Pep Guardiola Performances - 2018/19

[r.soleofsalford]

Some on here have the backbone of a fucking jellyfish.

Wibble, Wobble, wobble.

 

[mosssideblue]

Some on here have the backbone of a fucking jellyfish.

I agree, I know the weathermen are saying no snow for Christmas day - they only need to look on here to find all the snowflakes

 

[Deleted member 77198]

His worst day at the office since Leicester away when he purposely played a back three of Sanga-Stones-Kolarov with Fernando as the defensive mid to make a point to Txiki that he needed new players.

But this time we’re in a title race!

 

[01cravend]

His worst day at the office since Leicester away when he purposely played a back three of Sanga-Stones-Kolarov with Fernando as the defensive mid to make a point to Txiki that he needed new players.

But this time we’re in a title race!

I think Pep has a good enough relationship with Txixi that he doesn't have throw away a game to make a point of needing something. It was merely an experiment that went wrong, it happens he isn't infallible

 

[Phil1]

For half an hour we were in control and it looked like he’d played it perfect. Not needing to rush back Kev or Serg, giving Stones a chance to step up in an unfamiliar position which could be important if Fern is missing and generally keeping our shape very well.
The problems started as soon as they equalised. From being in control we started to get flustered and allowed Palace to get a foothold. He should have seen that and got them to calm the fuck down.
Once the second went in I’m sad to say that Peps day went a bit pear shaped. Half time should have seen Kev brought on immediately for Otamendi with Stones dropping back and Gundogen taking over the Fern role.
The third goal was a proper kick in the bollocks for us and getting Aguero involved was pointless when the service behind him was so poor.
After that it all became a bit of a mess. Whilst Kev provided a spark the introduction of Mahrez was a backward step - especially when Sterling had just begun to look lively for the first time. The service into the forwards continued to be terrible with aimless balls floated into the box leading to fuck all unsurprisingly.
What started as a good day go Pep became a bit of a shambles sadly. Hopefully it won’t come back to bite us come May as it’s pretty obvious that nobody at the top can afford to throw points away this season.

 

[Dipsis_LTU_MC]

What pissed me off yesterday was the fact that we started lumping long balls into the box with zero intention of trying to make intricate passes. Everybody looked lost and ran out of ideas. Another thing that pisses me of is that we almost never shoot from outside the box when opposition parks 5 buses.

 

[Fiftyyearsandcounting]

I do wish Pep would stop fidgeting during his press conferences/interviews. It is difficult sometimes to understand what he is saying, made doubly difficult trying to concentrate when he is constantly rubbing or scratching his face or his ears or his nose or his beard.
Also, as demonstrated in the post-match interview yesterday, this fidgeting is noticeably worse when he is angry with the performance.

 

[Danny_Johnson4]

My only major gripe with him is the fact that he will, at all costs, ignore the possibility of using a youth team player in a specific position and shoe horning first team players into positions they don't play.

You will not be able to convince me that player for player on 'paper' we are 20/25/30 points better off than the majority of the top 6 as our points tally showed last season.
Our system is near on perfect and it emphasises the strengths of each player and defaults their weaknesses, its the genius of the manager no doubt. However, take one or two players out, or have one too many players playing out of position and we are in serious trouble. This is still a squad with sizeable amounts of players who had us scraping 4th and 3rd for a few seasons not long back - its not a criticism, just facts.
The system will protect the younger lads, it wont be a problem for them.

It really, really gets me wound up when I turn up on a game like saturday and see Stones playing CDM, Delph continuously left back.
Stones is an excellent ball playing CB, but its a whole new ball game in midfield. In our system with the game infront of him and no pressure from behind then the majority of our CBs can look comfortable, but to play him in CDM is just staggering for me.
Delph did superbly last season with just the odd lapse in concentration causing or leading to goals, but this year he looks like a midfielder at left back (he did spend his summer as a CDM replacement for England)

Why on earth for odd games cant the next in line in the U23s get a game? I am telling you now they will perform better simply because that is their position, they are f***ing well paid for young lads and are certainly no mugs, the entire youth system is thriving now so why aren't we taking advantage for a game or two?
I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on our youth sides and I know people will say 'theyre not ready etc etc'. It didnt stop the most successful manager in premier league history from throwing a kid in to help the side when needed did it, as much as he was a ****.
It may just lead to us saving 50m in the next transfer window on a new left back, a new midfielder.
Who knows how good someone can be if they arent given the chance? I'm telling you now, whoever we go and sign for 50+m in jan or the summer will have had a point not long ago where their own manager in their own side will have had a risky choice as to whether they put them in and give them the chance.

