Aston Villa (A) | PL | Post Match Thread

City_Sean said:
What's frustrating to me is that Pep is persisting with the same players who are letting him down. Walker, Lewis, Bernardo and Gundogan have been so below par yet they're playing whenever available. Playing Bernardo wide right means we have zero threat. Gundogan can't even run faster than a jog and the less said about Walker and Lewis the better.

I don't understand why Pep is continuing to persist when they're not going to magically flick a switch and turn it around. The results are not getting better so you may as well use the likes of Wright, O'Reilly etc. If you lose games playing some youngsters it's at least better than persisting with guys that are clearly done.
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Pep is famous for overthinking, so whereas we would say that player is shit, get him off. He will be thinking of infinite permutations and possible outcomes, by which time we are 2-0 down. Probably the same in the week, then he selects the usual suspects who keep letting us down.
 
Lavinda Past said:
Too many people like you on here trying to prove what "big Blues" you are by accepting, and making excuses for, substandard performances.

I've seen 63+ years of City, and I can honestly say, I've never been more disappointed with any group of City players than our current squad.

I've watched generations of typical City...average squads being average, good squads being good, shit squads being shit and, more recently, great squads being great... Our current highly paid, very expensively built squad is falling a long way behind abilities and expectations, and it doesn't look like it's getting any better.

Blame lies with Pep, his coaching staff (the silent men) and Txiki Begiristain.

The squad is largely made up of players who are; past their best, made of glass, out of their depth, or simply badly used. Succession planning has been unbelievably poor.

Major reconstruction is needed for 25/26 season.

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.
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Agreed, but did you turn your tv off or walk away when we were crap ?
Didn’t think so and your still supporting us now like myself and many others,it’s our club through thick & thin not just when things get tough.
 
Tier2Blue said:
Txiki not getting enough stick. Much of this is on him. Had a horrendous few years and whilst clearly still in credit his legacy is being reduced on a weekly basis.
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Txiki Begiristain's salary at Barcelona in 1988 was €1.38 million.

As Sporting Director of Manchester City, he is responsible for aligning footballing operations across all 13 clubs in the City Football Group portfolio.

His salary at City is unknown, but given the scale of the job, I can't imagine he's been on less than £10m a year.

As the City Football Group has grown, his 'hands on' influence will most likely have been spread more thinly, and I suspect that the majority of his work in the last few years has involved; overseeing/managing small teams at each club, signing off decisions on major players, and letting new signings use his pen for photos.

City have lined up Hugo Viana to replace Txiki, and he will be working alongside Txiki to gain experience for the first six months of 2025.

The winter window is going to be very interesting, and should give us some idea of what to expect in the summer window 2025.
 
Rammy Blue said:
That’s my issue with Pep at the moment, said it a couple of games ago about the definition of insanity, he’s done it another couple of times since. It’s fucking pointless.
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Apparently he's locking himself away in his office all day and turning his phone off so he can purely focus on a solution to this - personally I think he's pulling everyone's legs saying that and he's spending all that time gooning/kipping/playing ages of empires or something because if he's putting in that much effort on working out what needs to be done he wouldn't be serving up the same week in week out right now.
 
Dodge said:
The old days.

If this internet thing existed 30 odd years ago it would be a quality matchday forum.

FFS Frontzeck.
What exactly does Creaney do?
Get rid of fucking Edgehill.
Does Ball have a plan B, the ginger ****?
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Buster Phillips.
 
City_Sean said:
What's frustrating to me is that Pep is persisting with the same players who are letting him down. Walker, Lewis, Bernardo and Gundogan have been so below par yet they're playing whenever available. Playing Bernardo wide right means we have zero threat. Gundogan can't even run faster than a jog and the less said about Walker and Lewis the better.

I don't understand why Pep is continuing to persist when they're not going to magically flick a switch and turn it around. The results are not getting better so you may as well use the likes of Wright, O'Reilly etc. If you lose games playing some youngsters it's at least better than persisting with guys that are clearly done.
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It got to a point of no return and if players are burnt out and need rest then nothing is going to change this season
Once you hit the wall it's a major problem and you could be talking about their careers at the top level being over

The thing with rest is fitness and muscle loss and energy levels, after down time the body doesn't come back to match fitness which is the key, then add age and what type of player and system he plays in, If the demand for a player to be 100% for 9 months then he has to be young and super fit.
 
Frankie lad said:
This run wont stop unless the system is changed because this system no matter how much glory it has brought isn’t working.
City were clueless second half.They look lost as the system that has worked so well is broken and these guys can only operate within the way they are tuned to.
Don’t care if I get flack and it’s been said before Haaland without Kev is a spare and we all know how teams play with ten men.
A couple of signings in January isn’t going to fix it and saying it’s all in the football cycle wont change it either.
All the reasons about burnout,injuries are true but we cant change any of that.
Somewhere a start has to be made on this and maybe some confidence will return
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Need someone who can quickly thread the ball through small gaps to Erling to run onto like Kev when he's fit.
 
chaddblue said:
in the last 2 months we can blame injuries, poor form, lack of confidence, poor fitness, mistakes, bad luck

But for the first time today it looked like a lack of effort and signs the the players have given up… which is much more concerning than any of the issues above
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it's been bad for months and Pep on the touchline is close to waving the white flag
 
bluewatch007 said:
Agreed, but did you turn your tv off or walk away when we were crap ?
Didn’t think so and your still supporting us now like myself and many others,it’s our club through thick & thin not just when things get tough.
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The last time I 'walked away' before the final whistle was when we went 5-1 down in the Full Members Cup Final in 1985.

That was a joke of a match, played the day after a derby, and wasn't really worth watching... it was just a rare day out at Wembley.

39 years later... Today was embarrassing. The type of rinse and repeat performance we used to sit through in the Stuart Pearce days. The big difference is that we should all expect better from this set of players than we've seen recently.

It's one thing watching average players losing, but it's absolutely pitiful watching 'elite' standard multi millionaires barely going through the motions. Once that second goal was scored, the game really wasn't worth watching anymore.

First time I've said that in 39 years.
 
argyle said:
It reminds me of Pep's first season.

He played his way, no matter what. Played a high line with players coming to the end or not good enough anymore and we had some terrible results.

All the same arguments that are in this thread today were said back then.

But then he had a summer transfer windows and we went on to dominate.

I look forward to him doing the same again.
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True this…
 
Pubteam Lomas said:
I'm not one for 'playing the kids...' just because we're not winning.
But today we needed some energy.

O'Reilly and McAtee could've given us that energy.
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Pep's beyond playing them now, it would show a sign of weakness when fans are calling for them to be given a chance. If Gundogan and Bernardo both start against Everton I will be well and truly pissed off
 
Gogootz said:
Apparently he's locking himself away in his office all day and turning his phone off so he can purely focus on a solution to this - personally I think he's pulling everyone's legs saying that and he's spending all that time gooning/kipping/playing ages of empires or something because if he's putting in that much effort on working out what needs to be done he wouldn't be serving up the same week in week out right now.
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If he actually thought about the problem, we'd be playing deeper and hitting on the break using quick midfielders to feed Haaland.

Like every team who beats us has been doing.

He's a stubborn bugger who will probably die by his own sword. His own worst enemy.
 
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