Graham Potter's thoughts on how to succeed as a manager - and why some of City's recent managers may have failed.

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Originally Posted by Rjk

lol Malky was sacked on the 27th December, I think the run in was the same as everyone elses

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I knew that, but I think our home games in the second half of the season were easier (on paper at least).
All academic now.

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Originally Posted by Don Corleone

And yet Malky and Neil Warnock got us promoted twice under the same board and owner

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Warnock use to wax lyrical about the board and the owner too.

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Originally Posted by Rjk

our xg stats suggested we were the worst team in the league from the start - it usually catches up with you in the end.

we might not have finished bottom under Malky but I think we would still have gone down.

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Under Malky we were getting progressively deeper every week to the stage we were practically defending on our goal line at Anfield! Despite the bright start and a few decent results at home, we were only going in one direction, Ole got us there in a different way.

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Originally Posted by Don Corleone

And yet Malky and Neil Warnock got us promoted twice under the same board and owner

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Shows what decent managers can do at champ level….did it despite the board. Tan did invest quite heavily for this level in the red if I recall, imagine spending £25 million now?

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Originally Posted by sneggyblubird

Warnock use to wax lyrical about the board and the owner too.

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Playing the game I reckon….

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Originally Posted by goats

Playing the game I reckon….

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100%

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Originally Posted by Fatty Thornton

Under Malky we were getting progressively deeper every week to the stage we were practically defending on our goal line at Anfield! Despite the bright start and a few decent results at home, we were only going in one direction, Ole got us there in a different way.

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Totally agree, I wanted him gone after Villa away, didn’t even try and win that game.

I agree Malay’s team was beginning a lunge in the wrong direction. By the time of that Southampton game, it looked lost. (A matter of weeks after “don’t sack Mackay” commenced.) OGS just accelerated it.
NW on the other hand was a little unlucky. We could well have stayed up that year. The football was also far better than some memories allow.

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Originally Posted by Rjk

100%

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An expert at it.

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Originally Posted by Fatty Thornton

Under Malky we were getting progressively deeper every week to the stage we were practically defending on our goal line at Anfield! Despite the bright start and a few decent results at home, we were only going in one direction, Ole got us there in a different way.

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We were dreadful under Malky in the promotion season and limped over the line.
I believe we were going down under him he didn't have what it takes.
He's more or less been shit everywhere he's been since to..

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Originally Posted by stan butler

We were dreadful under Malky in the promotion season and limped over the line.
I believe we were going down under him he didn't have what it takes.
He's more or less been shit everywhere he's been since to..

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He was never going to keep us in the Premier with the team he assembled. Not even a star like Gary Medel could paper over the lack of Premier quality. It was a strategy of keeping tight at the back and relying on set pieces to score and that was never going to work in the Premier.

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Originally Posted by Cyclops

I disagree. I believe that if Malky hadn't shot himself in the foot, we would have stayed up. And we were only a couple of points from surviving under Warnock. If Sala had played, perhaps we would have survived. Warnock was clearly affected by that saga. Both Malky and Warnock were competent managers.

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Don't forget the Chelsea offside - shouldn't unde estimate the impact that had

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Originally Posted by stan butler

We were dreadful under Malky in the promotion season and limped over the line.

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That's just not true. City won the first ten home games of the season, led the league for most of it and were unbeaten for the final eight games, although a number of these were drawn.

Everything went Chelsea’s way in last 10 or so minutes….offside goal, Rudiger only getting yellow. Also an abject performance at Fulham …Warnock got it wrong there then Palace picked us off at home …….it was so gutting after that 2-0 win at Brighton

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Originally Posted by City123

I don't know, results only started to dip from that Liverpool game on and up until that point were averaging about a point a game, that would have kept us up fairly comfortably

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My feelings about our time in the Premier League with Malky was that we were far too defensive and didn't offer enough in attack. Our midfield was unadventurous and we had little width. Fraiser Campbell was a waste of space up front who missed lots of chances yet was also starved of service.

We started the season ok and Mutch's winner at Fulham put us 11th, 4 points clear of the bottom 3. We lost at home to Newcastle and got a feeble draw at Norwich. Victory over the Jacks meant we were still 4 points clear of the bottom 3.

Our next group of fixtures saw us well beaten at Villa, gain a dismal 0-0 at Stoke and saw us lose to Palace, meaning we were just a point off the bottom 3. Victory over West Brom brought about the 4 point gap with the bottom 3 again, but with 12 goals scored in 16 games, it was clear Malky's defensive displays were hampering our chances.

I remember us being beaten 3-0 by Southampton and thinking this could have happened to us before. It is true that we were never in the bottom 3 under Malky, we managed to find the odd win when we needed it to that point, but there was enough in those 18 games that made me think that if we did end up in the bottom 3, we wouldn't have the attacking mentality or firepower to sort the situation out.

There's maybe a comparison to be made with Warnock's season. After 18 games we'd won 4 in both seasons. Under Malky we'd scored 12, Warnock 18. We had 3 more points under Malky but were only a point outside the bottom 3, we were 2 points clear under Warnock. The big difference was that under Malky we'd conceded 28 goals, 10 less than we did under Warnock, though we did have some real beatings against Man City and Man Utd.

We won promotion under Mackay by being defensively very difficult to break down. We didn't have enough at the other end of the pitch when we were in the Premier League. Cornelius would have made little difference.

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Originally Posted by Rjk

yeah our best attacking players were zohore, Murphy and decordova Reid, and we didn't play them all together until the last game of the season I think

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Not quite. Zohore was garbage most of that season, to the point where Warnock said publicly that he'd placed his faith in Zohore and he felt let down.

Murphy was marginally more trusted in attack than Reid.

That last game at Old Trafford was only Warnock trying things out ahead of the following season.

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Originally Posted by Don Corleone

And yet Malky and Neil Warnock got us promoted twice under the same board and owner

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Threw money at promotion. Didn't invest in a decent premier league team. Got ****ed twice.

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Originally Posted by NYCBlue

Threw money at promotion. Didn't invest in a decent premier league team. Got ****ed twice.

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How much did Malky spend?

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Originally Posted by stan butler

How much did Malky spend?

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Can’t recall but we appeared as the big spenders that season I think…..I doubt more than 10 million, nothing really by todays standards

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Originally Posted by stan butler

How much did Malky spend?

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I remember the promotion season we totally outspend everyone in the division, I think about 10m which was huge at the time.

Then on promotion I remember it being said we had spent a record amount for a team that had just been promoted.