LondonBlue

Tielemans has been mooted on our forums but it seems the fact that Leicester fans fans seem to want him gone has put many off. Plus it's thought he just isn't that good. City forums have also mentioned arsenals Ødegard and your Bruno. Both are deemed as unobtainable though. Rightly so in my opinion.

I joined on January 7th 2022. Just wondering if i get a cake tomorrow?

ah i see. i think if the press like you its called "game management" the press mostly seems heavily pro lfc/mufc from what i can tell. it's gonna take time to change that mentality.

I'm obviously extremely biased but i didn't notice any time wasting. But to be fair, if we were i wouldn't much care (be honest or say nowt). The amount of time wasting the teams we play normally do it probably "balances out over a season". I put that in quotes because it's traditional to say that when something goes your way.

i think they're still spending the Coutinho money, so don't expect it to stop anytime soon.

my favourite post for a while. simply because you casually described spurs as a small club 🙂

i definitely get that. it's along the lines of "nothing is ever new" but what these guys are doing is making a new flavour relevant. It's not just the pressing, its all the extra stuff like inverted wingers, etc. we won the league last year with a false 9 and we tend to play with at least one false full back. something Pep did with Lahm at Bayern. I wonder sometimes if Ederson is playing a false keeper role in an attempt to draw the attack onto us so we can break the press and off we go.

There's a temptation to give a large slice of credit for the change in premier league styles to Pep. When he arrived all the pundits said his style wouldn't work in the hurly burly rough and tumble of the premier league but i think we now have a fusion of sorts that must scare the hell out of the rest of europe.

This isn't meant to sound pompous (so i hope it doesn't sound it) but so long as you continue to conduct yourselves as a club/fans as you have so far, i won't have a problem with it. I've been on here about a year and felt very welcome. Saw a couple of general anti-manchester comments sometime back, but its a tribal forum so i expect that. Can't stand Liverpool's constant whinging from club/fans. Most of it is hypocritical too. No real problem with Arsenal although they have one or two high profile fans like Alan Davies that are proper cock wombles. No problem with Chelsea, similar origin story to be fair to them. Would rather Man United don't win it as there plight is proper funny. Spurs i don't really like, but only since the Ricky Villa goal broke my heart.

Whilst i have nothing against Arsenal, i'm genuinely rooting for you guys tonight. Mostly because it would help us out massively. If we both beat Arsenal then that could make for an exciting end to the season. I've said it before and i'll say it again, I'd take a last minute 3-2 to give City the title. I wonder if it's a coincidence that the top 3 teams have intelligent modern managers (as opposed to the old school Mourinho types)

I thought this when we let Sterling, Jesus, Zinchenko & Fernandinho go in the summer. We had lost a chunk of our identity in those 4 and it takes new players time to learn it. Even if they may be better players. Playing with a false 9 gave us something different, something that most hadn't figured out. More movement, harder to pick players up as we were so fluid. Haaland for all his brilliance at least gives players a clear target to mark. I think we need a rework and i suspect Pep is smart enough to have drawn his own conclusions (probably way different to mine).

referee had a tech issue was a huge part. I think it was actually 11 but then another minute at the end due to at full time there was a stoppage that lasted about 90 seconds (easy to time when its at full time) referee was awful (aren't they always when you drop points) but it was our fault for letting them equalise. big chance for you guys to close the gap so i was mighty relieved to see so many teams drop points. i've said all along that Arsenal were the real deal and i see no reason to change my mind. i also think that we have something missing from this current team. tempo often too slow and not enough chances created. think you guys will get maxi perrone as we passed up on enzo in the summer as we felt we couldn't give him the opportunities he deserved. you can never have too many Argentinians in your squad.

hmmm, makes me wonder why they call you Dr Gloom?

