Manchester City Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2017 Mod warning post # 1403

MD1990

Sparks43 wrote: »

If George Hamilton mentions Citys comeback on the last day of the season one more time .I WILL hunt him down, rip off his arm and beat him to death with the wet end


One of the most irritating commentators i have ever had the displeasure to listen to:mad:

IT's THERE

SomethingElse

Xavi6 wrote: »

You Celtic lads are becoming a tad obsessive

To answer the question though, it's the manager and the players. The players sat too deep in the first half and allowed Ajax to play. Not good enough.

The manager has proven himself to be tactically inept on a number of occasions and thinks three at the back with left footed Clichy on the right is a viable situation.

It's a mess in Europe, most definitely, BUT we're unbeaten in the league so he's going nowhere.

With all due respect to the smaller clubs, City have beaten nobody of note yet. Would it not be better to get rid of the manager now, if it really is his fault, rather than after they play United and Chelsea?

Eli Manning

Eli Manning wrote: »

Roberto Mancini's record in the CL is very poor. Getting a balance and experience is key to winning the CL but you'd still expect City to be more competitive in this group.

More competitive perhaps. To qualify they were quite possibly 3rd favs anyway.

If they get knocked out it'll serve them well in the league.

Guy:Incognito

rarnes1 wrote: »

Might help City in the league getting knocked out.

Takes years to mix it with the big boys in the CL

They should just go down the quick fix route and sign Djimi Traore and Milan Baros.

Peppa Pig

niallo27 wrote: »

He won a premier league, cheque managers don't win premier leagues. He did well at inter as well before city. All the English teams are struggling lately, it's not just city.

C'mon - managers without a chequebook don't win PLs. The only team to win the PL without a huge sugar daddy are Man Utd, who have always had massive resources

Peppa Pig

Peppa Pig wrote: »

C'mon - managers without a chequebook don't win PLs. The only team to win the PL without a huge sugar daddy are Man Utd, who have always had massive resources

Arsene Wenger says hello

Ulysses Gaze

Mancini's success at Inter was built on Calciopoli. With Juve relegated and stripped of their best players and Milan docked points and in debt, Lazio recovering from financial meltdown under Cragnotti and Roma with debts under the Sensi family, they really had no excuses NOT to win Serie A. And dominate it.

Mancini did little in Europe with Inter however. The title win last season was as much Utd throwing it away as City winning it.

He's not the man to lead City to Champions League success (or long term Premier League success)

Peppa Pig

rarnes1 wrote: »

Arsene Wenger says hello

Good point - forgot about him. But how many times has he won it since then? It was always Man U and Arsenal, then the sugar daddies came in.
7 years since Arsenal won anything, mostly because they try to follow a sustainable model

Dempsey

General Relativity wrote: »

Jesus, lets not go mental here.

In fairness, in terms of man management skills, few are better than martin o neill. mancini is not as good as him in that respect. dunno why im getting flak for saying that

Seaneh

Peppa Pig wrote: »

Can't stand Dunphy, but in fairness to him he said that he was a terrible player to spend £25M on. He also said that Mourniho had called Balotelli unmanageable. Giles and Houghton are saying pretty much the same

HE also said Murinho refused to play him, which is absolute bollocks.

In his last season at inter (the year they won the CL) he played 26 league games, 8 champions league games and scored 11 goals.

He was also only 19 years old!

Ares

rarnes1 wrote: »

Arsene Wenger says hello

Lets be honest it was a different era when he won his last Leage. It'll be 9 years in May. A mammoth amount of time in football land.

At the time he had United, Liverpool and Chelsea competing with them, all sustainably.

Not now. Since the Oil barons came in he hasn't won a league.

Seaneh

Dempsey wrote: »

i think martin o neill could get more out of those players than mancini has.

balotelli is marmite in terms of opinions but he isnt doing the business this season, is he? worth the price tag? not really

He was a 19 year old who played 86 games, scored 28 goals, won 3 serie a titles and a champions league with Inter, he was voted young european player of the year, is 6'2", lightening quick, strong as an ox and an extremely technically gifted footballer, since singing he has scored 29 goals in 69 games, a lot of which were off the bench, won the premier league (scoring 13 league gials in the winning season) and been one of the best players in a European Championship.

And he is only 22 ****ing years old.

€25million for a player with those stats is a bargain, especially compared to the silly money other young players have been sold for in the last few years.

Ulysses Gaze

€25million for a player with those stats is a bargain, especially compared to the silly money other young players have been sold for in the last few years.

QFT

As a Liverpool Fan all I can say are two words

Andy. Carroll.

Dempsey

i rate balotelli but you are glossing over alot of things there seaneh

Seaneh

Dempsey wrote: »

you are glossing over alot of things there seaneh

No, I'm not, I'm stating facts.

applehunter

Seaneh wrote: »

No, I'm not, I'm stating facts.

aidan24326

City were awful tonight. To think Toure and Barry are on a combined wage of approx 300K per wekk. Milner worked hard in fairness but overall City were outplayed by a young inexperienced team. Very poor stuff. The substitutions towards the end smacked of desperation.

eagle eye

Seaneh wrote: »

No, I'm not, I'm stating facts.

