24 | Joško Gvardiol - 2023/24

[urban genie]

this is simply not true.

he lost possession 8 times, i believe only ake was better with 6.

he had 120 touches. pass accuracy 96% 100/104 passes. best passing accuracy in the whole team yesterday

you can dislike him and think of him what you want of course, but these are facts.

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At the end of the day you can throw stats, but the fact is he switched off at the end and cost us a goal.

No one denies his ability or potential, it his concentration and focus that he needs to improve on, a few times in games he has switched off.
I like him think he will come on great for us, but the goal was avoidable and quoting pass completions won't mask that fact.


He is a vast improvement than a shithouse like cancelo botttling a challenge or a headless chicken like zivchenko btw.

 

[Saddleworth2]

I thought he was very very good last night until their goal. He is an absolute beast and be at the heart of our defence for many seasons. That this is his first and he is still learning makes his performances even more impressive. Bloody hell, at times he is being asked to play left wing. Cut the lad some slack. By far our best acquisition this season imo.

 

[vanchi]

At the end of the day you can throw stats, but the fact is he switched off at the end and cost us a goal.

No one denies his ability or potential, it his concentration and focus that he needs to improve on, a few times in games he has switched off.
I like him think he will come on great for us, but the goal was avoidable and quoting pass completions won't mask that fact.


He is a vast improvement than a shithouse like cancelo botttling a challenge or a headless chicken like zivchenko btw.

i’m not throwing stats, i was replying to a statement, don’t patronize me.

where did i say he was great for that goal, please quote me.

 

[remember arthur mann]

I thought he was very very good last night until their goal. He is an absolute beast and be at the heart of our defence for many seasons. That this is his first and he is still learning makes his performances even more impressive. Bloody hell, at times he is being asked to play left wing. Cut the lad some slack. By far our best acquisition this season imo.

Excellent player under orders. Ake didn't cover himself in glory for the goal.

 

[vanchi]

Youth cateer started as a left back, was used as both a left bacck and centre back.
most of his liepzig time he was used as a left back, wide left CB in a back 3, Left wing back or a left sided CB.

He isn't a centre back out of position he is a 22 yer old lad in a new club who can play left back comfortably as he has done all his short career but still has to weed out his tendancy to switch off at times, something he will learn to do.

And too early imho to say he is top class just yet, not anywhere near as good as Stones or Ake, who both have the same atributes as him with possession and passing.


He cannot be judged on this season though like some are, on the whole has played well, just needs to up his concentration to the full 90 mins

lol dude this is a work of fiction, so many inaccuracies…

academy - played all positions except gk, and was good. moving through youth categories there was one coach that didn’t like him and g thought about quitting football, then another coach recognized he’s absolutely best at cb and he actually said at the time that if g doesn’t become an excellent cb he’ll quit coaching and everyone who coached him should end up in jail for failing at their jobs.

senior career - joined first team as a cb. sold to leipzig as a cb. loan to dinamo agreed until upamecano leaves, played second season as lb cause of dinamo’s plans.

total: 10 games more at lb than cb for dinamo zagreb.

2 seasons in germany - played 7 games out of 86 or 87 as lb, everything else as cb. lb games when he arrived from zagreb.
second season zero games as lb.

he was asked many times about the cb/lb thing, every single time the reply was “i am a natural cb, that is my position. i will play any position that my coach asks me to play and do my best”

an interview was filmed after return from abu dhabi and aired yesterday before the game in croatia. he still refers to himself as cb. his fave city game was when he played cb. if he had to ask one city player to be his mentor it would be ruben because “we play in the same position”.

if pep asks him to be a gk he will get those gloves and work hard, he will still be a cb though.

hope this helps

 

[Middedon]

The current criticism - that he absolutely can’t get any better - is an odd one to me. Especially since those same people are often excited about Dokus potential improvement or talk about how they can’t believe Ake has improved so much since he got here. I’m not trying to be disingenuous, just wondering what makes him different than most other players we have. But for people who are really concerned with him, I assume the end of next season will be more clear - and if he’s not the right fit he’ll still be 23 and I assume would fetch a decent price.

