3 seasons, 3 relegations, 3 strikers and......

[Making Plans 936]

3 decisions that desroyed their confidence and had a massive impact on the final outcome of the season for the Club.

2013/2014 Ricky Van Wolfswinkle

September 21^st 2013 – City v Villa.

City get a penalty after 5 minutes when the score is 0-0 and everyone is expecting the designated penalty taker Wolfswinkle, in only his 3^rd game for the Club, to step up and take it.

However, Snodgrass has other ideas as takes things into his own hands, takes the penalty and misses. Who knows what would have happened if Wolfswinkle had taken, and scored, that penalty.

We lose the match 1-0.

After that Ricky managed just 1 goal all season and never showed anything like his true capabilities and potential.

2015/2016 Cameron Jerome

August 8^th 2015 – City v Palace

After going 2 goals down just after half time, City stage a fightback with a goal from Nathan Redmond after 69 minutes. Just 4 minutes later Cameron Jerome scores what looks like a perfectly good goal with a spectacular overhead kick. To everyone’s amazement the goal is disallowed by referee Simon Hooper. If that goal had been allowed we could have easily gone on the win the match.

We eventually lose 3-1 as Palace scored an injury time third.

After that Jerome managed just 3 goals all season.

2019/2020 Teemu Pukki

December 28^th 2019 – City v Spurs.

City were leading 1-0 after 18 minutes with a goal by Vrancic. On 33 minutes, a great pass put Pukki in the clear and slotted home for what looked like a 2-0 lead. However, the new curse of football this season, VAR, ruled out the goal because a small part of Pukki was 2mm in front of the last defender.

If that goal had stood we could have easily gone on to win that game.

The game ended 2-2.

After that Pukki only managed 1 more goal for the rest of the season.

[lake district canary 4,531]

Good post. Strikers thrive on confidence. Take that away - like Snodgrass did, or the ref against palace or the combination of flawed technology and imbeciles that dis-allowed Pukki's goal - and that can be enough to take the wind out of their sails.

[All the Germans 1,075]

I agree that all of the situations were negative and avoidable but if these single incidents could possibly result in the player losing confidence and not playing as well for a whole season afterwards, then they need to take a long hard look at themselves. I do not intend to be rude here but I think it is ridiculous to believe that these one off incidents are even a big contributing factor, let alone the contributing factor.

[lake district canary 4,531]

18 minutes ago, All the Germans said:

I agree that all of the situations were negative and avoidable but if these single incidents could possibly result in the player losing confidence and not playing as well for a whole season afterwards, then they need to take a long hard look at themselves. I do not intend to be rude here but I think it is ridiculous to believe that these one off incidents are even a big contributing factor, let alone the contributing factor.

Alan Shearer once went 17 games without scoring a goal, so loss of form can happen to the best. Why did that happen? You'd have to ask him, but with strikers, with a slight injury or an incident that knocks their confidence, then suddenly scoring goals suddenly gets a lot harder.  Jerome and Wolfswinkel had time to put that right, but Pukki - since his injury and that Spurs non-goal - has not. I guess we all hoped the lockdown layoff might help him, but it really didn't seem to.  When he scores goals he makes it look easy - and that is what he needs to get back to - easier said than done, of course, but often a lucky goal or a tap in is all a striker needs to get him back up and running.

[paddycanary 538]

Every club that struggles during any given season can point to situations where they felt hard done by. If you're under the cosh and generally having to defend more, missed scoring opportunities take on an added significance. Just yesterday, we had four or five good chances to score. Yet Man City missed even more excellent chances, probably six or seven. While all three examples were costly and frustrating, there was plenty of time, games & opportunities in each of those seasons to put it right. Momentum & confidence are important, but I don't believe these three isolated incidents ultimately caused relegation. RVW was a very poor signing, CamJam is a good example of an "inbetweener" and every club has had negative run-ins with VAR. Going on the evidence of what we've seen in 2020, I don't think that if Pukki's 'goal' against Spurs had stood, he would have gone on to keep banging them in.

We were sussed out by September. Soft in central midfield, vulnerable on the wings, easy to press & win turnovers, dodgy from set-pieces, snuff out Buendia and force Pukki to go deep = relegation.