Yes he has been treated appallingly by Tan but let's face facts. He had a blank piece of paper in May. He failed to purchase a winger, a goalscorer, an attacking central defender and a left back. His squad is basically championship standard with a few exceptions. The team lacks pace, drive and quality. In particular pace and skill. Gunnarrsson, Odemwinghie and Taylor in particular are not up to this level. He plays defensive football. He failed to realise that consecutive away games at Norwich, Villa, Stoke and Palace represented a golden chance for picking up away wins bearing in mind the run of away games starting at Arsenal next week. He went for goalless draws at them all.That was tactically naïve and inept. So IMO the time has come to try and salvage the season, and that starts with a new manager, different formation and a series of January transfers. Home form is the only way City will stay up; there conceivably is the prospect of getting only 2-3 away points for the rest of the season. City need to fly at opponents at CCS with pace and sweat.
The change of formation to 442 was an absolute disaster. He should have used the same system with 3 central midfielders. As Medel was out he should have played Cowie who is at least mobile unlike Gunner who is sadly out of his depth. Malky will probably go soon. It will be sad after what he has achieved and personally I think he has been treated appallingly and we should stick with him even if he takes us down Id then give him the opportunity to take us back up. If he keeps picking a 442 with Gunner in the team and that slow left hand side I may change my mind. Everyone makes mistakes. Yesterday his tactics and team selection lost the game before we kicked off. I think he tried to attack. Just we were outnumbered and overrun in the middle. We dont have the players to play 442. To stay up we have to pack the midfield. Saying that I think we will probably go down anyway. Worse places to watch football than the Championship.
Hilts! You are wasted on here fella. You should be doing your own blogs. Summed up perfectly. It would have been nice to have seen what our manager could have done without one arm tied behind his back, but now we will never know.
Got it in one with that thread title Bobby - I've been fuming since the game and quite honestly, embarrassed to post. That was appalling. If we are going to get any more of this garbage dished up, I can't see any hope of us staying in this division. Southampton were light years ahead of us in every department, especially management and tactics. Malky probably kept his job after the Liverpool game because of the second half "1-0" win for us. In truth, Liverpool were coasting. We were lucky to beat Brom 1-0 and when you remember the Palace, Stoke and Villa games just before, it makes my blood boil that we've been so inept for a while. Enough has been said on this board about our hopeless left hand side yesterday - many of us have been saying it for a couple of months. No doubt we have limited resources, but no attempt has been made to address it. Bellamy looks like a dead duck at the club - whether through injury or politics, it doesn't really matter. I thought we had enough to stay up after a dozen games with other clubs struggling to get going, but this last month has put serious doubts in my mind. Others down there will get better for the second half of the season - I just don't see us doing so without some radical changes - and sorry Malky, it starts with the manager. The level of performance at the club in a number of areas - manager, tactics, players - has been hyped out of all proportion to reality. We are poor and have been found out. For all his suggested "lunacy" regarding football matters, Tan is the only one that can instigate a turnaround. He'll get one shot at it and that's right now - another few weeks and it'll be too late.
Seriously who now is a credible alternative to Malky because I have no faith in Tan to bring in anyone who isn't simply a puppet.
Well we don't need bloody Sven. He'd take too long to get anything sorted - and then probably wouldn't - he's had his day and found his level at Notts County. Get on the phone to Sullivan and Gold, and do a manager swap. Call it quits - compensation fees would cancel each other out and we'd have a better chance of staying up. Not everybody's choice I know, and Big Sam can be a right bombastic twat who might not suit the idea that Tan needs a "puppet", but he'll put his boot up a few backsides where it's needed. What Tan craves is success and he clearly sees he's not going to get it with the negative approach of the present regime. I reckon Tan sees it's all got a bit cosy and namby pamby at the club, and he'd be prepared to take more of a back seat if he thought someone was up to it.
Crunch Day - before or after the game? http://www1.skysports.com/football/...xpected-to-meet-owner-vincent-tan-on-saturday
Agreed. What difference a day makes I don't know, unless Tan and Dalman need it to get a few signatures on a piece of paper.
Normally I would say he would need to win against Sunderland to be ok, but this isn't a normal time and the loss yesterday might be enough for Tan to push the button, if that isn't in his mind anyway. There is always a good chance MM would be able to keep us up, although it might be a nailbiting finish to the season, he has proved his worth before. Big problem is, here in the PL he doesn't seem to be able to make the changes needed to make us viable as a candidate for anything other than the drop. All over the place yesterday, it was like Malky told the players just before they went out how he wanted them to play, whatever, it didn't work and we looked like a league 1 side trying to keep up with the big boys. I would rather keep Malky and tell him to get his act together, but I fear he is not going to change. You can ask where did you expect us to be at this time, but given we battled and got points from unexpected quarters it would seem reasonable to me to be slightly further up the table than we are. The real problem is if we keep playing as we have been then we will soon be in the bottom 3.
Apparantly MM has to sign the contract he is on, Off, which i have been told is in the process of happening (dont know how much truth is in this) For me the only way forward is to replace MM. Personally i can see Dave Jones coming back on a temporary basis with Bellers as some sort of assistant. However it is a case of watch this space.
Just took this bit from a Beeb article: - "Despite some mixed results, Cardiff have claimed the notable scalp of title favourites Manchester City so far this season and Mackay is satisfied with their start to life in the Premier League - at least on the pitch. "Overall we've been good with that this season, we've competed well. Going into the Christmas period and new year - halfway - we're not in the bottom three," Mackay said." Is this guy for real? "we've competed well" - Does he really belive that? I can't believe Tan would be impressed by that statement, and I'd say it's pretty well damn nailed on that most of those at the CCS on match days like yesterday wouldn't be either. Something's got to give.
All my posts in the past week was warning that the football on the pitch was getting worse and the trouble off the field was covering this fact. All I wanted was Malky to change this by playing the right team and attacking teams win or lose. Fair enough there are those who will say never mind how we play Malky should stay in charge but if we play like we have we go down without a fight...surely to god we should go down fighting ever game? jck
you have blown your chances or should i say Tan has blown your chances of staying up by sacking malky i reckon. it was not his fault you got bad results recently it was tans interference that has unsettled the players with comments like no bonuses and score more goals. you were doing great with malky before that so why is it his fault. Now the players wont give a fig that tan has sacked a manager they all respected. caulker even said that it was down to malky or he wouldn't have bothered as he had some better offers....Big Big mistake by tan and he will pay for it now...
I feel a lot safer now that Dai has said we've blown our chance of staying up, this guy is a genius at getting it wrong
This will be fun. Those players with safe places under Malky suddenly find they need to prove themselves to a new manager. Let us see the players perform like they did against Southampton for the new manager. jck
Link to the bit where caulker says he only signed because of Malky and had 'better' offers please? Or is that another from the ever reliable source of bullshit that is your head.
