Our identity

[Holmesy]

4 minutes ago, dcmk said:

Where was this question on Wednesday exactly? 

 

It's pretty obvious you are unable to handle a defeat against one of the best teams in the world.  A team who changed their entire team from Wednesday night.  Goto bed and have a sleep on it.

It was still there, it’s been there all season. I just chose to post it now. There are plenty of other threads you can post in pal - I notice you didn’t answer the question though. 

[nufc4eva]

If Eddie wants us to be a top team at some point we do have to transition into possession and movement football? We haven't been anywhere near good enough at taking advantage of that transition and as a result have conceded a fuckload of goals from sloppy play all season, I get a lot of games and must have an impact but if playing that many and competing in everything except the league, why play a style that drains the fuck out of them.

[Jackie Broon]

Inconsistency is our identity?

[stozo]

6 minutes ago, Colos Short and Curlies said:

 

It hasn't though. We started throwing transitional around early doors this season as a fan base but it hasn't turned into one at all as we haven't looked to evolve into playing with a Nick type upfront.

 

Rather we've looked for Nick to fill in the gap until Wissa came back then when that didn't work we've gone back to throwing Gordon up front as he can harass and chase.

Unfortunately I mean this season is a negative transition point between last season and next season. We're not evolving - we've taken a step back but I think this mediocre season will probably end up being a bridge between a very good last season and a very good next season. 

[Funtime Frankie]

Our identity under Howe is 90 mins of high intensity but playing over 50 games this season with key players out, we tire after 45 minutes of this style.

 

We need to adapt our identity and style but this needs a good summer window, tactical flexibility and time spent on the training ground.

 

This can't be understated is that we probably only have a day or two training in-between games with the schedule as it is and Howe is unable to implement new style of play.

[ffs]

I mean, we all know this, but now it's apparent to everyone (particularly players) that we aren't allowed to pay anything close to top-level wages, and that consequently there can't be anything like "the project" that was sold to incoming players soon after the takeover - we're a bit adrift in terms of identity.

 

We just can't get or keep most of the players we want, which would drive our identity. If we were allowed to pay players the top-level wages that we can easily afford then we'd still probably have the rat, plus some of Ekitike, Guehi, João Pedro, Cunha, Mbuemo etc etc etc. and a deeeeep squad. Just like Chelsea and then City did when clubs were allowed to pay whatever wages they wanted to.

 

Without that we struggle for an identity because we're forced to buy players that are far from the top of our list, and so don't really fit any identity and aren't quite top top players. Hence this driiiift.

 

Combine that with very little training time because of all these games, and a shallow squad because we're deliberately constrained from having a deeper one, and we can't cobble together much of an identity with even the players we've managed to assemble.

 

We'll do better next season with no Europe, but I do feel like we're going to continue to struggle to attract the absolutely elite players that we need both to take the big step up and also to get a new and improved identity. It kills me to see city just casually sign semenyo, Guehi etc etc etc and commentators fawn over how incredible the squad is that pep's built without ever even once reflecting on the fact that almost no other clubs are permitted to pay the wages necessary to attract those players - so of course city have fucking hoovered them up.

 

I do increasingly think that if we're really serious about challenging at the very top then the challenging that we need to be doing now is regulatory. This "well build up your revenues like good little boys and eventually the doors will open" stuff is obviously bad faith and wrong. A club that can't pay for the best players will never be able to match the revenues of a club that can - and doubly so when we are starting so far behind.

 

I dreeeaamm of the days when we could announce an exciting properly top player having signed, which we did many times back in the day. Now we simply cannot do that - we're not allowed to pay the wages required.

 

Anyway, sorry to ramble but our missing identity is imo a direct result of not being allowed to pay the wages of elite players. Which, is disgusting.

 

[Mike]

36 minutes ago, Holmesy said:

What is it? What are we actually trying to do?

I’m hoping someone who knows more about the game can actually tell me what we are trying to be because I can’t fathom it at all. 
 

Even if we are in a transition season, we should be transitioning into something. What though?!

We’re not a possession team, we’re not a counter-attacking team, we don’t play the ‘intensity is our identity’ style any more, we don’t park the bus. 
 

What are we trying to be? 
 

And don’t get all girlie and defensive, it’s a legitimate question. 

 

 

We're moving away from the press but don't seem to know where to go. Pretty much what you said. We're in a weird limbo that we can't be rescued from by that fucking rat.

[Colos Short and Curlies]

8 minutes ago, ffs said:

I mean, we all know this, but now it's apparent to everyone (particularly players) that we aren't allowed to pay anything close to top-level wages, and that consequently there can't be anything like "the project" that was sold to incoming players soon after the takeover - we're a bit adrift in terms of identity.

