It’s not just injuries

[ron obvious 1,499]

 

The loss of confidence concerns me. Emi seems to have lost some of his swagger, & Max looks really tentative this season. Several times yesterday, when in a good attacking position, he simply turned the ball back when previously he would have taken the opposition on.

Jamal seems to have kept his gumption & not be too fazed when it doesn't come off, but Max is perhaps too frightened of failure. It's a real shame because I think he has the ability to do a lot of damage in the opposition half.

 

[Alex Moss 2,165]

10 hours ago, Dean Coneys boots said:

We were shipping goals before the injuries. 

Tell me about the time this season and last where we had Zimbo alongside Godfrey with Amadou offering extra protection in front? I believe in this role, Amadou will prove to be the missing piece of the jigsaw, but I’ve not seen it yet and neither have you.

I have absolutely no doubt that will really make a huge difference if we can get those 3 playing together in their very best respected positions, but we shall see. Potential loss of Jamal for many months very much concerns me, he’s been quietly one of our very best performers this season I feel thus far, in fact as good as Pukki. I know some doubted Hernandez for whatever reason at this level, and each to their own, but for me he’d really inject a different dynamic up front for us and I really feel that option is greatly missed. At Palace yesterday, I felt we looked unusually slow on the break. Hernandez would change that in an instant.

It would be a dream to see what this squad could do this season with a huge amount more luck on the injury front, I genuinely don’t think we’d be anywhere near the relegation zone if none of this relentless bad luck had occurred injury wise. As it stands, I think I will find it all the more remarkable and commendable if we finish outside the bottom 3 with how things have been so far. I genuinely can’t remember such an injury hit season before - if I didn’t laugh, I’d cry!

Never a dull moment supporting NCFC, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

[Michael Starr 519]

We'll be fine. Have you seen Watford and Newcastle right now?

[Bonzo 198]

Sorry I disagree with op. 

Hernadez for a start gives us a totally different dynamic. Klose/ Zimmerman are both a miss for us too. Amadou has been great but I’d love to see him in midfield.

Having said all this we were in this game from start to finish. We had good possession and created opportunities. It could easily have been a different result on another day. 

 

 

 

[Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man 3,777]

11 hours ago, wcorkcanary said:

Have you been asleep for the last two years, so much has been achieved in putting the club back ' in order' and  restructuring virtually every part of its setup. That has cost money and will be worth much more to us in the long run than an expensive player  or two. When promoted unexpectedly under AN we spent a fair bit on Players and wages to no avail.  Now promoted,  again unexpectedly,  we have invested in the Club as a whole.  That's  who we are now, I'm ok with it, if any one isn't then there plenty of clubs splashing money around who would be totally underwhelmed to receive your support. 

Precisely this.

Winning promotion to the Premier League and spending loads of money like Fulham and Villa is like winning the lottery and spunking all your money on parties, women, cars and clothes. Sensible people invest the money in property or investments that will produce a continuous source of income in the long term.

Fulham coked themselves up to the eyeballs and binged on prostitutes. They're now back in their two-bed terrace house wondering where it all went wrong, and might have dodgy people knocking on their door in the next year or two unless they sort themselves out.

We might not be having a lot of fun in the short term but we'll have plenty to show for it in the long term. This is why, in my opinion, we should bite the bullet and spend next season's Premier League money on a stadium expansion should we stay up, but that's another debate for another day.

 

4 hours ago, ricardo said:

We have played six teams in the top half and only one in the bottom half.

I know you're only trying to be positive here, but that's a little misleading. Palace and Burnley may be 9th and 10th respectively right now, but it's far too early to read much into the league table. You have to wait longer than seven games before it starts to take shape. I can't see either of them finishing in the top half once things settle down, and they're only in the top half because they beat us, which defeats the purpose of that 'stat': they were both bottom half teams when we played them.

Edited September 29, 2019 by Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man

[City fan 78]

Avoiding relagation is the objective this season, in my opinion. Then building on remaining in the league without a continual relagation dogfight. With that in mind and its only my opinion, Watford will be relagated this season. And on current form Newcastle look poor. So that leaves one relagation place to fill this season. 

Edited September 30, 2019 by City fan
Spell check

[Nuff Said 5,089]

Slightly OT, but we appear to be seeing Becchio syndrone with Hernandez at the moment. He had plenty of critics last season and I seem to remember a few saying he wouldn’t be up to the PL (I wonder if it’s the same posters now saying we should have bought a 5/6th CB?). He might make a difference once he’s back, and I would love it if he did, but he’s not the Messiah, the jury still has a lot to deliberate on this one.