You are omitting his attitude/personality problems which are a huge negative.

SomethingElse

City are the first English champions since Blackburn Rovers in 1995/96 to fail to win any of their opening three games. They're embarrassing themselves for the amount of wealth and talent at their disposal.

8-10

SomethingElse wrote: »

They're embarrassing themselves for the amount of wealth and talent at their disposal.

In fairness there's a good bit of talent floating around the other squads in the group. Poor result tonight but give Ajax a bit of credit. They're league champions too, well managed and organised team. It's not like it was Feyenoord.

SomethingElse

Seaneh wrote: »

No, I'm not, I'm stating facts.

He only started a fraction of those games, in the champions league at least. There was one stage where he got a start as Inter were struggling with injuries(I think it was the Rubin game), where he promptly got sent off early in the second half. I very much doubt he started many more games apart from that one.

thegreengoblin

Great little nugget of info on twitter from Four Four Two's Dutch writer, Mohamed Moallim

@jouracule
The cost of Ajax's starting XI v Man City was €4.4M (including seven De Toekomst graduates).

MUSEIST

thegreengoblin wrote: »

Great little nugget of info on twitter from Four Four Two's Dutch writer, Mohamed Moallim

@jouracule
The cost of Ajax's starting XI v Man City was €4.4M (including seven De Toekomst graduates).

It proves beyond doubt that spending huge amounts of money cannot buy you success (although it helps significantly) but football is not that simple. People always throw out this spiel about buying success which IMO is a load of sh!te.

SomethingElse

8-10 wrote: »

In fairness there's a good bit of talent floating around the other squads in the group. Poor result tonight but give Ajax a bit of credit. They're league champions too, well managed and organised team. It's not like it was Feyenoord.

Ajax and Feyenoord are at an almost identical level (They play each other at the weekend incidentally). Well done to Ajax, but they're by no means a top side.

NIMAN

A few of the EPL teams struggling this year. OK so UTD won last night, but going 2-0 down wasn't a good sign when they actually play against a better team than Braga.

Arsenal spanked tonight and Chelsea outplayed as well last night.

Blatter

NIMAN wrote: »

A few of the EPL teams struggling this year. OK so UTD won last night, but going 2-0 down wasn't a good sign when they actually play against a better team than Braga.

Arsenal spanked tonight and Chelsea outplayed as well last night.

Similar story with the big two in Spain.

Barca needing a last minute winner at home against European minnows Celtic and Real beaten by the 4th seeds in their group.

Even on the opening day Barca needed a late comeback at home to beat Spartak and Real, at home, only managed to beat City by the skin of their teeth.

SomethingElse

Blatter wrote: »

Similar story with the big two in Spain.

Barca needing a last minute winner at home against European minnows Celtic and Real beaten by the 4th seeds in their group.

Even on the opening day Barca needed a late comeback at home to beat Spartak and Real, at home, only managed to beat City by the skin of their teeth.

You mean the German champions, yes?

Barcelona definitely seem to be struggling this season.

Blatter

SomethingElse wrote: »

You mean the German champions, yes?

Barcelona definitely seem to be struggling this season.

I mean the team 12 points off the top of the German league after 8 games, yes

Nah, they clearly are a really good side, it's just you wouldn't expect Real Madrid to lose that game although tbf it isn't a huge shock.

SomethingElse

Blatter wrote: »

I mean the team 12 points off the top of the German league after 12 games, yes

Nah, they clearly are a really good side, it's just you wouldn't expect Real Madrid to lose that game although tbf it isn't a huge shock.

They seem to be struggling domestically alright! They still should take second place behind Bayern imo.

Xavi6

Just catching up with the post match stuff and Micah Richards' quotes about the formation aren't good. Basically said the players don't like 3-5-2, haven't practiced it enough and want 4-4-2.

Have to say, apart from the Community Shield against ten man Chelsea, 3-5-2 hasn't worked in any game, yet here we are using it as Plan B and sometimes Plan A.

The mind boggles, especially when the title win came off the back of a settled 4-4-2, or variation of.

niallo27

MUSEIST wrote: »

It proves beyond doubt that spending huge amounts of money cannot buy you success (although it helps significantly) but football is not that simple. People always throw out this spiel about buying success which IMO is a load of sh!te.

Well I would say winning a premier league would count as a success, only 3 teams had won it in 17 years so to win it was a massive achievement.

elefant

SomethingElse wrote: »

Barcelona definitely seem to be struggling this season.

They've dropped 2 points in all competitions (excluding the Spanish supercopa), which were against Real Madrid!

Is there a more in-form team in Europe?

