Enjoying the Game

[CityFanFromRome]

I can understand people being desperate because we don't win trophies but after winning some trophies there has to be
entertainment at some point or why not just read the results on the net if winning is all that matters?

I can put up with this poor football in the short term if it's absolutely neccessary & it succeeds but at some point I'd just lose interest like many long term blues did under Pearce. A lot of blues I know have still not come back.

Fair point here, and to be honest I too hope the football will become better eventually, however I think that we should first establish ourselves like a top side and then from there evolve to being a top side which plays great football. So I feel a period of ugly wins is necessary to bring us where we want to be, but then it must be followed by a research for a more eye-pleasing style. This is because the basis of a winning side is a tight unit when defending, and when you have that instilled into the players, you can also allow a bit more freedom when going forward because the team will already know what they have to do when the opposition have the ball, so the defending will come natural at that point.

[Rag_hater]

Couldn't give a fuck how boring a game is as long as we get 3 pts.
If there is entertainment as a side issue thats fantastic.But its only a side issue.Winning is the most important thing.
I'd quite happily sit there and watch the goalie and defender pass to each other all night if it wins us the game.

[Ted Hughes]

I can understand people being desperate because we don't win trophies but after winning some trophies there has to be entertainment at some point .

Lets just get to the winning trophies part first before we worry about how entertaining we are Teddy ;-)

I'm pretty sure we will be winning trophies. I think we can play great football & still win trophies though. Most of the best teams worldwide often play great football. I haven't given up hope Mancini will do that, not at all, but imo we weren't that far away before he came & looking at a future of exciting attacking play so I don't see why we should settle for boring football long term if we don't have to.

If there was no other way of doing it then fair enough but quite obviously there is.

[Kladze]

Couldn't give a fuck how boring a game is as long as we get 3 pts.
If there is entertainment as a side issue thats fantastic.But its only a side issue.Winning is the most important thing.
I'd quite happily sit there and watch the goalie and defender pass to each other all night if it wins us the game.

This, from Robinho's staunchest of supporters, seems highly contradictory.

[Scatman]

Couldn't give a fuck how boring a game is as long as we get 3 pts.
If there is entertainment as a side issue thats fantastic.But its only a side issue.Winning is the most important thing.
I'd quite happily sit there and watch the goalie and defender pass to each other all night if it wins us the game.

This, from Robinho's staunchest of supporters, seems highly contradictory.

It's also bollocks

[Ted Hughes]

Couldn't give a fuck how boring a game is as long as we get 3 pts.
If there is entertainment as a side issue thats fantastic.But its only a side issue.Winning is the most important thing.
I'd quite happily sit there and watch the goalie and defender pass to each other all night if it wins us the game.

How many people use your computer?

[Original Dub]

Couldn't give a fuck how boring a game is as long as we get 3 pts.
If there is entertainment as a side issue thats fantastic.But its only a side issue.Winning is the most important thing.
I'd quite happily sit there and watch the goalie and defender pass to each other all night if it wins us the game.

Bollox to that mate - I don't live in manchester so I don't have a season card, but between buying jerseys, having the sky sports package, espn, setanta and travelling over for games several times a season, it cost me a fair bit to be a city fan and I'm FUCKED if the only thing that matters is the win.

I spend that money to be entertained, otherwise I'd just check teletext and give a "whoop dee woo" when I see we've beaten Bolton 2 nil.

On Saturday we lost ugly, last night we won ugly.

We are ugly and I hate it and hope it changes, because otherwise I'm wasting my money and I can only imagine how it must be to those dedicated local blues that fork out more than I do to sit there in the freezing cold watching that poison.

I wait for the game, it sounds like some wait for the final whistle.

[Rag_hater]

Couldn't give a fuck how boring a game is as long as we get 3 pts.
If there is entertainment as a side issue thats fantastic.But its only a side issue.Winning is the most important thing.
I'd quite happily sit there and watch the goalie and defender pass to each other all night if it wins us the game.

How many people use your computer?

Seems a bit of topic that.
We have one each.Does that lead to us having the same ISP number?
4

[Rag_hater]

Couldn't give a fuck how boring a game is as long as we get 3 pts.
If there is entertainment as a side issue thats fantastic.But its only a side issue.Winning is the most important thing.
I'd quite happily sit there and watch the goalie and defender pass to each other all night if it wins us the game.

