Bluemoon goes into Meltdown

Hart < De Gea
Willy < Romero
Johnstone = Wright

Sagna > Darmian
Zabaleta = Varela
?? < Valencia

Kompany = Smalling
Otamendi < Blind
Demichellis < Rojo
Mangala < Jones
?? < McNair

Kolarov < Shaw
Clichy = CBJ
?? < Fosu-Mensah

Fernando < Carrick
Fernandinho = Schneiderlin
Delph < Schweinsteiger
Toure
> Fellaini
?? < Herrera

Silva > Mata
Nasri = Young
Navas = Lingard
Sterling > Memphis
De Bruyne > Pereira
Iheanacho = Januzaj

Aguero > Rooney
Bony < Martial
??? < Rashford
??? < Keane

The only part of their squad that is stronger than ours is that attacking midfield/wingers area. Yes Aguero is class, but I'd take Rooney/Martial/Rashford/Keane over Sicknote and Bony all day long.
:lol:

Think this might be a tad bias
 
rofl at Jones over Mangala, and I'm laughing because it's probably true.
 
rofl at Jones over Mangala, and I'm laughing because it's probably true.

To argue Mangala is better than Jones, relies on opening a can of injury worms which young Sergio wants to remain firmly closed.
 
In yet another episode of 'Makes you realise just how good SAF was', we have City's team of coffin dodgers. How we managed to constantly keep the youth in our side refreshed was amazing, the transition between teams was usually seamless.
 
Hart < De Gea
Willy < Romero
Johnstone = Wright

Sagna > Darmian
Zabaleta = Varela
?? < Valencia

Kompany = Smalling
Otamendi < Blind
Demichellis < Rojo
Mangala < Jones
?? < McNair

Kolarov < Shaw
Clichy = CBJ
?? < Fosu-Mensah

Fernando < Carrick
Fernandinho = Schneiderlin
Delph < Schweinsteiger
Toure
> Fellaini
?? < Herrera

Silva > Mata
Nasri = Young
Navas = Lingard
Sterling > Memphis
De Bruyne > Pereira
Iheanacho = Januzaj

Aguero > Rooney
Bony < Martial
??? < Rashford
??? < Keane

The only part of their squad that is stronger than ours is that attacking midfield/wingers area. Yes Aguero is class, but I'd take Rooney/Martial/Rashford/Keane over Sicknote and Bony all day long.
I think that ?? Is better then paddy McNair
 
I think that ?? Is better then paddy McNair

I think I must have missed the game which made everyone want to abuse McNair so much this year? There have been plenty of bad performances by far older and more experienced players but he seems to have really fallen foul of the Caf shitometer.
 
Hart < De Gea
Willy < Romero
Johnstone = Wright

Sagna > Darmian
Zabaleta = Varela
?? < Valencia

Kompany = Smalling
Otamendi < Blind
Demichellis < Rojo
Mangala < Jones
?? < McNair

Kolarov < Shaw
Clichy = CBJ
?? < Fosu-Mensah

Fernando < Carrick
Fernandinho = Schneiderlin
Delph < Schweinsteiger
Toure
> Fellaini
?? < Herrera

Silva > Mata
Nasri = Young
Navas = Lingard
Sterling > Memphis
De Bruyne > Pereira
Iheanacho = Januzaj

Aguero > Rooney
Bony < Martial
??? < Rashford
??? < Keane

The only part of their squad that is stronger than ours is that attacking midfield/wingers area. Yes Aguero is class, but I'd take Rooney/Martial/Rashford/Keane over Sicknote and Bony all day long.

This is very erm...RAWK.
 
I think I must have missed the game which made everyone want to abuse McNair so much this year? There have been plenty of bad performances by far older and more experienced players but he seems to have really fallen foul of the Caf shitometer.

I don't get it either. He's looked a bit ropey at times, but he's not really had a sniff. Harsh to expect him to take control of the defence when he's being given the odd appearance off the bench. I thought he was good last season when he played at centre back in a back four. Often had a stinker as a wing back or right of a back three.

I'd like to see him get a PL loan and play regularly at centre back.
 
I don't get it either. He's looked a bit ropey at times, but he's not really had a sniff. Harsh to expect him to take control of the defence when he's being given the odd appearance off the bench. I thought he was good last season when he played at centre back in a back four. Often had a stinker as a wing back or right of a back three.

