Yeah, the offside on Coutinho is so weird given the «heavy» flags that we’ve seen for 2 seasons now.
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Yeah, the offside on Coutinho is so weird given the «heavy» flags that we’ve seen for 2 seasons now.
Yea bizarre situation, maybe the linesman deserves credit in a strange way for wanting to move the game on when he was of the opinion there was an offside and the immediate goal threat had passed.
Still got it wrong though and yet another edge case the current rules don’t fully handle.
You're making it seems as if you're happy with our first 6 games and theres no serious concerns...
It's ok to be realistic about this club and be concerned of our ability to compete these season for the two big trophies.
Mate, at this moment I'd be proper made up if we somehow manage to finish top 4.
Why? Havent said anything about our performance today? The usual moaners said City have already won the league cause they would win against Villa.
City's odds of winning the league are high.
So its partially realism, partially despair that drives that posting style because our doesnt seem mentally ready this year to challenge them.
I honestly hope you can rub it in our faces if we pull this off, but I just feel were in a bad place and it will take a while to get out of it.
Is it though? It's paying off on the pitch, but theyd finish top 4 even without their summer spending. If they had the humility to accept 3 or 4 seasons adrift from Madrid, they would have been able to rebuild their squad within their means and not mortgage their financial future.
What will they sell the next time they need to balance the books or boost the squad?
NFTs and maybe their soul.
However there are some ridiculously OTT comments considering the injury/absent issues we've encountered so far and the need to integrate new players.
Imagine for one moment if we hadn't had that raft of injuries - is it unrealistic to say that, even not playing to our best yet, we'd likely have a 4-2-0 record so far ? What would the feeling then be?
Because it's highly likely that without all those injuries we'd have more points on the board and the general feeling would be totally different. It just feels like a complete overreaction by some here - we were 14 pts behind City last season and finished 1 point behind. It's not impossible we'll click and get back into the title race, more especially since it's not City that are setting the pace.
BTW I've just seen the odds of our finishing Top 4 (effectively 2nd) are 1/5 with Arsenal 8/11. City 1/100 and of course strong title favourites.
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That's all fair points, but I just can't shake the feeling that this team is a lot less sure of its identity than last year's, even during poor run of results. The performances vs Fulham and United are inexcusable, injuries or not – it doesn't feel irreparably broken, but you get the feeling that this team is once again collectively searching for its identity and the winning formula. And even in our best moments, we haven't hit the kind of highs of performance that make you think this is a potentially title-winning team – I cannot honestly say that we're better than the likes of Arsenal and Spurs right now, although hopefully that will change as season progresses.
We had a sluggish spell last season and did an amazing job to get so close. We’ve started sluggish, hampered by injuries/suspensions, but City haven’t pulled away. The World Cup is going to fuck over some cpubs in terms of keeping players fresh. I think we can be best placed to take advantage of that.
Arsenal will struggle with Thursday/Sundays and spurs still aren’t blowing teams away.
We just need to get some rhythm back into our play and it’ll start coming together.
Arsenal will struggle with Thursday/Sundays and spurs still aren’t blowing teams away.
We just need to get some rhythm back into our play and it’ll start coming together.
The word that keeps popping up in my head is fatigue. Has it got something to do with a shorter pre-season ? Have Intensity Pep and team overworked them into exhaustion, with little time to rest ?
Early into the season, and we’ve already picked up numerous injuries and playing with much lethargy. Even the likes of VdV is looking dazed and confused. It’s almost like everyone caught covid or summat during pre-season.
But then again we whooped Bournemouth 9-0 recently so I’m not sure tbh.
Early into the season, and we’ve already picked up numerous injuries and playing with much lethargy. Even the likes of VdV is looking dazed and confused. It’s almost like everyone caught covid or summat during pre-season.
But then again we whooped Bournemouth 9-0 recently so I’m not sure tbh.
I think that is the case. Look at how we played in the charity shield compared to every game since, bat Bournemouth. We’re playing with lead in our boots and it’s entirely plausible that we’ve done sessions which is hurting us short term for long term gains.
Injuries are part of the game mate - you sign players who are injury prone (Ox, THiago etc) or don't learn from players who suddenly become injury prone (Keita etc), you only have yourself to blame.
Also, the team clearly lacks identity ... A lot of players seem a bit too confident in what they are - and have forgotten what has gotten them this far.
If we didn't have all those injuries, maybe we'd be better - I don't know.
But the idea that everything would be fine if it wasn't for that is worrying - because this team has issues on the pitch (Salah is isolated, Trent is being targeted more and more, the defense in general isn't as 'turned' on, our midfield is aging and doesn't do what the past great midfields did etc).
You don't know?!
Diaz isn’t making the runs and getting into the positions that Mane was, Nunez looks lost, the midfield is gash without Thiago, Trent is playing like he’s smoked a bag of weed before every game, van Dijk like he’s been joining him, Robbo is looking like he’s forgotten what football is and Milner’s playing like he thinks he’s turning out for the Masters side.
I think that’s a crazy decision at the end of the Chelsea West Ham game. Yes, there’s contact on Mandy but he couldn’t have covered for the goal anyway. Are we going to start seeing goals cancelled for clashes away from the goal scoring action?
I don't think this is just driven by injuries - you think it is.
Well you said this :
I doubt there's anyone else on this forum that would not agree that had we had Thiago, Konate, Keita, Jota, Nunez & Matip all available it would have improved our performances and score lines - and therefore dimmed pessimism and increased optimism.
I said 'maybe' and 'i don't know' ...
I think there's clearly an issue with our playing style - TAA/Mo inbalance, defensive issues etc.
We had a good midfield against Fulham and what happened?
I think the issues run deeper than injuries - it's just allowed us to pretend all will be well when players return.
I hope they do, I just don't know.
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