The Racing Post pundits fancy City's chances

[Hilts]

Re: The Racing Post pundits fancy City's chances

Have Stoke made any significant signings?

[Pedro de la Rosa]

Re: The Racing Post pundits fancy City's chances

Middlesbrough have just signed a player for £6.08 million and probably are second highest spenders in the league because of it.

Only 5 or sides have spent anything whatsoever. And then there's Fulham! QPR certainly dark horses, although they're probably a light shade of dark.

[Pedro de la Rosa]

Re: The Racing Post pundits fancy City's chances

Have Stoke made any significant signings?

Sam Surridge for 5.5m (what does that make Moore worth!), Ben Wilmot (1.5m) and Vrancic on a free.

[NYCBlue]

Re: The Racing Post pundits fancy City's chances

If I had to put money down right now, I might be tempted to bet on us reaching the playoffs. I don't think we will though. Top 2? I can't see that. But you never know. Fulham, West Brom, and Bournemouth have to be better than us on paper. Sheffield United? I don't know. Will Hull, Peterborough or Blackpool have anything to offer?

[The Lone Gunman]

Re: The Racing Post pundits fancy City's chances

Fulham, West Brom, and Bournemouth have to be better than us on paper.

I’m not sure what the situation is with Bournemouth at present but they have a small squad and plenty of injury problems. Their side included no less than ten academy graduates last night.

[Jimmy the Jock]

Re: The Racing Post pundits fancy City's chances

Great to see optimism on here for our coming season .
I dont share it .
Hopefully I am way of the mark but our style of football has had its day.
Certainly bottom half , maybe bottom 3 .
Even if we move dinosaur Mick on it will be hard to get this collection of hoofball experts playing proper football.
As I said, I really hope I am wrong , looking forward to taking my seat and supporting Cardiff today.
Please pay Tomlin , to provide the afternoon entertainment, even if its in a wheel chair.....

[The Lone Gunman]

Re: The Racing Post pundits fancy City's chances

Hopefully I am way of the mark but our style of football has had its day. Certainly bottom half, maybe bottom 3.

I’d rate the chances of a bottom half finish as no more than 15%, and the chances of a bottom three finish as 0%. I don’t see that as optimism, but rather realism.

City are obviously far from great and the football is sure to be grim at times, but it looks a really weak division this time around and McCarthy’s men should be comfortably strong enough to overcome most of the teams at this level despite their blatant limitations.

[Rjk]

Re: The Racing Post pundits fancy City's chances

I’d rate the chances of a bottom half finish as no more than 15%, and the chances of a bottom three finish as 0%. I don’t see that as optimism, but rather realism.

City are obviously far from great and the football is sure to be grim at times, but it looks a really weak division this time around and McCarthy’s men should be comfortably strong enough to overcome most of the teams at this level despite their blatant limitations.

at this level, there's usually one or two teams that are better than everyone else and one or two teams that are bad and then everyone else is basically within a few percent of each other. usually the whole midtable is within a few points until the last 1/4 of the season
I don't know enough about the other side's to know all their personnel, and on paper we probably shouldn't be anywhere near being in trouble. however as all teams will be fairly close I think it'll be more important whether teams gel as a team or don't work well as a team. I think it's entirely feasible that our current setup won't work.
we've stripped out all the creators from last season and it's unclear where it's going to come from this time.
we will probably be fine, but it isn't impossible that we won't be.

[The Lone Gunman]

Re: The Racing Post pundits fancy City's chances

we've stripped out all the creators from last season and it's unclear where it's going to come from this time.

Set-pieces as usual I suspect.

[Hilts]

Re: The Racing Post pundits fancy City's chances

Set plays we will be more or less the most dangerous in the league.Hopefully Giles can provide crosses for Moore. Im sure Collins will be a big upgrade on Glatzel.

I cant believe Stoke have paid 5.5m on Surridge. He wasnt great at Swansea. Better than Vokes though.

Our season just looks like mid table.

Pity we didnt have 2 more creative players.

[Jimmy the Jock]

Re: The Racing Post pundits fancy City's chances

We had a bit of a purple patch last season , won a few games although playing dreadfully on the whole, this led to a very poor finish to the season .
Does anyone know what our exact form was for the last dozen or so games ?

[The Lone Gunman]

Re: The Racing Post pundits fancy City's chances

Does anyone know what our exact form was for the last dozen or so games ?

Won 3, drew 6, lost 3.

[Rjk]

Re: The Racing Post pundits fancy City's chances

We had a bit of a purple patch last season , won a few games although playing dreadfully on the whole, this led to a very poor finish to the season .
Does anyone know what our exact form was for the last dozen or so games ?

I make it 15 points from our last 12 games which is not great.
we did have some injuries though in that period.
mostly though we didn't manage to get the wingbacks involved in the final third as often as our good patch, which completely nullified our attack.
3 attacking players + 2 deep midfielders is just too easy to defend against.
5 attacking players + 2 deep midfielders will cause problems.
I just hope we are bold enough to go for it.

[ninian opinian]

Re: The Racing Post pundits fancy City's chances

Great to see optimism on here for our coming season .
I dont share it .
Hopefully I am way of the mark but our style of football has had its day.
Certainly bottom half , maybe bottom 3 .
Even if we move dinosaur Mick on it will be hard to get this collection of hoofball experts playing proper football.
As I said, I really hope I am wrong , looking forward to taking my seat and supporting Cardiff today.
Please pay Tomlin , to provide the afternoon entertainment, even if its in a wheel chair.....

Bollox £1,000 bet for charity that we don’t finish in the bottom 3.

[The Lone Gunman]

Re: The Racing Post pundits fancy City's chances

Bollox, £1,000 bet for charity that we don’t finish in the bottom 3.

Are you going to give Jimmy 16/1, because those are the odds?

The best prices available for City this season with the major bookmakers are as follows:

To win the Championship - 16/1
To finish in the top two - 8/1
To win promotion by any means - 11/2
To finish in the top six - 2/1
To finish in the top half - 2/5
To finish in the bottom three - 16/1