Has Karen seen that yet?
If I were that poster I would be very worried.
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Multiple factors. They still donât have leaders on the pitch. We kind of face similar problem when Hendo isnât playing. Pure talent can win you few games, but when the chips are down you need players like Hendo in our case and Kompany, Silva etc. who will lead the team.
Agree on D Silva part as well, havenât replaced his creativity. They are too reliant on De Bruyne to make something happen. Think Aguero missing is also a factor. And Pepâs style usually gets found out, itâs a similar pattern for years with no chance except the personnel doing it.
Somewhere our title win last year and being persistent despite the setbacks plus us still going strong despite the injury concerns is creating that sense of giving this up already within their ranks.
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I think the rot started setting in when Kompany left, and the lose of D. Silva only exasperated the lack of leadership in the squad without those 2
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Yeah, maybe. Coming into a relentlessly successful side can be difficult as there is a tendency to rest on the laurels earned by the players who came before you and put in the hard work. Who is making sure that everyone maintains those minute to minute high standards? Itâs difficult reliably diagnosing this sort of effect because it really is difficult to judge what sort of leadership exists in a group you are not a part of. But it does seem likely that Kompany was a driving force behind this mentality even when he didnt make it onto the pitch.
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I think itâs all down to Sterlingâs haircuts tbh.
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Mostly down to individuals and a drop in intensity Iâd say. At their best City could suffocate the opposition high up the pitch and deal with the counter attack, even when they had Otamendi and Stones at the back they could still look solid in most games.
Fernandinho was huge in the midfield. He was incredibly good at stopping a counter attack on his own, probably the best in the world. Heâs far too old for that now and Rodri is woefully incapable of doing so. If you donât have the mobility and awareness Fernandinho had as the â6â youâre going to suffer with the way City play. Couple that with a drop in pressing intensity from the forward line and you have a recipe for getting stung on the counter attack over and over again.
David Silva remained a top quality player even into last year. It was just assumed that Foden and B.Silva could just take over but itâs not so easy. There are very few more creative players in the game than D.Silva and itâs showing. I think it was the Bournemouth game after lockdown that he absolutely ran the show for City and if youâd seen that performance it was obvious they would miss him this year. His current side, Real Sociedad, are currently sitting top of La Liga and hopefully weâll see them humiliate United in the EL too.
Kompany is a miss at the back. He wasnât an ever present in Cityâs two most dominant years but he was still knocking about and still played enough in vital moments. A top class centre back and a leader, little more needs to be said.
Sane was immense in 17/18 and very important in 18/19 too, despite not always starting. He was a difference maker in games when City werenât at their best, they lack his power and skill now. Torres, Mahrez etc are good players but theyâre not as dynamic as he was in those years.
City have failed to recruit as well as they did at the start of the decade. Theyâve bought some good players in, but few who I think can match the contributions of the previous bunch. Long may that continue.
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And just as an aside for any gamblers on here, you can usually get very good odds on City games these days.
I won a few hundred quid betting against them in the Lyon tie last year, Lyon were at a ridiculously long price. Last night I stuck 2 quid on WBA at 25-1 but the draw was 12-1.
Some easy money to be made if that trend continues.
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For a team that hasnât won 3 games in a row in a long time, it seems youâd be up in the long run with those odds by just putting a fiver on them every game to not win.
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They have got no plan B. In large parts, Pep is to blame for this.
Last 3 league matches:
vs Fulham - no subs used (granted they won 3-0 easily)
vs manU - only 1 sub used (0-0)
vs WBA - only 2 subs used (1-1)
Iâve found that heâs very reluctant to make use of substitutions just to switch things around a bit, even for tactical reasons.
Pep is broken because of
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Love Sicily, love it. Stayed in Cefalu. Hired a car, and as Iâm a big fan of The Godfather, drove to Corleone. Nothing there, hahaha. Then carried on to Agrigento, drove down the coast, stayed at Siracusa, Mt Etna, Taormina and back to Cefalu. Gave Catania a miss.
Palermo, fantastic City. Great food, beautiful island, very traditional.
Recommended wine? A bottle of Nero Diavolo.
Man City? I think itâs simply losing their best players. David Silva in particular, what a clever, skillful player. Pep isnât the genius heâs made out to be. Top, top manager but not the 2nd coming.
I thought Barcelona played more attractive football under Rijkaard and Bayern more dynamic football under??? Who was manager before? Anyway he made both teams into a machine. But I find his football a bit tedious.
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Proof that xG is a meaningless predictor in football. Fivethirtyeightâs predictor model still has them as one of the best teams in the world and a favorite to win the league from here. Load of old arse.
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Far too early to write them off for the title. They are only five points behind us, which is nothing really at this stage, and they are still the main favourites for the title in my book, alongside us.
Tottenham have established themselves as serious outsiders. Donât think that the likes of Chelsea, Leicester, Utd have the consistency to make it over a full season. But it will remain relatively close as all teams will continue to lose points.
So, the business end of the season might well be the decider: which team will be in form then, have less injuries etc.? Weâll see, no-one can know this right now. But City remain our main opponents for me, especially as they can always decide to splash a hundred millions or two on new players in January.
Thatâs why them continuing to lose points right now is a blessing. Five points is not much right now, but it could make the difference in the end. Maybe.
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i wonder if thereâs an aspect where they havenât evolved tactically at all? Pep has been banging the same drum, attacking the same spaces, same plays etc. Teams have got used to it.
That said they had 20+ chances against West Brom I believe and didnât convert them. Aguero maybe??
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Agreed. Itâs a weird season and rather tight around the top. Even Bayern and Juventus arenât having it their way.
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Iâm with Hopeâs point below, they are still the team I most look for dropping points. Interesting it felt like a few seasons back yesterday when City lost to Newcastle and then we failed to beat Leicester or West Ham and doing so it ended up being the difference in the title.
However I do agree that xG seems to be one of the most pointless stats going, it probably is more accurate than it looks but having watched MOTD and seeing it post match it very rarely coicides.
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Couldnât the difference just as well have been the draw to Chelsea in September, the draw to City in October, the draw to Arsenal in November, the loss to City in January, the draw to United in February, the draw to Everton in March?
I donât really understand the point of trying to define a moment that the league was lost.
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What games did you expect us to win that season?
Thatâs how I go about it, I wouldnât say we lost it there, like we didnât lose it at Stoke because of Rafaâs rant but we should have won one of those games regardless.
I just felt looking back that we should have taken advantage and we didnât, the difference is with last season we did and though we hadnât for the last couple of weeks we did this week, to me it bodes well.
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This âyour city is poorer than my city!â rhetoric shouldâve fucked off out of the game a long time ago, but these cunts and their scum friends in red are intent on keeping it alive.
I know itâs not unique to the Manc clubs, but fuck me, itâs 99% of anything they write about our club/the city. Youâd think Manchester was paved with gold.
Looks pretty embarrassing to me, boys, thatâs all. But crack on if itâs all youâve got.
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xG is never good at predictions as @PeachesEnRegalia correctly pointed out about the ridiculous overestimate of Cityâs title chances in FiveThirtyEightâs soccer power index model.
You can use xG after a game to analyse how your teamâs best goal-scoring opportunities were created and feed that knowledge into tactics in the next games against opponents who tend to set up the same way.
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