CITY XI: Ortega, Lewis, Stones, Akanji, Gvardiol, Kovacic, Gundogan, Bernardo (C), Foden, Grealish, Haaland
Subs: Carson, Walker, Ake, Doku, De Bruyne, Savinho, Simpson-Pusey, O'Reilly, McAtee
Come on ffs
String team and very strong squad despite Dias absence and Rodri out for the year.
We need to get back to winning today and show our metal to recovery.
Come on City, champions 4 in a row.
A minute in and already a shambles
A goal down already and being outplayed again.
This is getting serious.
At least we created a few chances later in the half because for half an hour we were completely toothless as well as being inept at the back again. It doesn't look like a turning point is coming to be honest.
Matty Cash must have committed about 10 fouls to get his booking. Persistent fouling isn't punished quickly enough.
It is painful watching us these days. Just like watching the same movie plot over and over again. Opponents pack defence, then play a quick break out and pass the ball through our sleepy defence and score.
Game after game after game and nothing changes. Still the same slow build up to create practically zero chances and zero goals.
Grealish has a free hand but created next to nothing.
We had one decent chance Foden and then one quick break chance near half time and not much more than that.
C'mon City waken up.
We have to make a change before it is two nil
It was so obviously coming and he did nothing
We have got worse second half and now two nil.
Could be four nil, we are pathetic.
Quote from: gavin on December 21, 2024, 13:54:18It was so obviously coming and he did nothing
That's what amazes me.
This is relegation form.... :'(
The more the game went on the more AV realised we are a leaky sieve and became confident and even cocky.
Why did we bring change after 60 minutes is bewildering.
It midfield is practically non existent.
Quote from: Vickki on December 21, 2024, 13:56:59This is relegation form.... :'(
I think you are overrating us Vikki. We simply are not that good lol.
I have the feeling we could play for there hours and not score and not even create a decent chance. We are that bad.
Bringing on Savinho and Doku is like waving the white flag, so lightweight and no reliable goals in them (like most other players on our team).
We simply make teams look good we are that bad.
Simply atrocious second half and no real attempt to change it at any stage either.
Quote from: gavin on December 21, 2024, 14:13:10Simply atrocious second half and no real attempt to change it at any stage either.
The disgraceful thing is after a weeks rest we were outplayed because they worked much much harder than we did. Unacceptable.
A consolation goal well taken by Phil
We need a whole lot of fixing in the team.
Not much of a consolation to me. That performance was simply unacceptable.
Quote from: KunDB on December 21, 2024, 14:00:15I think you are overrating us Vikki. We simply are not that good lol.
I'm not saying we will be related, but 1 win and 8 losses in 12 games is relegation form.
I hate to say it but Everton at home now is a must win, or an absolute minimum, do not lose and play well. Or Pep has to go.
Can't believe I'm saying this but Peps showing no signs of being able to turn this form around.
As I have said before Pep as earned the right to turn it around. As we can all see it will take time. This side has looked tired, im my view, after the super cup win. This side has played more first team games than another club.
The injuries are not helping but I think that cannot be used as an excuse for our current form.
We cannot expect to win the league every season or win every game. City are not a machine, they are a collective of humans, which expose them to human behaviors, which includes mistakes.
The team are not playing well, today they passed the ball around in midfield creating nothing. I think Haaland touch the ball once in the Villa box indicating a lack of creativity whereas in the past we have scored from many positions with multiple scorers: this we are currently not doing.
Further to this, I think fate is playing it's part, which Pep cannot do anything.
This season we need to accept that it is not going to go as we'd hoped. Play out the season and have a total rebuild in the summer, to many aged players now. Our build ups are slow,they seem a yard slower then 2 seasons ago. That is due to tiredness, which leads to lack of concentration as we have seen in recent weeks.
We would be making a massive mistake to get rid of Pep, cannot even believe anyone could consider that.
If this carries on the players need to be gone not the manager. Get rid of the manager sends the worse possible message to players and puts the power in their hands. They are the ones failing and that was blatantly obvious in this game particularly the second half half-hearted performance. They should be ashamed. At least Foden tried, many didn't.
Pep has managed us fantastically well for many years. It would be incredibly short sighted to get rid of him after a couple of months of shitness. I'd back him to get us promoted next season :P .
Pep needs to rebuild in the summer, however, he needs to begin in January.
Quote from: gavin on December 21, 2024, 21:16:37Pep has managed us fantastically well for many years. It would be incredibly short sighted to get rid of him after a couple of months of shitness. I'd back him to get us promoted next season :P .
Gavin, we not been relegated: yet! 🤣🤣🤣
Relegation battle
The powers that be at City will be very concerned by what's going on. City not in the CL next phase, missing out on CL next season, even relegation. These are all scenarios unthinkable at the start of the season but are now real threats.
We've been in a rut for a long time yet not trying anything new.
We could get a new 10 point deduction this season and it'll be enough to send us down!
I feel we failed badly in last summers transfer window. We failed to cover our players who are getting older and those injury prone, KdB, Walker, Stones & Bernardo and even worse still (in hindsight) we bought another older player Gundogan making things worse in midfield through a lack of legs and pace.
The players putting pressure on these first team players are good but simply not good enough and they have a lack of scoring power: Doku and Savinho prime examples. While they can play they often fail to create and nearly always fail to score. That said they do need time to develop.
Some players have just not hit form.
All this is a storm in a teacup, everything going wrong at the same time.
I genuinely believe with some tinkering, one or two new players brought in, it can be fixed and we can be superb once again.
No reason to panic at this stage or talk relegation or not making it in or to the CL.
That said action is needed sooner than later.
I think we'll spend big in Jan. Jan windows are always 50/50 though as to success of the players we recruit.
For sure the player recruitment over the last few windows with the exception of Haarland has been very complacent.
We at the very minimum need some physicality in that midfield. Even if we cannot get a rolls Royce player in January we should get a physical hard player, a Vinnie Jones or Roy Keane type player to give the opponents something to think and worry about. We are soft in midfield without Rodri.
I started to enjoy the rags getting stuffed today and then it occurred to me how bad we have to be now to lose to them at home >:(
Quote from: gavin on December 22, 2024, 20:57:41I started to enjoy the rags getting stuffed today and then it occurred to me how bad we have to be now to lose to them at home >:(
I think we all had a very similar thought.