Pep Guardiola - 2025/26

St.Pauli support said:
Spot on, but quite thin ice! Was there a slight sound of criticism towards Pep between the lines?
Uh-ohh... Guess it will be called negativity soon...

Anyway, I fully agree to your precise description of the development as it happened. Very good.

I thought a clear analysis of a topic is a major part of good quality management with the aim to get better in the future. Everyone is part of that concept, even Pep. No idea what's so difficult about that, as we are surely NOT a cult, for God's sake.

Btw, the different view of 'allowed' criticism towards Pep might be based on a different national criticism culture, as least it seems to me, as we are going in circles on here.

Being German, I'm used to very direct criticism on a factual level without being personal, to solve a problem quickly. I think most on here, Brits obviously, have a let's say fundamentally different feeling about it... No criticism, mind!!
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I think even Pep would admit he made mistakes last season and he wasn't at his best. l think his marital issues certainly affected him and his favouritism and loyalty to certain players is an area of concern as was shown in the Al- Hilal game. The appointment of Lijnders will hopefully help Pep and he can get his mojo back. Without a doubt this coming season is a big one, there are many challenges ahead especially how the team handles the transitions. However, I still retain belief that Pep is the right man for the job.
 
I'm sure Pep did. I only hope it doesn't leave any feeling of weakness or doubt in him, we need his strong leadership especially in this phase of transition.

I wish we would reinvent our attitude to go for the throat and be ruthless. Big part of that was Kev's personality. We need a workaround...
 
One last thing to say before the season starts I would love nothing more than City winning the league by a landslide and play unbelievable football just to stick it to the doubters and we call them out on their bullshit
 
theres only one carlito said:
no criticism taken my friend,

And nothing personal on pep whatsoever, the man has delivered miracles as far as I’m concerned. I fully support him and city, I always will, I mean, if you can turn up week in week out when Brian Horton et al were in charge this is a cake walk.

And where can people vent? No point talking to the wife about it? Like talking to a brick wall! The pubs are dying a death so the football chit chat from back in the day with the lads is fast becoming a distant memory and their all rags anyway! Bluemoon is an outlet for a lot of fans.

For the record I’m Dutch by birth so maybe me and thee have more in the way of thinking than you think. ;-)
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Think Brian Horton is a very poor example of previous not very good managers as we played some beautiful stuff under him.
 
theres only one carlito said:
I think the repetition of the concerns some fans have is reflected by the repetition of the way we play. Last season The same problems kept cropping up and it was pretty obvious to most. We all had the same issues to grumble about because we were watching the same issues play out. Old tired legs, sideways passing, slow, high line, one shot one goal, buying new players and not using them, square pegs in round holes. It almost seemed like pep didn’t have a clue how to sort it. Even if it meant being more pragmatic and defensively cautious, not because he wanted to, but to stop the rot and mange the situation we found ourselves in, manage the situation rather than seemingly say fuck it! It’s my way or no way. He even stated in an interview that he didn’t have his players, he needed his players back. that to me is man who has his favourites and that’s that.

The al hilal game was atrocious and looked exactly like most of last season. I know we will win games, I know Pep is the greatest manager we have ever had. But last season he just looked lost, when in truth I think he could have managed it better, if he wasn’t so stubborn in his ways and adapting to the situation we found ourselves in. To easy to run through, to easy to score against, to slow in our play, Haaland far to isolated, and the new signings badly under used. I hope, like you say he sees what the problems are, but that he understands that if he hasn’t got what he wants to play his football then maybe play a system that suits the players he has available. Hopefully we will see a reinvigorated pep and city. The CWC however didnt prove one way or the other to me of how we are going to play next season But one things for sure, pep rarely changes his mind. Here’s hoping he still has the genius in him.
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We won 40 pts from the last 19 games. Such form means 80 pts over the whole season, despite being without Rodri, all of Stones, Ake, and Akanji for 2-3 months, and Haaland for 6 weeks (that's just the 2nd half of the season). Both before and after the injury crisis in November and December, we won more pts than Liverpool and Arsenal.

With Rodri and some of those players we might have been on course to 88-90 pts, i.e., enough to compete for the title.

Why is Pep supposed to have us playing as potential champions with so many injuries?

All the problems you identify neglect the extent and the significance of the injuries we had.
 
