27 Oct 2025 13:24:16
Slot will get the time as long as we still look pretty comfortable to get a CL spot. Once that starts to get away from us, that is when he will be in trouble. there's not a massive amount in prize money between the top 5, but there's a massive gulf in not achieving CL while the other title contenders are and the ramifications around this.
That won't be acceptable to the owners, for them, titles are a bonus rather than a necessity. They are much more interested in financial implications like not achieving CL, but they also know what winning titles means outside of financials to the city as a whole.
Slot is currently sinking and his demeanour worryingly is looking like a man in panic rather than the quiet anger we saw from him last season straight after matches. When people were underperforming or making mistakes, you could see he had already made a decision to remove them etc.
Saying that, I've just got a feeling he's going to come through these next 4 games without the cataclysm a lot of people are expecting. More than likely via draws.
27 Oct 2025 14:43:57
Slot needs to grow a pair and start owning the issues, rather than playing victim and blaming tactics and players. He is sounding weak.
IMO he made it onto THAT banner too quickly and it went to his dome.
27 Oct 2025 15:44:52
I'm no expert but I suspect Slot has 4 games to turn it around. The next 3 games are at home. No need to win them all (particularly Madrid) but If Slot can't at least get us playing like a team again in those 3 games then I can see City away being his last chance.
I've been his biggest advocate but after the 5-1 in Frankfurt I expected us to kick on and yet somehow we produced a performance even worse than the last few games. Nothing is changing. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. It doesn't feel like anybody cares - the players don't seem to want to react, the manager doesn't want to change anything and they all just walk off the pitch emotionless at the end of the game.
27 Oct 2025 16:09:51
To be fair, having watched the game again, yes, the performance was bad, but it bears reminding that if Gakpo had got a pen, which he should have, and Mo dispatched it, I think it is likely that it would have been a different game. Yes we had problems with Brentford's physicality, lumping long balls and set pieces, but score early and maybe the game opens up more for us, the non-penalty that VAR gave them was also a huge blow to players who are already up against it the last few games, these tiny things matter a lot when we are struggling and need a break.
27 Oct 2025 16:59:54
It's the apparent lack of hunger that is bothering me the most. It was only when Mo scored out of nowhere that everyone else woke up and thought that we might actually get something out of the game. That hunger should be there from the kick-off. It was Brentford and we should be good enough to beat them comfortably with or without VAR calls going our way.
At half time I was thinking "we've got this now, that goal will rev them up and we will come out well up for it in the second half". Instead we came out limp and with even less life than the first half.
27 Oct 2025 17:14:58
Apart from Gakpo didn't even get contact like wanted Patrick Burgher. Was already going to ground before the leg was extended and planted and Gakpo missed the contact, should have had a yellow for simulation.
27 Oct 2025 17:59:55
We had the same frailties at fullback and centre mid last season but got through it because Ali, VVD, Grav, and Mo played exceptionally well most of the season and other teams were woeful.
We’ve replaced others like Diaz, who also played pretty well, but those four have either been injured or their form has tanked. Add to that our main additions Isak, injured or unfit, and Wirtz not settled, basically explains the drop off.
Coaching wise in these situations you’d normally go back to basics, make yourselves really hard to beat, and build back from draws or clean sheets. Although we’ve spent big in one summer we still don’t have any defensive depth, and that’s also been a big reason why it’s been hard to arrest the slide, but there is a question whether the coaches see it.
It may also be that we’ve bought some bad or inexperienced personalities. Ekitike for example was wrong for getting sent off, and he was also fined for something off the pitch, but maybe he thinks he can bite back at Slot for sanctioning him. I’m not sure it’s all on Slot that situation.
All of these ingredients make the position difficult for Slot, even though some things are obviously on him and the coaches. The only remedy is wins, if not wins start with draws and rebuild confidence. The fact we haven’t done much yet to suggest we recognise the problem and ways out of it does cause real concern going into the run of games. I think we’ll know by Monday whether there’s a way back without changing something in the coaching set up.