Manchester City 19/20 season

Foxtrot

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Couldn't understand it in the summer and definitely can't understand it now. What on earth was the thinking with regards to not replacing Kompany and going in with Otamendi as first choice? Even last year, despite all the clean sheets, you could see their defense is vulnerable when gotten at. Without Laporte it's just downright awful.

City also don't have very good luck with injuries. Sane and Laporte out long term, Aguero has to have his annual injury and even last year they had important players missing.

Liverpool, on the other hand, can field VVD, Salah and Mane 38 games a season every season.
Been thinking that not replacing Kompany was a mistake. He might be old and in decline but he was their captain and provided great leadership and stability to their backline.
 

Treble

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Yeah,
Walker. Kompany. Laporte. Mendy.
Not much quality.
How many starts have Mendy and Kompany between them the last two seasons? Zinchenko/Delph had probably more than those two combined. Mendy and Kompany contributed very little in 17/18 when they got 100 pts. And Laporte joined them in Februrary 2018.
 

ExecutionerWasp001

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That's due to dominating possession and the game. When teams can get to attacking their defence, they don't do well.
The majority of the league (including ourselves) should be hanging our heads in shame. The team Norwich put out cost £6 Mill & they've taken the game to City & come out deserved winners. It's amazing what having a game plan & eradicating basic errors can do. The amount of coaches & players that concede defeat meekly to this City team is abhorrent.
 

Josh 76

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The majority of the league (including ourselves) should be hanging our heads in shame. The team Norwich put out cost £6 Mill & they've taken the game to City & come out deserved winners. It's amazing what having a game plan & eradicating basic errors can do. The amount of coaches & players that concede defeat meekly to this City team is abhorrent.
This is true to a point, but City were never 100% on their game yesterday. There pressing was a joke and even passing was very poor. Maybe psychologically they thought it's only Norwich. If they were to play any of the top 6 teams, you would see City players improving massively, so to ask Utd to play like Nowich against City would be sucidal.
 

Mogget

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Strange thought , but do Utd have a better back 5 than City ?

Maybe there is light at the end of this long long tunnel.
Football isn't played on paper.

I don't understand the obsession fans and pundits have with comparing starting XIs player for player to decide which is better.
 

BlueMoonOutcast

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Strange thought , but do Utd have a better back 5 than City ?

Maybe there is light at the end of this long long tunnel.
Right now? Yes. I rate Cancelo higher than all our right backs but he hasn't started here yet so the combined back four (I'm not touching the De Gea/Ederson debate) would be:

Wan Bissaka - Lindelof - Maguire - Shaw
 

ariveded

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Just like LFC midfielders, City defense is nothing outstanding. And LFC midfielders may be steady players, but City defenders all are prone to silly errors.
 

ExecutionerWasp001

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This is true to a point, but City were never 100% on their game yesterday. There pressing was a joke and even passing was very poor. Maybe psychologically they thought it's only Norwich. If they were to play any of the top 6 teams, you would see City players improving massively, so to ask Utd to play like Nowich against City would be sucidal.
City shouldn't have needed to be anywhere near 100% to beat that Norwich team. The difference in starting 11 was around £400 Mill, they then brought KDB & Mahrez off the bench. I don't think complacency was a factor. After last season both City & Liverpool know how important dropped points could be. You only have to look at the Liverpool Newcastle match. We are 5 games into the season. When Liverpool equalized, rather than celebrate the goal, they rushed to get the ball back to try & get the winner.
 

padr81

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People are making a mountain of a molehill. We have a game like that in us every so often. We were unbeaten in 18 so it was coming.

We had the same kind of defensive implosion v spurs in the CL with laporte being the biggest culprit. 3-2 loss to palace.

What's important is we put a run together and close up before we go to a field. If we go there 5+ behind I fully expect a hiding.
 

adexkola

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City shouldn't have needed to be anywhere near 100% to beat that Norwich team. The difference in starting 11 was around £400 Mill, they then brought KDB & Mahrez off the bench. I don't think complacency was a factor. After last season both City & Liverpool know how important dropped points could be. You only have to look at the Liverpool Newcastle match. We are 5 games into the season. When Liverpool equalized, rather than celebrate the goal, they rushed to get the ball back to try & get the winner.
Every top team in history has had a few games where they were not at the paces. If you recall last season, this Liverpool team you speak highly of laid a few duds around January.
 

adexkola

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People are making a mountain of a molehill. We have a game like that in us every so often. We were unbeaten in 18 so it was coming.

