Not beating a poor Sunderland side was one thing, not beating a dreadful West Ham team was another, and seeing as City will get nowt from the next 2 games that will be 0 points in January, the fixture list throws up 4 games versus relegation rivals which need to be 8-9 points at the very worst. However can anyone see it happening? The lack of goals is now becoming a crisis. City would still be playing versus West ham and not have yet scored. Campbell missed a sitter, Cornelius is not even up to parks standard and the midfielders can only shoot straight at the opposing keeper. City rarely keep a clean sheet so unless they score at least 2, if not 3 a game, then they will not get any points at all. Our only hope is some additional steel at the back (Hudson is not good enough) and a scoring midfielder (Mutch was sorely missed and Kim/Whittingham are too lightweight and slow at this level) plus a scoring winger and a scoring striker before the end of the month and ready to go against Norwich, the City are down. If City go down then one can point all sorts of accusatory fingers at various people (Tan, Mackay, Moody, even OGS) but that's for another day; but if they do then it would be bordering on negligent how a team having spent all this money cannot survive. Let's be realistic; City will be bottom by the time Norwich come to town so the season starts again then hopefully with 3-4 new players and 22 points to be won! City have to have 28 points surely by the end of February; if so then it 'll be game on again; if not then it's off to Molineux and Brisbane Road next season. Can City do it? Like to know your views.
I don't for a second think we'll get a scoring mid, winger, striker and defender by Norwich. I thought we were unlucky with some aspects of the WH game. I agree we need 8 or 9 points from Feb with probably 7 being the absolute minimum to stay in the hunt and not get cut adrift. I thought reintroducing Hudson against one of the strongest most awkward CF's we played was a strange decision but it's harsh to write him off after only his second proper game of the season. Campbell does miss chances, but he scores goals too. You are in Luis Suarez, RVP territory if you want a striker to score pretty much every chance we make. We need to go again, KTF and hope that the chances go in against Norwich, Hull and Villa. I think we've got just about enough to stay up, but I'll be amazed if we're not with 3-4 points of the drop. As I mentioned on the other thread I feel like we've used up any room we had, both in terms of points and the fixture list. A terrible Feb and we'll be as good as down.
I think being in bottom place going into February is almost certainly right. Given what we witnessed on Saturday against a struggling club, we can forget about adding to our points tally until then. Apart from a miracle transformation in this next fortnight, we'll still be on 18 points. Whilst we're away to the two Manc clubs, Sunderland and Palace have both got two home games each against very beatable teams entertaining the likes of Stoke and Hull at their places. They should both get points to leave us at the bottom of the pile. February is crucial. Any positive upturn has to happen during that month or we are down. We simply must take maximum points from the home games against Norwich, Villa and Hull - the Swansea game is totally unpredictable. A minimum 9 points must be the target, with anything from Swansea a bonus. Can City do it? Of course we can must be the approach from the supporters, Ole and Tan. The other teams down around us will have their own difficult run of games with the top clubs to come. We must be ready to capitalise at that time and not be too far adrift when it happens.
It is obvious we need to win games to stay up and getting those earlier rather than later will settle nerves but as long as we get those wins it do not matter if they are all in later games. The chance we had was lost due to negative tactics, we will now see if positive tactics will get those wins. This is no different to our position last season trying to stay in the top two, that was a really nervous time until it was definite. Look at the teams around us, they will be just as worried...not many are safe yet. These two games are actually good for us, we would think we will lose both but we have not even played the games yet. Sides that beat top teams put in a very good performance with every player closing down and bodies on the line...we can do that. It is a big chance for our players to take another big scalp they must be up for it from the kick off if only for themselves. Rather than rely on points from bottom clubs which has not worked so far we need points from top sides too so we have two games to get some. jck
