We're really not. We're barely 4th in the Dutch league. Just massively overperforming in the Champions League somehow.
Champions League 21/1/25 + 22/1/25
- Thread starter SilentWitness
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) and Imran (@Annihilate Now!) are here to discuss Amad saving our blushes in a win against Southampton as well as our now annual loss at home to Brighton. They discuss Amorim's post-match comments, revisit how mid-table we may or may not be, and discuss some transfer news.
Believe the Feyenoord fan then if you don’t believe me. I think City will beat Bruges but I’d say Bruges is a better team than Feyenoord straight up at the moment, so calling them “miles better” is totally inaccurate.
Says it all? Brugge are 20th and City are 25th. By that logic Brugge are better than City?
We’ll see next week. I’ll come back to this after city thrash Brugge. I’ll be more than happy to be proven wrong though.
We’ll see next week won’t we. Easy game for city.
Why would the result in City v Brugge give any indication to who is better out of Brugge or Feyenoord?
There is no guarentee City will beat Brugge, Brugge have already beaten Villa who beat City and Sporting who thrashed City plus drew with Juventus who also beat City.
Brugge only need a draw so I can see then parking the bus at the City of Manchester Stadium next week.
Brugge only need a draw so I can see then parking the bus at the City of Manchester Stadium next week.
It doesn’t really but they got a 3-3 draw to them at the etihad. City are going to steamroll past Brugge.
Perhaps.
That doesn'tt make them better though
If you park the bus against city it usually ends in you losing. We’ve found out this season that city don’t like defending, when they have to defend against pace they get scared.
I disagree, I dont think they will
Cant imagine you'll be wrong. City will handily beat them as they shouldve handily beaten us being 3-0 up after 75 minutes...
Yet they didn't
That wasn’t the point at all ffs
I remember yeah
Under the new CL format, what's stopping top clubs from loaning good players to Brugge for 1 week so they can improve their chances of eliminating City? I know, risk of injuries but ignore the practicalities for a second.
Yeah it's definitely contrived to try and ensure the big teams shouldn't go out in the group stage in any circumstances. It's a remarkable testament to just how shite you've been that you're now actually at risk of going out, just hope you can finish it off with another spectacular collapse next week.
Although on think on the flipside it was also partly contrived to try and allow the fodder the chance of still having something to play for on GW7/8.
But with the way it's turned out this year with quite a few of the lesser fancied teams arguably 'overperforming' (Villa, Feyenoord, Brest, Lille, Celtic etc.) and the fodder being well and truly fodder, the squabble for places going into the final GW for mid-table/approaching the top 8. Whereas the only story at the bottom seems to be will City go out or will they just steamroller Brugge and spoil our fun.
Horrible individual errors from Bayern today. The tackle by Guerrero for the penalty was one of the worst I've seen, the player was going away from the box towards the corner and Guerrero tripped him at the edge of the box. Idiotic.
Bayern missed a ton of chances themselves.
Bayern missed a ton of chances themselves.
We're trash. Honestly flat track bullies. We can play around teams who are slow or just like a tier below us. But any team with legs in midfield will destroy us, especially last 30 minutes.
The big issue is midfield not defence. Kovacic is slow (and lazy) but good on the ball. Bernardo looks exhausted and very poor. KDB is arrogant, slow and lazy. Gundo is a trier but cooked. 2 of our midfield 3 don't track back (KDB and Kova) with any intensity, leaving Bernardo almost sitting covering a defence that is in fairness injury riddled. Like you guys when you had no midfield when all their legs just kinda went at once. Watching KDB and Kova track back behind the play like they're Marcus Rashford is infuriating. I think KDB knows he's not getting a new contract and out the door at the end of the season and Kova just can't deal with any kind of pace That combined with not really having a pair of fit CB's and fielding half fit players all season, we're just shite. Even with fully fit CB's we'd still be miles below you guys, Arsenal and Forest.
The 3 CB's that played today haven't been able to train in 2 weeks. Dias is turning into something of a perma-crock with injuries and he's our only actual defensively good defender (along with maybe Ake).
Lewis is a child playing a mans game. I see the shit Trent takes for his defending but he's fecking Maldini compared to Rico (nothing against the kid, he's too small, too weak and too slow).
Akanji has reverted to the player who Dortmund couldn't wait to get rid of but rumour is he's carrying an injury all season and just the fittest of what we have.
Gvaridol is talented but he's so complacent, the kinda guy who'll score worldies and make amazing clearances/last ditch tackles only to undo it all with a lazy pass or falling asleep. He has a lot to learn.
Nunes is not a right back. He's a trier but he makes a lot of mistakes at RB, positionally and overcommits to winning the ball etc...
Than up top, Foden despite the recent run of form, is still struggling when the pressure is on, and the other wingers are way too inconsistent. Great game followed by shocker types.
We lack the speed and physicality we had before. You compare this team at its best, Erling, KDB, Walker, Rodri, Dias were all strong physical guys with solid mentality. We were a team despite the football who could absolutely get stuck in, even guys like Grealish and Bernardo.
