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Not one player would get above 4/10 for us. The manager was totally out thought from minute one.

socrates wrote:

Absolutely, are they just going to let City go on winning trophies until the case finally gets heard in a couple of years?

It's embarassing for the PL. What will they do if they are found guilty, take away their titles?

If it was Spurs challenging for the title, I think they would put more impetus on the charges. I always felt Spurs is favoured by the FA and we are not.

kiwipete wrote:

All our attacks involve an unpicking of the lock , multiple backwards sideways dinks to score ; we have no Route One option , City can pump a ball forward , lay off or turn and they are in on goal .

I honestly think we need a change of mindset still far too much playing the obvious ball , Ødegaard should have been looking forward not playing some little dink backwards

City have a monster Kiwi.

He's been unplayable tonight although the fact that we haven't turned up tonight has hardly helped.

Gaz from Oz wrote:

Not one player would get above 4/10 for us. The manager was totally out thought from minute one.

Ramsdale was worth a 7 or 8, the rest were piss poor physically and mentally.

socrates wrote:

Depressing.

We needed 8 out of 10s from the players tonight. Some have barely produced a 2 out of 10.

Embarassing, weak mentality.

Id go further that we needed 10/10 performances. You have to be virtually perfect - we're bashing this team for not being perfect.

Disappointment is fine but perspective is needed on the season

Well beaten. Fair enough.

I thought we gave a good account of ourselves against one of the best teams I’ve ever seen. We came up against a better team.

Some people here think that if we are outplayed or if we lose, it’s because we’ve bottled it. That’s not the case here.

Teams play as well as they are allowed to. Sometimes you have to hold your hand up.

Gaz from Oz wrote:

Not one player would get above 4/10 for us. The manager was totally out thought from minute one.

Ramsdale was worth a 7 or 8, the rest were piss poor physically and mentally.

DHD wrote:

I really hate the "bottled it" nonsense. Man Utd fans are the absolute worst for it. It is rarely true of any team. How can you bottle it when you lose to a team that has won four of the last five league titles and are on the verge of completing the treble?

Well said DHD.
City are a very very good team but *%^@ me they are also a bunch of wind up merchants, Grealish being the biggest *%^@ of them all.

DHD wrote:

City are brilliant, Haaland was unplayable but in no way did we give a good account of ourselves tonight DHD, we barely laid a glove on them all game.

At no point did we look like we believed we could compete, infact we looked scared.

The gulf in class was enormous and should not have been as large as it was.

I’m proud of our lads. An amazing season and we fell short at the end. I said previously we had to go into this game with enough points to be able to lose it and stay top and we didn’t so I’ve known for a while this would happen however it still hurts. Did we get it wrong ? Not sure I would have started trossard and Jorginho personally but these are really marginal decisions on reflection there’s no obvious error here. The team that got us to the top finished second so we can’t really scream

goonerguru wrote:

Well said DHD.
City are a very very good team but *%^@ me they are also a bunch of wind up merchants, Grealish being the biggest *%^@ of them all.

I dunno

Haaland is a big headed *%^@ and walker shows his tadger to people having a quiet pint. There’s a lot of competition there

TOP GUN wrote:

I dunno

Haaland is a big headed *%^@ and walker shows his tadger to people having a quiet pint. There’s a lot of competition there

I'll throw Rodri in there, he joins an illustrious list of City defensive midfielders over the last 10 years who are seemingly allowed immunity to any yellow cards despite being the most cynical players on the pitch

Listen to Arteta every time he's disappointed with the team and he talks about 'winning duels'. It is so so important. We must target players in the summer who hate to lose a duel.

For me, I think this summer is central defence and central midfield are the critical areas to address. We need pure athleticism, power, pace and mobility in these areas.

Rich wrote:

Central defence no. Honestly as long as we have a fit saliba and Tommy that’s fine. Your choice third centre half won’t be pele

I have been alive since the 70s and haven’t seen an Arsenal side win a league title without a bonafide 30 a season striker. Football has changed but I really don’t believe you can do it without one. Mark my words if we don’t address it we will get nowhere.

Rich wrote:

TOP GUN wrote:

Also.1989...Alan Smith. Bloody good centre forward but he wasn't a 30 goal a season man.

I thought we gave a good account of ourselves

In our last 22 matches away to both Southampton and Everton we've only won 5. Awful record against such mediocre teams

Rich wrote:

In our last 22 matches away to both Southampton and Everton we've only won 5. Awful record against such mediocre teams

This is the crux of the matter.

