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Number 1
Plus tbf he'll be more welcome than he was at Chelsea, who actively despised him from the off.
Shola
Anyway Benitez making them come in on their day off is a great start. I'm delighted - Benitez seems to have an aura about him, and I don't dislike McClaren but unfortunately it just wasn't working.
And it got much worse. McClaren's team had no identity. They were neither conservative or adventurous, structured or carefree, aggressive or attractive. They just played, and usually got beat - Think that sums up Steve McClaren's spell at Newcastle perfectly.
The team was just nothing.
Ninja
I'm fairly certain thats his gravitational pull.
bluemoon.
King Luis
Based Jorge
bluemoon.
You could claim that as the reason. You'd be an idiot, though. He was poor last season, he's taken it to a whole new level this season.
We haven't won back to back league matches since October, that's fuck all to do with Pep.
I'd laugh.
Ninja
I don't think you can completely discount the Pep rumours, certainly as an excuse for this season at any rate. Everyone in world football knew what was going to happen, even if the club somehow kept the players in the dark they'd have heard the rumours long before it was officially confirmed.
But I think you're right, I think in that theres more to it than that but I think there's more to it than Pellegrini, too, and I'm not sure its something Pep's going to find easy to fix.
There just seems to be a culture at City of 'niceness', like the whole club is trying really hard to be almost nauseatingly, sickeningly sweet at all times. Its almost a bit Arsenal-like. Compare it to say the Man United teams of old, we weren't horrible for the sake of being horrible (although theres obviously high profile times when some players were), but we had players that could be right nasty cunts when they needed to be and would do virtually everything to win. If Keane needed to smash a few players to get the crowd and the players going, he'd smash a few players. I know 'hunger' and 'desire' are considered outmoded concepts these days, but I just don't see the same will to win in the City players as I see in good or even great 'winners'. Its not even necessarily a football thing, the two great cricket teams for example were a West Indies side packed to the rafters with bowlers who wanted to kill the person standing 22 yards away from them, and the Aussies were notoriously a bunch of right royal dick heads.
The closest you seem to have to a horrible cunt is Yaya, but him being a colossal bell whiff just seems to translate into him being a sulky and miserable bastard 99% of the time. The rest of them come off in the Juan Mata mould, lovely people, I'm sure, but more likely to apologise for a bad performance and write 'hugs' on their blog than do everything to win a game.
Poe
Ninja
Well that comes into it for sure, but its not impossible to buy winners is it? I mentioned Keane, but Vidic fits into that mould too, and Evra and Rooney.
Suarez almost dragged Liverpool to a league title, and Diego Costa spearheaded Atletico and Chelsea to league titles. They're all winners in differing senses, but do you really think they gave two fucks about the club, at least initially, beyond the point where the club was a conduit for their own success? I doubt it.
bluemoon.
I'm not discounting them entirely, I'm sure they've had some effect within the club, but when the problems have been going for as long as this, it's absurd to claim it's has only happened since Pep was announced as some have.
I don't agree 100% but you might be onto something. It does seem like City don't have the same capacity/willingness to dig deep and grind out wins over the last couple of years. For all the flaws, it was something we were very good at doing under Mancini, since Pellegrini came in we've found it harder and harder.
I'm less sure of the reason though, I'm doubtful that it's as simple as us not having enough bastards. It might help but we've not really had a wealth of bastards but we've generally done okay for players to give us that edge or step up when it was needed. De Jong, Kompany and Zabaleta were great for the more physical side whilst Dzeko, Aguero and Touré all had/have records of coming at big moments under pressure, even without a couple of those players and with a few years on the clock for the others, it's difficult to confidently blame any one factor.
I don't think it'll be that difficult to change for Pep to be honest I suspect finding the cause is more difficult than finding a solution and he doesn't have to worry as much about the cause. Given it looks like we're heading towards a major rebuild of the squad I suspect he'll get a large improvement through that alone. Get rid of Kolarov, Touré and a few of the passengers in combination with a slightly higher standard of management (being generous to Pellegrini here) and I think City will look a lot more imposing.
Anyway, whatever the answer, I'm fucking bricking it for the derby. I'd be absolutely amazed if we win.
Completely average afterwards too, apparently.
SpinSwimScream
Really? From what I've seen of City (admittedly not loads) you've been nowhere near as poor as us.
Shola
bluemoon.
Don't get me wrong, you lot are still pretty shit but we've not won back to back in the league since October, and we have the second worst record in the league against the top half (might be against the top 8 teams, can't entirely remember).
It's certainly a big factor. We only really have one good, reliable central midfielder.
bluemoon.
Grimnir
Hoping Leicester do it and increase the gap, but fancy Newcastle to play well and earn a draw.
Number 1
There were promising signs in the first half tbf, but we're still behind... so, could make the second half interesting.
Vercoe
Number 1
Been a very tight one this one. We've not done too badly tbf, but just can't break through.
dannyward
Shola
On the whole much, much improved performance. Leicester didn't create much - and I don't think they had a shot on target aside from an offside goal. Newcastle probably should have had a penalty as well.
SpinSwimScream
Welcome, and yeah hallmark of champions n all that.
Poe
I agree with this.
First time for everything.
VP.
Poe
Aye, he's got a fair few assists. And his ball for Janmaat against West Ham was a thing of beauty.
He's the only player in our team willing to pass the ball forward.
Grimnir
Poe
I wasn't particularly impressed with Colback tbf. He was beaten in the air for the goal after giving the foul away that led to it.
Grimnir
Poe
Shola
That's Shelvey on a good day.