Pep Guardiola - 2022/23

Status
Not open for further replies.
Looking above Pep. The squad is a shambles if we're being honest.

5 CBs = constant rotating and crowbarring them in at fullback

2 fullbacks - Walker been injured and Cancelo not looking remotely close to his best. Left us with an 18 year old(who to his credit has been decent), CBs at fullback and Gomez who isn't good enough(at least yet).

Midfield - Rodri - arguably best in his position in football. But then you have Gundo and Bernardo who don't really want to be here and are playing like it. Gundos quality taken a nosedive back to his early days here. Kev whose engine is going and with it a lot of his non creative qualities. Signed Phillips who been injured until now and has never played the lone cdm role he'd be asked to play for us and thus the drop in quality when he rotates for Rodders is huge. Then Palmer and Foden picked up minutes centrally and if we're being honest neither are good enough to play there for us there except vs fodder/early cup

Forwards - Haaland, great signing his strength of running in behind is currently being completely ignored in favour of retaining possession.
Alvarez, been brilliant especially when starting. Not getting him on the pitch enough.
Foden, Grealish and Mahrez. All had decent games and bits of form. All lack any goal threat consistency, all lack genuine pace and ability to get past their man and make things happen regularly. Palmer long term isn't good enough for us, has flashes but overall lacks the quality.
 
Brewster's millions said:
The warning signs have been there all season.

As you say, we’ve looked good in maybe 30, 40% of our games. But the failure to close the game off against Villa suggested a lack of focus, as did the way we eased off against Newcastle when we got back to 3-3. The Champions League performances away at Dortmund and Copenhagen were also very mediocre.

We’ve not helped ourselves by playing around with the team though. The match at Anfield was a case in point - no one knew where they were playing - and we got away with one against Chelsea last week. Every week seems to bring a different formation and it hasn’t helped us defensively.
Click to expand...

I expected a bit of drop of just because we been incredible since second season under pep you can not keep that up indefinitely! Top four and champs league we should be looking at now! We ain’t going to be top dogs for ever we will drop back to the pack while others will get there lift improvement! It’s football! Don’t be spoiled
 
waspish said:
I expected a bit of drop of just because we been incredible since second season under pep you can not keep that up indefinitely! Top four and champs league we should be looking at now! We ain’t going to be top dogs for ever we will drop back to the pack while others will get there lift improvement! It’s football! Don’t be spoiled
Click to expand...
This is how I see it. Top 4 and a good cup run is hardly the end of the world.
 
We don't look the terrifying side we once were. We have terrifying individuals (Haaland, KdB), but as a whole we aren't.

We aren't creating enough chances anymore, can't remember how many times I've heard the commentator say we have yet to test the opposition goalkeeper. To make matters worse, we aren't even that watertight in defence.

Can't remember when it started, but for most games now, we have been slow and ponderous. Almost like each player just passing to each other safely, going through the motions, hoping for something to happen.

Whether we need new players, or some players need a kick up the arse, I don't know.

Hopefully this loss is the spark needed for a rethink.
 
waspish said:
I expected a bit of drop of just because we been incredible since second season under pep you can not keep that up indefinitely! Top four and champs league we should be looking at now! We ain’t going to be top dogs for ever we will drop back to the pack while others will get there lift improvement! It’s football! Don’t be spoiled
Click to expand...
I don’t expect to be top dogs indefinitely, and at some point a decline would inevitably occur. Haaland apart, we’ve bought mediocre players over the past year and lost some very good ones. Replacing Fernandinho and Zinchenko with Gomez and Phillips - two pub team players by comparison - is only going to weaken the squad.

But we haven’t exactly helped ourselves this year either. Every week seems to bring a different tactic, and we’ve had several games where the players genuinely appeared to not know where they should be playing. Even when we’ve hit form, we’ve then shuffled the team and prevented a rhythm from being established. We’ve also failed to fully integrate Haaland into the team, and our play has become predictable and passive.

Like I said, a decline was inevitable, and personally I’m more concerned about how we’re going to correct it, as more of the same isn’t going to cut it unfortunately.
 
