The mancityfans.net football forum

Its something I've been thinking about pretty much since the season began, but obviously as time has worn on, it becomes re-enforced.... what one fundamental quality have I yet to see from this team?

Answer: How to "dictate" the game.

That is not to say we don't go out with a plan, because we certainly do. However, if we're playing a team that begins to hoof the ball we get drawn in... vice versa, if we're playing a team that has decided they want to play ball the right way, we dance to that tune and it suits us for the most part.

The big teams never ask what way they are to play. 99% of the time within a half hour you can see who is leading the dance.

Like I said, while I have seen us play well in certain games, I don't for one second think we "dictated" one and this is our biggest problem. It could be Hughes' fault, but it could also be back to the age old argument of waiting for the team to gel....

There is no doubt that teams need time to gel or click together and this will happen... but the ability to be in ultimately in charge of how you play is the core ingredient of winners and it's something I want to see more than anything. We need soon to show our "style of play" and we need to enforce it on the opposition and draw them in to our game - something I haven't seen since Div1 under Keegan.

Tonight's game won't be the greatest example and Chelsea are the stand out team maybe in Europe at the min, but I want to see us take the lead role in every other game after. So at least if we continue to underperform we'll all know that the manager needs to go, because the players have gelled, clicked, enforced the plan, dictated the play on the pitch, but the manager's plan just isn't working.

Arsenal may not come to ours tonight and dictate the game, but if anyone wants a lesson in how to dictate a game, our visitors on saturday are handing them out on a weekly basis for a good while now.

I dont think its a matter of the team needing time to gel that is the reason for us not dictating as many games as to put us in a winning position,but the fact we dont have a team that is tough enough.Players like NDJ,Zabba and to some extent Ade, Gareth and Bellars seem to have the steel to put in a hard shift.
But I think players like Robson,Stevie,Petrov and somewhat SWP are not aggressive players and make it hard for us to dictate games in that way.Skill being more their forte.

Rag_hater wrote:I dont think its a matter of the team needing time to gel that is the reason for us not dictating as many games as to put us in a winning position,but the fact we dont have a team that is tough enough.Players like NDJ,Zabba and to some extent Ade, Gareth and Bellars seem to have the steel to put in a hard shift.
But I think players like Robson,Stevie,Petrov and somewhat SWP are not aggressive players and make it hard for us to dictate games in that way.Skill being more their forte.

But you don't need to be agressive to dictate the game. Compare Barca to Real. Both teams are built on flair, but one has the ability to dictate the game, whilst the other gets drawn in to the opposition's game and seems to sneak results when they really should have imposed themselves better...

Is it because Real are a newly assembled side and Barca have been implementing their plan and dictating the game for a longer period of time? I think so.

Original Dub wrote:

Rag_hater wrote:I dont think its a matter of the team needing time to gel that is the reason for us not dictating as many games as to put us in a winning position,but the fact we dont have a team that is tough enough.Players like NDJ,Zabba and to some extent Ade, Gareth and Bellars seem to have the steel to put in a hard shift.
But I think players like Robson,Stevie,Petrov and somewhat SWP are not aggressive players and make it hard for us to dictate games in that way.Skill being more their forte.

But you don't need to be agressive to dictate the game. Compare Barca to Real. Both teams are built on flair, but one has the ability to dictate the game, whilst the other gets drawn in to the opposition's game and seems to sneak results when they really should have imposed themselves better...

Is it because Real are a newly assembled side and Barca have been implementing their plan and dictating the game for a longer period of time? I think so.

I cant think of a better way of putting it but for me Chelski seem to be a team of skillful cloggers and thats why they are able to dictate games.

Rag_hater wrote:

Original Dub wrote:

Rag_hater wrote:I dont think its a matter of the team needing time to gel that is the reason for us not dictating as many games as to put us in a winning position,but the fact we dont have a team that is tough enough.Players like NDJ,Zabba and to some extent Ade, Gareth and Bellars seem to have the steel to put in a hard shift.
But I think players like Robson,Stevie,Petrov and somewhat SWP are not aggressive players and make it hard for us to dictate games in that way.Skill being more their forte.

But you don't need to be agressive to dictate the game. Compare Barca to Real. Both teams are built on flair, but one has the ability to dictate the game, whilst the other gets drawn in to the opposition's game and seems to sneak results when they really should have imposed themselves better...

Is it because Real are a newly assembled side and Barca have been implementing their plan and dictating the game for a longer period of time? I think so.

I cant think of a better way of putting it but for me Chelski seem to be a team of skillful cloggers and thats why they are able to dictate games.

I get what you're saying to a certain degree but I think its a case of finding your style, no matter what it is and having the ability to draw others in, whether you're Chelsea or Barcelona.
We don't have style yet and IMO that's why we can't dictate the game.