With the dust rapidly settling on City’s latest relegation from the Premier League, many have had their say on where and when it all went wrong. But whether in pubs across the city, on social media or here on MyFootballWriter, few will have provided a verdict as succinct as Alex Neil’s initial assessment;
- We missed too many chances.
- We made too many defensive errors
- We had a poor summer transfer window
- We made too many tactical changes
.
Four nails hit squarely on the head and four nails that effectively sealed the lid on our Premier League coffin.
But in terms of delivering the autopsy on the corpse of City’s season, Alex Neil’s assessment falls a little short. It’s like turning up at a crime scene, pointing at the body and saying “he’s been shot… with a gun”.
Well no s**t, Sherlock.
What’s needed is the detailed forensics to work out exactly what happened and more importantly why.
That’s the task that sits with those who run the club in their various capacities and you would like to think that the process is well underway following a long, collective stare in the mirror.
As fans, we’re not party to the details of how things unravelled. We’ll never know how close we came to signing the players we needed or what conversations took place in board rooms, dressing rooms or hotel rooms in Rotherham.
Events behind the scenes will certainly have influenced what happened on the pitch and vice versa but we can only pass judgement on what we see unfolding on the field of play and draw conclusions as to the underlying issues.
With that in mind, here are a few of my season defining moments; those which signalled the loosening of the bolts that ultimately led to the wheels well and truly falling off.
Palace (H)
Cameron Jerome started the campaign with a 20 plus goal season behind him and a point to prove to all those who doubted his Premier League credentials. His overhead kick that sent Carrow Road into delirium in the season’s opener was Premier League quality. Unfortunately, the officiating wasn’t. Simon Hooper ruled out the strike for a high foot and became the founder member of the ‘2015/16 referees who screwed us over’ club.
For strikers the equation is simple…
Goals = confidence = more goals.
Who knows what would have happened if big Cameron had got off to a flier but thanks to Hooper we’ll never know.
Rotherham (A)
News that Lewis Grabban had gone AWOL from a Rotherham hotel before the cup match sent the Canary Nation into full-on conspiracy mode. Had he been seduced by the blonde hair and blue eyes of media darling Eddie Howe? Or were their other factors at play?
I neither know nor care.
However, it signalled the first signs of discord within a City camp that had seemed so harmonious on the Wembley balcony just months before.
Even more alarmingly, Grabban’s replacement – Ricky Van Wolfswinkel – scored a goal.
Newcastle (A)
City had begun the campaign dominating possession and creating plenty of chances. The general consensus was that we were competitive but hadn’t picked up the points that the performances deserved.
The trip to St James’s was a car crash.
The sides traded blows with neither team able to muster any defence; much like in the early Rocky films where Sly Stallone blocks punches with his face. Alex Neil went for it. His side got punished. But rather than pass it off as a bad day at the office, the result triggered an apparent crisis of confidence and change of approach.
Plan A was ditched and we struggled to find a settled starting eleven or game plan.
Everton (H)
It’s not clear at which point Jerome turned from being a player who back-heeled goals against Nottingham Forest and ‘scored’ overhead kicks against Palace to one who couldn’t trouble a cow’s backside with a banjo. But by the time Everton rolled into town, the transformation was complete.
True, Everton should have had the game wrapped up by half-time but Jerome’s horrible miss from six-yards out to win the game was an absolute shocker. The look of confusion on his face was mirrored by all of those in the Barclay; like an old man who opens a kitchen cupboard and stares blankly at the contents with no idea or recollection of what he was looking for.
Stoke (A)
City came into the game on a decent run of form and started the night brightly. Things went properly pear-shaped when Gary O’Neil’s rush of blood to the head resulted in rush of blood to Affelay’s ankles.
Maybe our Gary was determined to prove that unlike many a foreign fancy Dan, he could do ‘it’ on a cold midweek evening in Stoke. Unfortunately in this case, the ‘it’ was a tackle that Bruce Lee would have been proud of and he was promptly given his marching orders whilst presumably muttering something in poorly lip-synced Mandarin.
City lost the match and precious momentum.
Liverpool (H)
We all know what happened in the last 30 minutes. Of all the goals that City conceded in injury time, Lallana’s strike was surely the most painful. Not only did we fail to take any points from a game that was all but won, it also shattered the belief amongst players and fans alike that we had the ability to hold on to a lead as became painfully evident against West Ham shortly after.
Galling.
Crystal Palace (A)
Coming off the back of Olsson’s strike against Newcastle, this was the game that could and perhaps should have seen us secure our safety. But rather than seize the moment, fear seized both sets of players and the game was played out with a must-not-lose approach.
The defining moment was not Puncheon’s strike but the moment when Timm Klose, limped his way off the pitch to signal both the end of his season and as it turned out the end of ours. Without Klose’s commanding presence, City’s defensive frailties’ returned for the remaining fixtures and that was basically that.
So now thoughts turn, not to the past but to what lies ahead.
But before drawing a line under the 2015/16 season, what other events have I missed? What are the other memories and defining moments that stick out to you?
Steve posts on Twitter @stevocook
Nice points, Steve.
