Quote Originally Posted by surge View Post
That comparison is a way to say that I think we are evolving (a process) but not going to become a "progressive side" or move away from being physical and enjoying set-pieces - why should we when increasingly progressive teams are looking to get most out of set-pieces themselves?

We can be compared to many teams.

- Palace in how several players all out of contract at same time and we have big opportunity for change in the summer
- Arsenal in how we're putting a lot of faith in younger players we think have good potential, and probably our best bet to going back up, but it will still be a tricky path
- Wolves to make use of manager's names that rhyme and show predominantly defensive football doesn't have to be ugly or only played by dinosaurs.

I read one of your posts earlier that said we had been a car crash and thought we basically share the same view of where we've been. From what I can tell, the difference in view is how we feel about what we're doing currently and what that can lead to.
I think that you may be over thinking things. The reality is that we can't play, struggle with the basics, can't deal with teams who decide to let us have the ball as a way of self destruction, then play through us when we get slightly disjointed due to 1 or 2 midfield players having been forced to move out of their rigid pattern.

Everything has been designed to spoil the opposition, force them into mistakes, pressure at set pieces, there's nothing else on offer. As a team we refuse to take teams on through ability and risk. That's not because the players have always been incapable of playing that way, it's because it's the club's philosophy, they've made average players poor players.

It's akin to a pit pony, at one time it was capable of grazing in a field on a bright sunny day, but after years of darkness stuck in the hollows of a pitch black mine, daylight is no longer an option, that's what happens to our players when they end up at City. It's footballer's equivalent of perpetual darkness. That's the club's fault, not the players.