I don#t claim to be the first person to say this but as I woke up at 4.45 am my thoughts went to the game.

It's the long ball that's killing us and VAR on one occasion today and many others where goals have been denied or pens not given.

Long ball. We don't use it enough and we can't defend against it. We are always beaten by bullying CF types. All the managers that stuff us are long ball specialists.

Why don.t we have a cf like Haaland? We do we have Balogun. Why don't we use him the way City use Haaland?

.

Just out of interest has anyone seen an image of the second goal where the var lines and drawn AND we can see de Bruyne taking the free kick in the same frame? When I saw it live I thought it was well offside. I can see from the image shown on tv that Whites foot plays him on - despite white being pushed in to that position, but what you can’t see is if they’ve frozen the game at the exact moment the ball leaves de Bruyne’s foot.
I saw another tv broadcaster was casting doubt on the offside decision and talking about the PGMOL having to apologise as they got it wrong.

Clearly wouldn’t have affected the result but it’s so tight that it basically comes down to when the var refs stops the video, a frame later and Stokes would be offside and it would still feasibly be the moment the ball left de Bruyne’s foot as the best estimate

bubblechris wrote:

I don’t think he’s that player. He’s more of an anelka run in behind type.

I do agree though and we can’t vary our play enough. The player that kind of springs to mind is Ivan Toney and whilst he’s not the worlds best I think if we had him he would start every game which kind of tells its own story

Author:	socrates [ Wed Apr 26, 2023 9:02 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
Gaz from Oz wrote: Not one player would get above 4/10 for us. The manager was totally out thought from minute one. Ramsdale was worth a 7 or 8, the rest were piss poor physically and mentally.

Author:	dec [ Wed Apr 26, 2023 9:10 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
gooner7 wrote: socrates wrote: Absolutely, are they just going to let City go on winning trophies until the case finally gets heard in a couple of years? It's embarassing for the PL. What will they do if they are found guilty, take away their titles? If it was Spurs challenging for the title, I think they would put more impetus on the charges. I always felt Spurs is favoured by the FA and we are not. It wouldn't change a thing. Sky and BT are deliberately keeping quiet because those charges call the whole integrity of the competition into question over a long period of time. The last thing they will do is highlight anything that might damage the golden goose. Contrast it to how they lost their *%^@ over the European Super League.

Author:	kiwipete [ Wed Apr 26, 2023 9:10 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
socrates wrote: kiwipete wrote: All our attacks involve an unpicking of the lock , multiple backwards sideways dinks to score ; we have no Route One option , City can pump a ball forward , lay off or turn and they are in on goal . I honestly think we need a change of mindset still far too much playing the obvious ball , Ødegaard should have been looking forward not playing some little dink backwards City have a monster Kiwi. He's been unplayable tonight although the fact that we haven't turned up tonight has hardly helped. Very true Soc but I still think we need a different mindset our passing at times is woeful . If we stopped the ad nauseous Acquisition of decent size body upfront in the summer must be a priority

Author:	DHD [ Wed Apr 26, 2023 9:13 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
Well beaten. Fair enough. I thought we gave a good account of ourselves against one of the best teams I’ve ever seen. We came up against a better team. Some people here think that if we are outplayed or if we lose, it’s because we’ve bottled it. That’s not the case here. Teams play as well as they are allowed to. Sometimes you have to hold your hand up.

Author:	Gunfire [ Wed Apr 26, 2023 9:14 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
socrates wrote: Gaz from Oz wrote: Not one player would get above 4/10 for us. The manager was totally out thought from minute one. Ramsdale was worth a 7 or 8, the rest were piss poor physically and mentally. Yes. Arteta should force all of them to watch this watch again to see how poor we were.

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Author:	dec [ Wed Apr 26, 2023 9:17 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
Rich wrote: socrates wrote: Depressing. We needed 8 out of 10s from the players tonight. Some have barely produced a 2 out of 10. Embarassing, weak mentality. Id go further that we needed 10/10 performances. You have to be virtually perfect - we're bashing this team for not being perfect. Disappointment is fine but perspective is needed on the season City are on top form right now. They brushed aside Bayern in the CL. Every game looks like a stroll for them. We are good but we are not at their level. We need to find a way to dig in and play ugly too.

