To be fair, once City bought a top striker, they were pretty much pissing the league from August-November. At the time United and Chelsea had more settled sides. Once they inevitably declined City deservedly won the league, passing all over the other top teams in the process.
In 2010/11 Mancini bought Boateng, Yaya, Silva, Dzeko and Kolarov....3rd and an FA Cup without gel. In 2011/12 Mancini added Aguero, Nasri, and Clichy....won the league without gel. Like I said, I'm not expecting the same outcome here because our budget is limited, until this season when we had a City style amount of money to spend, but City as far as I have seen have not had a flat season hiding behind 'give them time', they clearly didn't need it. Our problems are too many similar types of player playing an unfamiliar system that doesn't suit all. Thats my opinion and I'm sticking to it till I see evidence otherwise.
City weren't as overnight as notso suggests. Their title win in 2012 can be broken down more like... 2008-9: Mark Hughes signs Kompany and Zabaleta - finish tenth 2009-10: Mark Hughes signs Barry, Tevez, Kolo Toure and Lescott, Mancini replaces him mid-season - finish fifth 2010-11: Mancini signs Silva, Yaya Toure, Milner, Balotelli and (in January) Dzeko, also makes Joe Hart their first-choice keeper - finish third 2011-12: Mancini signs Aguero, Nasri and Clichy - finish first With the exception of Hart, the backbone of the squad was established prior to Mancini's arrival, it was the attacking options that he added that took them over the line.
As you have pointed out though Notso, they only added max 5 a time. Only 4 players in our entire first choice squad have been with the club/first team for more than a year: Defoe Daws Walker Sandro So adding: Capoue Townsend Lamela Chadli Paulinho Soldado Holtby Eriksen Vlad Is a massive challenge. I understand the point you are making, but city and Chelsea both added to far more established sides than we are - Not to mention the fact that many of there players were older and already developed compared to Lamela, Holtby, CE and Vlad.
Ok, and compare those 3 players to trying to integrate: Rose (never played much for us before), Chirches, Paulinho, Capoue, Lamela, Chadli, Townsend (ditto Rose), Soldado, Eriksen. Not to mention the not insignificant loss of Bale and selling players who played last like Hudd, Dempsey, Livermore, Caulker, Parker and Gallas. And, Sandro barely played last season either, so he's hardly a constant that we can rely on. Basically we have 4 players who are playing regularly from last season, Lloris, Walker, Dawson, Vertonghen. With Lennon coming back the last 2 games. Edit - Damnit SG! Great minds Edit 2 - And BAE
I don't suggest anything hbic, nowhere do I say 'overnight' just stick to what I wrote, its there in black and white, for the 2 years I quoted the players bought did not need to gel, bed in, or whatever **** term you or anyone else wants to put on it. My point is, its nothing to do with gelling, its a load of square pegs bought for round holes. As for your general observation though, with the exception of Chiriches, and arguably Paulinho, the rest we've bought are to increase attacking options. Now instead of wasting your time trying to unsuccessfully unpick my posts, lets hear your 'own' view.
yeh, I forgot Rose though. I think if enough of us say the same thing, we might all combined manage to make a semi-coherant arguement!
I think everyone is of the same mind regarding the style of play, and that is could be improved Notso. But I do strongly believe you need to consider the fact we have basically built a new squad in the last two years. Other teams such as QPR, Sunderland and Palace have completely erroded any team spirit they had when doing this and have either been, or are promptly on there way to relegation.
What is my view? Hmm, it have to be the obvious fact (which is also in black and white) you didn't seem to complain when Spursguru and Spurm also picked apart the obvious flaws in your obviously slanted argument. And, judging by the tone of your response, I think my unpicking was very successful. It also has to be stated that Man City didn't lose key players in any of the season I listed, but upgraded the players they had - Aguero was an upgrade to the departing Bellamy, Nasri an upgrade to SWP, Silva an upgrade to Robinho, Milner an upgrade to Stephen Ireland, Barry an upgrade to Hamann etc. That is what City's money buys, the ability to upgrade players you have whenever you need to. If they didn't have the money to do so, two things would have been different: i.) They wouldn't have sold Corluka to us after only a year when they identified Zabaleta as a better player for them ii.) They wouldn't have shrugged off losing more than half of what they paid for Robinho two years prior, whilst also buying a costly upgrade At no point did they lose an equivalent of Modric, VDV or Bale without replacing them - instead they signed an equivalent of Modric, VDV or Bale to replace a player that was already at the team. That's a massive difference you have overlooked. Compared to that, we have been making enforced changes in recent years, and the only areas we have genuinely upgraded in recent years is signing Lloris to replace Friedel last year - loaning in Adebayor to replace Crouch is another example, but the fact is he was on loan rather than a permanent signing. When City finished third in 2010-11, their back four was settled, their central midfield was settled, and the only addition was Hart - who had been gaining experience on loan at Birmingham the previous year. You cannot compare that to the backbone of our current squad - Sandro and Kaboul are coming back from long-term injuries, Paulinho was signed in the summer, and it's Rose's first season as a first-choice player. As pointed out by other posters, Dawson, Walker, Vertonghen and Lloris are the only settled members of our backbone that played the majority of last season - and of that, Lloris and Vertonghen have only played for the club a little over a year. Another way to look at it is to is to break down our matchday squad's: 2004-5: Martin Jol signs Michael Dawson and Jermaine Defoe 2005-6: Martin Jol signs Aaron Lennon 2007-8: Martin Jol signs Younes Kaboul and Danny Rose 2009-10: Harry Redknapp signs Sandro and Kyle Walker, re-signs Jermaine Defoe 2010-11: Harry Redknapp re-signs Younes Kaboul 2012-13: Andre Villas-Boas signs Jan Vertonghen, Mousa Dembele, Gylfi Sigurdsson, and Hugo Lloris, later signs Lewis Holtby 2013-14: Andre Villas-Boas signs Paulinho, Roberto Soldado, Erik Lamela, Christian Eriksen, Vlad Chiriches and Etienne Capoue, and promotes Andros Townsend and Danny Rose to first-team roles City never signed a chunk of their first team players in one go, they signed players to improve one area or another (as highlighted earlier) with a few players like Savic or Kolarov as back-up. We've had to sign a lot of players for immediate first-team football due to departures.
