Who and what’s to blame?

OntarioBlue said:
Another thought just occurred to me - Rotation. Pep has become the Tinkerman. I know he has to manage the squad given the number of games we play but making so many changes from game to game seems unnecessary and kills consistency.

The Dippers barely changed their starting lineup all season. They pretty well played the same back four and front three every game and only made slight changes to the midfield.

We frequently made 5 or 6 changes every game.
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I don't think our players are fit enough to play game after game, Liverpool's look like they could play a game every day. Their fitness is way ahead of ours.
 
Withnail said:
Losing Laporte for the majority of the season and not replacing Vinny have been the 2 main factors why we have fallen behind the Dippers. Stones and Otamendi are not good enough and unfortunately Dhino's lack of pace hinders him.

A top class cb is needed to partner Laporte and let's hope the reports of city's interest in Koulibaly are true as he has the attributes required imo.
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29 though mate, I'd be amazed if we were in for him.
 
Vinny retired and Laporte badly injured.

Stones injured half the time and incapable of regaining form.

Otamendi past it.

Fernandinho 34 y.o. Silva and Aguero aging, too.

Mendy rusty and Zinchenko injured out for 2 months.

Rodri and Cancelo and Angelino new to the league and the team.

Sane badly injured.

No fairness in the first half of the season when VAR striked multiple times against us

Tiredness from the previous two seasons of enormous effort.

Bad luck with missing chances and conceding from the first shots on target.

Given all these circumstances, we are comfortably 2nd, with the best attack in the league and the best ratio of created and conceded chances. And can win another treble/quadruple, this time of cups, which no other English team has ever achieved. Amazingly, we can still have a better season than Liverpool.
 
people always want to blame everything on anything, there's nothing to blame, its a fucking hard league to win once, twice is becoming extremely hard and 3 times on the trot nearly impossible , Liverpool have lay down the challenge and we must respond, not look for blame
 
Is it just coincidence that our head coach left for Liverpool at the same time as their fitness levels improved this season? Or rather they had very little minor injuries/knocks and they were able to field a settled XI for most games. It may be Pep's way to rotate and get every player moulded into his system so that when somebody is subbed then new player slots in and there's no discernible drop in standards, something that I hear in commentary quite often. Or just incredibly unlucky with long term injuries to match winmers like Sane and Laporte. I think this season, crucially, we had to have a settled defence when Laporte got injured, put in Otamendi and stick with him. Rotate the mid and attack for sure, but the defence needed to be solid with a leader there to bollock someone if need be and keep it tight. Maybe we don't have that character once Kompany left and Eric was injured and we have to get one in the transfer window. My biggest gripe though, VAR and officials aside, is our failure to be ruthless in front of goal, all the statistics point to us being the top side in Europe for chances created, % on target etc, but I reckon for all the games we've lost this season, put away our early chances and we don't lose those games. Once the games get to 20/25 mins and it's still 0-0, I'm in the ...insert name ffs ... camp as chances go begging and wham! we're a goal down. Chelsea a prime example.

To summarise, yes we need some fresh players we all see that, but only after the FFP ruling will any of that pan out. We're still an excellent side, everybody else now thinks of us as their cup final, which is a massive statement of how far we've come in recent years. Back the team even though it's all virtual at the mo, and we have a great opportunity for more silverware in the coming weeks.

Stay positive guys!
 
What is to blame...


For me, I believe the last two seasons the success has all come from having runners, players with energy and hunger.

Having Fern in DM with his unbelievable athletism, with two creative players in front who worked there socks of D Silva, Kevin. Then you had the two wingers mainly Sterling and Bernardo who not only gave brilliance when in possession. But gave so much fight, so much energy off the ball.

This has been torn away with the constant inclusion of Gundo, Rodri, Marhez in the starting eleven. Add to that the lack of quality centre backs and a proper left back you are left with what we have witnessed this year.
 
alexmcity said:
Vinny retired and Laporte badly injured.

Stones injured half the time and incapable of regaining form.

Otamendi past it.

Fernandinho 34 y.o. Silva and Aguero aging, too.

Mendy rusty and Zinchenko injured out for 2 months.

Rodri and Cancelo and Angelino new to the league and the team.

Sane badly injured.

No fairness in the first half of the season when VAR striked multiple times against us

Tiredness from the previous two seasons of enormous effort.

Bad luck with missing chances and conceding from the first shots on target.

Given all these circumstances, we are comfortably 2nd, with the best attack in the league and the best ratio of created and conceded chances. And can win another treble/quadruple, this time of cups, which no other English team has ever achieved. Amazingly, we can still have a better season than Liverpool.
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Not too much wrong with your assessment. However I don't think our attack is as potent as the Liverpool one and neither is the overall balance of the team. We should take a good look at them and not be too proud to learn lessons from how they have gone about acquiring the players they needed to strengthen their weak positions.

Glaringly obvious we need a Left Back, Central Defender, Midfield Hard Man and a Goal Scorer (preferable quick and good in the air).
 
Gray said:
Not too much wrong with your assessment. However I don't think our attack is as potent as the Liverpool one and neither is the overall balance of the team. We should take a good look at them and not be too proud to learn lessons from how they have gone about acquiring the players they needed to strengthen their weak positions.

Glaringly obvious we need a Left Back, Central Defender, Midfield Hard Man and a Goal Scorer (preferable quick and good in the air).
Click to expand...

We create more chances and score more goals than Liverpool while conceding fewer shots. Ederson has had an underwhelming season too. The percentage of saved shots isn't good.

We have been a bit more wasteful in front of goal this season and conceded more goals than we should have, similarly to 16/17. Shit happens.

Imagine Liverpool without VVD for 6 months. People would analyse what had gone wrong for them despite the answer being pretty obvious. Pep had to use our 4th and 5th choice CBs from last season, namely Otamendi and Fernandinho, since Vinny retired, Laporte was badly injured and Stones injured or out of form for long periods. If Liverpool had to play with Lovren and Fabinho (?) at CB in most games, they would be probably even worse than us. One can reckon with injuries but one can't deal with all bad luck in advance. No amount of planning from Klopp would help his team win the title without VVD and injuries to other defenders or players of Sane's quality.
 
good comment on the DM (yes, i know):

'I think City ignored the warning signs, Liverpool were always going to come out guns blazing and City didn't spend well in the summer. Not replacing Kompany was criminal. Pep was too loyal but should have been more ruthless'
 
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