sitting 3rd in the league after 19 games, 4 points clear off dippers

qualified for the semis in the league cup

through the Ro16 in the UCL where we'll face barça

My two cents on these : considering the injuries and the utterly dissapointing transfer window we've had earlier, we ain't doing too bad ... still in the UCL after having qualified for the Ro16, in what was one of the toughest groups of the lot. We have a chance to win the league cup as our first trophy this season; podium in the PL is doable.

what needs to be improved : need to improve in terms of creativity and clinicality uprfont; need an alternative formation that plays - and works!- with 4 defenders; play bats more instead of willian.

If it was not for city being OP this season in the PL, we would be fighting for the title... But we have a great chance of winning one, if not both, domestic cup. As for the UCL, this is going to be another great encounter against barça! however good or bad we may be in ferbruary, we'll definitely show up against them!! A win against them will see us in the QF... and imo, as probable champions !!

All in all, I definitely regret our board is so incompetent, as we'd have had the team to really go distance with city and finish first in our UCL group. But considering all circumstances, this season is a thousand miles ahead of 2015/2016... And so far, I can't say the season is not good. Need to improve, but we definitely have what it takes to win things! But we'll need luck on our side in terms of injuries and suspensions due to our thin squad... and also hope that our subs stick their fingers out of their asses !

What do you think?

Edited December 25, 20178 yr by Londonisblue

Winning the league cup & qualifying for the CL via the europa league is considered a great season in Manchester so we’re doing alright! A bit more creativity/clinicalness and a viable option to give Alonso a rest more often and we’ll be fine. 

ps: there's a huge need for better recruitement in the offensive positions, in terms of transfers but also in terms of playing youth players more with the first team (even the defensive ones : look at christensen) !

1 minute ago, Munkworth said:

Winning the league cup & qualifying for the CL via the europa league is considered a great season in Manchester so we’re doing alright! A bit more creativity/clinicalness and a viable option to give Alonso a rest more often and we’ll be fine. 

absolutely spot on!! I forgot about Alonso !

Should be fighting it out with Citeh, and playing Besiktas in the last 16.

If Barca knock us out and we are able to cement 2nd place in the league, i'll settle for that. A domestic cup on top would be brill.

As for next season, we could be lining up with a new manager, new attack, new captain, and the wheel of fortune spins again.

Strange season so far. I don't think we have hit top form yet, maybe due to the personal, losing Diego has hurt. I think with a strong finish to the season will set us up for a great season next year. We'd be stupid not to have an eye on next year. Barca in the cup is winnable for sure with the attacking flair we have it could be a shootout as both teams lack quality defences. Maybe Kante could be the key. League cup would be a bonus but knocking arsenal out and beating city will be draining. 

Edited December 26, 20178 yr by Famous CFC

16 hours ago, coco said:

Should be fighting it out with Citeh, and playing Besiktas in the last 16.

If Barca knock us out and we are able to cement 2nd place in the league, i'll settle for that. A domestic cup on top would be brill.

As for next season, we could be lining up with a new manager, new attack, new captain, and the wheel of fortune spins again.

Wait you think we should have won every league game bar 1 this season?

1 minute ago, jack_super_class said:

Wait you think we should have won every league game bar 1 this season?

I agree that Citeh are absolutely op this season ... in the PL at least! I am doubtful they'll go very far though in the UCL if they face PSG/Bayern or Juve for instance.

1 minute ago, Londonisblue said:

I agree that Citeh are absolutely op this season ... in the PL at least! I am doubtful they'll go very far though in the UCL if they face PSG/Bayern or Juve for instance.

Think they are capable of beating all those teams. I actually think it will be either them or PSG for the champions league.