Bollox to that mate - I don't live in manchester so I don't have a season card, but between buying jerseys, having the sky sports package, espn, setanta and travelling over for games several times a season, it cost me a fair bit to be a city fan and I'm FUCKED if the only thing that matters is the win.

I spend that money to be entertained, otherwise I'd just check teletext and give a "whoop dee woo" when I see we've beaten Bolton 2 nil.

On Saturday we lost ugly, last night we won ugly.

We are ugly and I hate it and hope it changes, because otherwise I'm wasting my money and I can only imagine how it must be to those dedicated local blues that fork out more than I do to sit there in the freezing cold watching that poison.

I wait for the game, it sounds like some wait for the final whistle.

I thought it was quite a good game last night.
Watching Adam was great.Ade's goal was special.
I've sat through some much more boring matches than that and I'm still here.

[Ted Hughes]

Couldn't give a fuck how boring a game is as long as we get 3 pts.
If there is entertainment as a side issue thats fantastic.But its only a side issue.Winning is the most important thing.
I'd quite happily sit there and watch the goalie and defender pass to each other all night if it wins us the game.

How many people use your computer?

Seems a bit of topic that.
We have one each.Does that lead to us having the same ISP number?
4

Haha. It was a joke because of of your comments here compared to your comments re Robinho mate as in; it's like someone else must be using your pc ?

[Rag_hater]

Couldn't give a fuck how boring a game is as long as we get 3 pts.
If there is entertainment as a side issue thats fantastic.But its only a side issue.Winning is the most important thing.
I'd quite happily sit there and watch the goalie and defender pass to each other all night if it wins us the game.

How many people use your computer?

Seems a bit of topic that.
We have one each.Does that lead to us having the same ISP number?
4

Haha. It was a joke because of of your comments here compared to your comments re Robinho mate as in; it's like someone else must be using your pc ?

I think I see what your saying.
I do like seeing players like Adam and Robson showing off and taking the piss.But if that is not on show and we have to grind out results its fine by me.
Sorry if I'm confusing you.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

Wow I get up late and there is this interesting thread to think about. Not sure yet how I will vote but my initial thoughts go along with the first reactions of wanting to win but with some style so I will have to look at the options allowed more closely.

As for our very recent performances it's easy for me to say I am happy with last night's result because I am. 3 points is 3 points.You have to win games when you don't play well bla bla bla and that is very true. I am of course hoping the way we are playing is short term only. Not just because of the lack of entertainment but because we will probably lose as many games as we win playing like this, maybe more.

I do not believe there is a snowball's chance in hell we could win any competition playing like we have in the last few games. The odd game against rubbish opposition yes but leagues and cups no chance. I also don't think the Chelsea Mourinho argument holds water either.There is no way they played as poorly as we have been doing when they won things. Not free flowing football all the time I agree but far far better than the dross we have served up.

So for the time being I can live with a few wins playing rubbish but lets not forget that playing the same way away from home seems to equal defeat.That sounds like real lower middle of the table stuff to me.

OK back to the options.None of them seem to fit exactly so I will go for 3 ( but take out the I am a tactical mastermind bit) with a bit of 4 thrown in as I expect real effort from any team I support.

I will add that if we do carry on playing as we are I don't expect us to win a cup this year or get 4th and the fans will be very unhappy and Mancini will be gone. That is IF we carry on playing as we have for the last 4 league games.

Good job we won't :)

[brite blu sky]

Right now we are ( all ) totally fixated on getting the 4th spot.. i guess as that is our publicly declared ambition. Not sure but i think that really came into effect when Bobby arrived.

At the start of the season i decided that it would be the two Chelsea games that would tell me more about where we were than anything else ( closely followed by the derby games ). I know it is a bit stupid to pick one opponent and put so much emphasis on it, but i just felt that they were the benchmark if you like of how far we appeared to have come. I always saw the game at the Bridge as the real test.

However that kind of went out the window when we changed manager, now every game seems to be the ultimate test!

We will raise our game though.. of that we can be pretty sure.. Cityitis works both ways..

i get the sense it is going to come down to the players alone to give us some entertainment against Scouce1 , Spuds, Chelsea etc.

