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All purpose football thread 2023/24 Season

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A good win against Nottingham Forest, with an outstanding first half-hour before chaos ensued. Rodri, possibly the world's best player, was a fool and reacted stupidly to some physical treatment. Granted, the referee, Anthony Taylor, brought on a lot of the chaos with a somewhat inept display, allowing some very physical play without punishment, while punishing the relatively innocuous, but he should not have reacted in the way that he did. City have a lot of history with Taylor. He is commonly known as Alty boy because of his professed (and frankly not believable) support for Altrincham, despite a family full of Manchester United fans, and his performances in our games are often questionable. Regardless, players MUST remain professional and the loss of Rodri, because of his own stupidity, is a big, big hit. The squad, with injuries to DeBruyne, Kovacic, Stones, Bernardo and Grealish, is really light in midfield and we face a challenging month with games against Arsenal, Newcastle, Brighton and United. Hopefully, two of those players will play in this week's cup match and gain some fitness. I am pleased to have points in the bank.
 
oldius said:
The squad, with injuries to DeBruyne, Kovacic, Stones, Bernardo and Grealish, is really light in midfield and we face a challenging month with games against Arsenal, Newcastle, Brighton and United.
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Thoughts and prayers - I'm almost welling up here.
Remind me again how many points have you dropped in your first six PL matches?
 
Strength of quality in signings.
Best in the premier league.
Much more effective than Chelsea’s “trawler” policy.
 
webster said:
Thoughts and prayers - I'm almost welling up here.
Remind me again how many points have you dropped in your first six PL matches?
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As I said, I am pleased to have the points in the bank.
If you think that any team is not weakened by the loss of Rodri, DeBruyne, Bernardo, Kovacic and Grealish...
Luckily for us, we have not yet faced any of the strongest teams in the league, but we do in the next month.
 
oldius said:
As I said, I am pleased to have the points in the bank.
If you think that any team is not weakened by the loss of Rodri, DeBruyne, Bernardo, Kovacic and Grealish...
Luckily for us, we have not yet faced any of the strongest teams in the league, but we do in the next month.
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It was tongue in cheek as I'm sure you knew.:)
I hope you drop some points in the upcoming matches otherwise the PL is going to be, once again, a forgone conclusion.
Personally I don't see a serious challenger as the chasing pack will likely all take points off each other.
Anyway I've got a relegation battle to think about.;)
 
webster said:
It was tongue in cheek as I'm sure you knew.:)
I hope you drop some points in the upcoming matches otherwise the PL is going to be, once again, a forgone conclusion.
Personally I don't see a serious challenger as the chasing pack will likely all take points off each other.
Anyway I've got a relegation battle to think about.;)
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I would be very surprised if we do not drop some points, tbh. If it wasn't Rodri, I would say it's fine, but he is absolutely crucial in the big games. Tomorrow night may see Grealish play, and he will be a welcome return. I suspect that if he returns, for the big games, Doku will shift over to the right, Foden will then play inside with Kovacic and Nunes. As of now, Phillips will not play in the big games. I don't know how long Kovacic is out for, nor Stones.
 
One nil down and then the inevitable come back.
watch
 
As I predicted in my last post, I expect that we will now enter a difficult period. Firstly, we play some dangerous teams; secondly, we have more fixtures; thirdly, we have a lot of injuries in one, key area. Last night's game was always a tricky fixture, despite our dominance of Newcastle in the recent PL game. The first half saw City dominance of the ball, but with very few chances created. In the second, from the off, Newcastle upped the intensity, made good changes, and City, for a period, were unable to cope with it and conceded a goal that we never looked like coming back from. The absence of Rodri, Stones, Silva, DeBruyne, Kovacic and Grealish, though the last two played some minutes last night, will have an effect.

Well done to Newcastle and to Eddie Howe, who is doing an excellent job. I thought Pep's comments about the refereeing were fair - once again we saw repeated fouls by the opposition unpunished with cards, yet an immediate yellow for Akanji when protesting. Akanji should have got the card, just as Rodri should have been sent off at the weekend, but referees who allow persistent fouling to go unpunished, create a negative environment on the field, with predictable outcomes.
 
