City to run away with Premier League

[john@staustell]

Good old Didi:

http://www.talksport.co.uk/sports-news/ ... eague-2030

Dietmar Hamann believes Manchester City will win back the Premier League title this season.

Having relinquished their crown to neighbours Manchester United last term, City have drafted in Manuel Pellegrini to replace Roberto Mancini as manager and splashed the cash this summer.

Fernandinho, Jesus Navas, Alvaro Negredo and Stevan Jovetic have all arrived at the Etihad Stadium for a combined cost of over £90million.

Hamann expects all four to make an 'immediate impact' and claims Pellegrini has all the tools to turn City into a formidable force.

“For me, they had the best squad last season. How they never made a fight for the Premier League or Champions League was a travesty,” said the former City star, speaking on the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast.

“Clearly there were problems with Mancini last season, but this guy [Pellegrini] seems to be a lot more clever and better with the players.

"They have addressed the problems they had last season, when they didn’t score enough goals. In Navas, Negredo, Jovetic and Fernandino they have bought four top players.

"I think they could run away with the league this season. City were at least as well-equipped as Man United last season and they have brought in four top players for £90million. I think they will make an immediate impact."

[feedthegreek]

listened that this morning, i noticed how brazil was very underwhelmed with his opinion, neil mellor was on last week he tipped city as well, brazil and dominic cork said city, thought youd have said united.

[Evenmydoghatesunited]

listened that this morning, i noticed how brazil was very underwhelmed with his opinion, neil mellor was on last week he tipped city as well, brazil and dominic cork said city, thought youd have said united.

That Brazil is a nut

[maddog fenton]

Brazil's a piss ed wanker he can't go a hour without saying BANG, BANG,

[john@staustell]

I may be a bit (!) biased but I agree with him entirely.

I thought we were the better team last year, but with some dodgy decisions, a lot of dodgy finishing and some strange 3 at the back episodes we managed to get oodles of point sbehind the RAGs. The latter of course had a very long string of single-goal victories backed up by the usual dodgy decisions.

An improved City against a Scum without the Fergie factor and a Mourinho with a similar squad to last year - I cant understand why we aren't favourites with almost everyone.

[BobbyJ1956]

City were second best last year because as everyone especially including Mancini knew, ManU bought a top goalscorer. The title was lost he day RVP signed. The question now is whether the style of play brought in by the new players will matter more than losing Tevez's goals and industry. None of them are as good individually as Tevez, but together they' might make a better team. Maybe they should widen the pitch again to give Navas more space to fly.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

Not a chance in hell we will run away with the league this season.(I would love to be wrong)
Win it quite possibly but not run away with it.

[JamieMCFC]

I may be a bit (!) biased but I agree with him entirely.

I thought we were the better team last year, but with some dodgy decisions, a lot of dodgy finishing and some strange 3 at the back episodes we managed to get oodles of point sbehind the RAGs. The latter of course had a very long string of single-goal victories backed up by the usual dodgy decisions.

An improved City against a Scum without the Fergie factor and a Mourinho with a similar squad to last year - I cant understand why we aren't favourites with almost everyone.

City were second best last year because as everyone especially including Mancini knew, ManU bought a top goalscorer. The title was lost he day RVP signed. The question now is whether the style of play brought in by the new players will matter more than losing Tevez's goals and industry. None of them are as good individually as Tevez, but together they' might make a better team. Maybe they should widen the pitch again to give Navas more space to fly.

The rags won 18 games by 1 goal. RVP scored in 10 of those games three of those games he scored a goal in the 90th minute or later in the. One was from a penalty. He scored in 4 draws and the rest came from games they won by 2 or more goals.

[brite blu sky]

He says 'could' run away with in the quote.

To really run away with it we would basically have to win nearly all games against our rivals. Win not draw. eg.
4 pts off the rags
4 pts off chelsea
6pts off arse
6pts off spuds

Then win most and not draw the rest of the games against the non-contenders in the league as you would be expected to anyway to be a top 4 contender anyway.

Is taking 6pts off all the top 4 teams a probability ?

[Tim777]

I've been checking out recent PL stats on games won vs. draws vs. losses. It seems apparent that a draw is deceptively seen as closer to a win than a loss, whereas mathematically it's obviously closer to a loss.
Take for example Chelsea's 95-point PL record in the 2004/2005 season. They lost a whopping 8 games (W29, D1, L8).
Compare this to our stats just last season: (W23, D9, L6). We lost only one more game than the scum (W28, D5, L5).
Now if just 6 of our 9 draws were wins instead, we would have won 2012/2013 as well as surpassed our own 89 points total of 2011/2012 (90 points).
If all 9 draws were wins instead, we would have broken Chelsea's 95-point record (96 points).
This sounds like a would've/could've/should've post; maybe, but it's that mentality of lacking that killer instinct is what looks to be an issue.
Many games I saw last season, we (and others) were taking it easy in the first half, and a good part of the second, developing a real sense of urgency after the 70th, either trying to hang on to a one goal lead or trying to play catch-up on a deficit; this more than often results in a draw (or a spike in our blood pressure -> City vs. QPR).
The last 20 minutes should be ideally about a good balance between increasing a lead gap and being on high alert defensively. Hope Pellegrini sees this & instills in the team that the attractive football that is promised should rather be from the word go than in the closing stages of the game.

[patrickblue]

I may be a bit (!) biased but I agree with him entirely.