[The Real Buh 3,423]

On 29/09/2019 at 07:17, Dean Coneys boots said:

Yes we have lots of injuries but this can become an excuse which doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. Watching yesterday I kept asking “which injured player would have changed our game and result?” 

Arguably Zimmo at CB would allow Amadou to stamp his presence in midfield. But beyond that I didn’t sense the injuries were relevant. Bottom line is that we were outmuscled by Palace and looked bereft of ideas with no plan B. 

The opinion of my Palace mates, who want us to do well, is that you can’t spend as little as we did in summer and expect to compete and that the lack of quality and size showed.

We are a still a champ side that plays attractive football but that will get beaten, 8 times out of 10, by an ugly Prem side that defends well. Yesterday was the perfect example 

If you are an opposition manager preparing for a match against us our injury crisis and the fact we are playing players where we are gives you a huge tactical edge.

[Alex Moss 2,165]

1 hour ago, Nuff Said said:

Slightly OT, but we appear to be seeing Becchio syndrone with Hernandez at the moment. He had plenty of critics last season and I seem to remember a few saying he wouldn’t be up to the PL (I wonder if it’s the same posters now saying we should have bought a 5/6th CB?). He might make a difference once he’s back, and I would love it if he did, but he’s not the Messiah, the jury still has a lot to deliberate on this one.

Each to their own, Nuff, but I’ve never personally ever been a critic of Onel, and there is seriously no comparison with him and Becchio?! - you’re comparing a player that has been instrumental in many fine performances for us, and one that I can barely ever remember appearing for City. So can’t fathom that comparison. Onel is arguably the most direct player we have so it’s a no brainer that many of us are ruing not having this different option available in our forward areas, through no fault of our club I hasten to add. I would think the more options we have in the Premier League, the better.

[Nuff Said 5,089]

By “Becchio syndrome” I meant the common affliction on this board where once a player hasn’t appeared for a number of games, their alleged ability starts to rise, normally correlating to the number of games they haven’t played. 

 

I've nothing against Onel, he was great for us last year, but is he going to be the difference between us going down or staying up? I doubt it. There are several injured players I would suggest are in that queue before him, Zimbo for one.

Edited September 30, 2019 by Nuff Said

[Woodman 92]

5 minutes ago, Nuff Said said:

By “Becchio syndrome” I meant the common affliction on this board where once a player hasn’t appeared for a number of games, their alleged ability starts to rise, normally correlating to the number of games they haven’t played. 

 

Ive nothing against Onel, he was great for us last year, but is he going to be the difference between us going down or staying up? I doubt it. There are several injured players I would suggest are in that queue before him, Zimbo for one.

I accept I'm probably massively in the minority on this one, but I do wonder if Zimmermann is also in this camp.  No one's seen him play at Prem level (aside from 20 mins at West Ham - did he do ok?).  We don't know yet if he will be as brilliant as he was last year at the level up.

We're in a whole new world now, where there there are teams like Burnley, Palace, West Ham, Everton and Bournemouth, who are all established Premier teams, and people are saying "we should be beating the likes of..." them.  Another cliche - there are no easy games in the Prem.

[Alex Moss 2,165]

3 minutes ago, Woodman said:

I accept I'm probably massively in the minority on this one, but I do wonder if Zimmermann is also in this camp.  No one's seen him play at Prem level (aside from 20 mins at West Ham - did he do ok?).  We don't know yet if he will be as brilliant as he was last year at the level up.

We're in a whole new world now, where there there are teams like Burnley, Palace, West Ham, Everton and Bournemouth, who are all established Premier teams, and people are saying "we should be beating the likes of..." them.  Another cliche - there are no easy games in the Prem.

From memory, Zimbo looked good in the cup games against Chelsea and Arsenal - I seem to remember Arsenal Wenger to be rumoured to keeping an eye on him after those performances. He also started well against Burnley, so it doesn’t seem unreasonable to think he could actually be a very good player for us in this league also. He has all the attributes I feel, so I can see exactly what Nuff is saying there.

