As much as I agree Pep is a great tactical manager and will improve City massively, I don't think you should overestimate the influence of a manager either. The most obvious reason why City easily beat United last week is the fact that City have a much better squad. United is nowhere near us in terms of quality. A good manager, like Guardiola, will just make the most out of that difference in quality. But when you face a squad that is arguably better, a good manager is able to limit the damage at best. You can still nick the odd win, but it will be due to good fortune rather than smart tactics. Although good tactics will of course increase your odds, but you will still be far from favourites.
Just to say, you can let Brendan Rodgers, David Moyes or Gary f***** Neville manage this Barcelona side, and they will still be favourites to beat Pep's City. In the long run that Barcelona side would deteriorate of course, but it will take a long while and a huge screw-up to ruin that generation of players.
As for Busquets v Fernandinho. You're probably right that Fernandinho would easily fit into this fully functional Barcelona side, the other way around I do think a player like Busquets could still mean some improvement for City, but it may not be a very big difference no. The impact of one single player, as long as he's decent enough, will not be that big, good or bad, bar the attacking wonders of this world like Messi, or Ibrahimovic for PSG in the Micky Mouse league.
But just comparing the two players, the level of control and game intelligence that Busquets has I strongly believe is unmatched by any player worldwide in his position.
Mate, I like your posts and you seem to know your football. But, no offence, I'm afraid to say that bit in bold is one of the biggest loads of bollocks I have ever read on Bluemoon.
I've have been watching City for 30 odd years and I have never known one individual to have as big an impact in as short a space of time as Guardiola. No player or manager comes anywhere close. Last season we played at a snails pace, looked lethargic, out of ideas creatively and look horrendously vulnerable to counter attacks. In a few short weeks we are now playing at an infinitely higher tempo, we are dominating possession of the ball, creating a huge amount of chances, our movement is hypnotising teams and they have no idea how to deal with it, we look confident at the back and have never looked vulnerable to the counter attack.
Far from me "overestimating" what a manager can do, I don't think it can possibly be over stated what a huge impact this guy has had on the team. I don't know if you've watched too much of us in the last 18 months, but seriously the transformation from then until this season has been absolutely monumental. With the same core group of players with one or two added.
You think the reason we beat United is simply because we've got better players? I'm absolutely astonished by that. We've had better players than them for the past 2 seasons but they beat us at our own ground last season and dicked us 4-2 the season before and could have had a lot more. If Mourinho had our squad, do you think for one minute he would have played Silva and DeBruyne as his number 8s? Absolutely no chance. If Guardiola was managing them, do you think there is any way on gods green earth he would have played Pogba and Fellaini in a 2 man midfield? Absolutely no chance whatsoever. Of course having good players is important, but it's the way you use them that counts. You can have the quality of a £100m midfielder, but if you use him in the wrong way, he can look like he's worth fuck all.
The very top managers can be the difference between a good side and a brilliant one.
If you are comparing swapping Hughes for Moyes, Enrique for Brodge, I can understand your point, there probably won't be a huge impact. But swapping Pellegrini for Guardiola, seriously, I don't see he you can possibly hope for a bigger impact than that. We've gone from sending out our 11 biggest name players in a 4231, having no game plan, no shape, no motivation, just telling the starting 11 go out and play and hope our quality gets us through, to having a guy that spends hours upon hours analysing the opposition, finding every bit of space, exploiting every single weakness and coming up with a starting 11 and a game plan that gets the most out of our strengths and exploits our opponents every weakness. The players are fitter, more motivated than ever before, and only players of the highest technical ability and intelligence are deemed suitable for our style of play.
The guy is the best coach on the planet, possibly ever. It really cannot be "overestimated" how big an impact he is having on the team. It's the equivalent of swapping Navas for Messi.