Without wishing to open a different can of worms, you’re right that the striker’s equation is simple: goals = confidence= more goals.
Now, if Snodgrass hadn’t ripped the penalty from RvW’s hands, and Ricky had made it two goals (or more) in his first three games….
For me, Villa away Feb 6th. Dominating the game up till the opener when Mbokani gives away a foul tracking back then fails to mark Lescott.
It seems to me that Mbokani was punished for those errors for weeks even months after and Jerome was given the nod as first choice until it was too late.
Ouch! Painful summary Stevo. Glad you kicked off with Simon Hooper’s appalling decision to disallow Cameron Jerome’s wonder strike. Thought I was alone festering on that one. And there it was, that sickening feeling in the gut of shape of things to come, maybe? Somewhat reminiscent of the moment Snodgrass snatched the ball away from Wolfie denying him the opportunity to gain vital confidence. Of course, these single events don’t dictate a season but they do thrust a stick in the important early wheel of momentum. Fingers crossed we are spared Hooper’s presence to commence our return to Championship.
The season with all the “if,buts and maybes” has gone now, just take comfort from the thought that a certain S Hooper is on a hat-trick of NCFC first games of the season.
As painful as all the reminders are I cannot disagree with any of them. I will only add WHU at home: bottle job of all bottle jobs. Plus WHU away: oh dear John Ruddy, oh dear. Still hoping we sort ourselves out on and off the pitch sooner rather than later. The one that actually did for me was the Brady header against Liverpool that eventually let Lallana in. But I don’t blame Brady because he should not have been playing LB in the first place!
Yeah good points there. Still get annoyed about Snodgrass. Must have had a bee in his bonnet about RvW having cost more or something, or he just didn’t like him. RvW had never missed a penalty and had been playing on a bigger stage having scored against Man City and Celtic in the UEFA cup the previous season. To make it worse, Snodgrass missed the penalty! Everyone knew RvW should have taken it and then getting injured soon after. We seem to have had more than our fair share of discerning moments.
As for Grabban. He showed a bad attitude, whereas RvW came in at Rotherham after everything and showed a very positive and professional one. I’d rather have someone like that in the team any day of the week. For me RvW has had a bad time of it and deserves better. When he got a chance he really tried, and i thought most of our fans responded to it and would have liked to see him come off the bench at Southampton when we were 3-0 down! He’d earned that chance. As for Jerome against Palace, i’m not sure he was lacking confidence and doubt he’d have gone on a scoring spree even if the overhead kick had gone in, though you never know. We would most likely have had a winning start though (at least a draw) and i’m sure we’ll let Hooper know it if he ever refs another city game!
Sorry – got so carried away with the image of Snodgrass and the ill-fated Wolf that I forgot the original question.
Galling as it was, the ruled-out goal on opening day really shouldn’t have coloured our whole season. For me, the true turning points were Newcastle (a) and the failure to convert the 3-1 home lead against Liverpool into points.
Where AN hit the nail on the head, surely, was in identifying four factors of (perhaps) equal weight. Many City fans were wrongly putting all the blame into one factor – often in ignorance, and always out of perspective.
Scousers at home. I thought the season was done straight after that match. And still think now that if we had got a point from Bassong’s thunderbolt, we may have been OK
Stuart -surely if we had had signed one good central defender and striker last summer then its fair to say we would have missed less chances and had fewer defensive mistakes.
So Alex Neil’s points 1 and 2 were in part due to point 3 – failing to strengthen sufficiently last summer.
I think you can write off the idea of Cameron Jerome scoring at Palace would have made much of a difference. Let’s not forget that Ricky ‘got off to a flier’ and bagged 1 that season.
Games, I just remember all those games – Palace, Bournemouth, Villa, Sunderland – where we lost points that even the law of probability would say we should have won. Palace at home on the first day could have galvanised the team and didn’t update me – I thought it angered well for the season – but to lose to Villa. That was just shocking.
Excellent synopsis. You hit the big nails on the head for me, Steve. Newcastle (A), which as you say should have been written off as a bad day at the office, instead permanently scared our inexperienced manager into far too conservative tactics thereafter leading to our freefall. A creative and imaginative performance from Robbie Brady in the 1st half of that one was shockingly ignored, as he was inexplicably relegated to LB thereafter, leading to relegation of the entire team ! Was manager Neil the only one in the entire city not to see how badly Robbie’s talent was wasted on defense ?
Secondly, Palace (A) as you say should have been the game where we used our momentum from the 2nd Newcastle game to come out and crush a fragile Palace team that was in a bigger swoon than us (14 games without a win !). We could have put 7 pts between us and Sunderland, thus likely saving our season. Instead of seizing the day, however, we timidly and fearfully coached and played not to lose like you say, and when Klose went down, we were doomed.
Finally, the 0-3 Home loss to Sunderland in a game in which we had a 14-0 edge in corner kicks ( yes, go look it up !) is a mind-numbing statistical embarrassment that may never be repeated in modern football history. And speaks to the lack of offensive creativity and lack of finishing ability in vital games which ultimately sealed our fate when Klose was no longer there to save us.