We had the same kind of defensive implosion v spurs in the CL with laporte being the biggest culprit. 3-2 loss to palace.

What's important is we put a run together and close up before we go to a field. If we go there 5+ behind I fully expect a hiding.
Understatement.

If Pep sets up the same way he did last year at Anfield you'll be favorites, even if Otamendi starts instead of Laporte. I'd be worried more about Salah targeting Zinchenko.
 

nore1975

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The defeat to Norwich should not be allowed to diminish what a fine side MC are and have been since Guardiola took charge. We live in a hyper era of sensationalism. In a sense such media coverage is insulting to the intelligence of football fans. It makes for great copy but poor journalism. Buying Maguire instead of Cancelo might have made more sense even for the 20m extra. Kompany was instrumental in the run in last season. Interesting to see how the season pans out.
 

Klopper76

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Understatement.

If Pep sets up the same way he did last year at Anfield you'll be favorites, even if Otamendi starts instead of Laporte. I'd be worried more about Salah targeting Zinchenko.
Agreed re Zinchenko. Salah causes him all sorts of problems in the Community Shield game.

I still have City down as favourites mainly because they’ll do better than we will against the other top six sides. At home we’re fine but we only managed a win away to Spurs last season whilst they beat Spurs, United and Arsenal whilst not losing at Anfield.

We’ll probably match that loss at Norwich with a couple of draws here and there.
 

Castia

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They could be 10 points behind at Christmas and I’d still fancy them to win it.
 

VJ1762

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Can city fans fill in on what happened to Stones? He was imperious in 2017-18. I didn't follow city last season, so has his play dropped a level or two from that season?
 

charlenefan

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Suddenly Watford at home at the weekend doesn't look so easy does it
 

BobbyManc

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Can city fans fill in on what happened to Stones? He was imperious in 2017-18. I didn't follow city last season, so has his play dropped a level or two from that season?
Injury problems and confidence issues, basically. He's not since replicated the form he showed at the beginning of that season.
 

fergiesarmy1

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This City cheerleading is sickening. IMHO don't care about either. Let the best team win. Our loyalty is with MUFC.
Liverpool v United is and always will be our biggest rivalry for decades and for many reasons not just football so you will always find most united fans especially ones who’ve had the misfortune of run ins with Liverpool fans would rather lose a testicle than see that mob win the league without hoping someone beats them to it whoever that maybe.
 

redman5

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For all the flak that John Stones takes, lets not forget that incredible goal-line clearance he made against us at The Etihad last season. In the same match, Mr can-do-no-wrong, Vincent Kompany, should have seen red for his tackle on Salah. Who knows what impact those 2 incidents had on last season's title race.

 

Ford_M19

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Liverpool v United is and always will be our biggest rivalry for decades and for many reasons not just football so you will always find most united fans especially ones who’ve had the misfortune of run ins with Liverpool fans would rather lose a testicle than see that mob win the league without hoping someone beats them to it whoever that maybe.
I get that having been a fan since the mid-70's and growing up in Manchester. Have you lived amongst City fans? Both of these detest us. Have zero time for either of these clubs.
 

romufc

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City's defence has not been solid for a while now.

We are starting to see cracks in Zinchenko at LB, and the CB's are probably just as clumsy as some we have.

Kyle Walker has speed and after that I struggle to see what else. He is poor going forward and defensively naive. I won't be surprised to see Cancelo come in
 

fergiesarmy1

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I get that having been a fan since the mid-70's and growing up in Manchester. Have you lived amongst City fans? Both of these detest us. Have zero time for either of these clubs.
I always preferred some cockney club to win it if we weren’t to win it, but I’d rather city win it over Liverpool as no one really cares where I live when they have won it (apart from 2012 obviously). Looks like it’s coming though sooner than later unfortunately.
 

BobbyManc

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That guy is one of the biggest cretins on Twitter. He's obsessed with Guardiola and he is obsessed with our alleged 'tactical fouling'. Does he really think we lost against Norwich because Fernandinho wasn't on to kick people? Norwich were the better team on the day. He must have some mythical view of tactical fouling because he seems to believe whenever City win or lose it's because of that. His following tweet encapsulates his weird agenda

 

ggtnxbb

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Looking at the next few games I expect City to go at Anfield in November leading or at least level on points.
 

Klopper76

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Dropping like flies.
Well that's ridiculously unlucky. Could they play Walker in a back two with Otamendi? They don't really have to do that much defending most of the time anyway.
 

robinamicrowave

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Huh, we'd have been accused of "stockpiling" if we'd bought either of De Ligt or Maguire in the summer as well.