Crystal Palace (H) - Post Match

[carlosthejackal]

Can’t understand some on here wanting Pep to get the sack. Most successful manager in England the past few years. Last year won the domestic treble plus back to back titles holding off tremendous pressure from Liverpool to win it. This season was always going to be a down turn, counter that with Kompany leaving, Laporte injury. Not getting another centre half was an error. Pep deserves a lot of credit and much more importantly support now.

Basically seems quite a few City supporters have become self entitled and behave like spoilt teenagers when things don’t go to plan .

 

[OB1]

I’ve questioned every manager we’ve ever had, but even I draw the line with Pep. You talk about defensive frailties and Pep being held accountable for them, but you have to take into account the context. Kompany gone, our best defender injured, Otamendi struggling, Stones struggling, Fernandinho playing out of position. Those who were pointing out our over reliance on Laporte before a ball was kicked have been vindicated. You think Pep can’t see these problems? It’s clear a rebuild is required and I’m desperate for Pep to be the man in charge whilst this happens. I understand he’s probably off soon, but I’m convinced he understands what is needed and is the man to deliver it before he hands over the reins. We may well end up looking back on the Pep era as out best ever period in terms of trophies and performance levels, I doubt we’ll replace him with a better manager.

We will never replace Pep with a better manager any time soon and probably never. That doesn't preclude us having lots of success without him but Pep is absolutely exceptional. However, as he points out time after time, he (and any manager) has to have the right players and it's the club's job - and not any one individual (this is not a dig at anyone) - to provide him with them. And, whatever lengths the club goes to and however much it spends, not every signing will work out or work out instantly.

I think we do need a rebuild but it's a mini one: we have a lot of young talent. What is also needed, regardless of the manager, is constant refreshing of the squad so that major rebuilds are never required in the future. Getting that right takes time but what we have now is a framework of how we want to play and the club just needs to get (even) better at executing the strategy it has chosen.

 

[OB1]

Think you might benefit from watching the 2 abject defensive performances by Bayern in the CL to realize that it's not just about Laporte's injury or Kompany leaving.

While Pep's creative attacking philosophy is second to none, he like everybody has a blind spot.

Go on then, what's his blind spot?

 

[Beanhead]

The morning after the night before.

Yep, I’m still fucking gutted.

Went to a party last night gutted, I had a drink gutted, i had a laugh gutted, got home gutted, went to sleep gutted, woke up gutted.

That is exactly how I would usually feel. Usually.

But as you would expect this current side to be in the title race and we weren’t going into the game. I took yesterday’s result far better than I usually would. Since the Wolves game the premier league is kind of meh. We’ll comfortably get CL place and that’s the extent of it.

I actually have more passion about getting the league cup and going through in the FA Cup and obviously really want a crack at the CL and looking forward to the Madrid tie.

But I’m relaxed about the league now. It’s done.. if the league could give me some satisfaction this year it would be Liverpool to drop some serious points as they really don’t deserve to break our points records as they aren’t close to being as good as we were the past few seasons.

 

[mcs]

But I’m relaxed about the league now. It’s done.. if the league could give me some satisfaction this year it would be Liverpool to drop some serious points as they really don’t deserve to break our points records as they aren’t close to being as good as we were the past few seasons.

Same here. We played a vastly better to watch style of football during our Centurions season - they've just been very effective in terms of grinding out results consistently. All credit for that, but I don't think they are this year as good as they were last year (in terms of style/quality of football), and not particularly close to the quality of our 2017/18 team. That isn't to take anything away from what they have achieved - as its a results driven business at the end of the day. I'd love nothing more for them to drop off enough to miss the 100 point mark and not go undefeaten. But unless we beat them at home, I reckon they'll manage the latter, and if they do that they'll surely manage the former too :( Then we'll never, ever hear the end of the 'greatest team on earth' dribble that will be peddled out.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

just because we won’t win the league doesn’t mean we’ve gone stale!

We’re 2nd in the league, on the verge of Wembley, still in FA Cup and topped our CL group with a game to come against Real Madrid.