Red Crow

MUSEIST wrote: »

It proves beyond doubt that spending huge amounts of money cannot buy you success (although it helps significantly) but football is not that simple. People always throw out this spiel about buying success which IMO is a load of sh!te.

It is buying success though. The major reason Chelsea and Man City have won the Premier League is because of the investment from billionaires. There is nothing complex about it. If Norwich went out tomorrow and kept spending each window breaking all sorts of records they would win the Premier League in the next 5 years.

What does give me a laugh is clubs like Ajax with banners against modern football and the picture of the Sheikh yesterday. What they do and have done for years could be considered to be along the same lines. They poach players from other youth systems all over Europe and for years themselves, PSV and Feyenoord bought up all the best talent in the Eredivisie and the clubs supplying often get little or no compensation. The only reason Ajax are complaining about the state of football is because they are haemorrhaging money but don't realise they possibly wouldn't of survived if they weren't able to sell off some of their top players to these clubs.

Melion

elefant wrote: »

They've dropped 2 points in all competitions (excluding the Spanish supercopa), which were against Real Madrid!

Is there a more in-form team in Europe?

Bayern

mike65

Just looking through the stats since City got into the CL

played 9, won 3, lost 4, drawn 2

for 13, against 13

Blatter

elefant wrote: »

They've dropped 2 points in all competitions (excluding the Spanish supercopa), which were against Real Madrid!

Is there a more in-form team in Europe?

That's if you chose to just look at their results. If you watch the nature of their performances, and how the results came about, it's a different story.

folan

Blatter wrote: »

That's if you chose to just look at their results. If you watch the nature of their performances, and how the results came about, it's a different story.

rather unfortunately, results are all that matter.

though currently the city performances wouldn't have me believing that it matters either way.

elefant

Melion wrote: »

Bayern

Lost against BATE a couple of weeks back.

Melion

elefant wrote: »

Lost against BATE a couple of weeks back.

And domestically have 8 wins in 8 games.

SomethingElse

elefant wrote: »

They've dropped 2 points in all competitions (excluding the Spanish supercopa), which were against Real Madrid!

Is there a more in-form team in Europe?

Shakhtar Donetsk are unbeaten in all competitions (without any exclusions)!

I was specifically talking about their performances in the Champions League. They have still come away with the 9 points, but they look beatable, even in what could be described as a relatively weak group. They need to improve before the knock-out stages, the players returning from injury should help somewhat.

Do City fans think a run in the Europa League will benefit the club, or would they be just as happy to finish bottom?

elefant

Melion wrote: »

And domestically have 8 wins in 8 games.

To be unecessarily argumentative, Bayern have still dropped a point more than Barcelona this season in all competitive games.

Either way, the point about Barca struggling is bogus.

Blatter

folan wrote: »

rather unfortunately, results are all that matter.

though currently the city performances wouldn't have me believing that it matters either way.

I don't think so. Performance is an important factor to take into account when considering how likely a team is to win their next game.

Barca have scored something like 3 or 4 very late winners, after being in precarious positions, already this season. They can't keep doing it, it will cost them eventually.

They don't have that 'untouchable' feeling at the Nou Camp that they usually had under Guardiola, at the moment anyway.

SomethingElse

elefant wrote: »

To be unecessarily argumentative, Bayern have still dropped a point more than Barcelona this season in all competitive games.

Either way, the point about Barca struggling is bogus.

To be unecessarily argumentative, there's two n's in unecessarily! :pac:

Shakhtar are in better form than Barcelona though, yes?

Quite a few people on here would agree that the standard of their performances under Tito are not matching what has come to be expected of Barcelona. They have been extremely fortunate in their Champions League games this season.

folan

SomethingElse wrote: »

Do City fans think a run in the Europa League will benefit the club, or would they be just as happy to finish bottom?

City have spent too much to not compete in every competition. too much has been made of challenging for the top top spots. I would hope that if thats where city end up, they will learn from their mistakes and play to win. they need European credibility.

folan

big game against Swansea. need to up the game in several areas. our midfield has been dire thus far this season.

Xavi6

Solid if unspectacular three points last night. I never felt like we'd lose even playing so badly in the first half.

Interestingly, if you compare last season's results against the team's we've played so far this year it looks like this -

2012/13 - P9 W6 D3 L0 F18 A9 Pts 21.

2011/12 - P9 W4 D5 L0 F17 A9 Pts 17

(Southampton replacing Bolton)

greendom

MUSEIST wrote: »

It proves beyond doubt that spending huge amounts of money cannot buy you success (although it helps significantly) but football is not that simple. People always throw out this spiel about buying success which IMO is a load of sh!te.

Beyond reasonable doubt ? So are you suggesting that city would have won the league last year without the countless millions spent ? Without tevez. Aguero kompany etc etc etc. That's not to say you Can't get the occasional surprise result but money talks. To think otherwise is delusional

Xavi6

Only unbeaten side left now

djPSB

Mancini really bought poorly in the summer.

Just p*ssed the money away.

G.K.

Is Sinclair injured?