14 | Nico Gonzalez - 2025/26

Really becoming detached from the club lately . What are they at . This year should have been a fresh start . It seems like more of the same .
 
It’s weird you don’t understand his way is why we won what we have!

Any other manager when we won something 1 out of 13 games wouldn’t have got us to third for me it’s his way of managing his players that got us that record from January! Seems you panicking looking more at the negatives after one bad season than the positives of how Pep turned it around after losing our best player and our back line to injury!

Another history lesson. Zzzzz
 
I think you are talking about something different now. My point us that its not Pep's job to fit any player in. Its his job to put forth his believed best team to try to achieve the most success.

Now if the higher-ups think he isn't doing that, then their role is to fire him and find someone who they think will do the job better.

That aside, my point still stands, so long as he is manager, he is under no obligation to play any specific player.

As it relates to Gonzo specifically, while I like him personally, i don't think his lack of game time is some huge error. He has been the most dispossessed midfielder while playing the 6. Three different times. Some of those leading to goals or major chances. We are kidding ourselves thinking Pep isn't aware of this.

He fixed the error at 6 with a double pivot ( primarily Kova/Bernardo). So while i feel for Gonzo, there are more than enough legit explanations for why Pep didn't play him.
Point taken, but there are more than enough legit explanations for why others shouldn't be playing either yet Pep keeps playing them. Just as an example, how many times are we going to see Rico Lewis at RB? One doesn't have to be Pep to see that doesn't work.
So in light of everything we've seen of Nico G. Pep is not playing him because he's been caught in possession 2 or 3 times? If that's truly the case then Pep really needs to give his head a wobble. I hope that's not true for everyone's sake.
 
It’s weird you don’t understand his way is why we won what we have!

Any other manager when we won something 1 out of 13 games wouldn’t have got us to third for me it’s his way of managing his players that got us that record from January! Seems you panicking looking more at the negatives after one bad season than the positives of how Pep turned it around after losing our best player and our back line to injury!
That poster was looking for Pep negatives way before one bad season.
 
Like everyone else Pep has his favourites! Who doesn’t

But his decisions has been erratic of late and we did saw some big repercussions last season.

If he doesn’t play Nico and still wins the league against Arsenal and Liverpool - well he can do whatever he likes. Nico would only be used as a stick to beat him by rivals - cheque book manager and all

But we don’t improve or win anything and we have another set of 150 million signings he doesn’t fancy in this PSR led league then heads should roll as no one is bigger than the club. So he does have the benefit of doubt for a season after the club splurged 300 million for his team.
 
Point taken, but there are more than enough legit explanations for why others shouldn't be playing either yet Pep keeps playing them. Just as an example, how many times are we going to see Rico Lewis at RB? One doesn't have to be Pep to see that doesn't work.
So in light of everything we've seen of Nico G. Pep is not playing him because he's been caught in possession 2 or 3 times? If that's truly the case then Pep really needs to give his head a wobble. I hope that's not true for everyone's sake.

This thread is getting a bit daft now. Maybe the forum actually!

Lewis never only plays right-back for us. In possession just about always he slots into a DM role to help build play. Pep does this to help us in our build up. It lets the midfielders drift forward and pick up more attacking positions, helps whoever is playing DM and frees up space for the wide player. When we end up defending he has to get back to that right-back role yes.

I have to admit I missed Nico's best match, against Newcastle. I have seen others, which is why I focus on the negative a bit with him. I've seen him take loose touches in deep positions. I've seen him take his eye off the ball and it go under his foot. He isn't totally comfortable receiving the ball deep when other teams are set to press him. He takes his eye off it.

Knowing how important Pep sees that role, that isn't good enough for him. I'd be amazed if they aren't working with him on this in training though, but until he gets a run in the side we won't know if anything is changing and he's improving. The coaches will know though. As he isn't getting game time, id guess it's still a struggle for him.
 