Author:	TOP GUN [ Wed Apr 26, 2023 9:19 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
I’m proud of our lads. An amazing season and we fell short at the end. I said previously we had to go into this game with enough points to be able to lose it and stay top and we didn’t so I’ve known for a while this would happen however it still hurts. Did we get it wrong ? Not sure I would have started trossard and Jorginho personally but these are really marginal decisions on reflection there’s no obvious error here. The team that got us to the top finished second so we can’t really scream

Author:	Rich [ Wed Apr 26, 2023 9:20 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
DHD wrote: Well beaten. Fair enough. I thought we gave a good account of ourselves against one of the best teams I’ve ever seen. We came up against a better team. Some people here think that if we are outplayed or if we lose, it’s because we’ve bottled it. That’s not the case here. Teams play as well as they are allowed to. Sometimes you have to hold your hand up. Yes, I got fed up with everything having to be some psychological defect. Yes there are mental as well as physical aspects to football but sometimes one team simply plays better football than the other. When we beat virtually every other team this season did all those teams bottle it against us? Or were we simply the better team playing better more fluid attacking football and we outclassed them on the pitch?

Author:	dec [ Wed Apr 26, 2023 9:22 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
DHD wrote: Well beaten. Fair enough. I thought we gave a good account of ourselves against one of the best teams I’ve ever seen. We came up against a better team. Some people here think that if we are outplayed or if we lose, it’s because we’ve bottled it. That’s not the case here. Teams play as well as they are allowed to. Sometimes you have to hold your hand up. I really hate the "bottled it" nonsense. Man Utd fans are the absolute worst for it. It is rarely true of any team. How can you bottle it when you lose to a team that has won four of the last five league titles and are on the verge of completing the treble?

Author:	goonerguru [ Wed Apr 26, 2023 9:22 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
Well said DHD. City are a very very good team but %^@ me they are also a bunch of wind up merchants, Grealish being the biggest %^@ of them all.

Author:	Gaz from Oz [ Wed Apr 26, 2023 9:25 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
socrates wrote: Gaz from Oz wrote: Not one player would get above 4/10 for us. The manager was totally out thought from minute one. Ramsdale was worth a 7 or 8, the rest were piss poor physically and mentally. He made a number of crucial saves but should have saved a couple of the goals IMO.

Author:	TOP GUN [ Wed Apr 26, 2023 9:26 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
Where are the faults and where did we go wrong. We don’t have enough speed and agility in our midfield 3 in my opinion. The links to midfielders make sense. Not enough speed or aggression. Rice ? Yes please. Mount Hmmn yes possibly This won’t please many but we aren’t good enough up front. Jesus is great if we are dominating possession but without it in a scrap I don’t fancy him. Like I said at the start of the season he’s incredibly talented but it won’t work 25% of the time. Radical change is required here and it probably involves jettisoning 2 of the 3 strikers on our books. Do I think we will do it ? No. But we won’t won’t titles without it. Need a Haaland Nunez type Inexperience.. nuff said. . Headed in the right direction ….

Author:	Rich [ Wed Apr 26, 2023 9:27 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
You look at their 4 goals. 1. long punt, wins the ball then right through the heart of us 2. set piece - way too easy 3. cheap give away then right through the heart of us 4. clearing header lands 25 yards out, no pressure, right through the heart of us How often do you see City play down the wings and score from a cut back - it is their standard goal. Today they just went right through the middle of us every time. They had plenty more chances but the 4 goals conceded are all very frustrating given how easy they seemed

Author:	socrates [ Wed Apr 26, 2023 9:28 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
DHD wrote: Well beaten. Fair enough. I thought we gave a good account of ourselves against one of the best teams I’ve ever seen. We came up against a better team. Some people here think that if we are outplayed or if we lose, it’s because we’ve bottled it. That’s not the case here. Teams play as well as they are allowed to. Sometimes you have to hold your hand up. City are brilliant, Haaland was unplayable but in no way did we give a good account of ourselves tonight DHD, we barely laid a glove on them all game. At no point did we look like we believed we could compete, infact we looked scared. The gulf in class was enormous and should not have been as large as it was.

