We've had the Barry comparison/discussion a few pages back,he was class and although his work wasn't glamorous it was very clear what he brought to the team.Unfortunately,i don't think Gundogan is fit to lace his boots,he does nothing to the same level.I don't think it is any surprise that Gundogan generates the hate that he does from people. Much like a modern day Gareth Barry, his role because it is understated, is often misunderstood by those who tend to watch games on only the most superficial level.
We've had the Barry comparison/discussion a few pages back,he was class and although his work wasn't glamorous it was very clear what he brought to the team.Unfortunately,i don't think Gundogan is fit to lace his boots,he does nothing to the same level.
As you say though,i must be missing something as Pep loves him.
I agree on this 100% but I'd love if a journalist would ask him what specific quality it is that he brings the side which Bernardo or Foden can't in the midfield.
Because I've heard them all spend hours and hours debating it, whether it's Sam Lee on your podcasts or Jack Gaughan, Jonathan Smith, Will Unwin, David Storey etc. on other City podcasts.
And yet I've never heard any of them just ask Pep in one of the 4 press conferences a week they have with him.
Guardiola normally responds well to interesting tactical questions when someone has the ball to ask them as well.
I think this thread screams of someone who doesn't really understand Pep or how he wishes to play and win football matches. Gundogan was Pep's first signing unless I'm mistaken, and whilst he clearly isn't flavour of the month on the internet, he's a player who Pep continues to pick in almost every game of any importance. That would suggest that regardless of how you personally feel about him, he probably contributes a hell of a lot more than you realise.
And too often we've been failing in those games of importance that Pep keeps picking him in, where a multitude supporters are consistently seeing that he is a distinct weakness..... hence the whole thread being labelled 'The Gundogan Blindspot'.
The fact that a multitude of supporters think he is a 'distinct weakness' might be more down to those supporters not fully understanding what Gundo's role is and mistaking him for KDB. He doesn't have the same job as KDB just as KDB and Silva didn't have the same jobs.
I suspect that whatever Xavi brought to Pep's Barcelona, Pep thinks Gundo brings to his City team.
Marti Perarnau talked about him in one of the pods I did with him too. Basically said Gundogan had a footballing brain which was on the same wavelength as Pep's. KDB has that same innate understanding of positional play and the possession game.
For me it's kind of mad when you read this thread just how many people seem to have almost no clue about what Gundo's qualities are. I'm not saying he's Zidane, but you'd have to go a long way to find a better CM in the premier league and with the best will in the world Gundo would be in the best XI of every other side in the league IMO.
Since you seem to know his role so well and think that others are simply missing a trick here, tell us, what is his role?
Because what people are seeing are too many passes going sideways and backwards at too slow a tempo, a lack of physicality, inability to track runs and work hard, limited defensive ability, and no where close enough creativity to offset all that.
If his role is simply to circulate possession, at his own slow speed, then that role alone isn't worthy of a spot and he is very much Pep's blindspot. Gareth Barry was twice the player he is, only he isn't a foreigner who didn't come from a hipster club playing hipster football.
I think he brings structure to our play the way David Silva used to. I think he gets us in that shape where we're parked outside the opposition box for 5, 10 minutes at a time and putting in attack after attack after attack and just winning the ball back when they try to clear it.
I'm not entirely sure what it is that makes him able to do that and not others - he does pick up a lot of loose clearances and he does that thing of making 20 simple passes in a minute that just establishes possession and makes the opposition sit back. I don't know why Bernardo or Foden can't do it though, it doesn't seem like anything really difficult, but they can't, or wont. Without him or David Silva, we don't have those long spells of possession in the opposition third, games are much more loose, end-to-end and we lose control.
I know it's not a favouritism thing or a vanity thing, Pep clearly sees him doing something impportant to our game that Bernardo and Foden can't do and it'd be nice to hear Pep say it so we can be certain and people like @ws01 would probably not go on mad rants about how Pep picks him because he's a "hipster" footballer if Guardiola put it in words for us.
Guardiola isn't a God?Guardiola isn't a God and should be criticised when he gets things wrong - but in this instance I think it's the moral majority who are wrong rather than him. Gundogan is no more a blindspot than Raheem Sterling.