Is Aguero carrying an injury? If not, I don't get it. You're 1-3 down at home and you take off one of the world's top strikers??
He only just returned from another of his many spells out. Such a shame really, one of the comments on the Beeb's live thread said that without his injury problems he'd basically be the right-footed Messi and it's hard to argue with that really. Talking of messi, 4-0 Barca FT! And talking of Barca, Martin f***ing Skertl?!
Really despite winning the league City have never looked the formidable team that they ought to be with the resources at their disposal. In Europe they have been poor although ironically they might get further this season than they have before, but all in all I do not find them convincing.
Ever since they came into their money, City's problem has been they can build a formidable starting xi, yet they are incapable of building a formidable squad. Sometimes it's because they create headaches for themselves by trying to juggle too many players in too few positions, such as when they had Aguero, Dzeko, Negredo and Jovetic on the books at the same time even though there was no way they could keep at least two of them happy, while in other cases they're hoovering up players without thinking how or even if they will fit into the team, such as Rodwell or Sinclair In other words, they're still thinking of themselves as Galacticos - yet it doesn't take much to see that other teams around them have a much better understanding of how to handle a squad. Chelsea certainly have a better handle of it, Arsenal certainly do (although half the time the understanding is enforced by a couple of Arsene's favourites being injured...), while Man Utd were masters of it in the Ferguson Era.
City are a confidence team. If the opposition gifts them room to play and a nice early goal, they more often than not sail to an easy victory. But if like today the opposition goes straight for the jugular and they concede an early goal, they can simply collapse. A good friend of mine who has followed them through thick and thin is of the opinion that this is down to having literally zero truly 'home grown' players. They don't have a single player in their regular XI who is a 'local lad', despite pumping a fortune into a state of the art academy back in 2010. If Kompany's out, they don't have any true leaders out on the pitch, and certainly no-one who wears their heart on their sleeve. I think he's got a very valid point. I've often wondered how we show so much backbone and resolve in matches despite A) Having a well-deserved historic reputation of being a team that wilts under any form of pressure, and B) Not having any stand-out candidates to wear the captain's armband, Lloris probably being the least audible captain in the world. Yet on closer examination, when the core of your team and squad have literally grown up breathing Tottenham, perhaps you don't need individual leaders...the collective will to succeed is more than sufficient.
The closest City have to a homegrown player is Joe Hart, who may qualify as HG as they signed him when he was 18...but when you have to resort to technicalities to say one player is homegrown that's when you realise there's a problem. Another issue is their squad is lacking players that may not make the headlines but they're consistent, with Barry and Milner springing to mind. Instead they have a lot of players who might tear the opposition apart one week, but the next week they'd be completely anonymous, such as Sterling, Nasri, Toure or Silva. It doesn't help that the closest they have to a consistent player, Aguero, keeps picking up niggling injuries so he's in and out of the team too frequently. Going back to Barry for a moment, it does have to be said their midfield doesn't shield their defence as well as it should. When they won the league in 2011-12 they had both Barry and Hargreaves on the books to lock down midfield, but of the current batch of midfielders none of Fernando, Fernandinho or Delph seem capable of helping City grind out a 1-0 win in the way that title-chasing teams need to do at times.
Suprised at the negativity. you guys should be on the crest of a wave at the moment. Havnt said it much before but you guys are looking good
I only caught a glimpse of the MOTD highlights but I saw a Chelski player run into a Norwich player in the box - surely a pen? They didn't replay it or discuss it after the match. Also shouldn't Costa (who scored the winning goal) be suspended at the moment due to his standard thuggery a few matches ago?
As something of a connossieur of choke artists, bottlers and failure merchants, I have to say Spurs are a special case. Spurs somehow manage to fail consistently despite performing rather well under pressure, which is a remarkable achievement. Go back to almost all the failures the last few years, and you’ll see Spurs doing things like playing well down the stretch, catching Livepool at the post, scoring huge late goals in big games,and so on. It’s some development we have no control of, often a weird twist, that typically does us in: Arsenal having some outstanding stretch runs, Lasagna-gate, Harry for England, no one watching Drogba at the near post, the bizarre CL qualification rules, Moutinho-gate, Chelsea getting in effect 15 more pens awarded one year than we did... It’s not that Spurs haven’t contributed--in the end, we’ve come up short on points, however it happened--it’s that so often the direct cause isn’t screwing up under pressure or fading late in the season, which are the meat and potatoes of failure for other teams. In any case, one of the reasons I’ve become a passionate fan is that, especially given the world of athletic mercenaries, Spurs seem like such a nice collection of players who care about the shirt intensely.
The moment we start looking good has cued failure for some time. I was just thinking, my god, I’m almost feeling comfortable: we’re doomed! There are reasons to hope this year will be different. But we have got to seize the chance to kick on for once, and we simply haven’t done that in the past. The fact we’ve played quite well and really should be at the top of the table based on the run of play is not reassuring. We’ve already thrown away seven or ten points this season.
True rwaeb, but look at how many points our immediate rivals have thrown away too. Just as if not more stupid than ours. I've always said that in a league as competitive and unpredictable as the PL, it is inevitable that all but the champions elect and at a stretch the runners up will 'throw away' a hatful of points. Indeed, our true 'breakthrough' season when we finished 4th revealed that the crucial part in a successful campaign is beating your closest rivals. That year, we didn't drop many points at all and played great football. But look at some of the teams who took 3 or more points off us: Wolves (twice!), Villa, Sunderland, Stoke. We also dropped points to Hull, Fulham, Bham and Bolton. So the throwing away of points is almost inevitable unless you're absolutely top notch. That year what to my mind tipped the balance to securing 4th was our record against the big guns, especially those massive wins against Chelsea, Arsenal and City right at squeaky bum time. This is where we've really let ourselves down in recent years, consistently being on the receiving end of humiliations at the hands of our 'closest rivals'. Under Poch, this trend has clearly begun to change. An unlucky defeat to United, unlucky draw against Liverpool, hammered City and excellent performance against Arsenal and suddenly those hammering are a thing of the past. I am more than confident in us getting a result against Chelsea, nor can I see United getting anything on their return trip to the Lane. If we can maintain this newfound level, 4th is ours as everyone is throwing away points left right and center. The trick is rob your rivals' house while he's busy throwing them away.
That's the thing about Ramos' tenure that got me, even at the time: we never managed to take advantage of teams above us dropping points - bad enough if we finish fifth, but that season we finished eleventh. How the hell could we not get into the top half of the bloody table???
The reason Spurs have been falling short in recent times is now there is EXPECTATION. Nobody expected us to get a CL slot in 2010. And since then, the expectation (and the pressure) has been turned up a notch. One thing the Goons do so well is they make the games against the top 6 an irrelevance in their quest to get a CL slot. They make hay with the teams well below them. Look at the Villa game : Spurs cruising and then holding on for 15 mins at 2-1. The Goons would have had that done and dusted at 5-0 by 70 mins. So in our upwards journey that is another trait the team will have to acquire.
Just a quick mention for Chris Hughton's Brighton, who've gone 17 games unbeaten. A few too many draws, but that's a impressive start in a tough league.
Fellow Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo, 30, was furious after that defeat and wants manager Rafael Benitez replaced, reportedly saying: "Either he goes, or I go." (Daily Telegraph) Can you imagine if he'd said that about Fergie, when they were both at United! Fergie would have bitten his balls off!