Lets hope that the FA cup game on Sat Mancini gets the balance better and we kick a bit of ass.. enough to restore a bit of much needed confidence

[john68]

BBS,
I think the club let the cat out of the bag during the Hughes reign that they had compacted several windows into one and spent heavily to reach the CL sooner than they had previously planned.
I think it had plenty to do with the possibility of new UeFA financial rules and the need to get CL income into the club quicker.
The club also added at that time, they were looking to increase spending/investment in the Academy in order to bring through our own talent and spend less on large transfer fees.
They did say that if a deal was right and a big player came along, they would still look at getting them.

Hope that helps mate.
Ta for the sick note....:-)

[brite blu sky]

BBS,
I think the club let the cat out of the bag during the Hughes reign that they had compacted several windows into one and spent heavily to reach the CL sooner than they had previously planned.
I think it had plenty to do with the possibility of new UeFA financial rules and the need to get CL income into the club quicker.
The club also added at that time, they were looking to increase spending/investment in the Academy in order to bring through our own talent and spend less on large transfer fees.
They did say that if a deal was right and a big player came along, they would still look at getting them.

Hope that helps mate.
Ta for the sick note....:-)

yeah i remember all that ( despite loss of brain power due to my age ), they seemed to be more publically stating 4th after Bobby took over thats all. Hughes seemed to imply it but not actually state it ( maybe that reflected more on him than anything else? )

[DoomMerchant]

i voted for "win now/ballet later."

that being said, like others have mentioned, playing and watching the shit over the last few weeks -- literally since Everton i guess -- has been really depressing. Does anyone know if Mancini was really in the mold of Jose was when he was at Inter? did he grind out wins in the same fashion he's trying now with a moment or two of luck and aplomb and a defensive focus first and foremost?

i would be fine with it if i felt like it could lead to wins vs. Spurs, Scouse, and Villa, but i just can't see that happening given how lacking we've been. That being said, i don't think we're far off. In every match i think we've had short spells of quality that could or should have created a nice goal or two...if we start to convert one of those every match we'll be nearly unbeatable on any given day.

sorry to strike a slightly optimistic note amidst my pessimistic response.

cheers

[brite blu sky]

i voted for "win now/ballet later."

that being said, like others have mentioned, playing and watching the shit over the last few weeks -- literally since Everton i guess -- has been really depressing. Does anyone know if Mancini was really in the mold of Jose was when he was at Inter? did he grind out wins in the same fashion he's trying now with a moment or two of luck and aplomb and a defensive focus first and foremost?

i would be fine with it if i felt like it could lead to wins vs. Spurs, Scouse, and Villa, but i just can't see that happening given how lacking we've been. That being said, i don't think we're far off. In every match i think we've had short spells of quality that could or should have created a nice goal or two...if we start to convert one of those every match we'll be nearly unbeatable on any given day.

sorry to strike a slightly optimistic note amidst my pessimistic response.

cheers

CityFanRome mentioned that he wasn't in the Jose mould and liked to play attacking football !
So might be the person to ask in detail about Bobby's Serie A style.

[CityFanFromRome]

CityFanRome mentioned that he wasn't in the Jose mould and liked to play attacking football !
So might be the person to ask in detail about Bobby's Serie A style.

Well, when at Inter he usually lined the team up with a 4-4-2 diamond formation and he was generally more attacking than he is now, for sure. But he also had the best team in the league by a large margin so he knew he could afford it. Even then, he always played a DM in front of the backline, Cambiasso, and a CM pairing of Vieira-Stankovic or Zanetti-Stankovic, and while they would go forward, they were also always tracking back to help breaking the opposition's play, especially Vieira or Zanetti.

Then there was the apex of the diamond who was usually Figo or Stankovic.

He was probably a bit more offensive than Jose, but he also had to rely on Ibrahimovic's genius to unlock some tight games. The best example is perhaps the last game of the 2007/08 season, Inter was drawing with an already relegated Parma and they needed a barely fit Ibrahimovic to come on and score a brace in the second half to secure the title, that they would have otherwise lost.

[john68]

So we do have hope that if Mancini gets top 4 this season and remains in charge, he will use the pre season to change things round and introduce a more positive strategy for next season.
I would settle for that.
I would trade a niggardly approach this season for glory as long as we had a more positive appraoch next.

[Original Dub]

So we do have hope that if Mancini gets top 4 this season and remains in charge, he will use the pre season to change things round and introduce a more positive strategy for next season.
I would settle for that.
I would trade a niggardly approach this season for glory as long as we had a more positive appraoch next.

There's a new phrase for the dubster... WTF does that mean? It doesn't sound the mae west chief!!