2 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

Not to take away from your overall point, but this is a bit of a myth. Of the players involved only Craig Moore was a Socceroo at the World Cup, and in fact most of the players were ex-Rangers mates of Moore not Socceroos teammates. Moore was a close friend of Frank Farina and took umbrage at the club's decision to sack Farina following his drink driving incident and replace him with Postecogolou. Moore, then club captain, issued an ultimatum to the club that it was either Ange or him, and the club sided with the newly-appointed manager and terminated Moore's contract. Moore's friends - Danny Tiatto, Liam Reddy, Bob Malcolm and Charlie Miller - also clashed with Postecogolou and actively tried to undermine him, so the club sacked them as well.

There has been speculation that Moore and friends perpetuated a 'drinking culture' at the club that Ange wanted to stop, but no hard evidence (though I have heard from one friend within the club at the time that was the true case - pretty awful given the circumstances surrounding Farina's dismissal)

Ok rangers not world cup. fair enough. Didn't know about the drinking thing, learn something every day. Anyway worked like a charm

28 minutes ago, ozboy said:

Ok rangers not world cup. fair enough. Didn't know about the drinking thing, learn something every day. Anyway worked like a charm

Yep. It's funny what can happen when a club unequivocally backs a manager!

3 hours ago, Bob stark said:

I prefer to use the word raw more than youth because that is more our problem. 

Doku is 21,mudryk is 22. Doku is ready, Mudryk is not. 

Haaland is 23, jackson is 22. Haaland is ready. Jackson is not. 

Top team doesn't really sign madueke, mudryk or jackson, certainly not for starter option, maybe for long term project or at most backup. 

Top team usually try to get caicedo, szobo, Doku, Haaland, Gakpo, Nunez, Tammy or Enzo. They are young but they are ready to contribute straight away. 

 

 

He isn’t though, he is very raw and all pace. What has helped him is Pep has given him confidence and thrown him straight into the deep end because of their injuries. You give Murdyk to Pep and Arteta, and he will be a different player. You can’t underestimate how important man management is in that context. Imagine Pep playing Walker ahead of Doku on the RW, and you will see Poch isn’t really helping Murdyk.

6 minutes ago, ducavis said:

He isn’t though, he is very raw and all pace. What has helped him is Pep has given him confidence and thrown him straight into the deep end because of their injuries. You give Murdyk to Pep and Arteta, and he will be a different player. You can’t underestimate how important man management is in that context. Imagine Pep playing Walker ahead of Doku on the RW, and you will see Poch isn’t really helping Murdyk.

Nope. Manager can't improve player overnight. 

Mudryk can never play for pep. Pep would have benched him at half time vs villa. 

 

Pep has higher demands  than most managers out there, Mudryk would not be a Pep's player. City is smart enough to know they got the best manager, so they wouldn't dare to sign a player without Pep's seal of approval.

18 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Given we paid crazy money again we could have just decided to spend it on Oshiman instead.

The market was sh*te for strikers, no good options available to us, that's what it was like in the summer transfer for strikers. We own a striker that has scored in the same league 2 goals in 3 games and was sh*te for us, why do you think that Osimhen, who has scored 3 in 5 in the same league, will be better than Jackson?

If you think about cornerstones of successful sides. Sides that are constantly winning things. They have:

A top manager

An experienced side

A system or philosophy that is honed to perfection and that aims to win every game

From these 3 I'd say we have 1 and that is a top manager. That is also up for debate but from all 3 aspects that is something we can most bet on. So keeping hold of that is something very natural for me.

An experienced side in terms of age profile and miles/kilometers together walked we don't have. We will have that 2026 and still most players are still far from peaking. 

A system/philosophy that is honed to perfection we will only have by walked those miles with a top manager. 

All of these cornerstones are also irrelevant if we have missed in recruitment. If most of players like Jackson, Mudryk, Fofana, Washington, Ugochugwu, Chukwuemeka etc are not all that. A good club and top training helps but it can't do everything. 

