Man City 2020/21 - General discussion

Gio

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Bet they're hoping a big cup game dosen't go to penalties this season.

Mahrez and Sterling aren't good penalty takers at all and Aguero and KDB miss the odd one aswell. Mind you think they've won a few shoot outs in league cup in last two seasons so perhaps it's just a mentality of they'll score when it really really matters.
Surprised Sterling is still on penalties. He’s clearly horrendous at them and surely there are better strikers of a dead ball in the squad.
 
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Surprised Sterling is still on penalties. He’s clearly horrendous at them and surely there are better strikers of a dead ball in the squad.
KDB's been on them this season and him or Gundogan are probably the best takers in the squad. Think Sterling was given this for a confidence booster. He really gets in his head in front of goal
 

Abhinav

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They are really getting into their stride and hitting top form. Played some quality stuff against Brighton, just failing at the last step.
 

SuperiorXI

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Except Leroy Sane, Jerome Boateng, Nigel De Jong, Jadon Sancho, Brahim Diaz, Kolarov, James Milner, Daniel Sturridge and Carlos Tevez who were all wanted to stay.

Its a myth our players don't want to leave. How many first teamers or promising youth at United or Liverpool had their head turned and left during the same timeframe?
At United I could Di Maria, Ronaldo, Evra and Pogba. Everyone else was let go. There might be one or two more I missed.
At Liverpool there is a lot Coutinho, Sterling, Suarez, Agger (who I believe was homesick) Torres, Mascherano, Alonso, Arbeloa
Obviously players have come and gone from your club, the point was the players you'd expect to have their heads turned i.e. Silva, Aguero, Kompany etc, stayed at little city when usually players from those regions regularly have their heads turned by clubs such as Real Madrid/Barcelona.

United lost arguably the greatest ever player to play the game to this exact phenomena.

We saw reports that even Mancini had money funnelled through to him via fake jobs, if you believe this didn't happen with players, especially during the formative years of your club circa 2008, it's full blown naivety.
 

padr81

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Obviously players have come and gone from your club, the point was the players you'd expect to have their heads turned i.e. Silva, Aguero, Kompany etc, stayed at little city when usually players from those regions regularly have their heads turned by clubs such as Real Madrid/Barcelona.

United lost arguably the greatest ever player to play the game to this exact phenomena.

We saw reports that even Mancini had money funnelled through to him via fake jobs, if you believe this didn't happen with players, especially during the formative years of your club circa 2008, it's full blown naivety.
United lost Ronaldo to that exact phenomena and thats it. Ronaldo had made it clear that he was always going to end up at Madrid, since he was a kid. He had a career plan in which United were a stepping stone.

I also never said it didn't happen with players (though its highly, highly unlikely given everything else that leaked from the club) I said the myth players never want to leave City is just that a myth.
When winning trophies players don't leave. Liverpool had loads leaving till Klopp won the CL, how many of their squad have asked to leave since (I believe Wijnaldum to Barca may be the first one if he goes). There was talk of Salah but its only talk, the same talk that comes up about Sterling every year.

Saying why didn't Kun, Silva, KDB, Kompany leave City is like saying why didn't Rio, Rooney, Vidic etc.. kick up a fuss to leave United? Because they were winning trophies. Just because Ronaldo did it, doesn't mean every footballer wants the same.
Where were they gonna go?

Where would Silva, Kompany, Aguero have a better chance of winning trophies? At their peaks they wouldn't have gotten in the Barca/Real/Bayern teams. Lets take Kun, Barca couldn't afford him so plumped for Suarez instead. After that where does he go. He's not benching Lewandowski, he's not benching Suarez, he's not benching Benzema with Ronnie at Madrid because of how they worked together. David Silva? Not benching Xavi or Iniesta, Modric or Kroos, maybe midfield at Pep's Bayern? Pep only put him in midfield on chance with KDB. Where does he go? He's not starting on the wing at any of those clubs either. Look at KDB now, aside from Bayern where would he go.