Author:	TOP GUN [ Wed Apr 26, 2023 10:11 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters For
Ok it’s done. Ill be at wolves to see us off but really I’m mentally disengaging so .. Ill go first Player of the season…. For me controversial but 1) Partey 2) starboy 3) Martinelli Game of the season … 1) united home ( honestly %^@** amazing) 2) Bournemouth 3 ) spurs Pre match Boozer of choice this season 1) Canonbury tavern 2) coronet 3) errr Santa Maria pizza Islington. (Don’t ask) Best catching poisoning award pre match …. 1) pick a chicken shop on the Holloway .. just any one Most disappointing player, 1) Fábio vieira 2) lokonga pre loan 3) sorry Rob Best limbs moment of all time 1) nelson ended up 3 rows down from my seat It’s over but see you at wolves

Author:	Gaz from Oz [ Thu Apr 27, 2023 3:06 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
Has Saliba signed a contract extension? Otherwise do we have to sell him next transfer window? Unpalatable.

Author:	Rich [ Wed Apr 26, 2023 9:29 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
dec wrote: DHD wrote: Well beaten. Fair enough. I thought we gave a good account of ourselves against one of the best teams I’ve ever seen. We came up against a better team. Some people here think that if we are outplayed or if we lose, it’s because we’ve bottled it. That’s not the case here. Teams play as well as they are allowed to. Sometimes you have to hold your hand up. I really hate the "bottled it" nonsense. Man Utd fans are the absolute worst for it. It is rarely true of any team. How can you bottle it when you lose to a team that has won four of the last five league titles and are on the verge of completing the treble? I hate that City just win everything but I hope they absolutely smash Man U in the cup final with one of the most one-sided scores it will be remembered for years.

Author:	TOP GUN [ Wed Apr 26, 2023 9:29 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
goonerguru wrote: Well said DHD. City are a very very good team but %^@ me they are also a bunch of wind up merchants, Grealish being the biggest %^@ of them all. I dunno Haaland is a big headed *%^@ and walker shows his tadger to people having a quiet pint. There’s a lot of competition there

Author:	Rich [ Wed Apr 26, 2023 9:30 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
socrates wrote: DHD wrote: Well beaten. Fair enough. I thought we gave a good account of ourselves against one of the best teams I’ve ever seen. We came up against a better team. Some people here think that if we are outplayed or if we lose, it’s because we’ve bottled it. That’s not the case here. Teams play as well as they are allowed to. Sometimes you have to hold your hand up. City are brilliant, Haaland was unplayable but in no way did we give a good account of ourselves tonight DHD, we barely laid a glove on them all game. At no point did we look like we believed we could compete, infact we looked scared. The gulf in class was enormous and should not have been as large as it was. The early goal from their first chance really floored us I think

Author:	dec [ Wed Apr 26, 2023 9:30 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
TOP GUN wrote: I’m proud of our lads. An amazing season and we fell short at the end. I said previously we had to go into this game with enough points to be able to lose it and stay top and we didn’t so I’ve known for a while this would happen however it still hurts. Did we get it wrong ? Not sure I would have started trossard and Jorginho personally but these are really marginal decisions on reflection there’s no obvious error here. The team that got us to the top finished second so we can’t really scream Losing Saliba and Tommy at the same.time was critical. With hindsight you could say that we should have had more cover at right back given Tommy's awful injury record. AMN? It's easy to say that after the event though. The main thing is that we strengthen the team and the squad so that we can mount another challenge next season.

Author:	Rich [ Wed Apr 26, 2023 9:31 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
TOP GUN wrote: goonerguru wrote: Well said DHD. City are a very very good team but %^@ me they are also a bunch of wind up merchants, Grealish being the biggest %^@ of them all. I dunno Haaland is a big headed *%^@ and walker shows his tadger to people having a quiet pint. There’s a lot of competition there I'll throw Rodri in there, he joins an illustrious list of City defensive midfielders over the last 10 years who are seemingly allowed immunity to any yellow cards despite being the most cynical players on the pitch

Author:	dec [ Wed Apr 26, 2023 9:35 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
Rich wrote: TOP GUN wrote: I dunno Haaland is a big headed *%^@ and walker shows his tadger to people having a quiet pint. There’s a lot of competition there I'll throw Rodri in there, he joins an illustrious list of City defensive midfielders over the last 10 years who are seemingly allowed immunity to any yellow cards despite being the most cynical players on the pitch Guardiola knows how to coach that. Busquets was the same.

Author:	Rich [ Wed Apr 26, 2023 9:35 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
Listen to Arteta every time he's disappointed with the team and he talks about 'winning duels'. It is so so important. We must target players in the summer who hate to lose a duel. For me, I think this summer is central defence and central midfield are the critical areas to address. We need pure athleticism, power, pace and mobility in these areas.

