Pep Guardiola - 2025/26

[ninjamonkey]

"The game plan is try to play with the ball and try to score goals and not concede"

Maybe come up with a better gameplan then Pep because that is fucking diabolical. No wonder we look like headless chickens every time we turn the ball over with everybody scrambling to cover a position not theres and why we look completely toothless in attack. Give them some structure and a plan of attack.

 

[Norbert D]

And massively unfit compared to our opponents

There can be no other explanation. In the old days we would wear opponents down and then batter them second half. These days that rarely happens. We seem to lose most 50/50s or even pull out.

 

[Brewster's millions]

And massively unfit compared to our opponents

Which limits our options with regard to tactics and likely contributes significantly to our injury problems as well.

 

[NordStrike]

He has to try something different, he simply must. In the last few matches, something has been wrong with the left side of the defense. Enzo's goal, Solanke's goal, and many other chances—play with 3 at the back finally, Pep.

Nunes Khusanov Guehi Ake OReilly

Until Dias is back

 

[01cravend]

Pep could finish 8th this year and I wouldn’t call for his head
He can leave when he wants

All I know is when he leaves we become the next Chelsea. Maresca or someone inferior comes in for a year then we chop and change managers every season and won’t get near winning a title for a while.

Spoilt self entitled fans need to think carefully

Yeah because we are a poorly run club and won nothing before he came here.

Same path as Chelsea, fucking hell are you a City supporter or just a Pep one?

 

[Damanino]

we need that Pep back who was maximalists. the one scoffed at Aguero when not pressing or the one that had a tantrum when Sane or Sterling misplaced a pass/cross causing an attack to break down when we were 4-0 up in a game at around 75th min.

imagine that Pep watching this game today and countless easily given away balls, lack of pressing or holding up the ball, Semenyo getting the ball and losing it every time without a pass or cross attempt, most players losing duels cheaply etc.

we say the players are tired. Pep looks more tired to me and his ideas too, his reaction to match situations too. and that translates over to players as well.

on the other hand its unrealistic for top managers to be in their prime all the time. Pep managing top teams for almost 20 years now. Klopp got tired himself and left. Pep imo was very close to do the same last year and imo if we dont have that awful 1st half of season with the Rodri injury and that unreal bad run with poor CL and PL results he probably would have left alongside Txiki.

 

[HelloCity]

Wonder if talk of Pep leaving is impacting things?

It’s not uncommon for performances to drop in such circumstances.

 

[TonyBookEnd]

He's not "technically correct" as there was no official beginning date of the so called "rebuild".

But you stated we were 2 years into a rebuild

 

[Ohrodneyrodney]

Lost his hunger. He must know it, and do what’s best for MCFC, it’s not PGFC

 

[meeesh]

There can be no other explanation. In the old days we would wear opponents down and then batter them second half. These days that rarely happens. We seem to lose most 50/50s or even pull out.

Also in the old days we’d batter teams from the off and be 3 up by ht, ultimately game over, then like you say wear them down even more in the second half, it’s the not killing teams off by ht I’m concerned about.

Sounds daft but that feyenoord game still haunts this team

 

[madloaf]

But you stated we were 2 years into a rebuild

Based on his assertion that the rebuild started in January 2025 - which was last season, and this is the next season, that makes the 2nd season as no one talks about years in football, but seasons, but honestly i don't give that much of a shit.

 

[sh249]

It‘s genuinely mad to think that a Pep team could look like this. No settled system/formation. No structure. No patterns of play. No tempo. Struggling like fuck to play out from the back. No proper playmaker high up the pitch. Fair few players with limited technical skills / football intelligence.
Whether it was Pep or club-led, the decision, post-treble, to move towards something different has been a shit show. All it‘s really done is rob us of the edge Pep gave us for so long.
If we feel we absolutely must follow others in prioritizing running over technical ability and ‚transitions‘ over positional play, then we really need to go all in on it. We‘re stuck in no-man‘s land - not enough technical and tactical quality, yet we still look shit physically as well.

 

[ninjamonkey]

Lost his hunger. He must know it, and do what’s best for MCFC, it’s not PGFC

I dont believe that is true. He looks hungry to me, just got a seriously unbalanced and flawed system.

We clearly have the players suited to play a different style, Peps leaning that way a little but is always reluctant to go with it and so we get this amalgamation of crap with the worst of two clashing systems and none of the good parts.

He wants a high pressing, Slow build up technical passing machine that rarely loses the ball but the squad we've got says we should be a direct, quick side that takes full advantage of transitions and plays the percentages.

This dabbling in something he doesn't rrally want to do business is getting us nowhere. He needs to decide whether he is going to embrace a different style that suits the players he has and go all in on it or whether he wants to stick to his old principles that are becoming somewhat dated. In truth it's not really a choice, only 1 way will work anything but fully embracing a different approach will see us fail. If its the latter, we've wildly misspent on half a new squad over the last 12 months with the majority not suitable

 

[jrb]

I love Pep to bits like all of us do, but he has run out of ideas.
Today the 2nd half was exactly the same as Gala.
The only difference was, Gala didn't score twice against us and draw.

 

[jrb]

He has to try something different, he simply must. In the last few matches, something has been wrong with the left side of the defense. Enzo's goal, Solanke's goal, and many other chances—play with 3 at the back finally, Pep.

Nunes Khusanov Guehi Ake OReilly

Until Dias is back

With 9 minutes of ET, we continued to pass the ball slowly, backwards, sideways, etc. There was no urgency or desire to get the ball in the bo to create goal scoring opportunities by play or by luck.

 

[Ohrodneyrodney]

No
He's done more for this club than anyone in my lifetime, breaking record after record. As I said, he can stay as long as he wants.

No he can’t, he can stay as long as him staying is the best thing for the club.

 

[Norbert D]

Pep won’t go until this 115 bollox is sorted out, if we really got fucked as in relegation fucked, he would stay. He’s already said that.

 

[Bluesince1979]

No he can’t, he can stay as long as him staying is the best thing for the club.

Crazy that people are almost cult like when its comes to pep isnt it

 

[Blumooniac]

We're closer to the end than the beginning. That much we can all agree on. The question is, who succeeds the King once the King is dead?

Put simply, when Pep decides to leave (he'll never be be sacked) who replaces our greatest manager, the greatest manager the game has ever seen?

Now that's a question...

I'm not clever enough to speculate but I'll try.

Vincent Kompany.

I'd trust him over anybody else and I'd trust Khaldoon to give him the time.

 

[Tyg3r]

Anyway I don't understand people saying Semenyo had played LW. Formation with the ball was clearly 4-2-2-2. And without ball flat 4-4-2.



First half worked against Spurs back five. Second half they changed to back four in order to defend numerically our midfield. Pep didn't react.

I prefer wingers than overbooking the middle. If our wingbacks push up and loose the ball then defensive transition is always dangerous. Also wingbacks don't take on 1vs1 in attack.