time to gel

[brite blu sky]

Assuming that Mancini gets all the players he wants and as a result we have no obvious weakness apart from injuries, how long do you rekon it will take for the so called gelling to happen. These are our next months worth of fixtures.
Timisoara A
Liverpool H
Timisoara H
Sunderland A
Blackburn H
Wigan A
Chelsea H

the extra Europa games should help us in this process and Liverpool will be another tough game i imagine, but then the run of games up to Chelsea give us a chance to get things together and get in gear in time for what will be a key game again this season at home to Chelsea.

The defense has already had a baptism of fire and wasn't particularly the area we needed to sort out anyway, so we are really talking about the midfield combos. Bobby rekons we need 3 weeks. If he is justified in that i think that those fixtures are quite kind to us in terms of what has to be done.

[Beeks]

Personally I think the Liverpool game is key

If we beat them then confidence will be on a high and a confident City side could brush aside the next few fixtures

It's a must win in my eyes as it will lay down a signal of intent

[bluechester]

hopefully we will be flying by sunderland/blackburn game

[Beefymcfc]

I was thinking the same the other day and wondered whether Mancio would play a similar team to that on Saturday, in the hope that they get some playing time together? I don't know why not as afterall, we've got 4 days break until the Monday night game against Liverpool.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

Assuming that Mancini gets all the players he wants and as a result we have no obvious weakness apart from injuries, how long do you rekon it will take for the so called gelling to happen. These are our next months worth of fixtures.
Timisoara A
Liverpool H
Timisoara H
Sunderland A
Blackburn H
Wigan A
Chelsea H

the extra Europa games should help us in this process and Liverpool will be another tough game i imagine, but then the run of games up to Chelsea give us a chance to get things together and get in gear in time for what will be a key game again this season at home to Chelsea.

The defense has already had a baptism of fire and wasn't particularly the area we needed to sort out anyway, so we are really talking about the midfield combos. Bobby rekons we need 3 weeks. If he is justified in that i think that those fixtures are quite kind to us in terms of what has to be done.

I really disagree that the defence isn't an area needing to be sorted.I understand that we have got better but to a degree that has been at the expense of the attacking play. We need to get to a situation where the defence looks after itself a little better so that we can attack more as a team rather than sitting back a lot so we don't concede.

That doesnt mean either that it's the defence that's the priority but I feel it's all about the team getting a better understanding of what Mancini wants from them as well as how they all play individually.Now that Mancini has more of his own players I hope and expect good signs very quickly and by the time Chelsea come along we will be flying.

[Ted Hughes]

Assuming that Mancini gets all the players he wants and as a result we have no obvious weakness apart from injuries, how long do you rekon it will take for the so called gelling to happen. These are our next months worth of fixtures.
Timisoara A
Liverpool H
Timisoara H
Sunderland A
Blackburn H
Wigan A
Chelsea H

the extra Europa games should help us in this process and Liverpool will be another tough game i imagine, but then the run of games up to Chelsea give us a chance to get things together and get in gear in time for what will be a key game again this season at home to Chelsea.

The defense has already had a baptism of fire and wasn't particularly the area we needed to sort out anyway, so we are really talking about the midfield combos. Bobby rekons we need 3 weeks. If he is justified in that i think that those fixtures are quite kind to us in terms of what has to be done.

I really disagree that the defence isn't an area needing to be sorted.I understand that we have got better but to a degree that has been at the expense of the attacking play. We need to get to a situation where the defence looks after itself a little better so that we can attack more as a team rather than sitting back a lot so we don't concede.

That doesnt mean either that it's the defence that's the priority but I feel it's all about the team getting a better understanding of what Mancini wants from them as well as how they all play individually.Now that Mancini has more of his own players I hope and expect good signs very quickly and by the time Chelsea come along we will be flying.

I was encouraged by the CB's v Spurs. Best I've seen those two play, probably ever. Amongst a bit of an organisational shambles, they really stood up well. That & DeJong's performace suggests to me that when we get everyone fit & organised, we may be able to entrust those 3 to do the main defending job & play a more attack minded team in many games.

I fear we'll go negative v Scousers though, so they'll score from a free kick or corner if we do. In that case I think we need to cash in on Sunderland, Blackburn & Wigan or our challenge for top 3 may already be stuttering. We have 2 weeks to get ready for that bunch so should be much fitter/better.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

The bit that should worry though from the Spurs game is that ,although our 2 center backs played well as did Nigel Spurs still had too many really good chances and plenty of other great situations. It still needed our keeper to have an exceptional game.

Anything like that many chances against us in future matches and we will get beaten and possibly beaten badly. The defending has to be as a whole unit and good enough to stop them getting at the keeper as often.One of the best ways of stopping that happening is to control the game more from the middle of the park and by attacking more thus pushing them back rather than the other way around.

[Ted Hughes]

The bit that should worry though from the Spurs game is that ,although our 2 center backs played well as did Nigel Spurs still had too many really good chances and plenty of other great situations. It still needed our keeper to have an exceptional game.

Anything like that many chances against us in future matches and we will get beaten and possibly beaten badly. The defending has to be as a whole unit and good enough to stop them getting at the keeper as often.One of the best ways of stopping that happening is to control the game more from the middle of the park and by attacking more thus pushing them back rather than the other way around.

True but half our midfield/attack wasn't match fit, SWP was hopeless & Spurs were hitting long balls when we did go forward (& gave away the ball). Also there was the case of Bale being very good & Micah being very bad both at the same time. Plus Micah was having to mark Crouch on set plays & couldn't get near him. 9We need to double up on Crouch in future & stop him getting a clean jump). Just getting every one of the new players + Tevez match fit is the 1st priority seeing as we've dumped our best (fit) forward.