We'll just have to wait and see if this crop is good enough to win.

53 minutes ago, icecoolguy22 said:

Pep has higher demands  than most managers out there, Mudryk would not be a Pep's player. City is smart enough to know they got the best manager, so they wouldn't dare to sign a player without Pep's seal of approval.

I thought Mudryk had a very good game vs villa but if our manager were pep, he would bench him. 

Pep is very strict in term of what he want from his player. Player taking on 3v1,dribble to the center of the field as and losing the ball easily are forbidden unless you are Messi. 

 

4 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

I thought Mudryk had a very good game vs villa

Agreed, against Bournemouth too he could have easily walked off with an assist or two.

He doesn't look a world beater yet by any stretch, but he's creating a few good chances a game.

On the BBC gossip section said Roma wanted to make the Lukaku deal permanent yet wanted to make Tammy Abraham as part of the deal.

Would a older more experienced Tammy be preferred to say Mitrovic?

14 hours ago, Drogba1 said:

 

Maybe we can just start Poch up front, seems to be better than our current attackers

f**k me, turns out we aim at the crossbar in training. No wonder we can't score a goal to save our lives! 😅

Often used in training.

 

https://m.facebook.com/UWSKolkata/photos/george-best-tells-a-short-story-about-his-footballing-idol-the-galloping-majori-/1217690858405972/

5 hours ago, strider6004 said:

On the BBC gossip section said Roma wanted to make the Lukaku deal permanent yet wanted to make Tammy Abraham as part of the deal.

Would a older more experienced Tammy be preferred to say Mitrovic?

He's out for the season with an ACL.

Apart from that, he's more experienced but in Serie A. Good first season, poor the second. That's why Roma want to move him on. For his size he's not strong enough, not good enough in the air, a couple of the reasons why he was sold to Roma.

Another clueless lineup

Playing 3 LB omg he is mental 

Credit where it is due, he got the win. March's header being the only chance they actually made and we did not give them.

Yeah and repeating what I said on the match thread we coped really well without Silva. And it must be obvious even to Poch what a difference it makes playing a proper number 10 and letting the pivots be pivots.

Chiller apparently done a hammy again. What else is new.

Thankfully we aren't in a system where we are relying on our wingbacks. 

We sacrificed the possession but got a goal and a clean sheet in return. I'd happily win with less possession every time. 

Small steps … but team really looked up for it and wanted a fight 

I didn't even think we played badly at all last night, even before the goal, I thought I was going mental reading the matchday thread. 

Obviously the hiccups at the back most notably from Sanchez were bloody annoying but we played well against a good opposition that's had our number for years now. I hope to see more of Cole Palmer behind the striker now. 

Just now, Victor90 said:

I didn't even think we played badly at all last night, even before the goal, I thought I was going mental reading the matchday thread. 

Obviously the hiccups at the back most notably from Sanchez were bloody annoying but we played well against a good opposition that's had our number for years now. I hope to see more of Cole Palmer behind the striker now. 

You will go mental reading any matchday thread. A plethora of ignorant knee-jerk reactions. 

1 minute ago, dermott said:

You will go mental reading any matchday thread. A plethora of ignorant knee-jerk reactions. 

You would've thought we were 10-0 down against Acrrington Stanley, then the goal came and everything flip flopped.

I expected a 2-0 defeat given Brighton love playing against us and we're in sh*tty form, but the lads did really well. Even though in the first half our defence and keeper were getting easily rattled by the press.  

4 minutes ago, Victor90 said:

You would've thought we were 10-0 down against Acrrington Stanley, then the goal came and everything flip flopped.

I expected a 2-0 defeat given Brighton love playing against us and we're in sh*tty form, but the lads did really well. Even though in the first half our defence and keeper were getting easily rattled by the press.  

Precisely. Vitriol turns to praise in the blink of an eye. Jackson mocked then lauded. Polar extremes reflecting an absence of intelligent, objective assessment. Best avoided.

Hopefully Poch also learned about the formation, Colwill, Chilwell and about the importance of possession.