 

[Phil1]

He’s going to be an exceptional signing over time.
I’ve seen more than enough already to be convinced of it.
Some of our support really struggle with the concept of patience it seems.

 

[BlueMoonAcrossThePond]

Would love to see Gvardiol start and play a few full games as CB. He's an OK LB but that's not his best position.

 

[FatedBlue77]

Exceptional for me. Apart from the goal Burnley scored at the end I think he played really good. The way he’s seamlessly slotted in to the team and the maturity at which he plays at surprised me to be honest.

Probably not a popular opinion but he was my MoM yday.

 

[Goldust]

I think he’s class, he did get done for the goal and will improve of the back of it.

 

[jimharri]

He’s going to be an exceptional signing over time.
I’ve seen more than enough already to be convinced of it.
Some of our support really struggle with the concept of patience it seems.

Well said. You could say the same in the Doku thread as well. More whoppers on there than in your local Burger King at chucking out time on a friday night!

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

Well said. You could say the same in the Doku thread as well. More whoppers on there than in your local Burger King at chucking out time on a friday night!

The fact they’re both 21/22 seems to be missed on both threads. Neither are perfect, but they cannot be as they are so young and alien to Pepball.

 

[Bigga]

We hardly had much defending to do v Burnley & he gave the ball away far too much. In big games I would not be playing him & in my opinion he’s no upgrade on cancelo or Laporte.

Unbelievable take...

Hate to tell you but with 96% success rate (104 passes) he had the best pass completion of the night! As a comparison Ake 95% (110 passes), Stones 92% (106 passes), Rico 88% (72 passes), Rodri 87% (113 passes) and KDB 88% (57 passes).

Anyone could tell this, watching the game, and his only meaningful fuck up was the goal at the end. However, the only thing I would say is that LB is not his position; he's just been shoehorned in there.

Long term, maybe as soon as next year, he'll be hybrid CB/ DM, like Stones as he has all the qualities and balance to do so.

 

[urban genie]

lol dude this is a work of fiction, so many inaccuracies…

academy - played all positions except gk, and was good. moving through youth categories there was one coach that didn’t like him and g thought about quitting football, then another coach recognized he’s absolutely best at cb and he actually said at the time that if g doesn’t become an excellent cb he’ll quit coaching and everyone who coached him should end up in jail for failing at their jobs.

senior career - joined first team as a cb. sold to leipzig as a cb. loan to dinamo agreed until upamecano leaves, played second season as lb cause of dinamo’s plans.

total: 10 games more at lb than cb for dinamo zagreb.

2 seasons in germany - played 7 games out of 86 or 87 as lb, everything else as cb. lb games when he arrived from zagreb.
second season zero games as lb.

he was asked many times about the cb/lb thing, every single time the reply was “i am a natural cb, that is my position. i will play any position that my coach asks me to play and do my best”

an interview was filmed after return from abu dhabi and aired yesterday before the game in croatia. he still refers to himself as cb. his fave city game was when he played cb. if he had to ask one city player to be his mentor it would be ruben because “we play in the same position”.

if pep asks him to be a gk he will get those gloves and work hard, he will still be a cb though.

hope this helps

So he prefers to play centre back, but can operate as a left back.

that is my point, whether he prefers CB or not using him being played as a LB as an excuse for any mistakes he makes if a cop out.

The lad has natural talent and his errors have never been through lack or awareness or skill, but concentration, something you would expect of a young player still learning he will be an exceptional player for us once fully settled in, but atm he isn't a better LCB than Ake who has years on him development and Pep style wise, but he will probably suppass many a CB or LB we've had recently and even out of his favoured position is a step up from zivchenko which is evident to see

 

[urban genie]

The fact they’re both 21/22 seems to be missed on both threads. Neither are perfect, but they cannot be as they are so young and alien to Pepball.

As I pointed out this morning a good player and potential great, but only young and in his first 7 months under Pep who demands a level higher than most, once settled he will get better and better and like most that thrive under Pep in whatever postion he moulds him into.