 

We just can't get or keep most of the players we want, which would drive our identity. If we were allowed to pay players the top-level wages that we can easily afford then we'd still probably have the rat, plus some of Ekitike, Guehi, João Pedro, Cunha, Mbuemo etc etc etc. and a deeeeep squad. Just like Chelsea and then City did when clubs were allowed to pay whatever wages they wanted to.

 

Without that we struggle for an identity because we're forced to buy players that are far from the top of our list, and so don't really fit any identity and aren't quite top top players. Hence this driiiift.

 

Combine that with very little training time because of all these games, and a shallow squad because we're deliberately constrained from having a deeper one, and we can't cobble together much of an identity with even the players we've managed to assemble.

 

We'll do better next season with no Europe, but I do feel like we're going to continue to struggle to attract the absolutely elite players that we need both to take the big step up and also to get a new and improved identity. It kills me to see city just casually sign semenyo, Guehi etc etc etc and commentators fawn over how incredible the squad is that pep's built without ever even once reflecting on the fact that almost no other clubs are permitted to pay the wages necessary to attract those players - so of course city have fucking hoovered them up.

 

I do increasingly think that if we're really serious about challenging at the very top then the challenging that we need to be doing now is regulatory. This "well build up your revenues like good little boys and eventually the doors will open" stuff is obviously bad faith and wrong. A club that can't pay for the best players will never be able to match the revenues of a club that can - and doubly so when we are starting so far behind.

 

I dreeeaamm of the days when we could announce an exciting properly top player having signed, which we did many times back in the day. Now we simply cannot do that - we're not allowed to pay the wages required.

 

Anyway, sorry to ramble but our missing identity is imo a direct result of not being allowed to pay the wages of elite players. Which, is disgusting.

 

There is another answer to this though, and that is to specifically identify and target players who aren't quite at the top level but are young and hungry enough to work to get there.

 

We either build a squad that way who grow in 2 years to be challenging (again) or we accept that we'll only have these players for 2 years and then build again

[Kid Icarus]

From our perspective our identity is theoretical or unseen at the moment. Get them being able to train and it'll become clearer imo.

 

Our problem at the moment is that we have a fair few players who aren't 'Newcastle fit' or haven't had it click yet, I have no reason to believe it won't happen though.

 

I think everyone saying we need big changes in the summer coming doesn't get it tbh, the expectation for me is that we'll see huge improvements from the signings we made in the summer gone.

[OCOCOL]

46 minutes ago, Cf said:

We're a team who's just played their 19th game of 2026. 

 

Let's not read too much into getting beat off arguably the best team in Europe. 

Here fkin here 

[Holmesy]

47 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

From our perspective our identity is theoretical or unseen at the moment. Get them being able to train and it'll become clearer imo.

 

Our problem at the moment is that we have a fair few players who aren't 'Newcastle fit' or haven't had it click yet, I have no reason to believe it won't happen though.

 

I think everyone saying we need big changes in the summer coming doesn't get it tbh, the expectation for me is that we'll see huge improvements from the signings we made in the summer gone.

So do you think he’s adapted what he wanted us to do because he’s realised the players aren’t good enough to execute it?

It seems very un-Eddie-like. He’s traditionally had his philosophies and doesn’t seem to bend from them.

 

 

Edited March 7 by Holmesy

[Kid Icarus]

14 minutes ago, Holmesy said:

So do you think he’s adapted what he wanted us to do because he’s realised the players aren’t good enough to execute it?

It seems very un-Eddie-like. He’s traditionally has his philosophies and doesn’t seem to bend from them.

 

 

 

I don't think it's that, I think he's (partially) adapted to where the players are now, but where he sees the players ending up is very different to where they are now.

 

I think if we'd just signed a couple of new players he wouldn't have had to change anything, but because we've not just replaced our focal point up front but also replaced his back up (Wilson) we've had to adapt to a degree where it's been really difficult. 

 

I genuinely think that with the benefit of hindsight this season will be seen as the best of a really bad situation. I'm absolutely convinced we have the right man for the job.

 

 

Edited March 7 by Kid Icarus

[Benwell Lad]

Is "identity" over deliberated?  Isn't it really just about how good players are.

What's Man City's real identity?  Is it just having brilliant players in every position and 100% cover for them when needed?

On occasions, for now, when we play the really top teams our "identity" just becomes whatever they want us to be.

[Colos Short and Curlies]

40 minutes ago, Benwell Lad said:

Is "identity" over deliberated?  Isn't it really just about how good players are.

What's Man City's real identity?  Is it just having brilliant players in every position and 100% cover for them when needed?

On occasions, for now, when we play the really top teams our "identity" just becomes whatever they want us to be.

 

Nah the top teams have an identity, as do the majority of the league.

