Most Crucial Month - February 2014

[AG7]

February 2014

Mon 03 - Chelsea (H)
Sat 08 - Norwich (A)
Wed 12 - Sunderland (H)
Sat 15 - Chelsea (H) - FA Cup Fifth Round
Tue 18 - Barcelona (H) - Champions League
Sat 22 - Stoke (H)
Let me add one more game from March in here too ...
Sun 02 - Sunderland (N) - CapitalOne Cup Final

----

A win last night would have put us a good six points ahead of Chelsea and we know Arsenal will drop points in their tough month, so in February we could perhaps have focused more on the FA Cup and Champions League games and then the CapitalOne Cup Final of course ...

Now that we have dropped three points to our title rivals at home, the top three are way too close to each other and we really don't want to be taking the title chase to the goal difference again ... this means that all of a sudden the games (not in bold) against Norwich, Sunderland and Stoke have an equal importance to keep up the pace with Arsenal and Chelsea ...

Injuries are a major major concern now. We already had two key players out for the above games (Aguero and Nasri) and now add Fernandinho to this list ...

Definitely OUT: Aguero, Nasri, Fernandhinho
Returning from injuries (and not in form, or at least that's how seen by the gaffer): Milner, Jovetic, Rodwell, Negredo
Missing for unknown reasons: Garcia (no idea, when he's back?) and Lescott (didn't even make the bench last night, why?)

I think this whole spiel being spouted by the media and rival managers that we have the best and biggest squad is kind of false ... just look at the bench last night (Boyata and Lopes against Chelsea?) ... and with the games so closely piled up, Sunderland is mid-week just 3 days gap to Norwich, then just 2 days gap to Chelsea, another 2 to Barca, and then 3 to the next game ... Any kind of rotation will be impossible with the injury list and god forbid we have any more injuries this month and we'll be saying good bye to all four competitions ... ok, ok, a bit dramatic but seriously consider losing to Chelsea again in the cup and Barca in home leg and that's two cups gone, the third (CapitalOne) will be finishing start of March any way so will just be the League left next month on if we have these personnel (as of last night) and this shape going in (as of last night) against Chelsea again and Barca ...

Sure, Milner was injured and coming back from injury but if he was on the bench, he could surely come on for 20 mins? Why did Pelligrini just make one change and kept staring at the gaping holes in the midfield all game ... I can't get my head around it. I hope he's not as stubborn as Mancini and we'll see a different shape in the two big cup games this month ...

This was said before the start of the month, that this is the make or break month and four crucial games ... the first one (Chelsea) we have lost, three big ones to come (Chelsea, Barca, CapitalOne Final) ...

To be clear, this is not a knee jerk reaction thread ... keep offloading that anger and frustration in the other threads going ... I personally am not too bothered about the loss last night as we still are ahead of Chelsea on the table, so nothing is lost ... yes we could have *gained* an advantage but again, nothing lost to cry over yet ... but Chelsea again in eleven days and Barca are cup ditchers ... and our injuries a major concern now. Let's keep this thread to discuss how we can cope with the injuries, and how to rotate in the upcoming games and get through February ...

Here are some of my thoughts on this ...

- I personally think we'll be fast-tracking bringing in Nasri, Aguero or Fernandhinho (either one, two or all of them) back sooner than currently being quoted ... is that a risk worth taking? or is that even possible?

- Jovetic needs to stay fit and start games now and get a lot of game time ... Silva and Navas will need to be rotated to not get over done by the time we play Chelsea and Barca and then for the Final ... so Milner will probably get decent game time and I hope his groin on whatever he had can cope.

- Rodwell really needs to step up and Garcia too needs to be back in NOW.

- Pellegrini perhaps need to try Lescott with Komps at the back, hey surely he won't do worse than Nasti?

- And Dzeko and Negredo need to rest, one at a time, while the other plays with Jovetic, or when Silva is rested and Jovetic takes his place ...

- Phew ... what big squad?

[ruralblue]

Lets just hope we see a lesson in last night then! Can see max points in the league and hopefully something out of the fa cup. Biggest fear is Barca and Sunderland especially if we think just turning up for the final will be enough to win it.

Bring it on!

[Hutch's Shoulder]

The whole 'City have a big squad' thing has always been tosh because every team is limited to 25. It is true that often our second choice is better than other club's second choices, but that doesn't help if both first and second choice for the same position are injured.

[AG7]

Telegraph: Fernandinho has an outside chance of returning in time for the Barcelona game on February 18th. Four weeks being quoted is a "worst case scenario".

Yayyyy!

[Beefymcfc]

Was going to start a new thread but this one seems very apt.

What I was going to ask is:

Could we do an Arse?