[brite blu sky]

The Liverpool game will be a tough game im sure and possibly more so due to the lack of preparedness of some players and the team in general. And as Doug says it is in the center of the park where we have to sort it out. Yaya and Silva will improve and Balotelli will add another dimension for Liverpool to worry about, but i cant help thinking that we will have to hold our nerve in relation to Scouce game and look mainly just to get through it.

[shawzy]

The bit that should worry though from the Spurs game is that ,although our 2 center backs played well as did Nigel Spurs still had too many really good chances and plenty of other great situations. It still needed our keeper to have an exceptional game.

Anything like that many chances against us in future matches and we will get beaten and possibly beaten badly. The defending has to be as a whole unit and good enough to stop them getting at the keeper as often.One of the best ways of stopping that happening is to control the game more from the middle of the park and by attacking more thus pushing them back rather than the other way around.

It was a game of 2 halves DH..We were apalling 1st half but sorted it at half time.I cant recall Hart even make a decent save in the 2nd half.
I agree that we need to dominate from the start and dont give any team a moments peace.
I also think Ade will get better service playing with Tevez sitting behind him,but we didnt see that on Sat.

[gillie]

As Shawzy say's in many respects it was a game of 2 halves on Saturday but what really concerned me was when we did attack and got wide there was no one in the Spuds box to cross the ball to.This was also a problem at times last season and i think 3 CMs negates our options up front imo we should have 1 holding mid 1 box to box and 2 wide men with a mix of Tevez,Ade,Mario up front.

[getdressedmctavish]

At some point the Italian is gonna have to say "righta, we ara gonna attacka this lotta", or get his extraordinarily dull second in command to mumble"our goal is the intention of winning a football match". I await this situation with no little impatience and very little optimism on evidence to date.

[Colin the King]

There are a few factors. As IBH says, beating Liverpool could be the catalyst for a great run and fill us with confidence (especially since we've not beaten them in years) and so the intensity of this Thursday night's game in Romania might contribute to how we do next Monday. If they're really poor, we might be able to stay in first gear, pass them to death and score a raft of goals (see Chelsea vs. West Brom). Doing that would mean the starters wouldn't be exhausted for Liverpool, but on top of that if we can come home with a 0-3 or 0-4, I'd be quite happy for Mancini to give the likes of Cunningham, Nimely, Ibrahim and Boyata a run out in the 2nd leg.

We could then approach the block of four league games- Sunderland, Blackburn, Wigan and Chelsea- with all the lads fresh and fit, and injuries excepted, go with more or less the same line up in those games- uninterrupted gelling time. 9 points at least from that lot, no reason to expect any less. Blackburn at home is a much different prospect to away so we can play our game quite comfortably, Wigan are a complete and utter shambles and will concede even more goals than they did last season. They really are pathetic, against Blackpool it was like watching Sunday league players that'd spent the morning smoking weed and gobbling pies. The other two are less straightforward- Sunderland will definitely be tough and a point would be reasonable enough but if we click and play positively (they're not Spurs, we can afford to attack them) no reason we can't bag all three. Chelsea, hard to tell. They looked good last weekend, but as we saw last season they're not invincible. Get de Jong tight on Lampard and Touré screening the 18 yard line, and tighten up the right hand side to nullify Cole and we might pull off another win. They are the best team in the country in fairness so although we should be aspiring to beat them, it's no disaster if we don't and valuable lessons can be learned.

As long as our approach is positive in these games and we rectify the clear issues from last weekend (in short- decrease the space between midfield and attack, and play a proper striker) it should enable us to gel as a unit over the next six weeks and I'd be expecting mostly good results. We'll obviously not win every single game on the fixture list but as long as there are signs of continuous improvement, good quality football and a cohesive shape to the side not many of us will be arguing.

[brite blu sky]

right as it seems that both Milner and Balotelli will be available for selection, they are now in the mix of players to gel in.

By my reckoning the players that are both key and will need either getting up to speed cos of the WC or getting up to speed as they are new to the Prem.

Hart/Given, Micah, Toure, Vinny, Bridge, Barry, Ade, AJ, SWP - dont need time, DeJong also as he is just.. well DeJong.
Tevez - bit like last season might take a few weeks to get up to speed, but no gelling issues.
Boateng and Kolarov - need to get used to the prem, Mancini and teamates, but shouldn't be too far off the pace.
Yaya - is key and should be fine as he is aware, but as he is a key player we will improve as he improves and settles in.

Silva and Balotelli - these two might be the ones that need most time.. not just for the prem but getting to grips with their role, that said as both are good players it shouldn't take too long for them to settle even if that doesn't mean we would see the best of them for a while. i would give them both a good half season to find their consistent form.

Milner - just needs to get used to his teamates and Mancini.. as he works hard and follows instructions well i cant see us even noticing he was never in the team.

[lythamblue]

Sorry to piss on everyone's chips ..... but I am not so sure about this 'time to gell' business. Sven's new signings didn't need time to gell and went off like a rocket. So did MH's new signings last season.

At Chelsea, Mourinho bought half a team too which won their first 8 or 9 games from what I can remember.

This weekend, Blackpool battered Wigan with 5 new players, some of which had only met a few days before and only one had very limited Premier League experience etc.

On Saturday, we just played shit and were outplayed for most of the game. Our new signings couldn't get in to the game as well as the opposition did and just weren't good enough. I hope that was a wake up call to them.

Nothing to do with 'gelling' ...... nect time, just fookin play better !