I thought we were the better team last year, but with some dodgy decisions, a lot of dodgy finishing and some strange 3 at the back episodes we managed to get oodles of point sbehind the RAGs. The latter of course had a very long string of single-goal victories backed up by the usual dodgy decisions.

An improved City against a Scum without the Fergie factor and a Mourinho with a similar squad to last year - I cant understand why we aren't favourites with almost everyone.

I'm with you on this John. I think we had a better team than them last season, even with them having the rapist. They overperformed with a little help from their friends, we underperformed to the extent of being abysmal on a few occasions. Had Sergio played to his ability, he'd have been more than a match for van puss, TBH, what with the pressure of being everyone's cup final, and bacon's determination to go out on a high, I wasn't that surprised with what happened.

[sheblue]

Indeed all the signs are Very good and positive so far. but Run away with the league? Are we all forgetting that pelligrini has no experience in this league. A very good manager he might be but lacks experience of this league and thats a worry.[scroll][/scroll]

[BobbyJ1956]

I may be a bit (!) biased but I agree with him entirely.

I thought we were the better team last year, but with some dodgy decisions, a lot of dodgy finishing and some strange 3 at the back episodes we managed to get oodles of point sbehind the RAGs. The latter of course had a very long string of single-goal victories backed up by the usual dodgy decisions.

An improved City against a Scum without the Fergie factor and a Mourinho with a similar squad to last year - I cant understand why we aren't favourites with almost everyone.

I'm with you on this John. I think we had a better team than them last season, even with them having the rapist. They overperformed with a little help from their friends, we underperformed to the extent of being abysmal on a few occasions. Had Sergio played to his ability, he'd have been more than a match for van puss, TBH, what with the pressure of being everyone's cup final, and bacon's determination to go out on a high, I wasn't that surprised with what happened.

If, if. And if I had a billion dollars and looked like Marilyn Monroe I'd be king of the jungle. Table doesn't lie, City were second best. So look ahead: there are some pluses (new players, new style), one negative (no Tevez), and some unknowns (Pellegrini in new job, scum minus Ferguson, Chelsea with the special one again.) Nothing here says any team will run away with it.

[City64]

Nice words from Didi on a shite excuse of a programme ! Talkshite sums it up perfectly !

Reality is we will all have a much clearer picture after half a dozen games into the season ....... things are looking very positive indeed though apart from Aguero who is a big concern at present ! we need him to have another top class 20 + goal season.

[Wonderwall]

Take for example Chelsea's 95-point PL record in the 2004/2005 season. They lost a whopping 8 games (W29, D1, L8).
Compare this to our stats just last season: (W29, D9, L6). We lost only one more game than the scum (W23, D5, L5).
Now if just 6 of our 9 draws were wins instead, we would have won 2012/2013 as well as surpassed our own 89 points total of 2011/2012 (90 points).

How come we played 44 league games and the rags played 33. You're making them look better than they were lol

[Tim777]

How come we played 44 league games and the rags played 33. You're making them look better than they were lol

Oops, my bad;) Thanks. Switch their no. won with ours to 28 and 23.

[Wonderwall]

Considering the old school 2 points for a win. The league table would remain the same with only stoke and fulham trading positions.

Top 6
Rags 61
City 55
Chelsea 53
Arsenal 52
Spurs 51
Everton 47

Not a lot in 2nd to 5th

[Slim]

City were second best last year because as everyone especially including Mancini knew, ManU bought a top goalscorer. The title was lost he day RVP signed. The question now is whether the style of play brought in by the new players will matter more than losing Tevez's goals and industry. None of them are as good individually as Tevez, but together they' might make a better team. Maybe they should widen the pitch again to give Navas more space to fly.

I would say further back than that. I think we lost the title at 93:20.

We won the league on such a high I think a lot of the players(and some fans, myself included) found it harder to get the enthusiasm up for the following season.

Still, with patchy form and some really lackluster performances we still managed 2nd, so not the worst hangover in the world.

[patrickblue]

I may be a bit (!) biased but I agree with him entirely.

I thought we were the better team last year, but with some dodgy decisions, a lot of dodgy finishing and some strange 3 at the back episodes we managed to get oodles of point sbehind the RAGs. The latter of course had a very long string of single-goal victories backed up by the usual dodgy decisions.

An improved City against a Scum without the Fergie factor and a Mourinho with a similar squad to last year - I cant understand why we aren't favourites with almost everyone.

I'm with you on this John. I think we had a better team than them last season, even with them having the rapist. They overperformed with a little help from their friends, we underperformed to the extent of being abysmal on a few occasions. Had Sergio played to his ability, he'd have been more than a match for van puss, TBH, what with the pressure of being everyone's cup final, and bacon's determination to go out on a high, I wasn't that surprised with what happened.

If, if. And if I had a billion dollars and looked like Marilyn Monroe I'd be king of the jungle. Table doesn't lie, City were second best. So look ahead: there are some pluses (new players, new style), one negative (no Tevez), and some unknowns (Pellegrini in new job, scum minus Ferguson, Chelsea with the special one again.) Nothing here says any team will run away with it.

Neither John or me mentioned the word if in either of our posts, or disputed who performed best last season. We were both saying that we believed City had a better team than scum last year, but failed to take advantage of the fact.
Come to that, I think Chelsea had a better team than the rags last year too.

[ant london]

Last season we had a more talented squad and more capable side.

We were not the better team though unfortunately; the table does not lie.