One Heck Of A Frustrating Season

Tudor

Tudor

Vital Football Legend
If there is one word I had to pick as a Manchester City supporter that summed up the 2016/17 season then it would have to be ‘frustrating’.

I can’t put my finger on a single moment / incident but it just feels as though the club has under-achieved. Having said that, has MCFC done what I suggest and have they really under-achieved?

City still have to play four Premier League games until the season ends and so now is not the time to summarise. The priority is to finish in the top 4 and qualify for next seasons Champions League. If we don’t then I’ll add ‘not good enough’ and ‘poor’ to my list.

Did I expect too much from Pep Guardiola in his first season?

I don’t know what it is but I can’t shake my under-lying feeling of ‘we could have and should have’ done better. Were the footballing gods conspiring against us? I know Kompany was crocked for months and while he was side-lined Pep simply couldn’t work out his defensive line. Bravo has not exactly set the world alight and then Gabriel Jesus, the next best thing since sliced bread came to the club in January, played like a demon and then bugger me, we lost him for 10 weeks with a foot injury.

To me the season has been hit by small niggles all of which have culminated into something bigger and yet I still can’t work out what is bothering me. I suppose a lengthy period of stability would have helped. I mean, who this season has correctly predicted a starting XI. I know I couldn’t.

Am I expecting too much?

Perhaps I should shake off my silly feeling and look forward to a bright and prosperous 2017/18.
 
I think Blue pointed out that we now have the same points as we finished with last season, but if we fail a P4 berth then I think the usual media suspects and some fans will have the sabres out. If Pep needs more than one season to make his game plan work, then so be it. He still has my support, but I will not be best pleased to see Kun on his bike. That will take some explaining to the faithful in my view. Our run in is easier than the Rags, but Arsenal are still not dead yet either, so fingers crossed we can salvage something for this season to hang our hats on. :102:
 
whilst I agree that there is an element of underachieving, we started off the season well 10 straight wins in all competitions and the injury to Kompany did not help plus the fact that the lads had to try and play Pep's way or it was the highway (I wonder if JH1 ever regrets his way) everything looked sky blue in the garden.

Then teams worked us out and pressed home their advantage, Pundits too it as a weakness of personnel in the defending section of the team, whilst at the other end the suspensions did not help.

However back to the perceived frailties at the back, had these defenders all of a sudden become inept, of course not but whilst learning the managers way of playing there were bound to be hiccups and the finger pointing began I think all along the backs they had the finger pointed at them but none more so that Claudio Bravo, of course keepers make mistakes, but a very good article by Johnny Baguette pointed out a few things that may have contributed to these errors, however there were not as many as people think.

In the meantime an extraordinary number of major decisions have gone against City which has cost them games, Aguero for some reason has been labelled a diver and the only way that you could commit a foul against the lad was to headbutt him to get any reaction from a referee.

I am not saying that we have a right to win games, far from it, you have to earn that right, but all through the season there has been one injustice after another in the major games, I cite the inept Anthony Taylor in the Chelsea game, but there have been others since and players are humans like the rest of us and read what is said about them and they get frustrated like we do.

The Yaya Toure's agent Saga, did not help and Hart not having the bottle to fight for his place was a big disappointment he threw his teddy out of the pram and took his ball home to Italy.

2015/2016 - Played 38 won 19 Drew 9 Lost 10 GF 71 GA 41 GD 30 Pts 66

2017 to date Played 34 won 19 drew 9 lost 6 GF 65 GA 37 GD 28 Pts 66

notice the difference?
 
Just to add to your paragraph about footballing Gods conspiring against us, Gundogan's injury needs to be taken into account, the impact referees have had on our games too, Chelsea and Spurs games at home being the obvious examples but then there's also incidents like Sterling not being awarded that pen against Everton with the score at 0-0.

Nolito is also a strange one, he can still boast that stat of winning every PL game he's started in but has barely featured since the opening few months, one can only assume that he had a fallout with Pep because his non-inclusion is bizarre otherwise.

