Pep Guardiola - 2025/26

alexmcity said:
The insistence that Pep should have done much (not just somewhat) better in spite of the severe injury crises is based on little more than toxic positivity.

We didn't simply lose the best player in the world for the entire season (did Klopp do better when VVD got badly injured?), but multiple important players for months: Dias missed nearly two months, Ake and Stones 3 months or more, Akanji 2-3 months, Kovacic (Rodri's replacement) had multiple injuries, Walker and Foden fell off a cliff, KDB, Doku and Haaland had injuries as well. Basically, only Gvardiol and Bernardo from the first team were almost always available. And also Gundogan who wasn't supposed to start many games. That's it.

To expect from Pep to do much better in spite of all this factors, including aging players and personal issues, is toxic indeed.
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I respectfully disagree, see that wasn't painful was it. Because you didn't call me a rag or immediately insult me like most people of this ilk.
 
K-Bo said:
I respectfully disagree, see that wasn't painful was it. Because you didn't call me a rag or immediately insult me like most people of this ilk.
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Pep is not above criticism and many of those who defend him don't think he is faultless. For instance, I think he needlessly played key players in the cup game at Spurs, some got injured, and our problems got a lot more serious. Those injuries led to more munites and fatigue for other players, further injuries, and so on.

But some criticisms are moderate and reasonable, others go over the top. I mean, sometimes the expectations are unreasonable, e.g., that in spite of the many injuries to important players, a good manager would or should have done a lot better than finishing 3rd and reaching the FA Cup final. I don't see how much better we could have done in the league with the injuries and aging players we had. 40 pts from the last 19 games is pretty decent.
 
Ric said:
It's a bit depressing to see some posters already spreading so much negativity before a ball has even been kicked in earnest. I guess it's debatable whether or not you class the CWC as the end of last season, or the start of this campaign, but I'm not reading too much into performances there. Fatigue, weather, lack of time to incorporate new signings etc. all played their part, but there were still some encouraging signs regardless.

Last season was something of an anomaly, with poor squad planning and injuries biting us on the arse. I expect us to be a different animal this time around though, with the new signings and coaching staff to freshen things up. Also expect to see a few more outgoings in the coming weeks so the squad will have a different feel by the time the Wolves game comes around. Pep will adapt too, as he always does. He'll be acutely aware of our failings last season and will surely address them.
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Yeah, differing views and sorry you find it depressing. The negative posters have just as valid a viewpoint as the unswervingly faithful, based on exactly the same so-called “evidence” or optimism or call it what you will.

I believe most of the doubters are still happy enough for Pep to get more time. One or two hard core excepted.

As I said, we shall see.
 
PSG have the best right back and second best left back in the world. They don't play huufh ball, we have seriously fcked up in that area.
 
The boss need to tweak the system. The current setup is seeing the whole team ripped apart. The same setup up with prime kdb, Gundo, Bernie, stones, Walker etc would be working now but alas those players have aged or left. Unless the new players can replace those who left man for man, the boss needs to adjust imo.

Start making us hard to beat and the talent and approach will do the rest.

Fingers crossed. The club World Cup did nothing to dismiss my fears over our inability to defend a fast counter average team.
 
TonyM said:
That said I think Pep has lost his mojo. I would have preferred him to walk on a high the season before last or on a low after this past season. On the assumption that the club had a ready to go replacement of the top calibre. I fear the club is sleep walking to an extent by not making a significant move at the top.

But then we signed some very exciting players. And then we had more bewildering decisions by Pep. So God only knows.

I'd like to see a season with the likes of Echeverri, Cherki, Reijnders, Ait Nouri & Marmoush mixing with improved performances of Foden, Haaland, Doku, Savinho and the return of Rodri and Bobb. But I also want to see plenty of Nunes, Gvardiol, O'Reily, Gonzales, Khusonov and Reiss. It's so close you can taste it but having lost faith in Pep I feel like we are heading into the season with one hand tied behind our back.

I hope I'm wrong.
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So would Mrs Guardiola..
 
alexmcity said:
Pep is not above criticism and many of those who defend him don't think he is faultless. For instance, I think he needlessly played key players in the cup game at Spurs, some got injured, and our problems got a lot more serious. Those injuries led to more munites and fatigue for other players, further injuries, and so on.