Now, I'm not trying to get peoples backs up but with all the injuries and number of games coming up that we find ourselves a little worn out. Couple that with the view of many that our squad depth isn't that good (I personally don't believe that) could it be that the drain of too many games begins to have an affect?

[AG7]

Was going to start a new thread but this one seems very apt.

What I was going to ask is:
Could we do an Arse?

Now, I'm not trying to get peoples backs up but with all the injuries and number of games coming up that we find ourselves a little worn out. Couple that with the view of many that our squad depth isn't that good (I personally don't believe that) could it be that the drain of too many games begins to have an affect?

Valid question Beefy, short answer is NO ... we won't do an Arse ...

Typical City however ... time will tell, we did one last season now didn't we ...

[Hutch's Shoulder]

Just like in the 'Quadruple' thread, I think I will stick to a game at a time. Roll on Norwich.

[bluemoon]

Just like in the 'Quadruple' thread, I think I will stick to a game at a time. Roll on Norwich.

Taking into account 'Typical City' (I long for the day I can get this feeling out of my system) and when you look at how this season has panned out throughout the entire division, I think it's definitely the sensible way to approach this regardless of how cliché it may sound.

The result on Monday will have given Chelsea real belief that they can now go on and win the title regardless of what the cock faced one says publicly. Looking at the fixtures, it's not just this month that we need to be weary of, but next month too when we visit the Emirates and Theatre of Shite.

Our first team is without a doubt the best in the league, the truth is that many of our backup players aren't up to the job compared to Chelsea, while Arsenal have figured out how to grind out results. Time to enjoy the City rollercoaster ride and pray we have some luck with injuries and don't get complacent! It's just tooooooooo hard to call at the minute.

[Beefymcfc]

A crucial month that hasn't gone the way we planned, so far. Five points dropped in the league before we go into a run of games that could define our season.

How we getting on with 'The Season So Far' AG, are we any better or worse than our previous seasons?

[Ted Hughes]

We can't learn anything from the previous two seasons as this one has a lot more sides battling for one thing and another.

To win the league we are going to have to turn in a couple of epic away performances, or Chelsea will have to fold.

That means getting through the league games this month first though.

After Wed, we have two weeks til Stoke, by which time the injuries will (hopefully) be turning round.


So this Sunderland game is imo the biggest game out of any. We have to win this one.

[South Stand Balti]

We can't learn anything from the previous two seasons as this one has a lot more sides battling for one thing and another. To win the league we are going to have to turn in a couple of epic away performances, or Chelsea will have to fold. That means getting through the league games this month first though. After Wed, we have two weeks til Stoke, by which time the injuries will (hopefully) be turning round. So this Sunderland game is imo the biggest game out of any. We have to win this one.

The Sunderland game is the biggest one for me too followed by Stoke. The FA Cup and Champs league is just a bonus if we get through. I see Didi was calling for Yaya to be banned for 3 games on MOTD. Rodwell may have to come on for him.

[dikdok]

We can't learn anything from the previous two seasons as this one has a lot more sides battling for one thing and another. To win the league we are going to have to turn in a couple of epic away performances, or Chelsea will have to fold. That means getting through the league games this month first though. After Wed, we have two weeks til Stoke, by which time the injuries will (hopefully) be turning round. So this Sunderland game is imo the biggest game out of any. We have to win this one.

The Sunderland game is the biggest one for me too followed by Stoke. The FA Cup and Champs league is just a bonus if we get through. I see Didi was calling for Yaya to be banned for 3 games on MOTD. Rodwell may have to come on for him.

I know Yaya always 'looks' tired but yesterday I think he really was. He needs a rest. But then what????

[branny]

The Sunderland game is the biggest one for me too followed by Stoke. The FA Cup and Champs league is just a bonus if we get through. I see Didi was calling for Yaya to be banned for 3 games on MOTD. Rodwell may have to come on for him.

Yaya has done a really stupid thing at a time when our midfield is already depleted. Judging by his reaction I think he realised he'd dropped a bollock as soon as he did it. Not impressed.

[Ted Hughes]

If Yaya gets banned for that, City should do a West Ham & threaten legal action.

Get out the vids of Rooney, Gerrard, Van Persie, Terry, Suarez, Wilshire, Scholes, Beckham etc etc etc & show literally scores of similar incidents going unpunished, year in year out, for decades.

I recon there will be several hundred.

[ashton287]

We can't learn anything from the previous two seasons as this one has a lot more sides battling for one thing and another.

To win the league we are going to have to turn in a couple of epic away performances, or Chelsea will have to fold.

That means getting through the league games this month first though.

After Wed, we have two weeks til Stoke, by which time the injuries will (hopefully) be turning round.

So this Sunderland game is imo the biggest game out of any. We have to win this one.