Author:	TOP GUN [ Wed Apr 26, 2023 9:42 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
Rich wrote: Listen to Arteta every time he's disappointed with the team and he talks about 'winning duels'. It is so so important. We must target players in the summer who hate to lose a duel. For me, I think this summer is central defence and central midfield are the critical areas to address. We need pure athleticism, power, pace and mobility in these areas. Central defence no. Honestly as long as we have a fit saliba and Tommy that’s fine. Your choice third centre half won’t be pele I have been alive since the 70s and haven’t seen an Arsenal side win a league title without a bonafide 30 a season striker. Football has changed but I really don’t believe you can do it without one. Mark my words if we don’t address it we will get nowhere.

Author:	Rich [ Wed Apr 26, 2023 9:44 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
Pep has made a bit of a mid season change for me, he's gone away from traditional full-backs and gone with 4 CB along the back. How often do you see any of those back 4 in the final 3rd? They make sure they have those 4 back and secure with Rodri mopping up in front of them. For any other team that means you lack something in attack because you don't create those 2v1's in wide areas, but City can use Haaland and De Bruyne and others to mitigate that. BT Sport has just said City have used the fewest number of players in the league this season. Their injury list this season has been ridiculously fortunate. Not 1 notable injury at all. The other big factor is, yes they have a small-ish squad but they don't drop off in numbers 12-18, the bench are all pretty much as good as the starters, and even if they're is a slight drop off the guy coming in still starts for most teams in the prem (Alvarez, Mahrez, Foden for example)

Author:	Rich [ Wed Apr 26, 2023 9:48 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
TOP GUN wrote: Rich wrote: Listen to Arteta every time he's disappointed with the team and he talks about 'winning duels'. It is so so important. We must target players in the summer who hate to lose a duel. For me, I think this summer is central defence and central midfield are the critical areas to address. We need pure athleticism, power, pace and mobility in these areas. Central defence no. Honestly as long as we have a fit saliba and Tommy that’s fine. Your choice third centre half won’t be pele I have been alive since the 70s and haven’t seen an Arsenal side win a league title without a bonafide 30 a season striker. Football has changed but I really don’t believe you can do it without one. Mark my words if we don’t address it we will get nowhere. I think the move is to move Holding on (1 year left on his deal, surely won't get a new one) and then you need to bring in another right-sided CB upgrade - and bring someone at the level of Saliba and Gabriel. We've got CL next year, you can't play those 2 all season. City have Dias, Akanji, Stones, Laporte, Ake as 5 players who all keep the level high at CB and most of them can play full-back as well so they can keep the squad smaller. 78 goals after 33 games isnt far off title winning 38 goals against after 33 games is on track for ending up at least 10 goals too many to win the title. I'd love more strikers and right wingers but I think the 3 key positions we target in the summer are, right-sided CB, No.6 def-mid and an athletic No.8. Ornstein said we're looking at Rice + Caicedo for the No.6 and Mount and Kudus of Ajaz for the No.8

Author:	dec [ Wed Apr 26, 2023 9:49 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
TOP GUN wrote: Rich wrote: Listen to Arteta every time he's disappointed with the team and he talks about 'winning duels'. It is so so important. We must target players in the summer who hate to lose a duel. For me, I think this summer is central defence and central midfield are the critical areas to address. We need pure athleticism, power, pace and mobility in these areas. Central defence no. Honestly as long as we have a fit saliba and Tommy that’s fine. Your choice third centre half won’t be pele I have been alive since the 70s and haven’t seen an Arsenal side win a league title without a bonafide 30 a season striker. Football has changed but I really don’t believe you can do it without one. Mark my words if we don’t address it we will get nowhere. A fit Tommy seems like a pipedream. He has been chronically injury-prone. Also.1989...Alan Smith. Bloody good centre forward but he wasn't a 30 goal a season man.

Author:	TOP GUN [ Wed Apr 26, 2023 10:15 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
dec wrote: TOP GUN wrote: Central defence no. Honestly as long as we have a fit saliba and Tommy that’s fine. Your choice third centre half won’t be pele I have been alive since the 70s and haven’t seen an Arsenal side win a league title without a bonafide 30 a season striker. Football has changed but I really don’t believe you can do it without one. Mark my words if we don’t address it we will get nowhere. Also.1989...Alan Smith. Bloody good centre forward but he wasn't a 30 goal a season man. 25 in all competitions. These days that would be 30 for how good he was.