But some criticisms are moderate and reasonable, others go over the top. I mean, sometimes the expectations are unreasonable, e.g., that in spite of the many injuries to important players, a good manager would or should have done a lot better than finishing 3rd and reaching the FA Cup final. I don't see how much better we could have done in the league with the injuries and aging players we had. 40 pts from the last 19 games is pretty decent.
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Pep is our best ever manager, of course.
But he baffles the shit out of me with his decisions.

So many of them. Two that come to mind.
We sell Cole because he's fed up of not playing and we buy an expensive midfielder, Nunes, and play him at right full back..
Why not just buy a full back?

Why did Bobb get hardly any playing time at the CWC?

There are others like Kush.

I know I'm tactically thick compared to Pep btw.
 
sir baconface said:
Yeah, differing views and sorry you find it depressing. The negative posters have just as valid a viewpoint as the unswervingly faithful, based on exactly the same so-called “evidence” or optimism or call it what you will.

I believe most of the doubters are still happy enough for Pep to get more time. One or two hard core excepted.

As I said, we shall see.
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I think a lot of the point is what is all over the internet these days. Extreme positions - its either pep is useless and should leave against pep is faultless. Both views I would say do not have a reasonable basis, the truth is somewhere in the middle, however the truth is actually somewhere in the middle.

I would say last year was a poor to our standards, however we finished third with FA cup final, pretty good result from most clubs and I would say pretty good with the issues we had, disappointed with no trophies of course. We had a mass of injuries which cost us, we also had issues of poor recruitment which cost us. It took Pep time to do what he does to bring a formation together that worked so we had three of months of terrible results followed by three months of unbeaten results. Now we have to rebuild which we are doing.

Like you say the hard core shouts loudest and the middle i think gets lost.
 
I've seen some folk suggesting he's on the slide. Ridiculous to say that about a guy who won a treble 2 years ago and a league the year after.

Some suggest teams now know how to play against us, but is that knowing how to play against us when we have a load of slow and old legs in midfield or just knowing how to play against us regardless? I think the former.

It's never been rocket science. We flood so many players high up the pitch that there's always clearly a big danger if we lose the ball in stupid areas. Any manager and team in the world have always known it but we were so incredible at keeping the ball or not losing it in daft areas that it didn't matter, there was barely anything to exploit..

So if Pep wants to keep his style of play, he really needs these new players to do it and manage possession as good as the last lot of top of players we had

If they cannot, then Pep really needs to show some versatility in his tactics or it's gonna be the same as last season.

Do many managers really change their approach much? People always talk about Sir Alex reinventing Man U several times. But really he never changed his approach to football, he just had access to good players several times over at the time. Whether he had Scholesy, Keane, Giggsy, Becks, or later CR7, Rooney etc then RVP etc. they always played similar football.

So I'm not sure managers are actually they versatile and it's just a case of getting the right players to play how they want.

So if we want to win anything next year, these new signings better take like a duck to water to pep's style, because Pep won't change for them.
 
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Crooked_rain said:
Do many managers really change their approach much? People always talk about Sir Alex reinventing Man U several times. But really he never changed his approach to football, he just had access to good players several times over at the time. Whether he had Scholesy, Keane, Giggsy, Becks, or later CR7, Rooney etc then RVP etc. they always played similar football.
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Rag
 
True story.

I had a very vivid dream last night that I was part of Pep's squad (in fact I was Phil Foden). I challenged Pep after a game and accused him of ignoring youth and playing favourites (where the hell would I get that from). He went nuts, proper ballistic. When I looked for support from Rodders and Kev (I said it was a dream), both looked at the floor like naughty schoolkids. The result which I seemed to accept was

I'll never play for City again.

Absolutely genuinely true - I will have to stay off the drugs/booze/sun/football threads.
 
sir baconface said:
Yeah, differing views and sorry you find it depressing. The negative posters have just as valid a viewpoint as the unswervingly faithful, based on exactly the same so-called “evidence” or optimism or call it what you will.

I believe most of the doubters are still happy enough for Pep to get more time. One or two hard core excepted.

As I said, we shall see.
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Anyone who questions Pep no matter how mild or severe is attacked. The cult decide what's acceptable and what's not, context be damned. "You are disrespectful, you are entitled", "You think you know more than Pep". When anyone posts any criticism those statements should be automatically inserted as an addendum to the post...
 