The profligacy this season seems to be on another level too, how many big chances have we missed? How many times have we hit the woodwork?

So, I agree the footballing gods do seem to have conspired against us on occasion, we've underperformed in a handful of games and Pep has been naive on a couple of occasions too and it's all amounted to a frustrating season in which ultimately we have underachieved.
 
I agree about Nolito, it is a strange one there, especially as it rumoured that Barcelona want him, some players don't make that impact in their first season, Sagna being one of them but was very much OK in his second, maybe if we hang onto Nolito he may produce what pep is looking for.
 
We are not top either BD, I think Spuds have hit it more times than us, but a few inches the right side we would have a bundle of points and maybe an FA Cup final, but I think the powers that be wanted an all London job anyway I can't think any any major decisions in the semi-final that would make me think that way.
 
"Frustrating" is probably the right word Tudes. Not because I expected us to do better, but because there have been multiple signs of us being just about 'there'. We've put in some fantastic performances in several games this season that show clear signs of what is to come. Unfortunately, we've also put in some dire performances. The thing is, Pep said consistently (and to anyone who would listen) that our great 10 game start to the season wasn't going to last. The meedja (and a lot of our fans) didn't hear this though, and started to proclaim and envision unbeaten seasons etc. When it then didn't materialise, we've had cries of 'Fraudiola', 'arrogant' and 'you can't do that in Ingurland'.
I still believe a number of our defensive problems have been down to calculated risks that have not quite worked out and attempted recruitment that did not work out. We've got several players out of contract this summer - the gamble was to not replace them last summer. I'm not sure anyone foresaw such a rapid decline in Zaba, Sagna and Clichy. I also have a feeling that some of the guys we wanted for those positions weren't available last summer.
On the face of it, buying "Clownio" [sic] has been a bit of a disaster, but bringing in a keeper who was seen as being in the top 5 in the world wouldn't normally have been such a problem if he hadn't displaced a club legend. His poor form hasn't helped obviously, but the mitigation regarding his daughter must be taken into account.
Vinnie has been a huge miss, but again, our attempted recruitment of Laporte and Bonnucci show that he club is well aware of our shortcomings in that position.
As most of you know, I'm not a card carrying member of Club Paranoia (drinks are free) :056: but even I've been 'perplexed' by some of the officiating that's gone against us this season. My heart hopes it's just been bad luck, but my application form is partially filled in :013:
The injuries to Gundowan and Jesus II have also been critical I think, even accepting that all teams will suffer injuries
For me though, our biggest single problem this season has been our inability to put the ball in the back of the net. In virtually every game where we have dropped points (and even the ones we haven't) we have created multiple clear cut opportunities to score and have fluffed our lines. Ironically it looks like Kun is about to have his best goal scoring season with us despite his shots to goals ratio having plummeted. We're clearly creating more chances to score but taking fewer of them. Not sure how we resolve that, but I'm sure Pep will.

In summary, it's been frustrating, but I can't wait for next season :052:
 
The HUGE amount of possession we've had and still not been able to kill games off, or been beaten is another bloody frustration.
 
I think i was guilty of expecting too much from Pep in his first season and the injuries have not helped not only VK but also BS, AK & GC are simply not good enough and Zab is getting on a bit and that is just the defensive problems he has had.

Hoping for a 4th place finish and new players coming in.

 
How I hearken back to that golden late summer of 2016 - playful Pep in the back of the taxi with the young lad asking him where we were going to put all the trophies we were going to win, followed by the glorious 10 match unbeaten run. Everything Pep touched turned if not to gold then at least to a promising 7 out of ten; VK4 injured? - no problem I'll put Kolarov at centre back because after all it worked with Mascherano at Barca - and if it can work there it can work anywhere...

But it didn't did it. If VK4 had remained fit throughout the campaign we would probably be in Spuds' position, hanging onto Chelsea's coat tails instead of desperately trying to keep the rags and gunners at bay and steal a march on Liverpool. A settled defence can take you a long way...

One lesson I've (re) learned this season - football isn't a percentage game. It's about scoring more goals than you let in.


 
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