The time has come where serious questions need to be asked as to why this club don't offer the younger players a chance in the first team.

 

[City_Sean]

For half an hour we were in control and it looked like he’d played it perfect. Not needing to rush back Kev or Serg, giving Stones a chance to step up in an unfamiliar position which could be important if Fern is missing and generally keeping our shape very well.
The problems started as soon as they equalised. From being in control we started to get flustered and allowed Palace to get a foothold. He should have seen that and got them to calm the fuck down.
Once the second went in I’m sad to say that Peps day went a bit pear shaped. Half time should have seen Kev brought on immediately for Otamendi with Stones dropping back and Gundogen taking over the Fern role.
The third goal was a proper kick in the bollocks for us and getting Aguero involved was pointless when the service behind him was so poor.
After that it all became a bit of a mess. Whilst Kev provided a spark the introduction of Mahrez was a backward step - especially when Sterling had just begun to look lively for the first time. The service into the forwards continued to be terrible with aimless balls floated into the box leading to fuck all unsurprisingly.
What started as a good day go Pep became a bit of a shambles sadly. Hopefully it won’t come back to bite us come May as it’s pretty obvious that nobody at the top can afford to throw points away this season.

Agree with you that we looked in control in the first thirty minutes but it was still obvious to me that Stones wasn't working there.

Being good on the ball for a CB doesn't translate to bring able to play in CM. I thought he disrupted our attacks and rhythm.

The goals absolutely flattened us but our lack of response was hugely worrying. We resorted to aimless crosses despite never flooding the area.

Walker and Ederson are both at fault for their first goal, both have made far too many mistakes for such high calibre players this season.

 

[Colin Bells Boots]

Some on here have the backbone of a fucking jellyfish.

It's actually pathetic .

 

[Colin Bells Boots]

My only major gripe with him is the fact that he will, at all costs, ignore the possibility of using a youth team player in a specific position and shoe horning first team players into positions they don't play.

You will not be able to convince me that player for player on 'paper' we are 20/25/30 points better off than the majority of the top 6 as our points tally showed last season.
Our system is near on perfect and it emphasises the strengths of each player and defaults their weaknesses, its the genius of the manager no doubt. However, take one or two players out, or have one too many players playing out of position and we are in serious trouble. This is still a squad with sizeable amounts of players who had us scraping 4th and 3rd for a few seasons not long back - its not a criticism, just facts.
The system will protect the younger lads, it wont be a problem for them.

It really, really gets me wound up when I turn up on a game like saturday and see Stones playing CDM, Delph continuously left back.
Stones is an excellent ball playing CB, but its a whole new ball game in midfield. In our system with the game infront of him and no pressure from behind then the majority of our CBs can look comfortable, but to play him in CDM is just staggering for me.
Delph did superbly last season with just the odd lapse in concentration causing or leading to goals, but this year he looks like a midfielder at left back (he did spend his summer as a CDM replacement for England)

Why on earth for odd games cant the next in line in the U23s get a game? I am telling you now they will perform better simply because that is their position, they are f***ing well paid for young lads and are certainly no mugs, the entire youth system is thriving now so why aren't we taking advantage for a game or two?
I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on our youth sides and I know people will say 'theyre not ready etc etc'. It didnt stop the most successful manager in premier league history from throwing a kid in to help the side when needed did it, as much as he was a ****.
It may just lead to us saving 50m in the next transfer window on a new left back, a new midfielder.
Who knows how good someone can be if they arent given the chance? I'm telling you now, whoever we go and sign for 50+m in jan or the summer will have had a point not long ago where their own manager in their own side will have had a risky choice as to whether they put them in and give them the chance.

The time has come where serious questions need to be asked as to why this club don't offer the younger players a chance in the first team.

Pep out ?

 

[Sir peace frog]

considering the so called shit players we have( according to the bluemoon experts since the palace defeat) he's doing a magnificent job

 

[domalino]

All of our problems are down to Mendy's injury IMO.

Mendy gets injured and Delph has to play LB which means Stones is drafted in to cover Fern.

That fucks up the defensive partnership, makes us terribly slow at moving the ball because Stones isn't a midfielder and that kills us because moving the ball quickly is our biggest strength.

