Dodging bullets

[domalino]

Pep wouldn’t finish above this City team in charge of United. Pep wouldn’t even consider signing players like Pogba, Lukaku and Fellaini. They cannot play high-possession football: they are simply not good enough with or without the ball. The only person who can make Pogba seem good is Mino Raiola.

We wanted Pogba in the summer he moved to United, just like we wanted Sanchez. We may not have wanted them at the price they went for, but Pep thought those players were good enough. United's problem is not a lack of good players, it's a complete lack of attacking structure and instructions, it's a manager who is scared to let them attack, and a dressing room culture that seems to think the size of your paycheck is inversely proportional to the amount of effort you need to put in.

You can see it every time they play, they are a group of individuals on a pitch, and Guardiola would make that side much, much better, easily 10 points better, by coaching them properly.

Mourinho on the otherhand would ruin this side. He would take away the attacking structure, he'd not select a team with 5 attacking players, he'd turn them into individuals and they'd be easily, easily, 10 points worse off under his management.

 

[PannickAtTheDisco]

Pep wouldn’t finish above this City team in charge of United. Pep wouldn’t even consider signing players like Pogba, Lukaku and Fellaini. They cannot play high-possession football: they are simply not good enough with or without the ball. The only person who can make Pogba seem good is Mino Raiola.

I think Pirlo/Vidal/Marchisio et al. disagree.

 

[Fame Monster]

We wanted Pogba in the summer he moved to United, just like we wanted Sanchez. We may not have wanted them at the price they went for, but Pep thought those players were good enough. United's problem is not a lack of good players, it's a complete lack of attacking structure and instructions, it's a manager who is scared to let them attack, and a dressing room culture that seems to think the size of your paycheck is inversely proportional to the amount of effort you need to put in.

You can see it every time they play, they are a group of individuals on a pitch, and Guardiola would make that side much, much better, easily 10 points better, by coaching them properly.

Mourinho on the otherhand would ruin this side. He would take away the attacking structure, he'd not select a team with 5 attacking players, he'd turn them into individuals and they'd be easily, easily, 10 points worse off under his management.

We were linked with Pogba but no way did Guardiola want him. Guardiola has never had that kind of player in his midfield and the link was probably put in place by his agent to extract more money from United. He is the antithesis of what Guardiola looks for in a player. Yaya Toure is a better player than Pogba, especially in possession which is important to Pep, and he gets nowhere near our team. On the back of his performances in the past 2 years, Pogba rightly doesn’t even get into the United team. It’s not that Mourinho is telling him to be defensive either, because that’s where he is weakest (look at his role in Sevilla’s 1st goal for evidence of why he’s left out of United). United have overachieved this season with the players they’ve got but underachieved in terms of the money they’ve spent. They are a poor side with average players, saved by a very good goalkeeper who’s saved more shots than any other keeper in the league.

 

[domalino]

We were linked with Pogba but no way did Guardiola want him.

Well if you're going to just pull shit out of thin air to suit your narrative, what's the point in disccussing anything?

Fact is we were linked to him for a year by City journalists, who get their info from City, not Mino Raiola, and ITK's were dead certain he was a main target "Welcome to Manchester..." etc.

Unless you've got something to disprove all of that evidence pointing towards us wanting him?

 

[Fame Monster]

Well if you're going to just pull shit out of thin air to suit your narrative, what's the point in disccussing anything?

You’ve just done the exact same thing. You said we wanted him without any evidence whatsoever. I’m saying on the basis of Pep’s managerial history, we wouldn’t have touched Pogba with a bargepole.

 

[domalino]

You’ve just done the exact same thing. You said we wanted him without any evidence whatsoever. I’m saying on the basis of Pep’s managerial history, we wouldn’t have touched Pogba with a bargepole.

See my edit. There's a fucking mountain of evidence we wanted Pogba.

"Pep has never used a player like Pogba" is as ridiculous a sentiment as it is untrue. He's used plenty of box to box midfielders, and he's turned plenty of midfielders who didn't look after the ball that well into possession players.

 

[Fame Monster]

See my edit. There's a fucking mountain of evidence we wanted Pogba.

Again, that’s not evidence at all. That’s you asserting something without evidence. But let’s say these journos all got their info from City, do you not think it would be a wise negotiating strategy for City to inflate his price? Similar to what United are probably doing with Fred. And anyway, more importantly, where would you play Pogba in this team? Ahead of De Bruyne, Silva or Fernandinho?

 

[domalino]

Again, that’s not evidence at all. That’s you asserting something without evidence. But let’s say these journos all got their info from City, do you not think it would be a wise negotiating strategy for City to inflate his price? Similar to what United are probably doing with Fred. And anyway, more importantly, where would you play Pogba in this team? Ahead of De Bruyne, Silva or Fernandinho?

So now you've decided the club were inflating Pogba's price to fuck over United for over a year before united even became a club looking for his signature. That's some incredible mental gymnastics right there.

Similar to what United are probably doing with Fred.

Except United haven't told the press anything about Fred, all the journalists reporting that are City based. And they're reporting we don't want him, which isn't going to drive anyone's price up, is it?

I don't care where he'd put Pogba. His first signing for City was Gundogan, is he ahead of KDB, Silva or Fernandinho? He's spent over £100m on 2 CB's that are currently sitting on the bench. He's spent £43m on Bernardo Silva with no place in the starting XI for him. So tell me again why KDB, Silva and Fernandinho would stop us buying another central midfielder?

You can do all the mental contortion you want to pretend we were never interested in Pogba if you like, anyone with an ounce of common sense will remember we were, hence why he's being talked about in a "dodged bullets" thread with Sanchez and Kaka - or did we not want them either???

 

[twosips]

Just to chip in, we were 100% in for Pogba. If Pep had him he'd turn him into a monster. A free 8, KDB style. Pogba's loss tbh.

 

[PannickAtTheDisco]

I think Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho would probably disagree with them.

disagree with what? that they made him look good?