I'd like to see him get a PL loan and play regularly at centre back.

Agreed. If he had a run of a couple of games and was terrible I could understand it. He's started 3 games this season and none of those 3 were consecutive. Give the poor lad a chance.
 
I think I must have missed the game which made everyone want to abuse McNair so much this year? There have been plenty of bad performances by far older and more experienced players but he seems to have really fallen foul of the Caf shitometer.
Bournemouth, Southampton and Midtiylland are the 3 games paddy was flat out shit in (and that's being kind to the guy) Don't get me wrong loads of players have been sub par (Carrick, Mata, Rooney, Young, Valencia, Rojo, Fellaini) /not as good as expected (Darmian, Memphis, Bastian) but they get cut more slack because people know what then can do/ have done
 
Sagna 33 years old
Zabaleta 31 years old
Kolarov 30 years old
Clichy 30 years old
Demichelis 35 years old
Navas 30 years old
Silva 30 years old
Fernandinho 30 years old
Touré 32 years old

All these players are closing in on theire best before date and will have to be replaced in the coming seasons. Huge job ahead for Pep probably the biggest challenge in his career so far.
It's also quite heartening that some of their more recent (and younger) investments, have looked quite poor. Mangala and Bony, and to a lesser extent Sterling and Otamendi.
 
Hart < De Gea
Willy < Romero
Johnstone = Wright

Sagna > Darmian
Zabaleta = Varela
?? < Valencia

Kompany = Smalling
Otamendi < Blind
Demichellis < Rojo
Mangala < Jones
?? < McNair

Kolarov < Shaw
Clichy = CBJ
?? < Fosu-Mensah

Fernando < Carrick
Fernandinho = Schneiderlin
Delph < Schweinsteiger
Toure
> Fellaini
?? < Herrera

Silva > Mata
Nasri = Young
Navas = Lingard
Sterling > Memphis
De Bruyne > Pereira
Iheanacho = Januzaj

Aguero > Rooney
Bony < Martial
??? < Rashford
??? < Keane

The only part of their squad that is stronger than ours is that attacking midfield/wingers area. Yes Aguero is class, but I'd take Rooney/Martial/Rashford/Keane over Sicknote and Bony all day long.

Bit biased alright but the surprising thing is there really isn't that much between the squads. Definitely not the huge gulf some were talking about at the start of the season. Both are pretty poor really, before long City will be regularly down around 6th-7th as well without some serious investment.
 
Bournemouth, Southampton and Midtiylland are the 3 games paddy was flat out shit in (and that's being kind to the guy) Don't get me wrong loads of players have been sub par (Carrick, Mata, Rooney, Young, Valencia, Rojo, Fellaini) /not as good as expected (Darmian, Memphis, Bastian) but they get cut more slack because people know what then can do/ have done

20 minutes at the end of the game against Southampton after a stretch out of the side is a bit harsh on the lad. Against Bournemouth if I remember correctly, they scored direct from a corner, and then another corner late on where Blind/Fellaini were much more to blame than McNair?
 
One bitter says-

"The only defence I can bring, certainly this season, is that the league is just fecking camacarzy and you only need look at Chelsea to prove that. They sacked their manager, though, and could conceivably catch us if we continue as we are. A long shot yes, but not beyond the realms of reason"

Another replied with this gem-

"That spelling of kamikaze is the only highlight of the day". :lol:
 
Hart < De Gea
Willy < Romero
Johnstone = Wright

Sagna > Darmian
Zabaleta = Varela
?? < Valencia

Kompany = Smalling
Otamendi < Blind
Demichellis < Rojo
Mangala < Jones
?? < McNair

Kolarov < Shaw
Clichy = CBJ
?? < Fosu-Mensah

Fernando < Carrick
Fernandinho = Schneiderlin
Delph < Schweinsteiger
Toure
> Fellaini
?? < Herrera

Silva > Mata
Nasri = Young
Navas = Lingard
Sterling > Memphis
De Bruyne > Pereira
Iheanacho = Januzaj

Aguero > Rooney
Bony < Martial
??? < Rashford
??? < Keane

The only part of their squad that is stronger than ours is that attacking midfield/wingers area. Yes Aguero is class, but I'd take Rooney/Martial/Rashford/Keane over Sicknote and Bony all day long.
Mate, very red glasses on. I'd have zabeleta over varela right now. Mangala at least plays games, where the heck is Jones. And Otamendi I'd have over blind.

