Roundtable #4: Rating The 2014-2015 Season For Manchester CIty

Manchester City inside the tunnel (via Manchester City Facebook) /

Manchester City entered the 2014-2015 season with sky-high expectations. The 2013-2014 campaign included a League Cup trophy and a Barclays Premier League title. The past season, the goals of the club were progress into the latter stages of the UEFA Champions League and retention of the Premier League title. Not only did the previous season end without a trophy, the Citizens fell in the Round of 16 in the Champions League to Barcelona for the second consecutive season.

The staff at Man City Square discussed if the past season was a disappointment. Now, the writers at Man City Square will rate the 2014-2015 season on a scale of 1-10. ESPN FC gave Sergio Aguero a 10/10 for his performance this season, but Man City Square will rate the campaign as a whole.

Adam Clifton (Editor)

3/10

Most teams would be thrilled with a runner-up finish in the Barclays Premier League and a Knockout Stage appearance in the UEFA Champions League. Manchester City has broken the bank on several occasions in order to produce a squad that can enter the latter stages of the Champions League. For the second consecutive season, the Citizens struggled to advance out of a relatively weak group. Miraculous survival as runner-up in their group forced Man City to take on perennial favorites Barcelona in the Round of 16.

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The poor rating for this season is based solely on the UEFA Champions League struggles. The Citizens have proven the ability to win the league. The fact that the club could not defeat CSKA Moscow in the Champions League and their runner-up finish in the group forced the club to face Barca in the Round of 16 was a massive disappointment. The Sky Blues were comfortably beaten by Barcelona and it could have been much worse if it were not for the heroic performance of Joe Hart in the second leg. Manchester City has built a squad that can contend for Premier League titles. Until they become one of the clubs that consistently reaches the latter stages of the Champions League, the owners and fans will continue to be disappointed.

Joe Hulbert (Staff Writer)

5/10

I have given this rating because I do not believe the season is as bad as some people like to make out. I found our Champions League comeback pretty thrilling and impressive. Winning in Rome is not easy and we did it when we were completely off-form. In addition, we gave it a really good go against Barca, I’m not having the argument that they dismantled us. I thought Pellegrini did well in Europe.

The league was unspectacular but it was an solid season. We never looked like finishing lower than third and we won the Golden Glove award, in addition to having the most goals. The most disappointing part of the season was in the Cups. Losing to Newcastle and Middlesbrough at home isn’t acceptable, both performances were pretty hapless as well. If we had made better signings, then the rating may have been higher, but Caballero and Fernando were rather uninspiring.

Jordan Katz (Staff Writer)

6/10

Manchester City’s 2014-15 season, as we already discussed was a disappointment. They finished the season trophy-less and had many more bad losses than good wins. However, the fact that a second place Premier League finish and a Round of 16 exit in the Champions League says as much about the ambition of City as it does about the 2014-15 side.

If a 10 is winning the treble, then last season would have to be a 6. The team has a whole underachieved and only few players improved from their 2013-14 form. The players that did improve, however, improved in a big way. Sergio Aguero rebounded from a 2013-14 season plagued with injuries to win the Golden Boot with 26 goals in 33 games. After averaging 5.25 goals in his first four seasons at City, David Silva scored an impressive 12 goals. Lastly, Joe Hart was rock-solid at the back. After a 2013-14 campaign that led to him being dropped for Costel Pantilimon at one point, Hart was fantastic. His 10 save performance against Barcelona in the Champions League was one of the many times where almost single-handedly kept City in a game.

If it wasn’t for Aguero, Silva and Hart, this team would earn a five. But those three players alone did enough to bump the rating up to a six.