Pep Guardiola - 2025/26

Gabriel said:
We decided, and Guardiola was instrumental in it, to run a small squad across multiple fronts. They climbed Everest but fell off the top and that necessitated a complete rebuild. The build is very much a work in progress, which the winter additions have accelerated, but it was unrealistic to think we could re-ascend the pinnacle so quickly.

If the plan is to dominate for multiple seasons again, and not just domestically, then we need patience and flexibility, from the club, from the fans, and from Guardiola.
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And more players, good ones at that!
 
Needs to commit to changes due to how teams play.

We don’t have the players to deal with high press and long balls. We can do low block and play great at times.

The issue is clear. The team yesterday should have dropped the high line once spurs pressed, soaked up the pressure and hit on the break with balls to semenyo and erling. Instead we continue to pass to spurs players and give up the ball under little bit of pressure.

Pep’s is holding us back because he don’t want to surrender his possession football but it’s that possession football in certain moment of games that is killing us. It was clear what spurs would do as many have done, they made the changes at HT and we didn’t react and couldn’t correct course.

That’s where this all starts to “go wrong”.

Drop the high line when teams go man to man pressing. Sit deep and counter. Once they retreat go back to high line possession.
 
BillyShears said:
The players need to show more responsibility when they come under pressure. Currently, it feels like when an opposition team decide to press us high and man to man, there's a collective panic that sets in. We're missing cool heads. Just look at how many times we have the ball and give it back to Spurs in the six minutes before they score the first goal.

Look at how many times we have the opportunity to play exactly the sort of boring sideways passes that kill games dead and drop opposition teams into their shape, only or someone to blam a ball into a channel for Erling or Semenyo. The players aren't handling their emotions or game states well right now.
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Teams usually reflect their coaches. That's what's happening with us now.
 
youngbob said:
I think you're being a bit disingenuous here.

I wouldn't be happy with 2nd place in the league. I doubt anyone on here would be. We all want to win titles and it's disappointing when we don't. The feeling of winning is special and addictive. But relative to the current quality of our squad and the quality of the opposition in this title race, and considering what's happened in the past (both the glory years of 2018 to 2024 and the dismal periods of last season) 2nd place would be more than acceptable right now. If we can finish 2nd in the league and complement that with a bit of cup silverware, that would be a wonderful bonus.

Sometimes it's enough for some people to support a football team that simply wins most of its games. After all the major trophies we've won in the last 15 years, a period of transition and change like this is frustrating but also completely acceptable. It requires a bit of patience, sure, but that's all. Being on the fringes of a title race, going deep into the cup competitions, and playing in the knockout stages of the European Cup - if we can keep these things up while preparing the squad to challenge at the very top again (probably from next season), then that's not much to complain about, is it?

I'm not saying this because "we used to get beat by York City and Stockport County so be grateful", I'm saying this because literally every top team has to go through fallow periods and transitional phases like this in order to come back better. Barcelona won nothing between 1999 & 2004; Ferguson's United went three years without a Premier League title between 2004 & 2007; Liverpool won nothing between 1995 & 2000 and won one League Cup between 2007 & 2018; Bayern won nothing between 2010 & 2012 and finished the 23-24 season potless; Madrid won virtually nothing in the Galacticos era between 2003 & 2007; Arsenal won nothing between 2005 & 2014. Heck even City wasted the immediate post-Ferguson years by winning just the one League Cup between 2014 & 2018.

The point is, all of those teams came back.

My other point is that we'd gone for so long winning title after title between 2021 and 2024 that we'd forgotten how it would feel to finish 2nd or 3rd. Turns out, life just carries on, football carries on, and City are still winning the majority of their matches. If we don't win anything this year, life and football will just carry on and City will remain in the mix for major trophies next year. There's no way our current squad is worse than the one we had under Pellegrini at the end, with Fernando, Bony, and Mangala starting almost every week, a broken Demichelis hoping to keep people out at one end and a toothless Navas firing crosses into the first defender at the other end, an ageing Sagna and an overweight Nasri for support. We came back from that pretty quickly and we'll probably come back from this.