His small rare errors are expected and anyone writing him off is daft.

 

[vanchi]

So he prefers to play centre back, but can operate as a left back.

that is my point, whether he prefers CB or not using him being played as a LB as an excuse for any mistakes he makes if a cop out.

The lad has natural talent and his errors have never been through lack or awareness or skill, but concentration, something you would expect of a young player still learning he will be an exceptional player for us once fully settled in, but atm he isn't a better LCB than Ake who has years on him development and Pep style wise, but he will probably suppass many a CB or LB we've had recently and even out of his favoured position is a step up from zivchenko which is evident to see

cop out? we’ll have to agree to disagree on that one.

he not only prefers to play as cb, he IS a cb. and he’s not complaining btw, i am.

because if this isn’t just pep’s way of teaching him the system and he ends up truly stuck in that position it will kill his (cb) career.
if pep leaves what is gvardiol then? and yeah city can always sell him but what will you be selling in that case? a player who used to be a promising young ball playing cb but is now a wingenstein or something?

lack of concentration only? he literally said they don’t have time to train properly and work on his positioning. that is irrelevant then in a pep team according to you? pep and kdb talked about it too btw.

honest question, what was he supposed to do yesterday? i only saw it once but wasn’t the guy literally faster than joško?
and that is one of the things city fans hate about him, lack of pace. cause you’re used to kyle walker on the other side and most of you want a proper lb. i said it many times, he will never be as fast as walker, he can only work on his positioning and so on. and all this is why i was moaning about him missing the pre season with pep.

oh and everyone’s predicting he’ll be totally dropped when things get serious (so, soon then), so in that case your troubles will be over and he’ll be just a hairy face caught on camera for a second, now and then. :D

btw, how did you manage to come up with so many false facts in your previous post, impressive :D

 

[skillman]

He's so slick when he's on the ball. I've not seen a defender like him with it - aside from Jonny Boulders - in the sense of close dribbling and the ball sticking to his foot. And he does it at pace and through challenges too.

Part of me thinks he's actually suited to be a full back because of how good he is on the ball but I can't wait to see him play centre back too. The dream pairing is just to see him and Stones together at some point centrally.

His ability to play with both foot so comfortably is unique to him too. His right foot is an absolute joke and it's worked a few times where he plays it round the corner to a free man because the opposition think he's in the shit on his wrong foot.

Still only 22 as well. Only going to get better, scary to think really. Will be looked upon as one of the bargains in the club's history in years to come.

 

[Blu1]

this is simply not true.

he lost possession 8 times, i believe only ake was better with 6.

he had 120 touches. pass accuracy 96% 100/104 passes. best passing accuracy in the whole team yesterday

you can dislike him and think of him what you want of course, but these are facts.

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Good post. My judgement was clearly wrong but it’s how it seemed

 

[Haaland94]

this is simply not true.

he lost possession 8 times, i believe only ake was better with 6.

he had 120 touches. pass accuracy 96% 100/104 passes. best passing accuracy in the whole team yesterday

you can dislike him and think of him what you want of course, but these are facts.

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Confirmation bias for some. They will see what they want to see. It's sad you have to post stats every single time, and then people are like: "Why are you defending him?" Because he is unjustly attacked more often than most, if not all City players. "Gvardiol is shit" is like “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it." (Goebbels).

 

[oldius]

It's just a rehash of similar threads for so, so many players. There is a complete lack of patience among a section of our fanbase, and a lack of insight. To expect ANY player to not make the odd mistake is ridiculous. To expect players of 21 or 22 to be the finished article is ridiculous. To expect any player coming to a new club and new league to immediately acclimatise is ridiculous.

This guy had a superb game against Burnley. He rarely has a game that is less than good. He is an outstanding prospect - among the finest in world football - and his skill on the ball is unique among defenders. The stats outlined for the Burnley game only show how much misreading there is, and how bias can convince people of anything, despite all evidence to the contrary.

This is a unique time to be a blue. We are at the top of the world game. Enjoy it because these players will not be here forever.