 

The top players just give you consistency in very high levels of execution

[KennyUtd]

"We're Geordies, we're mental, we're off our fuckin heads"

 

[TRon]

15 hours ago, nufc4eva said:

If Eddie wants us to be a top team at some point we do have to transition into possession and movement football? We haven't been anywhere near good enough at taking advantage of that transition and as a result have conceded a fuckload of goals from sloppy play all season, I get a lot of games and must have an impact but if playing that many and competing in everything except the league, why play a style that drains the fuck out of them.

 

 

This has been my position. I enjoyed the "intensity is our identity" mantra while we were at our peak a couple of seasons ago, but when you start complaining about fatigue and schedules, then you need to find a different way of managing it. We've not done that very well IMO. 

[Holmesy]

3 hours ago, Benwell Lad said:

Is "identity" over deliberated?  Isn't it really just about how good players are.

What's Man City's real identity?  Is it just having brilliant players in every position and 100% cover for them when needed?

On occasions, for now, when we play the really top teams our "identity" just becomes whatever they want us to be.

That seems more like the Bruce/Pardew school of football - stick the players on the pitch and hope for the best. Eddie definitely isn’t that - there are tactics, just no discernible identity.

City are a possession based team, as are all of Pep’s previous. Villa and Arsenal are possession-based as well but Arsenal obviously utilise their set piece prowess heavily as well. Forest were a counter-attacking team but they’ve lost that identity now. 

Chelsea, ManUre, Spurs, not really sure. Us, not really sure. Burnley try to park the bus, Leeds are direct and aggressive. 
We used to have an identity - shit-housing, heavy pressing, winning the ball back high, over-powering physicality and great interplay between full back and wingers high up the pitch. I have no idea what our identity is now. Not a clue what we’re trying to do, hence the question. 

[bobbydazzla]

I liked it when our identity was to hardly concede any goals.

 

When we had the meanest defence in the entire league over an entire season. 
 

That made me very happy. 

[NWMag]

We definitely need to evolve to be able to control/dominate games better

 

i think we could come close to a starting 11 from our current group who would be able to play this way, I would say Ramsdale, Tino, Thiaw, Botman, Hall, Miley, Tonali, Bruno could definitely play that way. You could even throw in Gordon and Woltemade if the play was very structured. 
 

it’s the other players where we can’t do this IMO, Joelinton to an extent, but Burn, Willock, Murphy etc don’t have enough skills on the ball to be able to do it.

 

Ultimately we need more technical players instead of athletes, we need to be able to breeze past the poorer teams by completely controlling the ball without exerting all our energy, this is what the best teams do, we just don’t have the squad for it yet. 

 

 

Edited March 8 by NWMag

[Holmesy]

10 minutes ago, bobbydazzla said:

I liked it when our identity was to hardly concede any goals.

 

When we had the meanest defence in the entire league over an entire season. 
 

That made me very happy. 

Agreed. I actually think we have better defenders now than we did then as well.

[bobbydazzla]

13 minutes ago, Holmesy said:

Agreed. I actually think we have better defenders now than we did then as well.

Said this a few times this season.
 

We’ve got better individual defenders than when our defence was formidable, but conversely we’ve ended up with a properly shite defence. 

[Superior Acuña]

“Girlie”. Howay man. 
 

(Happy International Women’s Day…)

[Coffee_Johnny]

56 minutes ago, Holmesy said:

That seems more like the Bruce/Pardew school of football - stick the players on the pitch and hope for the best. Eddie definitely isn’t that - there are tactics, just no discernible identity.

City are a possession based team, as are all of Pep’s previous. Villa and Arsenal are possession-based as well but Arsenal obviously utilise their set piece prowess heavily as well. Forest were a counter-attacking team but they’ve lost that identity now. 

Chelsea, ManUre, Spurs, not really sure. Us, not really sure. Burnley try to park the bus, Leeds are direct and aggressive. 
We used to have an identity - shit-housing, heavy pressing, winning the ball back high, over-powering physicality and great interplay between full back and wingers high up the pitch. I have no idea what our identity is now. Not a clue what we’re trying to do, hence the question. 

Our identity is trying to win football matches against opposition who pose differing challenges often with a diminished squad. This necessitates flexibility in coaching and approach. 

[Mattoon]

44 minutes ago, Coffee_Johnny said:

Our identity is trying to win football matches against opposition who pose differing challenges often with a diminished squad. This necessitates flexibility in coaching and approach. 

 

@Heroncan we get this on a tifo?

[Geogaddi]

With the players we have we can only play one way which is running and pressing, not sure why we stopped doing it as even last season without Europe we rarely did it. The year we finished 4th was our peak in terms of running and pressing and that team would murder this one.

 

 

Edited March 8 by Geogaddi