Or we won't. Maybe this is the beginning of the end after all. If so, okay. We've had 15 years of dominance and glory. If this is to be the end, we've had a lifetime of memories worth savouring already. On the day of the takeover, if you'd been sat down and told that, before 2025 we'd win 8x Premier League titles (including four in a row), 3x FA Cups, 6x League Cups, 4x Community Shields, 1x Super Cup, 1x Club World Cup, and the fucking European Cup as part of a treble, would you be worrying about the seasons where it didn't quite come together or would you be focusing on celebrating the big wins as much as you could? Point is, we've had more than our share of good days, we'll likely have more good days again, and if we don't have any more good days then you can walk away any time you like, knowing that what you've already witnessed can't be taken away from you.
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Very good post.

You're referencing some very successful sides too. Look at the dippers - they win the league once and fall away. They managed to win 1 league title, 1 FA Cup, 2 League Cups and the CL under Klopp and he's lauded as an absolute hero. They've missed out on CL qualification in his tenure too such was there decline at points.

Our decline, so far, has seen us make an FA Cup final and we're currently still in a battle for all four competitions even if a league title and CL is unlikely. Worse teams than us have won cups, and we're still in all of them. And if we do spend another couple of seasons "struggling" we can look back on unprecedented success and records possibly never broken in English football.

We're asking for the players to show a bit more fight, but I look at the apathy from our fans at games and I'm not sure we're showing any at the moment either. It's all a bit "meh" on and off the pitch.
 
meeesh said:
And more players, good ones at that!
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My only concern is that buying more top-drawer players will necessitate us reverting to the smaller squad. That may guarantee domestic dominance again, but the evidence suggests that it's incapable of dominating in Europe as well, let alone internationally.

I sense this is a squad of players that needs to grow up, take responsibility, and win things in its own right. After recent weeks, the return leg versus Newcastle is taking on added importance, and I would imagine Guardiola is desperate for this team to get to Wembley and win.
 
Gumzy97 said:
Haven’t been on here in a while but watching us compared to a Bayern , Barca and PSG is we lack a tempo setter. Barca have Frenkie De Jong , PSG have Vitinha , Bayern have Kimmich. Players that don’t do anything fancy but control the tempo of the game , orchestrate others around them that’s the difference. When they have leads those players kill the game and keep everyone calm

We haven’t replaced prime Gundo. Gundo scored goals but what he did was set the tempo kept things calm and cool. Madrid have the exact same problem they’ve failed to replace Toni Kroos.

I think a few players are trying to do it but none have been effective as Gundo was.
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They're a little bit stuck between a rock and a hard place with Rodri. Before his ACL he was without question the best CM in the world and did the job of two midfielders. Now the question is can he recover to that level (I still think he can, but it may take until the start of next season).

In the meantime you're right, there's nobody other than Bernardo providing that 'foot on the ball' style. A bit of an aside, but I suspect they thought Reijnders would be able to do that, but he obviously can't. Which is why I expect that Elliot Anderson ends up getting signed before the World Cup even kicks off.

We were at our best when he had Nico G, Bernardo, Foden, Cherki, Doku, Haaland in front of the back 4 with NOR and Nunes providing the width. IMO the reason we were at our best during that period is because everyone got into a rhythm both in possession and out of possession because there was a consistency of selection.

What was striking in a way about yesterday was how many players started the game who have played very few minutes for City this season (either because they were at different clubs or that they weren't available or selected). The configuration of the back 4 was brand new, configuration of the midfield was brand new, and the configuration of the attack was brand new.

City are a team in transition, there's no question about that. Thankfully our transition hasn't completely undermined the season in the way the most team's end up when they're transitioning.
 
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Would have been brave by the club but still think we should have moved Pep on after he let the team turn up complacent and hungover for an FA cup derby final, or at least he allowed them to use it as an excuse after claiming motivation would never be a problem for one of his teams. Now that complacency has crept into the recruitment and I'm not sure changing managers would do anything as we've signed too much crap. Even latter day Wenger wouldn't have signed Donnaruma, Doku, Semenyo and Marmoush to play a technical possession style.
 