Delph going to LB instead of Mendy also means Walker has to play more as a wingback and not staying back to make that 3 man backline he usually does with the 2 CBs. That means he has to run an awful lot more and predictably combining that with him already being tired means he's getting caught out of position or beaten for pace.

I don't think Pep has helped himself because he could have played Foden more early in the season and then would have trusted him to play with Gundogan and Bernardo in midfield yesterday, but because he's not given him the games when he could, he can't use him now we could really do with another midfielder.

But fundamentally I think it's Pep trying to adjust to Mendy's second injury that's cause a lot of this and that makes me wonder if we sign a LB in January because while our midfield targets are obvious not on the January market, some of the LBs mentioned would be.

 

[Colin Bells Boots]

All of our problems are down to Mendy's injury IMO.

Mendy gets injured and Delph has to play LB which means Stones is drafted in to cover Fern.

That fucks up the defensive partnership, makes us terribly slow at moving the ball because Stones isn't a midfielder and that kills us because moving the ball quickly is our biggest strength.

Delph going to LB instead of Mendy also means Walker has to play more as a wingback and not staying back to make that 3 man backline he usually does with the 2 CBs. That means he has to run an awful lot more and predictably combining that with him already being tired means he's getting caught out of position or beaten for pace.

I don't think Pep has helped himself because he could have played Foden more early in the season and then would have trusted him to play with Gundogan and Bernardo in midfield yesterday, but because he's not given him the games when he could, he can't use him now we could really do with another midfielder.

But fundamentally I think it's Pep trying to adjust to Mendy's second injury that's cause a lot of this and that makes me wonder if we sign a LB in January because while our midfield targets are obvious not on the January market, some of the LBs mentioned would be.

Pep may have thought that Foden wasn't ready ?

Just a thought .

 

[kaz7]

I do wish Pep would stop fidgeting during his press conferences/interviews. It is difficult sometimes to understand what he is saying, made doubly difficult trying to concentrate when he is constantly rubbing or scratching his face or his ears or his nose or his beard.
Also, as demonstrated in the post-match interview yesterday, this fidgeting is noticeably worse when he is angry with the performance.

Thats all that bugs you? he must be doing something right then

 

[domalino]

Pep may have thought that Foden wasn't ready ?

Just a thought .

If he's not ready it's because Pep's not played him enough when we had opportunities to give him risk free minutes.

I've no doubt a Gundogan-Bernardo-Foden midfield would have been better than playing Stones out of position and messing up the entire system and backline.

 

[Dax777]

All of our problems are down to Mendy's injury IMO.

Mendy gets injured and Delph has to play LB which means Stones is drafted in to cover Fern.

That fucks up the defensive partnership, makes us terribly slow at moving the ball because Stones isn't a midfielder and that kills us because moving the ball quickly is our biggest strength.

Delph going to LB instead of Mendy also means Walker has to play more as a wingback and not staying back to make that 3 man backline he usually does with the 2 CBs. That means he has to run an awful lot more and predictably combining that with him already being tired means he's getting caught out of position or beaten for pace.

I don't think Pep has helped himself because he could have played Foden more early in the season and then would have trusted him to play with Gundogan and Bernardo in midfield yesterday, but because he's not given him the games when he could, he can't use him now we could really do with another midfielder.

But fundamentally I think it's Pep trying to adjust to Mendy's second injury that's cause a lot of this and that makes me wonder if we sign a LB in January because while our midfield targets are obvious not on the January market, some of the LBs mentioned would be.

Which Leftbacks are we interested in?

 

[Colin Bells Boots]

If he's not ready it's because Pep's not played him enough when we had opportunities to give him risk free minutes.

I've no doubt a Gundogan-Bernardo-Foden midfield would have been better than playing Stones out of position and messing up the entire system and backline.

What you think is possibly irrelevant to what Pep thinks - even though you may find that hard to believe .

 

[domalino]

What you think is possibly irrelevant to what Pep thinks - even though you may find that hard to believe .

Oop. Better pack up the forum and go home, apparently there's no point in discussing football or sharing opinions if Guardiola isn't reading.

 

[mccity]

I suspect Stones is a personal project of Pep. It appeals to the philosopher and coach in him I imagine. He likes to plan for the future and whilst I think it's a bad idea; in theory if he persisted Stones would increasingly become a good DM. I mean, every other player he's persisted with has worked out and improved.

We have to assume there is some logic as to why he's not been using Foden as much as he may could. It's clear the kid is improving with every game, but maybe there's more to it.