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Ok so just over a third of the way through the season.. enough time to assess what City are about.
Barry is suggesting that fans should not look to expect goal fests in every game.. while that seems sensible, I'm just left wondering if in fact it is in the nature of the team and there is not a lot Barry or anyone else could do to reign it in.

48 goals just in the league after 14 games. 3.43/game ( 61 goals in all comps )
250 shots 17.8/game 154 on target 11/game in the Prem.

Now that is more than impressive, but that's not the point. City's set up from holding a high line, dominating possession, attacking FBs, creativity and movement in the final 3rd, together with distribution from the likes of Silva and Nasri, coupled with devestatingly accurate finishers in Aguero, Mario, Dzeko and others like AJ, Silva, Yaya etc. Well all that suggests to me that even if Mancini wanted to stop them trying to score he is going to have a struggle. We are both set up and have it in the blood to create chances.

Sure not every game it will happen they go in, strikers are on form etc, but you have also to face that when it come to predisposition to score City have it. And i just cannot see how you could stop Silva or Nasri or Milner continuously looking for the opportunities to set someone up.


It is sensible to try and temper fans expectations.. but it is also a bit of wishful thinking imo.

I doubt Barry or Bobby wishfully want us to stop scoring, but yeah I think they're calming us all down is typical football speak.

They like us would love mote 5 five goal feasts week in week out.

Platt said that no matter how many goals City score there are still only three points for a win, but has any team with such a commanding goal difference not won the title?

teams have tried a number of tactics, Everton kick us of the park failed, Norwich 1 up front failed, Barcodes had a go and played realy well, failed. Rags and Spurs went for it and got panned, City will only get better for me so goals wil continue as teams settle into trying to stop and as with Norwich and the rags run out of steam, whcih is very dangerous with MCFC gives us an inch we take miles. Wed is a big test Bayern do like to counter attack so early goal either way could see someone being thumped. Half time score could be interesting from Spain.

BobbyJ1956 wrote:Platt said that no matter how many goals City score there are still only three points for a win, but has any team with such a commanding goal difference not won the title?

He's right, obviously. Its the three points that matter. But with our goals average, even with a (slightly) leaky defence from time to time, it would be near impossible for us to lose the league if we continue like this.

Needless to say, im loving the entertainment being provided. And the poznan is the perfect way to keep warm during the winter!

Yffi_88 wrote:
He's right, obviously. Its the three points that matter. But with our goals average, even with a (slightly) leaky defence from time to time, it would be near impossible for us to lose the league if we continue like this.

Needless to say, im loving the entertainment being provided. And the poznan is the perfect way to keep warm during the winter!

cannot link to it as too much hassle whilst on the way to work, but martin tyler has written about goal difference in his sky sports column ASK MARTIN

Wonderwall wrote:

Yffi_88 wrote:
He's right, obviously. Its the three points that matter. But with our goals average, even with a (slightly) leaky defence from time to time, it would be near impossible for us to lose the league if we continue like this.

Needless to say, im loving the entertainment being provided. And the poznan is the perfect way to keep warm during the winter!

cannot link to it as too much hassle whilst on the way to work, but martin tyler has written about goal difference in his sky sports column ASK MARTIN

He tries his best to play it down too. City have the all time best GD by a clear 7 goals and he can only find it to say that City are only the 5th team to go over 25 and 12th to go over 20. Then states that of the 11 other to get +20 only 4 went on to win the title.

We should just point out here that there is a big difference between +20 and +35

Anyway GD doesn't mean much, my point is that we are set up to score and it is more likely to continue as not.

We are only a 1/3 of the way through the season.It's not impossible that we will have a 1/3 where we have a bad patch and don't score anything as regularly as we have.

Of course if we keep it up at the same rate we will win the league but we won't do as well as this all season. As ever it will be how we respond to losing a league game that will be the key.Of course along with losing a game will be the press machine going into action that the bubble has burst etc etc.I am just enjoying the ride and not getting carried away.

Douglas Higginbottom wrote:We are only a 1/3 of the way through the season.It's not impossible that we will have a 1/3 where we have a bad patch and don't score anything as regularly as we have.

Of course if we keep it up at the same rate we will win the league but we won't do as well as this all season. As ever it will be how we respond to losing a league game that will be the key.Of course along with losing a game will be the press machine going into action that the bubble has burst etc etc.I am just enjoying the ride and not getting carried away.

It is fairly safe to say we will go through a bad patch.. although we don't really know if we have already been in 'poor form' as yet, certainly we have been a bit flat in some games. My OP was trying to look at the set up of the team and what sort of players we have.. what they like doing. We could have injuries, we will go flat I'm sure, we will probably lose games, but Bob would have to take out a significant number of key players for the chances to dry up. Anything can happen in football, but that doesn't mean you can't assess what a team has or hasn't and generalise from it.

were not guaranteed goals every game, but were not guaranteed to have a bad patch either.
bad patches for us this season have been 2 draws. and weve been to quite a few hard grounds aswell.
so i think theweaker the oppo the more goals, well probably score less v the top teams, but the opening 14 games
disprove that 6-1 5-1 v rags and spuds the best other 2 teams after us.

brite blu sky wrote:

Douglas Higginbottom wrote:We are only a 1/3 of the way through the season.It's not impossible that we will have a 1/3 where we have a bad patch and don't score anything as regularly as we have.