But I'm more than happy with martial and Rashford over their attackers for sure. If we'd have had swapped aguero and rooney our attack would be phenomenal
 
Sagna 33 years old
Zabaleta 31 years old
Kolarov 30 years old
Clichy 30 years old
Demichelis 35 years old
Navas 30 years old
Silva 30 years old
Fernandinho 30 years old
Touré 32 years old

All these players are closing in on theire best before date and will have to be replaced in the coming seasons. Huge job ahead for Pep probably the biggest challenge in his career so far.

Definitely. He'll have to win the CL to be considered a success and City is worse than any team he's ever managed (tough competition, I know). It'll be very interesting to see if he can manage it, especially as he's never been at any one job for longer than 3 years and is coming into a more competitive league.
 
It will be amusing to see what Zlatan and company do to that defence, particularly with Kompany and Hart out.
 
I hope City rest some players in the next two Premier League games because of Champions League. They play Bournemouth (a), PSG, West Brom (h) then PSG again.

Those two league games are fairly straight forward so with the CL games I hope they take it easy and drop points.
 
Mate, very red glasses on. I'd have zabeleta over varela right now. Mangala at least plays games, where the heck is Jones. And Otamendi I'd have over blind.

But I'm more than happy with martial and Rashford over their attackers for sure. If we'd have had swapped aguero and rooney our attack would be phenomenal

Your Jones argument could be applied to Aguero or Kompany just as easily. I'll concede on Zabaleta because of his history but if you offered me either player for my football club right now, there's only one choice.

Otamendi over Blind is crazy and can only be based on a preconceived notion of each player. We all expected Blind to be a disaster at centre back so it's been tough for people to acknowledge that he's actually done a fine job for most of the season. On the other hand we thought Otamendi was going to be great when in actual fact, he's been very, very ordinary.
 
Hart < De Gea
Willy < Romero
Johnstone = Wright

Sagna > Darmian
Zabaleta = Varela
?? < Valencia

Kompany = Smalling
Otamendi < Blind
Demichellis < Rojo
Mangala < Jones
?? < McNair

Kolarov < Shaw
Clichy = CBJ
?? < Fosu-Mensah

Fernando < Carrick
Fernandinho = Schneiderlin
Delph < Schweinsteiger
Toure
> Fellaini
?? < Herrera

Silva > Mata
Nasri = Young
Navas = Lingard
Sterling > Memphis
De Bruyne > Pereira
Iheanacho = Januzaj

Aguero > Rooney
Bony < Martial
??? < Rashford
??? < Keane

The only part of their squad that is stronger than ours is that attacking midfield/wingers area. Yes Aguero is class, but I'd take Rooney/Martial/Rashford/Keane over Sicknote and Bony all day long.

Bottom line - whatever you think of squad comparisons, they have a number of very good players who when supplemented by other very good players - which they inevitably will be, and with a very good manager who is light years ahead of ours, will probably do very well.

They are further down the curve than we are and getting Guardiola proves it.

We won today and deserved it, but it means nothing. We're lumbered with a manager who's best years are past him while they're arguably four or five players away from a very good side.
 
I don't get it either. He's looked a bit ropey at times, but he's not really had a sniff. Harsh to expect him to take control of the defence when he's being given the odd appearance off the bench. I thought he was good last season when he played at centre back in a back four. Often had a stinker as a wing back or right of a back three.

I'd like to see him get a PL loan and play regularly at centre back.

Yeah I really don't think he's that bad. Had some genuinely good last season. Not really fair to judge him on games like Bournemouth where he was playing with Blind, CBJ and Varela.
 
We won today and deserved it, but it means nothing. We're lumbered with a manager who's best years are past him while they're arguably four or five players away from a very good side.

I think Klopp, Ranieri and others have shown that any side is four or five players and a good coach away from being good. City do have some good players and I think their starting XI is better than ours. But their squad is the weakest in terms of numbers, and in quality outside the starting XI, of any of the big clubs.
 
He must be the hardest player to dispossess. That close control, agility on the turns and awareness is a lethal combo. I'm tempted to think it's harsh on Rooney to expect him to play like Aguero. :lol:

Well Rooney gets paid more which is sickening so it's not unfair to compare them. If anything it just shows how much we need to send Rooney packing.