Now we're weak and slow. Haaland and Nunes seem to be the only players bringing any kid of physicality to the game. I've seen people say its confidence but I don't buy that. After an hour of football half our team is completely dead. We're not quite as bad as results and once the CB's are fit we'll be much better but we're at best the 5th maybe 6th best team in the league right now. This is not gonna be a quick fix given Peps hard ons for Gundo and Bernardo.
Wanna beat City stick players with half talent but energy and effort in midfield. Put 3 fast guys up top. Let them come on to you and break with pace and you'll get 4 or 5 v 3 every single time cause our players can't/won't run back and Pep refuses to attack with less than 8 players.
They can't be registered till after the league phase.
I always knew he was a symbol.
Anyone else think that City kit was fecking horrendous?
You could argue we could have got an easier way through in a easy group, but at least you have to win games to go through in that. As you said, testament to how shit we have been but also a testament to how little jeopardy there is for the assumed best teams that we are still in with a shout after not only these performances but also results.
The amount of times the opposing midfield gets in behind Kovacic absolutely murders us. We are also so lightweight on the ball it is untrue. Turnover after turnover, baffling to see when you are used to these players in their prime. Gundogan, De Bruyne, Bernardo, Kova. Any type of pressure and you are likely winning the ball and one pass away from running full steam at a makeshift defence
Absolutely, pep made the exact same mistake as klopp but klopp rectified it in great fashion. Till this season I wouldn't swap our midfield for any in the world. Right now Liverpool, Arsenal, Newcastle, Chelsea are light years ahead of us in the Premier alone.
I'd genuinly swap our current midfield with almost any team we have met during this run
When we made Will Hughes look like a combination of prime Busquets and Fernandinho away at Palace was when I wrote off the season.
Only thing that surprises (after the initial surprise of the decline of these players which I have accepted by now) me a bit is the fact that all we have learnt about Pep over the years is that he is obsessed about control and midfielder but somehow he is tolerating this. Try something different for god sake, we can't control anything with the midfields he sets up at the moment
Also at some point City didn't do simple math, in moneyball terms if you loose double figures of goals and assists from Alvarez, replace those. Already the mid was having problems with Alvarez not being a real mid replacing injured Kev and so on.
I don't think anyone thougth Doku and others were already the ones that can bring the numbers City was going to loose and expecting Foden to double his scoring and asissts output (when even duplicate it it's hard and didn't happen either) was also sthg very noticeable as a job to be done.
More when Kev is aging, Gundo too, the forwards involve have also have less pressing and physical pressence and all around game. There were stuff to solve inmediatly instead of keeping the money entering in the bank without expending ASAP in some new a priori proven reinforcements.
I think City will draw Real Madrid/Atalanta in the playoff if they win next week.
That's the baffling part. I get Marmoush (kdb replacement) but the 2 centre backs instead of a midfielder is baffling. We have an army of (unfit) CBs already. Maybe it's to put Akanji out at RB or something but he has to see the state of the midfield without the ball.I'd genuinly swap our current midfield with almost any team we have met during this run
When we made Will Hughes look like a combination of prime Busquets and Fernandinho away at Palace was when I wrote off the season.
Only thing that surprises me a bit is the fact that all we have learnt about Pep over the years is that he is obsessed about control and midfielder but somehow he is tolerating this
I'd genuinely like to see him try a midfield 3 with Nunes, Silva and Grealish in there. At least they'll run and get stuck in. Nunes can't be worse at dm than RB tactically.
How do you see Marmoush as a KDB replacement? They are wildly different players no?
They are but he won't be on the bench.
I think the front 4 will be Erling as a 9, with Foden, Marmoush and one of Doku/Savinho in the 3 behind, as opposed to Foden, KDB, Doku/Savinho currently.
Different but similar. Marmoush is not really a striker, he only moved up front in Frankfurt because they couldn't get a Kolo Muani replacement in time. By now he usually plays the second striker together with Ekitike and while he was the prime scorer in Frankfurt's team it tactically still is a supporting role. So he definitely should be able to play behind and around Haaland, just in a different way as KdB does.
It is really unfortunate that City have an easy home game now, it would have been funnier if PSG lost in hindsight
Also, whenever I've skimmed channels and catched a few minutes of a PSG game it would basically be them tearing their opponents apart but missing sitter after sitter, like worse finishing than United, while their opponents just stood and watched it all unfold. Then I'd check the score at FT and they'd lost 1-0 goes to show what happens when you lose a 30+ goals machine and don't replace him with another...
Advanced numbers have them as one of the best teams in CL too
Basically I guess my point is not only would PSG going out be funny, they're also significantly more threatening side than City....
Also, whenever I've skimmed channels and catched a few minutes of a PSG game it would basically be them tearing their opponents apart but missing sitter after sitter, like worse finishing than United, while their opponents just stood and watched it all unfold. Then I'd check the score at FT and they'd lost 1-0
goes to show what happens when you lose a 30+ goals machine and don't replace him with another...Advanced numbers have them as one of the best teams in CL too
Basically I guess my point is not only would PSG going out be funny, they're also significantly more threatening side than City....