Re: The Football Chat Thread : Fri Nov 05, 2010 8:25 am  

Magic man wrote:

Liverpool are coming. It would be refreshing to hear Liverpool fans give Roy Hodgson some credit for three straight victories.

If they make it four he'll probably start to get credit, but right now he's not deserving of any.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Fri Nov 05, 2010 10:19 am  

Lord God Jose Mourinho wrote:

If they make it four he'll probably start to get credit, but right now he's not deserving of any.

I think they'll win sunday. That's if Gerrard doesn't play for Chelsea again, which I doubt he will this time.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Fri Nov 05, 2010 10:29 am  

Think Chelsea will win by a goal or two myself. We invite teams on to us too much. The centre-halves have been playing well, but we won't be able to keep out Drogba for 90 mins if he's allowed to play in and around the 18 yard box.

IF we did so happen to win, then I think most fans will jump off Roy's back and admit we're starting to turn a corner.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Fri Nov 05, 2010 10:34 am  

Looks like Mancini's feeling the pressure. The striking thing about the 3 defeats is that the performances and reasons for the defeats have been very different.

The Arsenal match was a disappointing result but not that bad a performance and was obviously affected by the early sending off.

The Woves performance was dire and probably Mancini's worst game as manager. He just got the tactics, selection and substitutions horribly wrong.

Yesterday showed that, whilst we have a deep squad, it isnt good enough that we can rest 8 or 9 of our best players. It was especially noticeable how poor were those players that had been signed by the previous manager but are obviously not rated by Mancini. That, in itself, might make the owners think twice about another change of manager.

I still think that if we can get back to closer to our best line up we can put this run behind us. Only 1 or 2 (Milner and/or Johnson) of yesterday's starting 11 are likely to start in the derby. But these results have definitely increased the pressure on the manager and players for the next 2 games.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Fri Nov 05, 2010 10:58 am  

Dan_FC wrote:

:lol: I gave 2/10 for sarcasim, he can't be serious, surely?

He can!

It's alright being astounded from a distance but you don't watch them week in, week out. You are not seeing what's happening. Then again, half of the City fans are too thick to see it too, so I cant expect someone who doesn't watch us not to grasp it.

I can’t remember feeling so deflated about my club as I do now. In theory the chances of success are better than ever but that’s what makes what is going on all the more upsetting. We should be seeing signs that we are getting there, yet it’s going the other way and the entertainment value is starting to rival that of the Stuart Pearce era. I should be going there enjoying some great football played by a multi-talented squad, yet I got significantly more enjoyment watching our less than brilliant squad, battling their hearts out to get out of the second tier under Joe Royle when the team was together, the tactics were atsute and for the one season out of the 31 I watched us, the team possibly over-achieved rather than under-achieved. This SHOULD be the best team we have ever had, yet they consistently look like a team of strangers, struggling to adapt to their manager's anti-football tactics.

The truth of the matter is that we have spent £325 million and look no nearer to success than we did two years ago. This season we have played well twice. Once when we beat an awful Liverpool side and scored from our only three shots on target and once against Chelsea, which suited us down to the ground because it wasn’t a game we were expected to ask any attacking questions in.

We have been beaten by Arsenal and poor Sunderland and Wolves sides. We drew at home to a poor Blackburn side and we have scraped undeserved wins against three relegation candidates in Wigan, Newcastle and Blackpool. The latter two certainly would have got results if it had not been for the fortunate interventions of the officials.
It’s not just that though, it’s the football. It’s absolutely awful. There is no pace, no power, no tempo and no ability or want to put the opposition under any form of pressure. Either the players don’t want to be motivated or the manager is unable to motivate them but either way the only time any passion shows is when we are playing the big three. I’d blame the work shy players more if it wasn’t for the blatant negativity of the tactics.

Last night just summed up the Mancini era. They are a poor side. They have demonstrated that perfectly by being near the foot of the Polish league all season. Yet we never once thought of attacking them apart from five minutes after half time when 1-0 down and for a couple of minutes after we went 2-1 down. We just sat back, strolled around, playing it at the usual one-paced, unadventurous walking pace, hoping that we might just get a break at one stage. We don’t even want to play near the opponent’s box. It’s typical negative Italian rubbish.

The sad thing is that I know from experience that if we sacked Mancini, we’d end up with someone no better or bloody worse, because that’s the way things work at our place. We constantly appoint clown after clown.

Out of that £325 million, I wager £250 million of it has been totally squandered. All that money and without Carlos Tevez and David Silva we don’t even look like a top half team.

One thing I could guarantee, if clubs like Spurs, Everton or Villa had been given the amount of money we were given over two years ago to get up there with the big boys, they’d be ripping up trees by now, they wouldn’t be deep into November still awaiting their team to play one decent game of attacking football.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Fri Nov 05, 2010 1:48 pm  

Chelsea will win easily.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Fri Nov 05, 2010 4:39 pm  

One of the new Liverpool owners has come out in favour of the "39th game".