Barca are a mess, Real are dads army and his team beat them without breaking a sweat last season. Juve are a one man team. Again where does he go from City with an improved opportunity to win trophies or the CL (despite Cities failings in the competition so far). Theres only 1 answer and thats Bayern and they had their chance with him and blew it.
 
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K Stand Knut

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city at it again according to this Athletic article.

I personally know for a fact that this goes on, and presumably not just at city but I know how rife it is at city particularly. Has been pretty much incessant since the takeover and the sums involved are absolutely ridiculous.

Be interesting to see if there are any further developments or people who come out about it or what punishment they will get bearing in mind they are already serving a suspended sentence (I think)
 

CityBlue123

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city at it again according to this Athletic article.

I personally know for a fact that this goes on, and presumably not just at city but I know how rife it is at city particularly. Has been pretty much incessant since the takeover and the sums involved are absolutely ridiculous.

Be interesting to see if there are any further developments or people who come out about it or what punishment they will get bearing in mind they are already serving a suspended sentence (I think)
It's not a case of City being 'at it again'; the allegation is from 2011 so not particularly relevant to what is happening currently. If I recall correctly, United did something similar with Davide Petrucci only 3 years prior?

I'm not particularly sure the potential severity of such an arrangement, especially one that was so long ago, as it seems to happen so often with virtually all top clubs and could be very difficult to prove. Football Leaks reported a similar arrangement with Madrid and Odegaard's father and I don't think anything came out of that either.
 

K Stand Knut

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It's not a case of City being 'at it again'; the allegation is from 2011 so not particularly relevant to what is happening currently. If I recall correctly, United did something similar with Davide Petrucci only 3 years prior?

I'm not particularly sure the potential severity of such an arrangement, especially one that was so long ago, as it seems to happen so often with virtually all top clubs and could be very difficult to prove. Football Leaks reported a similar arrangement with Madrid and Odegaard's father and I don't think anything came out of that either.
the allegation is from now about something that happened in the past. It’s completely relevant! And, I guarantee that you are still doing it now, on a massive scale.
 

CityBlue123

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the allegation is from now about something that happened in the past. It’s completely relevant! And, I guarantee that you are still doing it now, on a massive scale.
So if newspapers ran an article on Davide Petrucci, would it be relevant today? Macheda's dad was also a groundsman at United. Should there be a retrospective investigation into United? And seemingly every top club that has done this?

City also wouldn't do it now because they wouldn't need to. We have the CFG model which helps us attract young players from around the world which would be beyond the scope of Premier League rules anyway.
 

K Stand Knut

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So if newspapers ran an article on Davide Petrucci, would it be relevant today? Macheda's dad was also a groundsman at United. Should there be a retrospective investigation into United? And seemingly every top club that has done this?

City also wouldn't do it now because they wouldn't need to. We have the CFG model which helps us attract young players from around the world which would be beyond the scope of Premier League rules anyway.
Well, no because as you’ve said, he is the groundsman and that is a job?

Did you read the article?? The issue isn’t about him having a job for the club (whether that is morally or legally right oe not).

Are you suggesting that anyone who has broken the rules/law in the past should be ignored because it’s not relevant today?
 

OleBoiii

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Perhaps we were too focused on Liverpool?

If they win their game in hand then they'll top the table. Also, they've only conceded 13 goals. That is pretty worrying when you consider Pep's style.
 

Pep's Suit

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City have those terrible four weeks in February/March so still too early to say.
 

Adisa

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They have been going about their business quietly for a few months now.
 

Red & White

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I know it was the first game of the season but how did we lose to Palace? They’re awful. 11 goals conceded and zero scored against Liverpool and City. Hope we beat them comfortably in the reverse fixture.

City have been creeping up in the background this past month. If Liverpool’s form doesn‘t drastically improve it will be them as the favourites. Hopefully we can stay in the race with 3 wins in our next 3 league games.
 

Crustanoid

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That cancellation cheat really gave them the required rest to get them back firing.
 