We've a pretty well established network of clubs in the CFG (City Football Group) including south american clubs, academies and scouting network. So he'd been on our radar for quite some time. Trophies and Pep's fame also help. We buy and sell youth players constant;ly, so much so that they pretty much paid for Jack Grealish. But sometimes we stumble across a cracker. In one of his last games in Argentina he scored a double hat trick. Alvarez is also the reason we were prepared to sell Jesus and to a lesser extent Sterling. So as not to block his pathway. Supposedly we had an option on Enzo Fernandez for less than Benfica paid but felt we were too well stacked there and couldn't offer him what he needed !

I've always taken the view that i'm not too bothered about titles, i just wanted to be able to play man united and know that we had a chance of winning. Local bragging rights and all that. Twenty years ago it was just tonking after tonking after tonking. That dream has pretty much been achieved now to be fair. As yours re Sunderland. Although that was s much down to them as you. I'd like us to get the champions league monkey off our backs but given the choice i'd still choose premier league every time.

I've seen Maddison being heavily linked with you. I'd also thought that Enzo would be perfect for you guys if attainable.

i came on here looking to see if you guys think that you're in the title race. it's not long since Leicester weren't in the title race. Have you seen our (Man City) run of games the next 2 months? Also Arsenals catalyst, Gabriel Jesus, has a serious knee injury so who knows. i was also trying to see who you're linked with. We're mainly linked with Jude Bellingham in (feels like us, liverpool or real madrid), Bernado Silva out (if Barca find the cash) and Gundogan out (contract up/will he renew).

we bought Julian Alvarez last January for 15m but left him in Argentina until the summer, so it can be done.

looking on your board to try and find a chat about title ambitions this year and i saw this line. it resonated with me having gone through much of the same stuff. it's so hard replacing loved players. but its a constant thing that has to be done. eventually you get to the point that you can't even agree who should start due to the quality of the squad. ie this player must start buuut so must that one.

To be fair, the fact that Palmer and Lewis are breaking through into the first team is a good thing. Pep really rates both of them (at least publicly). Who says it's all about the money? Palmer was a part of the first team squad last season. A local lad that has scored goals at every level including a stunner for England. I agree he has a stupid haircut and have to concede that he sounds a bit dim too (if i don't admit player A sounds thick then i can't say that player B sounds bright). Rico is a breakthrough player, he has great feet, trickery and pace plus a healthy dose of determination, but i'm still unsure about him defensively. Last year he won the under 18s league with city and the under 23s as he was promoted mid season. Believe it or not we have one of the smallest squads in the Premier league (albeit high quality) so we bolster it with youth like these two.

If only that was true. We have Southampton away. Last two rounds of the cup we drew Liverpool and Chelsea. We have Chelsea in the FA Cup. Clearly someone either lost the memo or the stop city by any means fair or foul memo is still in circulation. I jest mind, i don't really go for conspiracy theories. Although i do wonder why the press are talking about trouble at the City v Liverpool game like it was both sets of fans rather than about the City spectators in hospital. We threw verbal abuse, they threw a glass bottle that hit a 15 year old girl and plastic bottles filled with stones that left many with head injuries. No clubs fans are saints but look up feral in the dictionary and see what you find. Hopefully we stay apart until the final.

i've never seen that clip before, i almost pmsl, gets funnier the longer you watch it

I know you said "forward" but i read this curious stat about the Iran game ... England completed 716 passes in their 6-2 win over Iran on MD1, their most on record in a World Cup match since 1966. John Stones was responsible for 116 of those completed passes (16 per cent), also the most by an England player in a World Cup game since 1966. That probably says more about Southgates tactics than Stones. I thought he did make forward passes but it felt like they just ended up being recycled back. Granted him and Maguire passed to each other a fair bit, hence his 97% pass completion. To be fair it didn't seem like he had the kind of forward options to pass to that he has at city.

if they world cup was this time next year i reckon Dan Burn might be starting instead. oh i forgot Southgate has his favourites

you'll forgive my bias for thinking that Stones is quality, especially now the lapses seem long gone. good in the air, good on the ground, can see a pass.