Author:	Rich [ Wed Apr 26, 2023 10:28 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
I think City go for Bellingham this summer. There is still a home grown quota for the league so top clubs will really try to stack their team with any fantastically talented English players and Bellingham is right at the top of that tree. With Haaland imperious they are odds on for the league next year already. This league really is 19 relatively competitive teams where 5-6 stand out and 1 who are miles ahead of the rest.

Author:	Rich [ Wed Apr 26, 2023 10:49 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
Just out of interest has anyone seen an image of the second goal where the var lines and drawn AND we can see de Bruyne taking the free kick in the same frame? When I saw it live I thought it was well offside. I can see from the image shown on tv that Whites foot plays him on - despite white being pushed in to that position, but what you can’t see is if they’ve frozen the game at the exact moment the ball leaves de Bruyne’s foot. I saw another tv broadcaster was casting doubt on the offside decision and talking about the PGMOL having to apologise as they got it wrong. Clearly wouldn’t have affected the result but it’s so tight that it basically comes down to when the var refs stops the video, a frame later and Stokes would be offside and it would still feasibly be the moment the ball left de Bruyne’s foot as the best estimate

Author:	Terry Henry [ Wed Apr 26, 2023 10:52 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
DHD wrote: I thought we gave a good account of ourselves Really? I think I can safely say you must be stark raving bonkers

Author:	AmericanGooner [ Thu Apr 27, 2023 4:33 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
It's been a fantastic season. Squad wise as well as mentally we were prepared for a top 4 fight. In that kind of fight, you can drop points because the other 2 or 3 sides will also. We jumped over CL to title contenders and we were simply not mentally ready for it and we didn't have a squad that was built for a title fight. We got a squad built for top 4. We found ourselves in a title fight. And in a fight down the stretch against a side that may eventually be talked about as one of the best PL sides ever if not the best. If City ends up winning the treble, and in the manner I think they will possibly go down as the best PL side ever. This is going to sound crazy but I think they may have a harder time against Man Utd than they will against Real Madrid. It's a cup derby final and Man Utd will play out of their skins. They'll lose but they'll play out of their skins. May 9th City travel to Madrid and I'm going to guess a 1-0 or 2-1 win for them. When Man Utd won their treble the football gods gave them every bit of luck. They won the league by a point and were by far the lesser side in the CL final. The FA cup final was their easiest game. The wound is fresh and still painful but in June you will look back and say to yourself overall the season was way above expectations and pray tell, even a successful one. Real Madrid hasn't seen Haaland with top class players around him. Dortmund were a good side but no where in class to City obviously. My guess is the fouling will be very cynical and the scoreline will depend on the referee. I can see a RM player being sent off possibly. Referees give deference to RM so they will get to pull shirts, elbow and kick more than any other side. City could possibly end up winning the treble and making it seem fairly easy. They have not lost in any competition since around mid February. They had 3 draws since then. One in the league a week later and the 2 draws in the CL I wouldn't count. They were 2nd leg games where they won the first leg convincingly and some bench players started. I think after the season, it will be a story about how City was unstoppable instead of how Arsenal choked. When this City side in its present form is focused I don't think there is a side on the planet that can stop them. They are winning games by 3 or 4 goals now in the league consistently. Palace was the toughest game they have had in the league in the last couple months winning 1-0. The rest they have won comfortably. Even 2-0 at home to a Newcastle side that is notoriously hard to break down. The rest of the games they have scored at least 3 goals in each league game other than those 2 since late February. I don't think some of us fully comprehend just how good this City side are or have been since February. Routinely now, 3 goals a game home or away in the league for the most part. I'm relieved. Of course I'd have preferred we won but we'd have needed all our players healthy to even have half a chance at a draw.