January was always going to be tough after Gvardiol and Dias joined Gonzalez on the injury list. Gonzalez is now back to relieve Rodri and Dias will be back soon so we should have the defense and midfield settled for the rest of the season if no one else gets injured. Defense hasn't really been the issue anyway.

The main issue is that nearly everyone who plays up top is resoundingly 'meh'. Haaland isn't finishing the few opportunities he gets while Foden, Reijnders and Semenyo give the ball away cheaply and kickstart counters going the other way. It looks like we have no midfield because we can't defend through possession and we don't have the legs to quickly press and win the ball high up the pitch anymore.

There's a real lack of football intelligence in the squad so Pep has to make some hard decisions like benching Haaland and/or Foden, but Marmoush and Semenyo haven't quite been outstanding enough to warrant benching your best players on paper.
 
pbueno16 said:
January was always going to be tough after Gvardiol and Dias joined Gonzalez on the injury list. Gonzalez is now back to relieve Rodri and Dias will be back soon so we should have the defense and midfield settled for the rest of the season if no one else gets injured. Defense hasn't really been the issue anyway.

The main issue is that nearly everyone who plays up top is resoundingly 'meh'. Haaland isn't finishing the few opportunities he gets while Foden, Reijnders and Semenyo give the ball away cheaply and kickstart counters going the other way. It looks like we have no midfield because we can't defend through possession and we don't have the legs to quickly press and win the ball high up the pitch anymore.

There's a real lack of football intelligence in the squad so Pep has to make some hard decisions like benching Haaland and/or Foden, but Marmoush and Semenyo haven't quite been outstanding enough to warrant benching your best players on paper.
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The only reason we haven't lost a game outside of Bodo Glint has been our defense has been solid.. even better than with Ruben & Gvardiol.

But we're really thin in midfield and that's not helped by not having a press.. so that constant invites pressure.

We used to be able to pass our way out of trouble.. now we can't even knit 10 passes in midfield together and give the ball away and immediately teams counter!
 
Love_Each_Day said:
Would have been brave by the club but still think we should have moved Pep on after he let the team turn up complacent and hungover for an FA cup derby final, or at least he allowed them to use it as an excuse after claiming motivation would never be a problem for one of his teams. Now that complacency has crept into the recruitment and I'm not sure changing managers would do anything as we've signed too much crap. Even latter day Wenger wouldn't have signed Donnaruma, Doku, Semenyo and Marmoush to play a technical possession style.
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I said it previously to me signing those players are for a new manager coming in,in the summer. The way we did for Pep under Pellegrini
 
IrishBlueSince92 said:
We weren’t mentioned as title challengers by anyone at start of this season
Everyone said 3rd
We’re currently 2nd
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We were always going to be title challengers. We haven’t slipped that much. Sadly team mistakes, individual errors, and Pep’s predictable style of play are slowly costing us a real title fight with Arsenal. There is time to rectify it, but with the games coming up thick and fast, and our remaining difficult away games, I can’t see City catching Arsenal, sadly. I think City will make top 4, hopefully.
 
Blue_Lightsaber said:
The only reason we haven't lost a game outside of Bodo Glint has been our defense has been solid.. even better than with Ruben & Gvardiol.

But we're really thin in midfield and that's not helped by not having a press.. so that constant invites pressure.

We used to be able to pass our way out of trouble.. now we can't even knit 10 passes in midfield together and give the ball away and immediately teams counter!
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Someone made a great point in the Rodri thread that he's not really had to stop runners past him when he was at his best. He was so good winning the ball in the midfield because the attackers would be out of control barely getting past our first wave of press and we'd take advantage of the other team committing numbers forward on the counter. We just don't have that press to smother counters early or harass teams who try to play out from the back which is why players like Rodri and Ake look legged and we're relying on Khusanov and Nunes to make long recovery runs toward our own goal.
 
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