The second goal as well, no one bothered to mark him, our defenders just waiting for a cross to come in, sensing no danger.
Our rival's squads next year - Man City
- Thread starter Wumminator
- Start date
The second goal as well, no one bothered to mark him, our defenders just waiting for a cross to come in, sensing no danger.
How does a decent start differ from regaining form? I'm just interested. His loss of form last year is one of the most exaggerated things on this forum - like he was suddenly a terrible defender. We still only conceded one more than you lot last year, and that was with a near non-existant two man midfield with an out of form Yaya (also past it, another trend on here).
Aguero is a moving target, so standing in his path isn't easy because he'll just move to a place you're not stood, and he'll probably do it quicker than you can respond to. He should have had 2 or 3 today, forgot to put his finishing boots on
To be fair, Dzeko and even Balotelli scored many goals like this for City too. It's obviously not as easy to do as it is to say.
Harsh on Agüero IMO, Begovic produced two really good saves to deny him. Sure, he could've put them a bit further out, but with the ball coming at you with such pace you're doing well to force the keeper into making saves like that.
Considering today was Aguero's first start following coming on for a few minutes against West Brom with no pre-season games I thought he was incredibly sharp. Obviously with a couple more games under his belt he would have had a hat-trick but all in good time 
It seems teams do not even set up to man mark aguero in these situations or even have someone hovering on the front post, seems to be more about defending space infront of the goal.
Yes they have, and im sure plenty of coaches have tried to stop it, our two goals we conceeded were simply avoided by actually looking to where he was instead of being more concerned about space, look back at the footage and you will see youself
The second goal was just as criminal as the first, we had everyone lined up infront of the goal more concerned about keeping the line instead of looking where Aguero was.
They picked early.
How is man city not affected by ffp. The likes of Inter has to sold Kovacic/Shaqiri to maintain ffp rules.
Strange deal for City. Mangala is looking very good and I think they may have the best CB partnership in the league currently with Kompany also back in form. Now not only are they sending Mangala on loan they are also paying almost half his wages. What if Otamendi-Kompany partnership takes a while to get going or worse yet doesn't work out? They might just drop some points that could ultimately make a difference in the title race. They don't need to change anything right now.
Inter can't afford to bribe officials.
What does this mean?
As long as we keep picking up points, I don't really care what anyone else is doing.
After the first title winning season he seemed to think he was the next Beckenbauer charging up to midfield all the time and attempting to do everything himself. He deservedly got this reputation because hes not the next Beckenbauer and he frequently made mistakes and got caught out of position.
Having said that, last season i think he started to realise he wasnt quite as good as he thought he was (especially after that Belgium game) and has gone back to doing whats hes actually good at again.
City probably paid off UEFA officials to be exempt from FFP rules.
Surely this is a WUM...
This is my attitude as well. Lets keep racking up the points.
Assuming De Bruyne and Otamendi are done deals for them then, how many of our players would make their starting lineup?
Difficult question as City play a very different game to United and the hopefully each club has the players to fit their different systems.
But to answer your question I would say on current showing none but how much of that is due to the players themselves and how much is due to playing LVG's system. It is also entirely possible that LVG may not pick many of City's players if he had access to them. For example I don't see him picking Yaya.
City play with a freedom that United do not and right now none of United's players look like a good fit into our team. However, who knows if they got the chance.
Their depth in midfield is still poor. Delph is a reasonable purchase but they're an injury to Toure away from a Fernandinho/Delph duo. That isn't good enough given the outlay, and yet again they go through another summer ignoring glaring issues. Europe will expose them as per.
That said, Sterling is an excellent signing. De Bruyne will be, too. They needed pace and quality in place of players like Nasri and Navas and that's what they seem to be doing.
Otamendi will be a good signing, perhaps the long term fix at the heart of defence, but the entire deal involving Mangala is financially ludicrous.
That said, Sterling is an excellent signing. De Bruyne will be, too. They needed pace and quality in place of players like Nasri and Navas and that's what they seem to be doing.
Otamendi will be a good signing, perhaps the long term fix at the heart of defence, but the entire deal involving Mangala is financially ludicrous.
