Potential vs performance

[gillie]

Well for me we are too slow to break on teams at the moment and yes i know we broke on the barcodes about 4 times on Sunday but every time we got the ball in midfield the break was on.But for some reason we have to pass either back or sideways before we go forwards and hence the chance to break has gone.I'm with Piccs on this i really am not sure about Bobby even though i like the man.

[Feed The Goat]

I think some people need to calm down and stop expecting everything right now. Roger you have got worse week after week since we got taken over some times I can't believe you are the same person who used to tell me look at the arrogant rag twats they think they have a Devine right to win every game 5 or 6 nil well my friend as much as I love you that is how you sound these days and it's not just you it's loads of people in the ground and on here and I personally think it's daft. I mean come on we are city it's always gonna take the longest possible time to get it right. We had a long way to climb when we got taken over and now look where we are 1 place from the promised land.
I think we should just pull together and fuck all the negative vibes and start enjoying it cos who knows come may it might take 3 defensive midfielders to lift that big arse premier league trophy. Let's have some fun.

[Niall Quinns Discopants]

I think that the table is a fair representation of how we have played...but...POTENTIALLY...and taking the Blackburn and Sunderland games into consideration, I think if we had played to our true potential, we could actually be 5pts better off and be sat right at the top.
I am happy with 2nd at the moment, it is a useiul place to be sat at this stage but feel it could be so much better.

you could always argue that things could be better or whatever but fact is we are sitting nicely second in the table after quite a hard schedual. We've already played Tottenham away, Liverpool and Chelsea. Sunderland is tough place to go for anyone and while I think we were good for a draw with bit sharper finishin, I didn't think that was three points in the bank. Blackburn was definite two points dropped though. And League Cup still pisses of off big time.

But overall I'm really happy with the results. I would want to see more positive central midfield though.

[kinkylola]

But overall I'm really happy with the results. I would want to see more positive central midfield though.

I agree, a more positive midfield would be nice sometimes ... PROVIDING it does not affect our ability to win, which is the most important thing.

[Piccsnumberoneblue]

But overall I'm really happy with the results. I would want to see more positive central midfield though.

I agree, a more positive midfield would be nice sometimes ... PROVIDING it does not affect our ability to win, which is the most important thing.

there's the thing. I honestly believe that we are not winning because of the defensive system. I can appreciate it that it suited the Chelsea game, but besides that we are scraping through and getting results despite the negative set up. I think it will cost us points if we persist with it.
I don't expect us to win every game by a bucket load, but I expect us to take the game to average teams at home and not let them into the game with our own lack of attacking ambition. At the end of the day, we have a group of attacking players that are the envy of nearly every club in the league, but it's hard to tell it by the performances.

[brite blu sky]

Potential surely means expectation. So we are really talking about our expectations of how we should be playing.

Mancini is cautious at present.. so the emphasis seems still to be on not conceeding. Trying to see it from his point of view, he doesn't have a fit reliable striker to partner Tevez.
Balotelli his star buy is knacked.
RSC and Jo are not good enough... more to the point they are not mobile enough to work with Tevez.
Adebayor is not reliable, was injured or sulking or both, but at least seems to be back in contention. That said Bob has work to do on Ade to get him to pull his finger out in every game.

Other considerations are that Silva is still finding his feet in the prem, Milner and Yaya are new to the team and still settling into their roles. AJ is great but needs to work on his all round game, decision making and support of the RB.

The two FBs Mancini acquired will need time to get fit and adapt to the prem also before they can offer their best.

So the point here is that despite our expectations were are far from being ready or the finished article and i think that it is just too easy to say that going on the attack will solve all the problems.
If some of the above points were different then maybe yes. If Balotelli had not been injured at all it is quite possible that we would be a very different proposition.

The argument has been that Ade and AJ should have started the NC game... imo that is a good call, but consideration has to be given to a couple of things, one that if it had not worked who the fucl else could have come on. Secondly that Mancini is doing some man management on both those players and possible didn't want them to start, i would respect this if it were the case as i think both players need to be at their best in the longer term.

It should be said that we should be able to win games with the players we started with, and if anything for me on Sunday it was Milner, Silva and Yaya who ideally could have taken more burden, but it is early days.

If we are looking at just the NC performance, we should have nailed at least one more goal in the first half and we should not have let them get that goal. The subs played well and made a difference, Ade could have netted one and we were close on a couple of occasions. We are not there yet and we are not sharp enough with each other or in front of goal. It will come though and we will end up tonking someone in the not too distant future.