SqualorVictoria

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I know it was the first game of the season but how did we lose to Palace? They’re awful. 11 goals conceded and zero scored against Liverpool and City. Hope we beat them comfortably in the reverse fixture.
To be fair they missed Zaha and Kouyate. On their day, they can still counter just about well and today's result was a bit weird given City barely created chances from open play. In fact, we created much better chances against Brighton the other day, in a game where admittedly City have been poor too.
 

Manchester Dan

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Conceded 2 in our last 9, but wasn’t sure I heard it right during the game that we’d only conceded 13 shots on target in the same timeframe. If true then that is some going. Stones is getting tons of plaudits but I think Dias has to take the credit for our transformation at the back. He’s breeding confidence in those around him.
 

Dancfc

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I know it was the first game of the season but how did we lose to Palace? They’re awful. 11 goals conceded and zero scored against Liverpool and City. Hope we beat them comfortably in the reverse fixture.
Palace usually do quite well vs the big six (including four points at The Ethiad the previous two season's), i think they have a better record Vs the top six sides in recent years than most of the top six themselves (possibly all bar City).
 

Feed Me

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Balls. I didn't realise they could go above us if they win their game in hand :mad:
We have a winnable sequence of matches coming up so just need to focus on ourselves. We have seen with City the confidence that clean sheets breeds, so need to keep up our own recent mini renaissance in that regard. Clean sheets against Fulham and Sheff U would leave us with a record of 24 conceded after 20 matches, which is suddenly a great deal more respectable and starting to get to the level where you can think about a title tilt.
 

flappyjay

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And we out here celebrating accepting a draw against a depleted Liverpool side. We gave them too much respect.
 

DRM

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Their title to lose. They are the best team in the country right now, we saw proof of that when they completely dominated us a few weeks ago
 

Schmeichel's Cartwheel

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Wish they’d feck off. Their quietly & boringly putting together an incredible run. Nobody talks about them because they’ve got no fans & nobody cares.
 

charlenefan

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And we out here celebrating accepting a draw against a depleted Liverpool side. We gave them too much respect.
Lets see how City do at Anfield before you start slagging off our result eh

oh and they were hardly depleted, Fabinho is arguably now their 2nd best CB after VVD
 

always_hoping

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And we out here celebrating accepting a draw against a depleted Liverpool side. We gave them too much respect.
Celebrating? They earned the respect, defending champions and unbeaten at home in the league since 2017. After 18 games played in this season most United supporters should be pleased to be top and find themselves 3 points ahead of Liverpool.

We'll see how City fare in Anfield in a few weeks
 

ExecutionerWasp001

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And we out here celebrating accepting a draw against a depleted Liverpool side. We gave them too much respect.
This could be where the title is lost for us. We give a lot of teams way too much respect. In the games against the Big 6 We've given too much respect to Arsenal, Chelsea & City all at home. If we'd shown some ambition we would have a lot more points. The Spurs game was a bad day at the office. Liverpool were also there for the taking after we got through the early part of the game.
 
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FootballHQ

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Bad time for us to go to play them. I've have loved to play Man. City even four weeks ago but it seems to have clicked for them around xmas period.

Add in we're going to have to ease some players back in due to covid and no way of knowing if that means key players until team is announced on Wednesday.

We also errrrr haven't picked up a single point at Etihad since 2007!:nervous: Even worse record there than Old Trafford which I didn't think possible, we were rubbish in away games at Man. City even before the takeover.
 

TrustInJanuzaj

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Very good day for city fans you have to say. That being said we aren’t dead and buried yet and neither are Liverpool. There’s a long way to go and I think city are just as likely as anyone to drop some more points this season.
 

charlenefan

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Think they'll win it with ease to be honest, clicking into that robotic gear, look a level above the rest again.
why would they win with ease? Is everyone else's form going to fall off of a cliff suddenly?
 

flappyjay

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Lets see how City do at Anfield before you start slagging off our result eh

oh and they were hardly depleted, Fabinho is arguably now their 2nd best CB after VVD
His cb partner was henderson for fecks sake. We never even tried to put them in 5-10 minutes of sustained pressure to find out just how functional that defense was.