Author:	bubblechris [ Thu Apr 27, 2023 4:45 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
Rich wrote: In our last 22 matches away to both Southampton and Everton we've only won 5. Awful record against such mediocre teams This is the crux of the matter. I don#t claim to be the first person to say this but as I woke up at 4.45 am my thoughts went to the game. It's the long ball that's killing us and VAR on one occasion today and many others where goals have been denied or pens not given. Long ball. We don't use it enough and we can't defend against it. We are always beaten by bullying CF types. All the managers that stuff us are long ball specialists. Why don.t we have a cf like Haaland? We do we have Balogun. Why don't we use him the way City use Haaland? Why can't we defend against the long ball? Bring in Fat Sam or Pearson or and get him to sort out how to defend against the long ball. We have the players to do it we just need Arteta to use the long ball and learn to defend against it too. Do thet this year and next year we will win the Premiership. Don't and we won't. It's the reason we can't finish off games nand why we are not a Finals team. Why have we always gone to the end of a tournament and then failed to win through? The long ball, time and time again.

Author:	TOP GUN [ Thu Apr 27, 2023 5:13 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
bubblechris wrote: Rich wrote: In our last 22 matches away to both Southampton and Everton we've only won 5. Awful record against such mediocre teams This is the crux of the matter. I don#t claim to be the first person to say this but as I woke up at 4.45 am my thoughts went to the game. It's the long ball that's killing us and VAR on one occasion today and many others where goals have been denied or pens not given. Long ball. We don't use it enough and we can't defend against it. We are always beaten by bullying CF types. All the managers that stuff us are long ball specialists. Why don.t we have a cf like Haaland? We do we have Balogun. Why don't we use him the way City use Haaland? . I don’t think he’s that player. He’s more of an anelka run in behind type. I do agree though and we can’t vary our play enough. The player that kind of springs to mind is Ivan Toney and whilst he’s not the worlds best I think if we had him he would start every game which kind of tells its own story

Author:	Decaf [ Thu Apr 27, 2023 5:23 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
DHD wrote: Well beaten. Fair enough. I thought we gave a good account of ourselves against one of the best teams I’ve ever seen. We came up against a better team. Some people here think that if we are outplayed or if we lose, it’s because we’ve bottled it. That’s not the case here. Teams play as well as they are allowed to. Sometimes you have to hold your hand up. That is true, DHD. We can over-analyse what we did wrong, but the point is that City's execution was perfect for their goals, and if we had set up differently, they probably would have found other ways to score. With our current squad, we don't have a lot of tactical flexibility, and one can understand why Arteta went with the tried and trusted. Also, you have to take into account all of the unnecessary drama of our last three games. Spunking away two 2-0 leads then making an absolute hash of a home game against the bottom club, is hardly the prep we needed. Even if we'd been on run of 8 wins going into tonight's game, we would still had had only a fighting chance of getting anything from this game. This is the same City team that walked all over Bayern Munich. As was pointed out by one of the commentators last night, we're the youngest team in the division, and youngest team has never won the title. Its a brilliant core of players to build on, and I'm confident Arteta and co know what needs to be done. Whether we can get the players we need and whether that will be enough to get us ahead of City (not to mention Newcastle, United, etc., etc) is another matter. We had no right to expect this team to win the league this season. So, disappointment is a valid response, but bashing the players and management or saying we 'bottled' it is completely out of order. And we are still top and the proverbial fat lady, although having cleared her throat, has not yet broken into song.

Author:	Decaf [ Thu Apr 27, 2023 5:43 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Supporters Forum
Rich wrote: Just out of interest has anyone seen an image of the second goal where the var lines and drawn AND we can see de Bruyne taking the free kick in the same frame? When I saw it live I thought it was well offside. I can see from the image shown on tv that Whites foot plays him on - despite white being pushed in to that position, but what you can’t see is if they’ve frozen the game at the exact moment the ball leaves de Bruyne’s foot. I saw another tv broadcaster was casting doubt on the offside decision and talking about the PGMOL having to apologise as they got it wrong. Clearly wouldn’t have affected the result but it’s so tight that it basically comes down to when the var refs stops the video, a frame later and Stokes would be offside and it would still feasibly be the moment the ball left de Bruyne’s foot as the best estimate I think that it might have affected the result! That second goal coming just before HT was an absolute b**(^. There is always hope when you are 1-0 down. Just because you've been battered for 45 minutes, doesn't mean that 2nd half will be the same (we've seen the reverse of this to our detriment all to often). 2-0 down Arteta probably thinks he can't bring on more defensive players. Your point about VAR is spot on. There is no reason why they can't make VAR more transparent. They must have a wide angle that they can show, or a split screen (if not, why??). The commentators also seem, for some reason, to be disinclined to push it when they think there has been a wrong decision. Its amazing that it looked so offside in real time but not when they zoomed in like that.