What I struggle with is what are seemingly double standards in Pep's supposed judgment of players. In the case of Nico it is assumed Pep does not not fancy/trust him because he lost the ball a few times when playing the No 6 role. At the same time we all believe it takes a season for a player to adjust to Pep's style of play yet Nico has only been here for a few months. Compare his treatment to that of both Doku and Savinho who have both consistently failed to either deliver a cross or hit the target and yet get considerable game time. There offer in attack is limited and offer nothing defensively. Can somebody clarify for me.
 
What I struggle with is what are seemingly double standards in Pep's supposed judgment of players. In the case of Nico it is assumed Pep does not not fancy/trust him because he lost the ball a few times when playing the No 6 role. At the same time we all believe it takes a season for a player to adjust to Pep's style of play yet Nico has only been here for a few months. Compare his treatment to that of both Doku and Savinho who have both consistently failed to either deliver a cross or hit the target and yet get considerable game time. There offer in attack is limited and offer nothing defensively. Can somebody clarify for me.

Yeah agree with this. Though I'd say Pep is less bothered with a bad cross in the final third than he is with someone giving the ball away in a deeper position.
 
What I struggle with is what are seemingly double standards in Pep's supposed judgment of players. In the case of Nico it is assumed Pep does not not fancy/trust him because he lost the ball a few times when playing the No 6 role. At the same time we all believe it takes a season for a player to adjust to Pep's style of play yet Nico has only been here for a few months. Compare his treatment to that of both Doku and Savinho who have both consistently failed to either deliver a cross or hit the target and yet get considerable game time. There offer in attack is limited and offer nothing defensively. Can somebody clarify for me.
I dont recall Pep or any of the coaching staff actually saying anything about why Nico (or most other players) doesn't play. All these opinions and guesses of motivation are just that - opinions and guesses. Obviously this is a discussion board but some of the discussions border on the bizarre. We don't know actually the plan for the net season - the only people who do are Pep and his coaching team and i am sure the plan will have been put together in what is their view is the best interests of the club.

We are very much in transition at the moment so it will be interesting to see what the transition is and how long it will take to work.
 
Yeah agree with this. Though I'd say Pep is less bothered with a bad cross in the final third than he is with someone giving the ball away in a deeper position.
Given our inability to defend against a counter attack he should be!
 
I dont recall Pep or any of the coaching staff actually saying anything about why Nico (or most other players) doesn't play. All these opinions and guesses of motivation are just that - opinions and guesses. Obviously this is a discussion board but some of the discussions border on the bizarre. We don't know actually the plan for the net season - the only people who do are Pep and his coaching team and i am sure the plan will have been put together in what is their view is the best interests of the club.

We are very much in transition at the moment so it will be interesting to see what the transition is and how long it will take to work.
True but we know from Pep's use of game time what his views on a player are eg Grealish
 
Pretty clear you're against Pep now and obviously only time will tell if you're right in some of these things.

Whichever way you look at it though, no other manager has won 4 in a row in this country. Ever. For all United's riches and spending, they couldn't do it and ferguson had to do rebuilds of his squad. Jose never had to rebuild a squad because he famously always failed and/or fell out with everyone in season 3.

So now Pep is having to do a rebuild. The game moves on, and it's a big ask but if it's successful, it will be an incredible achievement - probably bigger than winning any of his other titles.

Serious question - who would you replace him with?

There's too much sentiment on here. History is history... Pep is stale and looks to me to be on a tired, downward trajectory, and I believe it's time for a change. Fresh faces have arrived but we're still seeing the old ones. We need fresh thinking, a new era.

Winning trophies isn't everything for me. I've seen 64 years of City and despite the trophies have found the football played over last 3 or 4 seasons to be largely boring. Football should be entertaining, not just a side to side possession based bore.

I'd be happy to see anyone take over just to see a bit more excitement in our play. I'd have Enrique, Klopp, Maresca... whoever you want, as long as they try to play open, attractive, attacking football, I'd be happy.

It's quite simply time for a change, and consign the legendary Pep era to history.
 
I don’t understand why people aren’t believing the rumours. We bought this geezer because we had a shit midfield and he still sat on the bench in the bigger games. A terrible recruitment decision
 

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