Of course if we keep it up at the same rate we will win the league but we won't do as well as this all season. As ever it will be how we respond to losing a league game that will be the key.Of course along with losing a game will be the press machine going into action that the bubble has burst etc etc.I am just enjoying the ride and not getting carried away.

It is fairly safe to say we will go through a bad patch.. although we don't really know if we have already been in 'poor form' as yet, certainly we have been a bit flat in some games. My OP was trying to look at the set up of the team and what sort of players we have.. what they like doing. We could have injuries, we will go flat I'm sure, we will probably lose games, but Bob would have to take out a significant number of key players for the chances to dry up. Anything can happen in football, but that doesn't mean you can't assess what a team has or hasn't and generalise from it.

One other thing that is sort of guaranteed is that opposition teams will try to stop us and play more defensively. Yes I know we have seen that already but I expect teams to get better at it and we might well see more games where we won't break through for a lot longer(if at all)

brite blu sky wrote:
He tries his best to play it down too. City have the all time best GD by a clear 7 goals and he can only find it to say that City are only the 5th team to go over 25 and 12th to go over 20. Then states that of the 11 other to get +20 only 4 went on to win the title.

We should just point out here that there is a big difference between +20 and +35

Anyway GD doesn't mean much, my point is that we are set up to score and it is more likely to continue as not.

Martin Tyler is another paid up member of the Liverpool/rag loving brigade. His bias against us when commentating on our matches is unbelievable. He is a first class cunt

The goals will continue .... Chelsea 1 City 3 but no clean sheet again this week . What you you guys predict for the Chelsea game ?

I remember thinking one day we are going to spank someone....... every year since we joined the prem

Now we are regularly doing it im the happiest man alive

I still think a wheel will come off - you cant live with typical city for 35 years and expect me not to fear the worst

I fear the worst every week, and every week so far Im the happiest city fan alive

I fully expect us to lose to bayern and chelsea this week - but im pretty convinced we arent going to get relegated - so i am moving forward

Patrick wrote:I remember thinking one day we are going to spank someone....... every year since we joined the prem

Now we are regularly doing it im the happiest man alive

I still think a wheel will come off - you cant live with typical city for 35 years and expect me not to fear the worst

I fear the worst every week, and every week so far Im the happiest city fan alive

I fully expect us to lose to bayern and chelsea this week - but im pretty convinced we arent going to get relegated - so i am moving forward

Why does it not surprise me that you've been thinking about spanking!

Herman getting sent off for Pompey and a 6-0 drubbing against that greedy bastard Distin and Twitchy was a good day. Pompey fans still had a conga up and down the aisles regardless. Top atmosphere from a small group of travelling fans.

Douglas Higginbottom wrote:

brite blu sky wrote:

Douglas Higginbottom wrote:We are only a 1/3 of the way through the season.It's not impossible that we will have a 1/3 where we have a bad patch and don't score anything as regularly as we have.

Of course if we keep it up at the same rate we will win the league but we won't do as well as this all season. As ever it will be how we respond to losing a league game that will be the key.Of course along with losing a game will be the press machine going into action that the bubble has burst etc etc.I am just enjoying the ride and not getting carried away.

It is fairly safe to say we will go through a bad patch.. although we don't really know if we have already been in 'poor form' as yet, certainly we have been a bit flat in some games. My OP was trying to look at the set up of the team and what sort of players we have.. what they like doing. We could have injuries, we will go flat I'm sure, we will probably lose games, but Bob would have to take out a significant number of key players for the chances to dry up. Anything can happen in football, but that doesn't mean you can't assess what a team has or hasn't and generalise from it.

One other thing that is sort of guaranteed is that opposition teams will try to stop us and play more defensively. Yes I know we have seen that already but I expect teams to get better at it and we might well see more games where we won't break through for a lot longer(if at all)

As you say that has already happened and it didn't work. Perhaps Everton being the epitome of it. While personally I think there will be more teams try to 'defend it out' there will be also a number that will go for the QPR approach. The important thing is that it hasn't worked and although you could argue about how close they came to stopping us score, close is not enough. Managers still have a dilemna on how to stop City.. even if they have good players at their disposal.

There is nothing to prove here as this is all conjecture either way, but again I would point out that there is yet room for improvement in City, we all know that. What happens if Nasri and Aguero click properly.. the anti could up even more.

Personally I think we will hit a tough patch or two, but I also think they will improve considerably by the seasons end. So with some ups and downs we will continue to see a lot of goals.