****ing clueless.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Fri Nov 05, 2010 4:47 pm  

D.D. wrote:

He can!

It's alright being astounded from a distance but you don't watch them week in, week out. You are not seeing what's happening. Then again, half of the City fans are too thick to see it too, so I cant expect someone who doesn't watch us not to grasp it.

I can’t remember feeling so deflated about my club as I do now. In theory the chances of success are better than ever but that’s what makes what is going on all the more upsetting. We should be seeing signs that we are getting there, yet it’s going the other way and the entertainment value is starting to rival that of the Stuart Pearce era. I should be going there enjoying some great football played by a multi-talented squad, yet I got significantly more enjoyment watching our less than brilliant squad, battling their hearts out to get out of the second tier under Joe Royle when the team was together, the tactics were atsute and for the one season out of the 31 I watched us, the team possibly over-achieved rather than under-achieved. This SHOULD be the best team we have ever had, yet they consistently look like a team of strangers, struggling to adapt to their manager's anti-football tactics.

The truth of the matter is that we have spent £325 million and look no nearer to success than we did two years ago. This season we have played well twice. Once when we beat an awful Liverpool side and scored from our only three shots on target and once against Chelsea, which suited us down to the ground because it wasn’t a game we were expected to ask any attacking questions in.

We have been beaten by Arsenal and poor Sunderland and Wolves sides. We drew at home to a poor Blackburn side and we have scraped undeserved wins against three relegation candidates in Wigan, Newcastle and Blackpool. The latter two certainly would have got results if it had not been for the fortunate interventions of the officials.
It’s not just that though, it’s the football. It’s absolutely awful. There is no pace, no power, no tempo and no ability or want to put the opposition under any form of pressure. Either the players don’t want to be motivated or the manager is unable to motivate them but either way the only time any passion shows is when we are playing the big three. I’d blame the work shy players more if it wasn’t for the blatant negativity of the tactics.

Last night just summed up the Mancini era. They are a poor side. They have demonstrated that perfectly by being near the foot of the Polish league all season. Yet we never once thought of attacking them apart from five minutes after half time when 1-0 down and for a couple of minutes after we went 2-1 down. We just sat back, strolled around, playing it at the usual one-paced, unadventurous walking pace, hoping that we might just get a break at one stage. We don’t even want to play near the opponent’s box. It’s typical negative Italian rubbish.

The sad thing is that I know from experience that if we sacked Mancini, we’d end up with someone no better or bloody worse, because that’s the way things work at our place. We constantly appoint clown after clown.

Out of that £325 million, I wager £250 million of it has been totally squandered. All that money and without Carlos Tevez and David Silva we don’t even look like a top half team.

One thing I could guarantee, if clubs like Spurs, Everton or Villa had been given the amount of money we were given over two years ago to get up there with the big boys, they’d be ripping up trees by now, they wouldn’t be deep into November still awaiting their team to play one decent game of attacking football.

Nice, honest assessment of things that mate. As you say from an outsider it's probably all too easy to just think things are very rosey. I was very surprised by last night's result, They are a poor side this year and I thought you'd win comfortably, especially when you got level. Would you really sack Mancini this early? There's no stability if managers aren't going to be given time to get a squad, Mancini is surely still building his squad and getting his team together. I've only saw when you've been on TV this season and you've put some decent performances in, beat Liverpool comfortably, put in a great defensive display against Chelsea and got you win.

You're still fourth in the league though and every chance of making the top four this season, would that be such a bad thing?

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Fri Nov 05, 2010 4:47 pm  

Lord God Jose Mourinho wrote:

One of the new Liverpool owners has come out in favour of the "39th game".

****ing clueless.

They took over Liverpool, sums them clowns up.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Fri Nov 05, 2010 6:36 pm  

City finished the 2007/08 season 32 points behind the champions, losing our final match 8-1 at Boro.

Our starting line up for the first game of the following season, just before the takeover was: Hart, Corluka, Ben Haim, Richards, Garrido, Etuhu, Fernandes,Johnson, Petrov, Elano, Evans.

Our line up against United next week should be something like: Hart, Boateng, Kompany, Toure, Kolorov, de Jong, Barry, Milner/Johnson, Toure, Silva, Tevez.

I'm not aware of any managers that have built teams without wasting money on duff players. Names like Kleberson, Veron, Djemba Djemba, Jeffers, Wright, Shevchenko, Kezman spring to mind. The pace that City have tried to progress and our starting point has inevitably meant that we would have a higher turnover of players and more failures than more settled teams.

It always seemed to me that City's progress would be a case of two steps forward, one step back. I dont think that the past couple of seasons has been any better or worse than could realistically have been expected.