I agree with most of your analysis but predictably not around our "persistent fouling". We commited 12 fouls to your 10. Phillips made a couple of cynical ones to break up play just as Joelinton and Bruno did. I thought the Ref was pretty sensible and consistent. Two yellow cards each seemed about right; I didn't think it was a particularly dirty game.
The players are aware of the new rules around protest. We've had a couple of victims. Trippier is usually very strong around keeping others away from the Ref.
Surprised Haaland didn't come on for the last 15 at least.
Not impressed with the draw for next round.
 
Kirk said:
Let's all take a moment to spare a thought for the City team that couldn't travel by air from Newcastle to Manchester.
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Ah, welcome back to the football thread. I don't know anything about this.
 
What's the deal with Grealish this season? Has he been injured, or did Pep's comments about him allude to more? The reason i ask our resident citizens, is because when everyone on social media were singing the praises of a 'merry' Grealish being great entertainment, celebrating the Treble, i was a little worried about the person and his drinking.
 
Blue Belle said:
What's the deal with Grealish this season? Has he been injured, or did Pep's comments about him allude to more? The reason i ask our resident citizens, is because when everyone on social media were singing the praises of a 'merry' Grealish being great entertainment, celebrating the Treble, i was a little worried about the person and his drinking.
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He has been injured for a few weeks. I don't know any more than that.
 
Weekender said:
I agree with most of your analysis but predictably not around our "persistent fouling". We commited 12 fouls to your 10. Phillips made a couple of cynical ones to break up play just as Joelinton and Bruno did. I thought the Ref was pretty sensible and consistent. Two yellow cards each seemed about right; I didn't think it was a particularly dirty game.
The players are aware of the new rules around protest. We've had a couple of victims. Trippier is usually very strong around keeping others away from the Ref.
Surprised Haaland didn't come on for the last 15 at least.
Not impressed with the draw for next round.
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Finally risen from my sick bed last night I was able to attend what turned out to be an interesting watch. It struck me that City's style of play will be less resilient to the new contact rules that Newcastle's. It is fair to say that in previous seasons the Newcastle foul count would have been higher than it was. That's of no consequence now and makes the signing of a Gattuso style player in Tonali even more of a of a coup. Isak presents similar problem to defenders, looks like the wind would blow him over but well able to bounce over every centre half I've seen him up against.

Blue Belle said:
What's the deal with Grealish this season? Has he been injured, or did Pep's comments about him allude to more? The reason i ask our resident citizens, is because when everyone on social media were singing the praises of a 'merry' Grealish being great entertainment, celebrating the Treble, i was a little worried about the person and his drinking.
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Grealish and Ake played my side first half. Grealish was off the pace I recall for him, it looked like a general fitness issue rather than carrying a specific injury.

It was amusing to see him vent his frustration at Ake, when the latter had done nothing wrong. Suggests to me that years of heavy tackles have taken their toll.
 
Meanwhile in the real world the mighty Hallam FC were continuing with their homage of Kevin Keegan's 1st stint at Newcastle by beating Worsborough Bridge Athletic 6-3 in the cup. At one stage they were 4-0 up and then 5-3 in around 10 minutes. I fear that the " as long as we score one more goal than the opposition" mentality will end up going the same way as Keegan's side. Though it is very entertaining!
 
Eddie Howe is doing very well at Newcastle but comments about tackles and I did not watch the game bring back recollections of his time at Bournemouth. The press were and are always favourable to Howe as distinct to the terraces who considered Bournemouth to be a bit of a dirty team.
 
Enjoyed watching Cole Palmer's performance a couple of evenings ago at fortress Stamford Bridge.
What an elegant and talented player he looks - hopefully Poch gives him an extended run in the team.
Makes me more forgiving of City nicking Kova from us for loose change.:)
 
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