Nuff, I totally understand where you’re coming from, but again, any person building up Becchio compared to Onel would be a little crazy with respect (not suggesting you are one of those people!). I seem to remember LB getting one nice goal for us once (was it against Leeds of all clubs?). But Onel has had more than his fair share of inspiring performances for us, so he’s rightfully missed whereas Becchio’s performances for us did nothing to support such evidence he added value to a matchday 11. Becchio failed to impress when given a rare chance, there’s no comparison between the 2 players. One has been a proven performer and match winner, the other not. I don’t think it’s a good comparison at all with respect. 

[NCFCInnit 52]

I tend to agree with the former manager of Finland, who lost track of Pukki during his subsequent sojourn in club football: there is a long way to go. I also recall that we had a rather poor start to last season. I further recall that we did squander a previous venture in the PL by urinating it against a wall. However, the injuries are troubling- especially those sustained in training.

[Alex Moss 2,165]

16 minutes ago, NCFCInnit said:

However, the injuries are troubling- especially those sustained in training.

I think a lots being made of that to be honest and therefore mud sticks. Off the top of my head, Zimbo/Klose/Tettey/Lewis have all been injured during matches, Aaron’s whilst on international duty, Hernandez freak accident at home, and Krul could easily have aggravated his back during a match. Trybull, Vrancic and Fahrmann it sounds like this was all initially sustained in training, but who knows? 

We had exactly the same double sessions last year, and though we weren’t without injury, our injury list at any one time was tiny compared to this season’s. Add to that we also often played twice a week. I think that evidence is quite telling, so that suggests to me it’s more down to bad luck rather than overworking the lads physically.

[Nuff Said 5,089]

40 minutes ago, Alex Moss said:

From memory, Zimbo looked good in the cup games against Chelsea and Arsenal - I seem to remember Arsenal Wenger to be rumoured to keeping an eye on him after those performances. He also started well against Burnley, so it doesn’t seem unreasonable to think he could actually be a very good player for us in this league also. He has all the attributes I feel, so I can see exactly what Nuff is saying there.

Nuff, I totally understand where you’re coming from, but again, any person building up Becchio compared to Onel would be a little crazy with respect (not suggesting you are one of those people!). I seem to remember LB getting one nice goal for us once (was it against Leeds of all clubs?). But Onel has had more than his fair share of inspiring performances for us, so he’s rightfully missed whereas Becchio’s performances for us did nothing to support such evidence he added value to a matchday 11. Becchio failed to impress when given a rare chance, there’s no comparison between the 2 players. One has been a proven performer and match winner, the other not. I don’t think it’s a good comparison at all with respect. 

I think we're largely in violent agreement here Alex. I only call it Becchio syndrome because, as I remember it, he was the worst example of posters calling for him to play based on very little evidence (apart from his goals with Leeds, granted, but different team...). I agree they're not comparable otherwise. 

And as I remember it, Wenger asked Farke where he'd found Zimmerman immediately after we played Arsenal. He might have subsequently tracked him too, but I've not heard that. The Arsenal game was the one where he continued goal saving tackles despite being sprawled on the ground. 

Edited September 30, 2019 by Nuff Said

[Jim Smith 2,314]

19 hours ago, Michael Starr said:

We'll be fine. Have you seen Watford and Newcastle right now?

I have but we should not rely on Watford in particular staying so poor. They have some decent players and could well get going at some point. 

[Christoph Stiepermann 1,131]

Only thing i agree on is the physical size issue. It's the main thing i was worried about going into this season. All the bottom 15 or so teams minus Leicester and Bournemouth are full of 6ft2+ athletes. West Ham and Palace are the extreme example here and that extra strength, pace and height can overwhelm our young, slight team. We have big players, but they aren't quick and we have fast players who are easily brushed off the ball, PL teams are full of players who have both and can play a bit. They don't need to knock it around like we do when they can dribble through us and win areal balls 90% of the time with ease.  

 

We still look a good side but against the also rans in this league it's looked a bit like U16's v under 18's at times this year and there's little we can do to address it even without injuries. 

[Gordon Bennett 780]

On 29/09/2019 at 09:00, Alex Moss said:

I would disagree with the OP, just my opinion but Zimbo alongside Godfrey with Amadou in front of them, Krul in goal with Hernandez back in the team - yeah, I’m pretty damn confident that would have made a massive difference indeed. And then you’ve still got the undeniable quality of Vrancic etc available to come on. I think only a crazy person would not see that as a massive improvement for our first 11.

Or somebody with an agenda.