Seeing Improvement

[brite blu sky]

These are heady times and already it is easy to forget what sort of state we were in at the start of the season.. we weren't bad and got some results but i think most would agree we were kind of riding our luck a bit and certainly not firing on all cylinders. I was just looking for a way of being able to judge the improvement we have all seen with stats, but it isn't that easy.

first 10 games: 5W 2D 3L. 17pts. 1.7pts/game. 13 goals for 11 against.

( 11th game missed out - a win at WBA away ).

last 10 games: 6W 3D 1L. 21pts 2.1pts/game. ( if you add the WBA game it is 2.4 pts/game ). 18 goals for 6 against.

So the stat backs up that we are harder to beat, score more and conceed a lot less. But the point i want to make is more about what we have been through. The start of the season was a bit of a mess tbh. Adebayor disappeared, Tevez's late return gave him a slow start, Silva was all over the place, Kolarov, Balotelli and Boateng were all injured and Yaya was hit and miss.. AJ was billy big balls and needed a clip from Mancini, we had a few injuries in defence too. Basically there was a lot to accommodate and we could all see that we were disjointed and lacking fluidity.
The derby and Brum games are in the last 10 games and it was about that time that things started to click a little bit and we started to get our act together. Even so the players who were injured Balotelli, Kolarov and Boateng are still getting into the swing of things and are behind in their adjustment to prem football.
The point being that while recently we have been able to put out our best teams while still carrying the new boys, looking at our play there has been a dramatic improvement that has shown through in results. A lot of players are really improving and yet there is still a need to properly click up front.
We have become very difficult to beat and really quite dangerous in attack, yet there is still a lot more to come. The press and pundits recently have acknowledged City's potential as we have started to show what it looked like we were on paper.
But we are still a way off what this side can be as we have only just started to settle as a bunch of players under Bob and some key players still have a way to go to be in there and up to speed. I dont think we have seen anything yet bar a decent improvement that has just made us into a team.

[DoomMerchant]

we sure look a lot better over the last two months.

Still a lot to do with the new fullbacks we purchased in the summer. Neither is impressing much yet, and Boateng looks like he's about to cost us three point any minute now if we keep playing him. Richards or Zabs for me every time. And that's not a great story, but passable while our new hires find their feet, or wash out.

Obv. we need some striker support as well...goals aren't easy to come by for us sometimes, and we need to fix that. Also, creative cover for Silva is literally non-existent. Where will it come from? We'd be fucked without that little magician. Can you drop Tevez back into that role if we land Dzeko? i dunno...we might have to find out.

All in all -- i hate to sound like a negative dick -- but we are where we should be. We have the DEEPEST squad in the league. We ought to be scrapping for the top. The fact that we've got the holes I mentioned is normal i think given how we've built this team in the last 2 seasons...

Onwards and Upwards...

cheers

[brite blu sky]

I'm not too worried about missing Silva.. he is brilliant of that there is no doubt, but we can cover him and we can play well without him. He is basically the direct opposite of Barry.. as in great to watch on the ball, flashy and ambitious. While he is good, the being great to watch is a crowd pleaser to some extent that endears him to everyone. By contrast i think Milner has slightly more assists.. but is not particularly good to watch.

[Lev Bronstein]

I think it also helps that no-one, within or without the club, has any doubt that Bobby Manc is in charge

[BobKowalski]

The house that Bobby built is looking a lot better now that he has slapped on a tin or two of gloss but it is still early days and the foundations have yet to set and the paint is still wet...

...ok enough of the building similes. Yes we are looking good and sitting joint top at the turn of the year having bedded in most of the new players and sidestepped the Tevez transfer with a deft shimmy is worthy of a tick and a 'VG' on Mancini's half term report.

I am not comfortable with the increasing media love for City and the less said about Ian Dowie's man crush on Bobby the better but it is a small price to pay I guess.

Had as down for 3rd at the start of the season and not changing that just yet.

[Slim]

The house that Bobby built is looking a lot better now that he has slapped on a tin or two of gloss but it is still early days and the foundations have yet to set and the paint is still wet...

...ok enough of the building similes. Yes we are looking good and sitting joint top at the turn of the year having bedded in most of the new players and sidestepped the Tevez transfer with a deft shimmy is worthy of a tick and a 'VG' on Mancini's half term report.

I am not comfortable with the increasing media love for City and the less said about Ian Dowie's man crush on Bobby the better but it is a small price to pay I guess.

Had as down for 3rd at the start of the season and not changing that just yet.

Had us down for 1st at the start of the season, closer to my estimate than yours.

[Ted Hughes]

I think we're very close to playing like genuine title contenders now & I think it's come since the Brum game. It's almost as if the team has moved 15 yards further forward since that day but it's mainly down to attitude & minor tactical differences rather than a huge change; we try to win every game rather than worrying about losing. V Brum at 0-0, Yaya was often still in his own half next to DeJong in the last ten minutes, because he didn't have the energy to run forward after defending a Brum breakaway. Now, at 0-0, he'd be more likely to be watching an oppo breakaway from the other end of the pitch after a forward run. The balance between attack & defence is better.

We still fall back at times into the same faults ; sometimes only getting 1 or 2 players into the box & not quick enough, sometimes defending too deep, but it's definitely improved a lot.

V Blackpool, the attacking tempo we built up looked much more like the traditional rags' kind of attacking power than the rags do.

The next trick is to learn how to win a game we're losing in.

[BobKowalski]

The house that Bobby built is looking a lot better now that he has slapped on a tin or two of gloss but it is still early days and the foundations have yet to set and the paint is still wet...

...ok enough of the building similes. Yes we are looking good and sitting joint top at the turn of the year having bedded in most of the new players and sidestepped the Tevez transfer with a deft shimmy is worthy of a tick and a 'VG' on Mancini's half term report.

I am not comfortable with the increasing media love for City and the less said about Ian Dowie's man crush on Bobby the better but it is a small price to pay I guess.

Had as down for 3rd at the start of the season and not changing that just yet.

Had us down for 1st at the start of the season, closer to my estimate than yours.

Lets hope you are better at predictions than me