Manchester City* - 130 charges (and counting...)

They really had no right to win that Leicester game; Kompany scored a goal of the likes he had never scored before or will again and Iheanacho missed a sitter. Ah well.

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All Iā€™m saying is

At the moment we seem to have some disadvantages

  • difficult festive fixtures compared to them

  • at least one - maybe 3 - extra games because of the league cup

  • AFCON

If we can overcome those things until CL restart then we have a very good chance to win the league.

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Perhaps. But in all honesty, if we miss out on the title by a narrow margin, the ones Iā€™ll rue are allowing Brentford and Brighton to nick draws before Iā€™m pissed about not turning 5-0 wins into 7-0 ones.

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And I totally agree. We could/should have taken more points from those matches. To be honest that was never in question.

My point us that in professional football when you can score goals you should score goals, as it just may cost you in the long run.

City dint go easy on Leeds, they closed the gap on our GD.
Utd demolished Ipswich years ago to do the same thing.
Easing up is a noble gesture but ultimately it could cost you.

I was making that point, I never argued the Brentford or West Ham or Brighton results, as I agree the dropping of points is way more costly.

There is a rumour that we asked him as Torres replacement. And he said that itā€™s middle of the season and asked us to wait till the end of the season. We decided to buy Carroll. Imagine Torres, Suarez and Aguero playing up top in 433 for us with Gerrard in midfield.

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The season we won the title City we were producing these results and then looking sparse in other games.

Itā€™s one game, they won the last two 1-0 as well. People seem to believe they know better than Klopp but if he had pushed for 2-3 more goals in each game and picked up more strains and more injuries then what? beating Palace 7-0 did nothing for our season.

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All those factors are still very much unimportant until we get there. I could only say AFCON is a factor that is still out there and letā€™s see how se solve these 3-4(?) league games.

We are a win away from being in a LC semi final, with the squad we have, yes please Iā€™d like an early trophy if possible. Letā€™s not make ourselves some poor Leicester or Sevilla. This side should win trophies.

Thereā€™s really, really nothing else to say other than have a look at the table every few weeks and hope to be in the conversation in all those periods, but especially near decision time.

City still play most of the time the best football out there, doesnā€™t mean theyā€™ll win it. But all that is looking too far ahead, we donā€™t know how our form and results will look like.

Iā€™m relaxed and going game by game, even as a fan. I get nothing from looking at fixtures in, I donā€™t know, March.

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Itā€™s a weighing up of risk though.

When the team have to play every few days and we havenā€™t exactly been injury free, then when you have the chance to take your foot off the gas and see out an easy thirty minutes then you take it. There are dividends later down the line if it means there is less need to rest your good players.

And we shouldnā€™t forget that there is a tendency for opposition players to throw in some wild, reckless tackles when they get frustrated. That easing off against Utd happens just after Pogba knacks Keita in frustration, to the extent he hasnā€™t really got back since. Itā€™s reasonable for the team to think at that point just killing the game is the best thing. Can you blame them, as it goes 4-1 against The Bitters, for looking at Richarlison, Pickford and Coleman snarling like wounded animals and thinking weā€™ll just keep this quiet now.

Itā€™s great for City beating Leeds 7-0, but we donā€™t know how the energy they exerted going 5, 6 and 7 will play out later on. And how would they be feeling had De Bruyne pulled up chasing a seventh goal? My feeling (non-scientific) is that on balance you are far more likely to be scuppered by injuries than you are losing the league title on goal difference. So when you have the chance to rest, take it.

Besides, on the subject of the United game, I found it far funnier making the last thirty minutes a non-event than I would have if weā€™d got eight. There was a level of total disregard and contempt to that :joy:

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No, not really.
Because people have an opinion or view doesnā€™t equate to your statement.

Looking at Kaneā€™s premier league form, I wonder if they got lucky in missing out on him, or if heā€™d be doing better in a team that wasnā€™t Spurs.

Sorry but itā€™s an opinion that is false, itā€™s one game and Iā€™m seeing people lose themselves over it for some baffling reason.

Klopp has managed this team well this season even against my own opinion. Sorry but itā€™s more than what you say.

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The trouble with this kind of thing is that itā€™s hindsight without seeing how all the other permutations play out.

If we end up finishing level with City and they snatch it on goal difference, it might be tempting to look back on games where we took our foot off the gas.

However, who is to say that on the 85th minute at Old Trafford, just after the eighth goal goes in, Harry Maguireā€™s temper boils over and he breaks Salahā€™s leg. Or Pickford does that trademark scissor tackle on Mo just as heā€™s running through for the seventh.

If the league comes down to GD I think itā€™s a bit churlish to lament the goals we didnā€™t score in the games we twatted opponents, when there are at least three silly draws we can be pissed off with first.

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An opinion is false?
At no point did I say Klopp was doing anything wrong.
I posited the view that we could have put more past Utdā€¦
Then this view that our players could be injured (@Mascot)ā€¦we werenā€™t hammering Everton when injuries occurred.

Maybe read back on my posts before deciding on churlish as a description. One in direct response to you in fact.

Is this really are discussion about not winning the league because of goal difference?

Itā€™s like Everton winning the league in September.

@GermanRed
My original post.
Innocuous enough and good point then raised by @ILLOK.
Just a discussion piece.
Of course dropping points to Brentford, Brighton, West Ham is way more costly but my point stands. I wanted us to pulverise Man Utd.
There is no real evidence that we would sustain more injuries because of scoring more goals. Just hypothesis.

I think a few took the comment out of context so there is clarity.

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Sorry - No offence intended. Just typing fast and not really thinking about the words enough.

You know what I mean though, right? If we lose the league on Goal Difference weā€™re surely not complaining we didnā€™t put more past Utd, Watford and Everton? Iā€™m zoning straight in on that fucking two points we threw away against Brighton.

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And I agreed with your point.

But the point is (which you havenā€™t answered) is that you canā€™t know what happens if we do put the hammer down and 8-0 them.

We benefitted from the energy we conserved there, and given at 5-0 their heads had gone enough to put out Naby for a month, do you really want to know what theyā€™d have done at 8-0?

The point is well made that amassing points is the most important thing. We are all on the same page there, and if we lose the title on goal difference, draws to the likes of Brighton and Brentford will hurt all the more.

So, to keep going with the goal difference discussion:

Maybe, or maybe not.

The Man Utd game, for example. We definitely looked like we could have scored 7-8 had we kept going. Instead we passed it around for the last half hour and went home with three points and a 5-0 win.

Letā€™s imagine we pressed on for more goals. Two greater risks come into play at that point. First, there is the increased risk that a key player pulls up injured. Now our prospects for more points in subsequent games might be diminished, so maybe not the best move? Second, in that game in particular, Man Utd were seeing their arse and kicking us, Iā€™m sure from embarrassment and frustration. Had we kept piling on the goals the risk seemed higher that we might have suffered an injury due to foul play.

All Iā€™m saying is, yes, there were probably more goals for us there, but Iā€™m not willing to say that the approach we took may have hindered us in the long run. I think it probably boosted our prospects, much as Iā€™d have liked to stuff them 8-0.