But you think we should consider replacing the manager because we won’t win the league for the third year on the bounce.

Astonishing level of disrespect towards Guardiola for what he has achieved here - but more importantly a huge disrespect towards him for thinking he won’t continue to be successful with city.

Di you read what I posted properly and, if you did, did you understand what I was saying? I suspect that the answer to the first is no. People say there's no humour on here any more but it's also getting harder to have an intelligent discussion.

 

[lionheart]

It could have been worse. A last minute equalizer scored by Fulham next weekend would mean a reply down south, better we concede such goals (again) in the league right now. As for the VAR nonsense, we would have been livid if the ball had struck our defender and a penalty had been awarded. As for the Pep talk, he remains the best manager around, so please no more rubbish about replacing him.

 

[northwichblue]

The morning after the night before.

Yep, I’m still fucking gutted.

Went to a party last night gutted, I had a drink gutted, i had a laugh gutted, got home gutted, went to sleep gutted, woke up gutted.

Snap

 

[simon23]

We will never replace Pep with a better manager any time soon and probably never. That doesn't preclude us having lots of success without him but Pep is absolutely exceptional. However, as he points out time after time, he (and any manager) has to have the right players and it's the club's job - and not any one individual (this is not a dig at anyone) - to provide him with them. And, whatever lengths the club goes to and however much it spends, not every signing will work out or work out instantly.

I think we do need a rebuild but it's a mini one: we have a lot of young talent. What is also needed, regardless of the manager, is constant refreshing of the squad so that major rebuilds are never required in the future. Getting that right takes time but what we have now is a framework of how we want to play and the club just needs to get (even) better at executing the strategy it has chosen.

I think it is a major rebuild . - not in numbers but in the improtance and quality of players/people we are going to have to replace

Kompany - no replacement as of yet - one of the best centre halves the prem has ever seen and added to that the leadership quality he had - that in itself is very hard to duplicate

David Silva - Foden is seen as the replacement and there is nothing to suggest he can't do this - BUT he has a lot to prove and there is a long way to go. Pep has come out and said we ARE NOT going to replace silva - and we have Foden and Bernardo Silva as his replacements - but again, like Kompany, replacing Silva's technical ability is one thing - replacing his ability to dictate a game even without the ball is another almost impossible task

Kun - the biggest task of all - maybe impossible? GJ is a fine striker BUT he aint and never will be a Kun replacement. He wont go onto score the important goals in tight games (think the Kun goal in the 2-1 vs the scousers last year) - GJ never scores that ever. Its those goals that Kun has consistently scored that make him irreplaceable not just the numbers he posts. We are going to have to break our transfer record by a long way to get anyone near the calibre and we may still not get close.....

Ferna - his influence and ability is underrated - he may go another 12 months but we need to replace him - another huge task as not only is he an expert in his main position, his ability as a utility player is beyond anything Ive ever seen - he may not be the greatest centre half the prem has ever seen or will see but he still outshines most who call it their day job - he would do that as a fullback as well (Peps comments about him in the past tell you everything you need to know) - finding a player with such qualities is extremely hard

And in the middle of all that you have the Pep question -Id love him to stay forever and as you clearly say I dont think we will ever have a better manager - but the only way this rebuild works for the club is that we are rebuilding with a new manager in mind (unless we somehow manage to persuade Pep to stay for another 2-3 . years after his contract runs out - Id love this to happen but the man clearly has ambitions and some of them may be outside of football back in his home country).


Added to that you then have the general squad rebuild that you say needs to happen every few years.....I guess this is why Txixi and Ferran are paid so much - where do you even start?!?!?!!?

 

[balotellishaircut]

Di you read what I posted properly and, if you did, did you understand what I was saying? I suspect that the answer to the first is no. People say there's no humour on here any more but it's also getting harder to have an intelligent discussion.

I agree with you mate, you never mentioned anything about replacing Pep, you said it's a cycle of when Pep goes a new manager comes in with new ideas and the cycle begins again.