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alexmcity said:
We won 40 pts from the last 19 games. Such form means 80 pts over the whole season, despite being without Rodri, all of Stones, Ake, and Akanji for 2-3 months, and Haaland for 6 weeks (that's just the 2nd half of the season). Both before and after the injury crisis in November and December, we won more pts than Liverpool and Arsenal.

With Rodri and some of those players we might have been on course to 88-90 pts, i.e., enough to compete for the title.

Why is Pep supposed to have us playing as potential champions with so many injuries?

All the problems you identify neglect the extent and the significance of the injuries we had.
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I’m not neglecting any of the problems we had through injury, I know the extent.

However, pep knew it aswell yet seemed to carry on regardless, despite watching us win 1 in 13 and suffer 5 consecutive defeats. Unprecedented for any pep team.

Maybe with some more pragmatism and defensive solidity, in terms of personnel and shape, to mitigate for the injury’s to his ‘favoured players’ we may have turned some of them loses to draws or not give games away from ridiculously dominant positions. He wanted a small squad, he had plenty of time to get a Rodri back up but didn’t and when we have bought players, they are underused.

Listen, we draw a line under last season and move on. I just hope we don’t see the same mistakes time again we saw last season. Should be an exciting season to see how pep manages it.
 
theres only one carlito said:
I’m not neglecting any of the problems we had through injury, I know the extent.

However, pep knew it aswell yet seemed to carry on regardless, despite watching us win 1 in 13 and suffer 5 consecutive defeats. Unprecedented for any pep team.

Maybe with some more pragmatism and defensive solidity, in terms of personnel and shape, to mitigate for the injury’s to his ‘favoured players’ we may have turned some of them loses to draws or not give games away from ridiculously dominant positions. He wanted a small squad, he had plenty of time to get a Rodri back up but didn’t and when we have bought players, they are underused.

Listen, we draw a line under last season and move on. I just hope we don’t see the same mistakes time again we saw last season. Should be an exciting season to see how pep manages it.
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So, how many points did those 'mistakes' cost us in the last 19 league games when the injury crisis wasn't as severe as in November and December?

5?

That would mean Pep should have won 45 from 57 possible pts (title-winning form) without Rodri and other key players missing from 1 to 3 months (Haaland, Stones, Ake, Akanji).

That's unrealistic.
 
alexmcity said:
So, how many points did those 'mistakes' cost us in the last 19 league games when the injury crisis wasn't as severe as in November and December?

5?

That would mean Pep should have won 45 from 57 possible pts (title-winning form) without Rodri and other key players missing from 1 to 3 months (Haaland, Stones, Ake, Akanji).

That's unrealistic.
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Wasn’t saying anything about the title,

Liverpool were by far the most consistent team over the season and deservedly won it.

I’m saying the game to game management, or in game management at times.

Bournemout away
Brighton away
United at home
Spurs! At home
Feyenoord
Psg

Just some kamikaze set ups to name a few I can recall.

Forest at home he actually changed things up, grealish in the middle for instance and we won comfortably. Newcastle at home had the new lad’s playing we looked reinvigorated.

The CWC against Juve we looked great with a new system, then al hilal was back to kamikaze again.

I just think there were points in the season he didn’t play the right hand and he did it more often than usual and we were on the end of some bad results due to carelessness and a persistents to play the same players with the same system that wasn’t working. We got found out and especially when you consider the seasons some of these teams had. Ie United and spurs.

Like I said I hope we are better organised this season from the off and make ourselves hard to beat or even score against.
 
theres only one carlito said:
Wasn’t saying anything about the title,

Liverpool were by far the most consistent team over the season and deservedly won it.

I’m saying the game to game management, or in game management at times.

Bournemout away
Brighton away
United at home
Spurs! At home
Feyenoord
Psg

Just some kamikaze set ups to name a few I can recall.

Forest at home he actually changed things up, grealish in the middle for instance and we won comfortably. Newcastle at home had the new lad’s playing we looked reinvigorated.

The CWC against Juve we looked great with a new system, then al hilal was back to kamikaze again.

I just think there were points in the season he didn’t play the right hand and he did it more often than usual and we were on the end of some bad results due to carelessness and a persistents to play the same players with the same system that wasn’t working. We got found out and especially when you consider the seasons some of these teams had. Ie United and spurs.