I feel we are in a very interesting place this season wrt Guardiola, his tactics and the future of this team.

We figured last year that the 4-peat players have all grown old together and can’t perform now.
We also figured that somewhat like Ange at Spurs, playing the same tactic again and again but with inferior or older players leads to devastating results. The same tactics with fresh and young players brought us 4-peat and treble.

Now we start totally fresh.
Pep has an exciting assortment of players at his helm - young and hungry as well new backroom staff for fresher ideas.
This season will provide us evidence whether the brilliant bald fraud has few other tricks up his sleeve or we get an average season out of Pep and he leaves the most successful stint at a club with a damper.

I would be right there in the wolves match thread ranting if I see Akanji or Gundo in the lineup again :D
 
Crooked_rain said:
I've seen some folk suggesting he's on the slide. Ridiculous to say that about a guy who won a treble 2 years ago and a league the year after.

Some suggest teams now know how to play against us, but is that knowing how to play against us when we have a load of slow and old legs in midfield or just knowing how to play against us regardless? I think the former.

It's never been rocket science. We flood so many players high up the pitch that there's always clearly a big danger if we lose the ball in stupid areas. Any manager and team in the world have always known it but we were so incredible at keeping the ball or not losing it in daft areas that it didn't matter, there was barely anything to exploit..

So if Pep wants to keep his style of play, he really needs these new players to do it and manage possession as good as the last lot of top of players we had

If they cannot, then Pep really needs to show some versatility in his tactics or it's gonna be the same as last season.

Do many managers really change their approach much? People always talk about Sir Alex reinventing Man U several times. But really he never changed his approach to football, he just had access to good players several times over at the time. Whether he had Scholesy, Keane, Giggsy, Becks, or later CR7, Rooney etc then RVP etc. they always played similar football.

So I'm not sure managers are actually they versatile and it's just a case of getting the right players to play how they want.

So if we want to win anything next year, these new signings better take like a duck to water to pep's style, because Pep won't change for them.
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We had prime Kevin and maestro David as our midfielders , not even close to that atm.
 
alexmcity said:
The insistence that Pep should have done much (not just somewhat) better in spite of the severe injury crises is based on little more than toxic positivity.

We didn't simply lose the best player in the world for the entire season (did Klopp do better when VVD got badly injured?), but multiple important players for months: Dias missed nearly two months, Ake and Stones 3 months or more, Akanji 2-3 months, Kovacic (Rodri's replacement) had multiple injuries, Walker and Foden fell off a cliff, KDB, Doku and Haaland had injuries as well. Basically, only Gvardiol and Bernardo from the first team were almost always available. And also Gundogan who wasn't supposed to start many games. That's it.

To expect from Pep to do much better in spite of all this factors, including aging players and personal issues, is toxic indeed.
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The worrying thing was that with all the issues you refer to above pretty much resolved and for all the money spent since January, the same issues with playing style, lack of defensive nous etc we had last season reared their head again in the CWC.

Gundo and Bernardo should be squad players now. We cannot have both starting important games.
 
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jaiguruKun said:
The worrying thing was that with all the issues you refer to above pretty much resolved and for all the money spent since January, the same issues with playing style, lack of defensive nous etc we had last season reared their head again in the CWC.

KDB and Bernardo should be squad players now. We cannot have both starting important games.
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Think Napoli will decide whether KDB starts or not. Wouldn't be using the CWC as a guide to how we'll line up. Think it was used to run the rule over the whole squad before final decisions on next years squad was made.
 
Ric said:
It's a bit depressing to see some posters already spreading so much negativity before a ball has even been kicked in earnest. I guess it's debatable whether or not you class the CWC as the end of last season, or the start of this campaign, but I'm not reading too much into performances there. Fatigue, weather, lack of time to incorporate new signings etc. all played their part, but there were still some encouraging signs regardless.

Last season was something of an anomaly, with poor squad planning and injuries biting us on the arse. I expect us to be a different animal this time around though, with the new signings and coaching staff to freshen things up. Also expect to see a few more outgoings in the coming weeks so the squad will have a different feel by the time the Wolves game around. Pep will adapt too, as he always does. He'll be acutely aware of our failings last season and will surely address them.
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You need to ban them all. Happy clappers for the win!
Seriously though, it's staggering some of the stuff you read on here. I must be living in a parallel universe!
 
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