We need a drastic change and we need it now.

 

[Pam]

spot on - plus last season hurt fergie and he won't let them slip up like that again

Its not about how hurt Fergie is, its about whether they can sustain the run they're on. I say they can't. Their squad is aging and punching above its weight.

God, how many times since 2008 have we been saying that United don't deserve to be where they are because they're "shite really and only top because of FA bias" or "punching above their weight"? Face it, United are an effective side with quality where it matters. Whereas we're currently nowhere near in terms of effectiveness, togetherness and, to put it bluntly, putting the ball in the fucking goal. This meltdown and utter capitulation has been coming all season, and the men in charge (messrs Mancini, Marwood, Kidd and Platt) have done nothing to avoid it. Even after the disastrous summer we had, we had a chance to sort things out, to change the system - and for a week or so after the Sunderland loss, we did. We stuck Milner out wide, Dzeko in the middle, Javi Garcia in midfield and won four games on the trot without conceding a goal. But then Nasri comes back into the fucking team, does half the job Milner did and we go back to the slow, ponderous football that has seen us fall to 2nd in the first place. Milner then has to fit back in at right-midfield, re-adjust, and our defence suffered as a result. Southampton? No words. Kompany passed a fitness test before the game but we had Garcia out of position and lost the game.

We need a drastic change and we need it now.

You should apply for Bobby's job, you should. Why are you passing up the chance to earn £ 6 mill a year? Get in there, ffs.

 

[MCFC BOB]

Its not about how hurt Fergie is, its about whether they can sustain the run they're on. I say they can't. Their squad is aging and punching above its weight.

God, how many times since 2008 have we been saying that United don't deserve to be where they are because they're "shite really and only top because of FA bias" or "punching above their weight"? Face it, United are an effective side with quality where it matters. Whereas we're currently nowhere near in terms of effectiveness, togetherness and, to put it bluntly, putting the ball in the fucking goal. This meltdown and utter capitulation has been coming all season, and the men in charge (messrs Mancini, Marwood, Kidd and Platt) have done nothing to avoid it. Even after the disastrous summer we had, we had a chance to sort things out, to change the system - and for a week or so after the Sunderland loss, we did. We stuck Milner out wide, Dzeko in the middle, Javi Garcia in midfield and won four games on the trot without conceding a goal. But then Nasri comes back into the fucking team, does half the job Milner did and we go back to the slow, ponderous football that has seen us fall to 2nd in the first place. Milner then has to fit back in at right-midfield, re-adjust, and our defence suffered as a result. Southampton? No words. Kompany passed a fitness test before the game but we had Garcia out of position and lost the game.

We need a drastic change and we need it now.

You should apply for Bobby's job, you should. Why are you passing up the chance to earn £ 6 mill a year? Get in there, ffs.

You know what I said is true, Pam, and we've all been slowly realising it since we were embarrassed in the Champions' League but are too afraid to say something because of what we achieved last season.

Plain and simple, the style of football we play is too slow. From Hart it goes to one of either Kompany or Lescott, who plays a five-yard pass to Barry or one of the full-backs. By the time the ball reaches Silva or Nasri, we've stopped clicking into gear the way we did in the beginning and end stages of last season. Watch the difference between us attacking against Norwich in the 6-1 (specifically Aguero's first goal) and us attacking against QPR with exactly the same front four.

When most teams come to the Etihad they don't tend to apply pressure off the ball, and give us plenty of time in our own half. Yaya Toure is often the player who benefits from this the most, as he can pick out one of Silva, Aguero, Tevez, etc. waiting in and around the box. But once it gets there we don't think quickly enough. I don't know why, but Aguero and Tevez have gone from being two players on the same wavelength to two players that look like they've never looked each other in the eye before. Now for roughly 80% of the fixtures we play over a season, we get away with that and still win 2-0/3-0 because we're just about good enough. But in Europe and most away games (both this season and last season), whenever we have to think quickly against organised teams that press us back into our own half, we lose our heads and our confidence and we get exposed for what we really are - a team that plays far too slowly.

Now you look at United. A player gets the ball, be it Carrick, Rooney or whoever, and their first thought is "Right, forward, go!" because their plan is drilled into their skulls. Carrick's first ball is to Valencia, who knows he only has to beat his man and find a cross quickly because he knows Van Persie or Hernandez will be on the end of it. Do you see the same kind of decisiveness when Silva has the ball anymore? No. We're too busy focusing on trying to create the most intricate goal that we mess it up and have to start again. How many goals can you recall us scoring from outside the area? Now do the same for United. We're too timid for the quality we have and it's hurting us. We've had no width in the team since Mancini took over, and we're slowly losing desire.

This upcoming summer will be one of change.

 

[Pam]

spot on - plus last season hurt fergie and he won't let them slip up like that again

Its not about how hurt Fergie is, its about whether they can sustain the run they're on. I say they can't. Their squad is aging and punching above its weight.

God, how many times since 2008 have we been saying that United don't deserve to be where they are because they're "shite really and only top because of FA bias" or "punching above their weight"?

Too many stupid teams have played the occasion with United more than the team of 11 put in front of them. Its up to us to change that by doing a bit of our own domination over the course of the next two seasons and this process should be starting now.

 

[MCFC BOB]

It has already started, we're just not seeing it on the pitch - yet.