We can learn from the previous 2 seasons. In both seasons the team bottled it. From being 8 points clear we only managed to scrape it on goal difference due to some very fortunate "mistakes" from a few ex city players in a team that knew they were safe.

Then last year we absolutely shit out and it wasn't even a title race, they just walked it home.

This year we have done the same. We went top on the back of some amazing form and the second we got there the players shit themselves aagain.

It wasn't injuries that beat us 1-0 and it wasn't injuries that got norwich a point. It was our players shitting themselves and now they have to rely on another team bottling it to get back on top.

[Ted Hughes]

We can't learn anything from the previous two seasons as this one has a lot more sides battling for one thing and another.

To win the league we are going to have to turn in a couple of epic away performances, or Chelsea will have to fold.

That means getting through the league games this month first though.

After Wed, we have two weeks til Stoke, by which time the injuries will (hopefully) be turning round.

So this Sunderland game is imo the biggest game out of any. We have to win this one.

We can learn from the previous 2 seasons. In both seasons the team bottled it. From being 8 points clear we only managed to scrape it on goal difference due to some very fortunate "mistakes" from a few ex city players in a team that knew they were safe.

Then last year we absolutely shit out and it wasn't even a title race, they just walked it home.

This year we have done the same. We went top on the back of some amazing form and the second we got there the players shit themselves aagain.

It wasn't injuries that beat us 1-0 and it wasn't injuries that got norwich a point. It was our players shitting themselves and now they have to rely on another team bottling it to get back on top.

Don't agree.

Last season we were just shit. The season before, we hit the shitters when Savic came into the team & also Yaya fucked off.

Then we had our best 11 including Tevez, & pulled it back.

This season, if we get our strongest team out, we will possibly do the same again.

The Chelsea 11 that started on Monday, was a more balanced, better 11 than the City team. I saw the teams listed & thought we had a problem straight away. I would still think that, if Rodwell or Milner had played.

If Nasri, Fernandinho, Aguero had played (with no Nastasic) I would expect us to win, or at least look like winning.

[AG7]

A crucial month that hasn't gone the way we planned, so far. Five points dropped in the league before we go into a run of games that could define our season.

How we getting on with 'The Season So Far' AG, are we any better or worse than our previous seasons?

Coming right up Beefy ... (updated tables that is ...)

[Hutch's Shoulder]

We all, players, management and fans, need to hold our nerve. The last two games were not good enough, but the two preceding months were equally critical. I expect us to drop out if two completions, but we need to ensure we win the LC and have another trophy to aim for come March.

[ashton287]

Don't agree. Last season we were just shit. The season before, we hit the shitters when Savic came into the team & also Yaya fucked off. Then we had our best 11 including Tevez, & pulled it back. This season, if we get our strongest team out, we will possibly do the same again. The Chelsea 11 that started on Monday, was a more balanced, better 11 than the City team. I saw the teams listed & thought we had a problem straight away. I would still think that, if Rodwell or Milner had played. If Nasri, Fernandinho, Aguero had played (with no Nastasic) I would expect us to win, or at least look like winning.

Yeah but yaya got bossed in the Chelsea game. No one bosses yaya when he wants to play. Kompany said himself that in training even he can't outmuscle yaya, that yaya is a freak of nature and is the strongest player he has ever played against even in training. He just couldn't be arsed

And the injuries can't be blamed for Norwich. That team was good enough to beat Norwich but we only had 2 shots on target because the players obviously couldn't be arsed. We had 14 corners but only 2 shots on target. 69% possession yet they looked like the better team. Any team would miss aguero, fernandinho and nasri. But nearly every other top side would still go out and beat Norwich not just give up and half arse the whole game then be lucky to come away with a point. It wasn't a lack of talent. City showed yesterday that they don't want it, they just can't be arsed fighting for it.

We have the talent and we could still go on and win it but we don't have the spirit to actually go and take it. We will need Chelsea to drop a bollock and offer it to us.

[AG7]

If Yaya gets banned for that, City should do a West Ham & threaten legal action.

Get out the vids of Rooney, Gerrard, Van Persie, Terry, Suarez, Wilshire, Scholes, Beckham etc etc etc & show literally scores of similar incidents going unpunished, year in year out, for decades.

I recon there will be several hundred.

But the issue is the rule didn't exist back then ... wasn't it brought out just this winter when someone shitted a Scum player ... and we all went they'll pick and chose here 'retrospectively' to punish players who do this to Scum ... and a week or two later there was another case involving another club ... and nothing came of it ...

I fully expect them to fuck us up on this one ... no Yaya for Sunderland (H), then Chelsea (FA Cup) and Stoke (H) ... Barca, he'll play as different governing body (UEFA) ...