Just now, jack_super_class said:

Think they are capable of beating all those teams. I actually think it will be either them or PSG for the champions league.

could be PSG indeed. City meh... they really benefit from the fact that the PL has no real tactitcs sometimes and heavily relly on box to box football. Don't underestimate the italians though. City struggled against Napoli and if it was not for their ridiculous attack, they could have drawn or lost. They're one of the favourites of course, no question about that. But PSG look more impressive... the return game against Bayern was dead rubber. talking about the germans, they could very well knacker the city defense and hold up some of their attackers like they did against PSG. Don't forget also City beat us on saturday afternoon (4pm) when we had played on wednesday away to ATM whilst they had played on tuesday at home ... some may say it's excuses, but still mitigating circumstances imo

Think City's defence in Europe will be the problem. Doesn't get that tested in EPL. Liverpool, PSG/Real or Bayern could expose them. Plus there two legged affairs. Oh and Chelsea/Barca plus Spurs could be another test. Don't think they will win they've had a bunch of last minute wins that could have gone either way in the EPL. Europe is far my challenging then the inconsistent EPL. Plus Spurs and Liverpool in Europe are different machines. 

Edited December 26, 20178 yr by Famous CFC

1 hour ago, jack_super_class said:

Wait you think we should have won every league game bar 1 this season?

No i think we should be 5-8 points behind them and waiting for them to slip. It's not down to citeh we lost to Burnley, Palace and WHU. nine points that would of put us in touching distance and ready to pounce when this run of theirs comes to an end.

If we had beaten Burnley Palace WHU and citeh, we would be one point behind them.

who knows, we might be starting a 19 games winning streak that will see chelsea realize the greatest remontada in Premiership history hehe ! provided that citeh lose or draw at least 6 games or so.

It's been up and down so far. I think what we lack the most is our killer instinct that we had last season. These days we are grinding games out rather than dominating them. Going forward, every player doesn't look as clinical. Hazard, Pedro, Willian, Fabregas, Alonso ( goals are still there though ) Moses, none of these players are offering as much going forward as they were last season. 

We are grinding wins out rather than performing well at the moment.

Firstly, unlucky with the midfield injuries.

Secondly, we only seemed to replace players rather than add different attacking options so became easier for other teams to know our game and to plan against us.

It's been up and down so far. I think what we lack the most is our killer instinct that we had last season. These days we are grinding games out rather than dominating them. Going forward, every player doesn't look as clinical. Hazard, Pedro, Willian, Fabregas, Alonso ( goals are still there though ) Moses, none of these players are offering as much going forward as they were last season. 
We are grinding wins out rather than performing well at the moment.

You say 'these days' but that was what happened for the most of last season as well. When the season ended I remember thinking that there was barely a game where I thought to myself 'Geez we've played these guys off the park'. And the squad has at best gone sideways in terms of recruitment.

It really has me concerned about Conte's future. Winning and not really playing attractive, dynamic football keeps him in the job, but coming in 3rd and playing five at the back whilst conceding the first third of the pitch to Brighton at home...well we all know how our board operates.

18 minutes ago, venom2011 said:

You say 'these days' but that was what happened for the most of last season as well. When the season ended I remember thinking that there was barely a game where I thought to myself 'Geez we've played these guys off the park'. And the squad has at best gone sideways in terms of recruitment.

It really has me concerned about Conte's future. Winning and not really playing attractive, dynamic football keeps him in the job, but coming in 3rd and playing five at the back whilst conceding the first third of the pitch to Brighton at home...well we all know how our board operates.

I agree about last season, I thought it was very similar to this season and the football was counter attacking, Conte's Chelsea have generally struggled to break down teams. Regarding Conte he is leaving in the summer so it will be interesting how recruitment goes, I can't see the board being bothered about Conte's targets.

8 hours ago, Famous CFC said:

Think City's defence in Europe will be the problem. Doesn't get that tested in EPL. Liverpool, PSG/Real or Bayern could expose them. Plus there two legged affairs. Oh and Chelsea/Barca plus Spurs could be another test. Don't think they will win they've had a bunch of last minute wins that could have gone either way in the EPL. Europe is far my challenging then the inconsistent EPL. Plus Spurs and Liverpool in Europe are different machines. 