The most frustrating thing under him is that we can't just draw a game. We either win it or go and lose it at the death. It's like clockwork
 
wattle said:
Never have been one for knee jerk reactions, and probably stick up for our players and managers too much - I even got called a happy clapper once haha - whatever the fuck that’s meant to be. And I know we were totally cheated out of that today but are we getting into “taken the team as far as he can” territory? Something isn’t right at all this season. Our transfer window was shit despite Haaland. United could actually win the league this season by default. We should never have let that be a possibility. Maybe pep just isn’t cut out to make a big centre forward work. We just don’t create anything at the moment. It’s actually boring watching us at the moment. Never felt that since pep arrived. I dunno? It’s just not right. Hopefully he’ll conjure something up but I’m beginning to wonder. Kev and Bernie look totally shot of confidence. Why? Phil is a shade of himself. I used to think it’s ok because David silva, or yaya or prime Kev will sort things out when things get tough. I don’t feel anyone is leading the team on the pitch. I think we can write this season off to be honest. Unless we can get in form for the chumps league. Mind you could be worse. Imagine being Liverpool
Click to expand...
I think we’re boring to watch at the moment, but I also thought we were boring in the first half of the 2020-21 season. After the very poor Summer we had with the Arsenal FA Cup and Lyon CL games and finishing that 2019-20 season 18 points behind Liverpool.

We look like we did in that period. Really uninventive, slow, boring, 13 goals in our last 9 games… after 33 in our opening 9 games this season.

We can look dreadful - as we did a lot in Pep’s first season too - but out of nowhere we can go on a run.

A run of wins now looks more likely than it ever did in 2020-21 when we were about 8th yet went on to win 18 of 19 games.
 
100% the only player allowed that creative freedom to look for him is Kdb whos in bad form. The others have it drilled into them not to risk losing possession.

The system is neither working nor getting the best out of the players, playing 4-4-2 but De Bruyne is not a striker Mahrez and Foden are not wingers. It seems thats the way Pep to play in the champions league and he's using the domestic games to fine-tune this possesion based game.

We're giving teams to much respect with this sideways passing. The ONLY team we have played in the last 3 years that warranted this possesion, sideways backwards passing nonsesne is Atletico Madrid at the Etihad when they literally had a ten man defense. We are giving teams a boost by playing this system and an opportunity for referees to cheat us out of results.
 
Manchester_lalala said:
Money is what makes a club tick. Txiki hasn’t done a bad job over the years by recouping money from player sales. We’ll be in a very good position this summer to reinforce our midfield and get a winger in. I think you’re over reacting again.
Click to expand...
It's not an overreaction. I'm just commenting on the reality of the situation.

From the club hierarchy perspective, Haaland was the better move for the long term, giving us a top striker for a couple of years and a wad of profit when he goes. Txiki ticked all the boxes, and I expect him to do much the same with Bellingham.

From a 'Pep-style of play' perspective, Kane was the more logical move. A great striker, able to support the midfield and operate from deep, with long PL experience. He would have slotted into the team almost seamlessly, whereas even after 20 odd games, Erling Haaland (for all his goals) still looks like a square peg in a round hole for most of the time.

IMO, Haaland is a great striker who will score plenty of goals, Kane would have been a better all-round team player who would score a few less.

I suspect that Pep thought much the same. Kane would have necessitated less 'tinkering'.
 
Fantastic manager. He's clearly better than Ferguson in my book. Ferguson wasn't innovative, he was only about winning with whatever means, in particilar in his later years. He hasn't a disciple in today's game, not at elite level anyway. You look at the tables of the best leagues now and see the top teams are managed by Pep's disciples. Even ten Hag has learnt a lot from Pep.
 
alexmcity said:
Fantastic manager. He's clearly better than Ferguson in my book. Ferguson wasn't innovative, he was only about winning with whatever means, in particilar in his later years. He hasn't a disciple in today's game, not at elite level anyway. You look at the tables of the best leagues now and see the top teams are managed by Pep's disciples. Even ten Hag has learnt a lot from Pep.
Click to expand...
And they all have trusted assistants to question and support.
 
People are constantly banging about those Chelsea games. Chelsea are shite, even worse than us and even worse downward spiral with injuries. Stop bringing those games to say everything is fine
 
I think we have the best manager in football and based on what I have watched these last years I back him to turn this around. If it happens this season then great but if not, c'est la vie. That said, I am seeing enough these last few games to think we can turn things around this season.

I feel blessed to be watching a team that is always in the mix these last years and looks like staying in the mix going forward. The story of this season has not been written yet.

C'mon you blues.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top