Like I said I hope we are better organised this season from the off and make ourselves hard to beat or even score against.
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I'm not surprised you couldn't answer the question. Anyone with a little bit of understanding and humility should acknowledge Pep did very well to win 40 pts in the 2nd half of the season. Those repeated mistakes you are referring to are mostly in the 1st half of the season in which we had many injuries (and in which Pep was going through personal problems).

For instance, given our injury situation before the game in Paris and the players we could field in the 2nd half (Dias got injured in the 1st half), it's hardly surprising we lost from the future winner in the competition.
 
alexmcity said:
I'm not surprised you couldn't answer the question. Anyone with a little bit of understanding and humility should acknowledge Pep did very well to win 40 pts in the 2nd half of the season. Those repeated mistakes you are referring to are mostly in the 1st half of the season in which we had many injuries (and in which Pep was going through personal problems).

For instance, given our injury situation before the game in Paris and the players we could field in the 2nd half (Dias got injured in the 1st half), it's hardly surprising we lost from the future winner in the competition.
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You answered it yourself? No need for me to repeat it.

We were 2-0 up against Paris. A team of our capabilities and with the greatest manger shouldn’t be collapsing. You shut up shop, close ranks and dig out the result. And ok I’ll give you Paris, formidable team in the end. What about feyenoord? 3-0 up at home? Is that because of injuries?

Listen, like I said, hopefully we will see a harder to beat city this year from the off.
 
theres only one carlito said:
You answered it yourself? No need for me to repeat it.

We were 2-0 up against Paris. A team of our capabilities and with the greatest manger shouldn’t be collapsing. You shut up shop, close ranks and dig out the result. And ok I’ll give you Paris, formidable team in the end. What about feyenoord? 3-0 up at home? Is that because of injuries?

Listen, like I said, hopefully we will see a harder to beat city this year from the off.
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Every bad results is on Pep, players (Ederson, Gvardiol,...) didn’t make mistakes (say, vs. Feyenoord), it's all about Pep.

IMO, Pep deserves a more generous treatment from our own fans, especially in periods of many injuries (quite natural after a period of unseen dominance in English football) and personal problems.
 
Withnail said:
I think even Pep would admit he made mistakes last season and he wasn't at his best. l think his marital issues certainly affected him and his favouritism and loyalty to certain players is an area of concern as was shown in the Al- Hilal game. The appointment of Lijnders will hopefully help Pep and he can get his mojo back. Without a doubt this coming season is a big one, there are many challenges ahead especially how the team handles the transitions. However, I still retain belief that Pep is the right man for the job.
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I keep seeing people mention Peps favourites last season, but considering Fodens form, who apart from Kovacic, Gundogan, Bernardo KDB was he going to pick in midfield? Maybe McAtee but he never really looked quite that level when he got his few chances.
Next season he’ll be picking from Rodri, Reijnders, Cherki, Foden, O’Reilly, Gonzalez, Bernardo so a very different kettle of fish.
Wouldn’t worry about the Al Hilal game we saw plenty over the 4 games to see he was having a look at everyone and so were the new coaching team. Gundogan and Kovacic are more than likely to move.
 
theres only one carlito said:
You answered it yourself? No need for me to repeat it.

We were 2-0 up against Paris. A team of our capabilities and with the greatest manger shouldn’t be collapsing. You shut up shop, close ranks and dig out the result. And ok I’ll give you Paris, formidable team in the end. What about feyenoord? 3-0 up at home? Is that because of injuries?

Listen, like I said, hopefully we will see a harder to beat city this year from the off.
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We were 2-0 but PSG were by far the better side at that point of the game.

We've got a long way to make up on them.
 
blueparrot said:
I keep seeing people mention Peps favourites last season, but considering Fodens form, who apart from Kovacic, Gundogan, Bernardo KDB was he going to pick in midfield? Maybe McAtee but he never really looked quite that level when he got his few chances.
Next season he’ll be picking from Rodri, Reijnders, Cherki, Foden, O’Reilly, Gonzalez, Bernardo so a very different kettle of fish.
Wouldn’t worry about the Al Hilal game we saw plenty over the 4 games to see he was having a look at everyone and so were the new coaching team. Gundogan and Kovacic are more than likely to move.
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I'm looking forward to next season, the new players all look top quality. If Rodri can stay fit I think we challenge for the title, but we will need to manage his game time carefully. I still have concerns about how we deal with the transitions especially against the top teams, but I think we will have a better idea of how we look in early November after we have played Arsenal, Villa and Liverpool.
 
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