Lack of Action Man

Your points in bold - I feel this is quite visually obvious with us and has been for a long time. We are very comfortable working the ball left to right, and back again, in safe/uncontested areas. We are also reasonably good at getting down the channels. We are severely lacking in midfield. We do not have someone who can drive forwards through the middle of the pitch (consistently) nor someone who is able to play the ‘killer’ pass in central areas. It feels as though we struggle to dominate the central midfield zone in the majority of games I have seen.

This really is the crux of my frustration with city now. The majority shareholder financed the club spunking millions during the MA/LJ era on tat. The very same individual is now seemingly forcing us into footballing financial austerity measures. Why, oh why, (without getting into a long winded discussion about FFP or P&S) must we operate at such polarised ends of the spectrum? Why can’t there be some semblance of consistent financial backing season to season to ensure the club moves steadily forwards? Otherwise we run the risk of repeating the typically City cycle of spending a few years in the Championship doing (largely) little of note, gradually selling off our best players and replacing them with bang average ones, before getting relegated back to L1 yet again.

There is absolutely nothing on the marketplace worth using points for.

Good point, also - I like the Fast Show reference.

So, they spend money and they use the loan market astutely?

Times like this I wish the forum had a 'Remind Me' function bot. Be interesting to pick this discussion up later in the season.

It is clear that parachute payments make a huge difference, but what must we change in order to compete against the likes of Ipswich?

I have once again run out of reacts so instead have an emoji

In 1901-1902 season Manchester City were relegated from Div 1. In 1902-1903 season we beat them 3-2 at home. So it's been a while.

Game over essentially. Ireland playing very well, Scotland have absolutely nothing in reply. Russell more interested in getting in the referee's ear rather than getting his players going. Ah well, guess I'll pour another glass.

Totally agree. He comes across as a right prat.

I can't see it myself, I still back the French sadly to go on and win La Coup Du Monde (Dupont injury is a bit of a shocker though). I never write off Scotland so long as Finn Russell is on form. Very nearly got a 50-22 then.

Your first point I've bolded - absolutely spot on. R.e. defensive stability - you say that, and yet we are prone to moments of utter madness/brainlessness in defence. Naismith and Tanner both guilty of this in recent matches. I mentioned last weekend that I had never thought I would say it (based on how he was playing when he first broke into the team), but we really do miss Vyner.

MOL is adequate for a championship club looking to finish mid-table, but he for me he has not demonstrated the qualities of a keeper that elevates a team beyond that level. Let's take Basso for example. Erratic, injury prone, and couldn't kick to save his life. However, he saved the shots you expected him to save and then some which no keeper has any right to save. The trade-off was that occasionally he would make a blunder which would cost us a goal, but overall he won us more points than he lost us. I tend to think Dan Bentley was the same. Not as good as Basso certainly, but he saved the majority of things you expect him to save and also some which you would never expect him to. Again, the trade off was the occasional error leading to a goal. With MOL, he doesn't really make monumental blunders, and he does pull off the occasional wonder save... but he also concedes goals from seemingly saveable or routine positions. Goals that I feel a better quality of keeper saves. Could it be due to a lack of competition? It is clear that Bajic is not seen as number one material. I relate our current goalkeeping situation to when Steve Phillips was the uncontested number 1 here under Danny Wilson and then Brian Tinnion. It's not right (for me) having a player who knows they are a certain name on the team sheet every week. You need competition to drive players to perform. Still, it could be worse. United's new keeper...

The initial two posts on this thread sum up our current situation for me. Some are happy to maintain the status quo. Others demand that we exceed it. Having had a bit of time to reflect on the game today, I maintain that we were beaten by a far better team and we were simply not at their level (or that of Leicester). However, we certainly should be aspiring to be at that level - and that will require consistently better quality of first team players. Those that we have currently simply are not at the level needed for a sustained top 6 push, and that's very disappointing in all honesty. I rate Pearson and I also rate Tinnion in his back room role. But when Pearson comes out in the media and says that we would only bring in players who are better than those already here, and then you see the performance levels of some of those who have been brought in under NP... it doesn't add up. If we are serious about going up, the 22(?) man squad we currently have isn't good enough and there is still plenty of (dare I say) dead wood to clear out.

I agree. Samoa were very good today. We took some seriously big hits too. Fiji will be right up for it. Watching IRE v SCO now. I think Ireland will win, but I strongly expect them to burn themselves out in the knockout stages.

You were certainly right about this BigTone.

Hear hear

Today’s game has shown that certain players who have come in over the last 12 months are not better than what we already have/had.

Why would the stream die now? Like I've sat through the shit show, at least let me see it through to conclusion.

He needs another decent keeper to compete with him. The current goalkeeping situation is akin to the Steve Phillips era. He was never tested for the number one jersey, same as Max is not being tested for it now.

Let’s face it, Leeds are just much better than us - both man for man and as a cohesive unit. The level of ability of their players is what we surely all wish to be seeing at AG - but in a red shirt, not a white one! We limped to a win over Rotherham, and we are being outclassed by some distance here today. To me, that shows the real calibre of player within the current 1st team squad.

It’s absolute trash really isn’t it?

Agree.

Thank god for Tommy Conway!!