One other thing to note is that City also signed a fair number of players that were already familiar with the league. They picked up a number of foreign-based superstars, but there were also the Milner, Barry, Lescott and Clichys in there, who wouldn't need as much time settling in. We brought in seven players with absolutely no experience of English football and lost a few players who were influential in the previous campaign.
We proved two years ago we're perfectly capable of finishing in a CL spot and not qualifying for the CL. Having the best defence and and GD and finishing fifth should be a breeze... Meanwhile, I'm as sick of the word "gel" as anyone, and have got to come up with an alternative. Coalesce? Symbionate? Learn-to-play-together-as-a-team....
They don't do it with the tedious, baseless, regularity you do! Yes, all 3 of you have misunderstood, in your case the only obvious flaw I see . I can count, and have considered my view and it still stands. The players bought by City (who are just one example) were astute and slotted into the team as required. Too many of ours have not, and will not whilst played out of position. Because my point is only this i didn't see the point of reading anymore of your post....so I didn't.
A shame, given it demonstrates on several levels how your view stands about as well as somebody who just downed a litre bottle of vodka. That you continue to ignore the fact City created a team by using their wealth to upgrade the players they had over time, rather than have to rebuild their team due to key players leaving, shows just how legless your view is. You're wrong, get over it.
City won the league on goal difference with the last kick of the season. They should have kicked on last season, but they relaxed and their better players didn't perform as well as they should have. But Mancini brought together four players in Tevez, Aguero, Silva and Nasri, who were all comfortable playing that slick, one touch passing game in and around the box. This kind of play needs all the players to be on the same wavelength - players have to "gel" or it doesn't work. City had no plan B - no wingers, no long passes etc. AVB is still finding out who his front six players should be and how they work together. So far, the team has relied on a solid defensive base and a strong central midfield pairing. Flair, pace and goals are works in progress
Where City went wrong last season is, with the exception of Javi Garcia, they added players for the sake of adding players with little to no clear view on how to use them - which, in the case of Sinclair and Rodwell, means they signed them solely to prevent other teams from signing them. Similar happened to Chelsea at the tail end of Mourinho's last reign, although it was Abramovich who added Ballack and Shevchenko for the sake of adding them.
When everyone talks about the word "gel" or "gelling" it gets a tad messy as its too much focused on the team gelling as a whole. when the main parts of the team are partnerships be that the defence, centre mid, winger & full back or the strikeforce. As a team, if anyone is expecting us to start playing fantastic football under AVB when everyone "gels" then I'm afraid I can only predict disappointment as Avb isn't an attack minded coach, as DL mentioned earlier, he was signed by Mourinho to offer scouting reports on how to stop the opposition, detailed in a meticulous and methodical manner, thats his training and thats how he starts off any tactic session with his coaches and how they plan for the next game. However there are aspects of our team which need to "gel", Sandro and Paulinho need to gel as a partnership. Eriksen or Holtby has to gel with Soldado. Rose has to gel with our left winger. Walker and Townsend need to develop the same understanding he had with Lennon if Townsend keeps his place. When that happens, our team will improve and we will become a better team, but the style of player comes from the manager and no matter how great our players gel together, under Avb our play is always going to be started and prepared for in a defensive manner. Attack minded managers such as Wenger, Redknapp & Keegan would prepare for matches differently and players would feel more relaxed and expressive, yet with that comes defensive lapses and to be expressive and attack minded, players have to think differently. I remember Shearer was on MOTD2 talking about striker partnerships and he said he and sheringham worked instantly, never even spoke about the partnership, it just worked. With Chris Sutton, he had to work on the partnership through training sessions as they never fully understood each others game (not many understood stuttons game!) Yet both where successful, and thats what we're hoping for, success and if that happens under AVB, its success first, style second. I know most of us want the Redknapp way, great attacking football, great atmosphere at the lane, a real rollercoaster ride and actual enjoyment from watching games, but unfortunately thats now in the past and its up to Avb to prove his way is better for the success of the club.
I think that Walker and Townsend have already got a decent partnership, actually. Probably because they naturally suit each other's game, just as Shearer and Sheringham did. Might be more important in international football, as players simply don't get a lot of time to train or play together at that level. Townsend wants to cut inside a lot, so having a pacy overlapping fullback is perfect for him. The opposite wing offers up the negative version, where Naughton and Sigurdsson exaggerate each other's weaknesses. No pace, both happier cutting inside and they cramp each other's game.
Whilst it may be a square peg for a round hole, playing Rose and Lennon on the left could be a short-term solution to this. Anything's better than Naughton. The commentators last night were talking about a combination that Eriksen and Lennon were going for a few times in the game, and that's something we need because Eriksen releasing Lennon down the flank with the perfect ball is the sort of thing that will unlock defences and get better service to Soldado, which is exactly what we need.
If AVB really is a defensive-minded manager like Mourinho, which most of us seem to accept, how do we explain Porto playing attractive, attacking football when AVB was their manager?
Simple....the rest of their league is ****, bar maybe Benfica, so they can go out every game with gusto and thrash their opponents.