Unfortunately I have to say I would only see Shaw and Darmian as possible starters for them. We have some good midfielders now but there midfield works pretty well so far so no need to change something.
Also Sterling looks brighter than Memphis so far.
However, that highlights how important signing someone like Pedro would be for us after AdM leaving.
I'd have to agree with this. Considering what we've spent it's a concern to say the least. I think that potentially we have 5 or so who could be good enough to displace their City counterparts though.
The only team in EPL that I enjoyed watching this season. Playing with fluidity and attacking mentality. They look good so far. Silva, Kun looks in good form.
Sterling's had the benefit of two seasons in the PL already though, to be fair. Memphis just needs some time to come good, and he's a cocky fecker so I think he will.
But yeah, aside from our fullbacks I'm not sure who'd get in the team. I'd have usually said either Carrick or Schneiderlinn over Fernandinho, but he's playing great right now too.
Silva and Aguero are a joy to watch, best in the world in their respective positions imo (discounting the obvious 2).
It's been 2 games, let's not draw any definitive conclusions.
Also, was Fernandinho that often slated on here? I get the impression he's actually rated to his actual level, that of a very good CM who works hard and who is essential to Yaya functioning well. Yaya was criticized quite a bit but I'd like to see how the season pans out in full for him before saying it was wrong - especially in Europe.
Better ground for drawing conclusions than the mere passing of time in pre-season, where players aged enormously over one summer, the team went into decline and lacked direction. At least, according to many on the caf where it had become almost a foregone conclusion that they had an inferior side to united and Arsenal, let alone Chelsea.
I'd fancy our chances against them if we were playing them tomorrow tbh. That midfield of theirs can still be overrun. Chelsea just didn't have the personnel to do it.
Fabregas went awol and City went straight down the middle. Try that against our Schmidfield and see what happens.
Of course, though pre-season is dubbed silly season for a variety of reasons. I just think both yours and Bobby's posts are jumping to conclusions a bit too quickly.
Comfortably the best team to watch in the league. I firmly believed that they wouldn't win the league unless they upgraded their defence but the cnuts seem to be getting Otamendi . Their CM isn't all that but it won't matter as long as they have a solid CB pairing and keep Aguero fit.
. Their CM isn't all that but it won't matter as long as they have a solid CB pairing and keep Aguero fit.They look very, very fresh right now, and if they bring in De Bruyne they'll have an absolutely frightening attacking line up with him, Sterling and Silva behind Agüero, and Yaya behind that trio again. Hard to look beyond them for the title at this point, when they are playing like this.
That said, I expect them to hit ruts throughout the season, and I'm not sure they're mentally strong enough as a unit to overcome those ruts in a fashion that will let them run away with the league title. But they will definitely be in the mix this season, no two ways about it.
That said, I expect them to hit ruts throughout the season, and I'm not sure they're mentally strong enough as a unit to overcome those ruts in a fashion that will let them run away with the league title. But they will definitely be in the mix this season, no two ways about it.
It's not jumping too quickly to assume that the team that has finished top-2 for the past four seasons is looking pretty likely to do the same this season given that they have not really been weakened.
Comfortably the best team to watch in the league. I firmly believed that they wouldn't win the league unless they upgraded their defence but the cnuts seem to be getting Otamendi
Big if IMO.
Lets be honest if they add De Bruyne and Otamendi they should walk the league. Those 2 players plus Sterling is a very strong summer for City.
Yup. If they're lucky though and his injuries aren't for tight games, bony will be more than enough.
Apparantly City are the shortest odds of any team at this stage of the season in PL history
Edit: Might be bollocks actually, got it from Will Hill. I reckon Jose's first Chelsea team would've been shorter than 5/4 in his 2nd/3rd seasons.
Edit: Might be bollocks actually, got it from Will Hill. I reckon Jose's first Chelsea team would've been shorter than 5/4 in his 2nd/3rd seasons.
Otamendi will be a a very good signing. Shoring up their defence and with their attack already superb it only leaves a small question in midfield which will be fine unless they get an injury.
It's been two games. Plenty of teams have looked great initially before going through bad form later on.