Until Van Dijk joins and Mendy comes back from injury 

I think our transfer activity in the summer didn't address some deficiencies in the squad which has led to our slight decline from last season, but considering all of that we've done reasonably well to remain in the top 4 and to still be competing in all other competitions at this stage.

The aim from now until the end of the season would be to consolidate our spot in the top 4 and win a trophy or two (most likely FA Cup and/or League Cup).

Manchester City is an outlier. Statistically speaking, there hasn't been a dominant team like them for years, and I think our 2004/2005 team is the closest thing resembling them.

 

 

I made some "fantasy" predictions regarding whether we coud still win the PL or not. Obviously, this will need us to show up big time and do an exceptionnal and never seen before  remontada in order to come back and clinch the PL trophy from pep the bald's hands!

These predictions are based on the fact that City's momentum will diminish substantially once their invincible run comes to an end AND that they suffer from playing on all fronts (FA, EFL, PL and UCL). Injuries may come in their way and maybe suspensions (but with PL refs it'd be like finding pennies and dimes from heaven ). It also takes into account the fact that City will not break our points record of 95 ... which they won't hopefully !

Therefore, considering the above, City will have to drop points on 7 occassions with 19 games remaining ! City could then end up the season with these figures :

Citeh 30 Wins 3 Draws 5 Losses = 93 points. This would translate like this in this second half of the season : 12 Wins 2 Draws 5 Losses = 38 points. Added to their total in the first half of the season gives : 38 + 55 = 93 points. They would still be pretty much champions.

Therefore, it will require us to be as invicible and perfect as Citeh were in the first half of the season! Chelsea will have to win a whooping 17 games out of the 19 remaining !!!! or win 16 games with some 5-0 and 4-0 ... and not losing a single game for the remainder of the season ! this could go like this :

Chelsea 30 Wins 4 Draws 5 Losses = 94 points ! This would mean we'd have done an almost perfect second half season with 17 Wins 1 Draw 1 Loss = 52 points!!! Added to our current total after 19 games this would give : 52 + 42 = 94 points !!! Hurray!!! We're still champions !!!

Needless to say that unless Citeh f**k up big time and we do the greatest comeback ever in premiership history, PL is over... But remember we've already won our first game of the second half of the season so there's only sixteen more to win :) ... As they say in Star Wars, this maybe our new (last) hope lol ^^! Regarding our recurring issues and thin squad, this would be nothing short of a miracle if we pull out such a performance and Citeh bottling it a la spurs ... Que sera sera I guess !!

Edited December 27, 20178 yr by Londonisblue

The season went exactly like most of us expected, we aren't going to win the title, but not doing a 'Jose season' like ESPN/SKY pundits predicted. Another season, we'd still be in the title race, but we aren't going to win it with the team we got. It's obvious we need more attacking options, we'd beat WestHam, Everton etc if we have another attacking option on the bench in the form of  Zaha, Daxler, Mahraez etc. Morata is a great signing, Bakkyoko is getting better, and Christensen just saved us 50M on defence.

 

 

16 hours ago, Ernie_blue said:

Until Van Dijk joins and Mendy comes back from injury 

They won't make an ounce of a difference. Van Dijk been spoke about like he's JT in his prime. And Mendy? Meh. 

Goals, goals, goals. Even though Morata has been excellent we are struggling. Watching the scoreless 140 odd minutes against Everton and Brighton highlighted our problem.

4 hours ago, Famous CFC said:

They won't make an ounce of a difference. Van Dijk been spoke about like he's JT in his prime. And Mendy? Meh. 

if you reckon 

Are you Dick Van Dyke and Mendys agent? Doubt Mendy will even get back in the team when comes back. The mighty Delph will see to that, and that is saying summat. Oh and as for Dick Van Dyke, he's probably been chauffeur driven to Liverpool by Southampton's chairman will driving with a face like this the entire time