Everton v City post match

[Damanino]

Same season like last except the League Cup trophy and CL semis...

So compared the big improvement from Pelle to Pep and spending another huge amount of money on new players quite a bad change from last season.

I am sure we gonna have a bit of a dip of form around the CL games in the league, those Monaco games will be high tempo games and will take a lot out of the players.

Consistency wins the league and Chelsea have it we dont have it, right now I am worried about making top4 too. Spurs coming up and to think what Wanyama and Dembele and Alli could do in the middle vs a duo of old and slow Yaya/Zabba is crazy...
Also Pool, Chelsea, Arsenal all gonna have easy home games for 3 points.

Pep is in an awful situation either he has to give up his idea of playing which he is stubborn about or just keep driving us closer to the shit...

We need not one summer window but 2-3 more to completely change about 80% of the squad. But if we only can be succesful playing this way with spending good part of 300-500 million on top of what we spent in next 2-3 years, isnt there a manager out there maybe who could get us succesful with the squad we have playing a different style?

 

[cookster]

Just read Pep's after match comments on the OS. Apparently it's tough on the players cause we have loads of chances and miss and the opposition only needs one chance to score. This trend started when we played Everton at home.

I hope this is not what he thinks privately or we're fucked.

 

[CrownPointBlue]

Sterling wasnt great but he really wasnt that bad... calling him a spineless headless chicken is ****ish imo

Not an elite player. No courage or football brain. No physicality or bottle. Runs down blind allys. Rarely looks like he's going to beat the keeper or his marker.

I stand by my views.....look at some previous posts about a guy that's an international with nearly 5 years in the Prem.

 

[OB1]

Miserable result and a diabolical capitulation by the players.

I have been saying for ages - well before this season - that the players are a bigger problem than the manager(s). I could be wrong but I am waiting to see something to change my mind.

The players are mentally and physically too weak, which makes any way of playing difficult to succeed with. I do think that Pep will need an adapted version of his favoured way of playing to win the league but it will still require an overhaul of the team. The bunch of players we have would still make too many crucial errors at the back if Pep parked the bus every game and played on the counter; whichever 11 he selected from the current group. Obviously that is the other extreme from what Pep is trying but would some compromise actually suddenly give these players the necessary backbone?

 

[Blue Tooth]

What is amazing is that after some piss poor performances we are only 3 points behind Liverpool.
Spurs look like Chelsea's only serious threat.

and if we beat them we're level on points.....just sayin.

 

[chaddblue]

Some of our passing & movement first half today against a team full of defenders was as good as anything I've ever seen in the prem.

The problem came from Clichy lumping it followed by shite defending.

Said that to my mate at the match. We pass it around for fun at the back with the opponents chasing shadows.. then 9 times out of 10 we give the ball away when it comes to Clichy.. nowhere near good enough to play this style

 

[CrownPointBlue]

Same season like last except the League Cup trophy and CL semis...

So compared the big improvement from Pelle to Pep and spending another huge amount of money on new players quite a bad change from last season.

I am sure we gonna have a bit of a dip of form around the CL games in the league, those Monaco games will be high tempo games and will take a lot out of the players.

Consistency wins the league and Chelsea have it we dont have it, right now I am worried about making top4 too. Spurs coming up and to think what Wanyama and Dembele and Alli could do in the middle vs a duo of old and slow Yaya/Zabba is crazy...
Also Pool, Chelsea, Arsenal all gonna have easy home games for 3 points.

Pep is in an awful situation either he has to give up his idea of playing which he is stubborn about or just keep driving us closer to the shit...

We need not one summer window but 2-3 more to completely change about 80% of the squad. But if we only can be succesful playing this way with spending good part of 300-500 million on top of what we spent in next 2-3 years, isnt there a manager out there maybe who could get us succesful with the squad we have playing a different style?

Peter Reids still out of work....& Brian Horton.

 

[daztrueblue91]

Some of our passing & movement first half today against a team full of defenders was as good as anything I've ever seen in the prem.

The problem came from Clichy lumping it followed by shite defending.

Just as it was in the reverse fixture against Everton.

This pattern of play is becoming a serious concern now. You begrudgingly accept two or three games a season where you completely dominate, miss chances and concede on the counter. You put it down to 'one of those days'. However, when it's happening every month and in some cases more frequently, it is a worry.

Pep knows it and said as much in his post-match interview however I just don't see how he can counter-act it, and even more worryingly, I don't think Pep knows. It's hard to complain about bad finishing when we only have one goalscorer in the squad and we don't even play to his strengths.

 

[schfc6]

Fans aren't managers because we're irrational, over reactive, and seldom can see the bigger picture. We beat West Ham and everyone is in love with Zaba's rebirth as a CM and crying for the same tactics in the next match. Then we get thumped by Everton and how could the manager not see that the midfield was too old and why couldn't he change shape to combat them? We aren't good at this and we won't be. I am struggling to cope with Bravo as much as many of you and maybe the manager will need to make a call there, but appeals to what a fan would do in this situation are not going to produce much in the way of a sensible approach to anything. It would be overreactive and incoherent. And even then fans label you the tinkerman and go bananas that if the manager would just play a settled XI everything would be different.

Just look at the increase in quality in all of the managers who have left us and all of the players who have left us. Whenever a player is injured, he improves massively in the eyes of our fans. Now, if we just had Joe, Nasri, and Mangala, everything would be different! Forget that we suffered from all of the same problems last season with those players and that plenty of fans had problems with each of those players in different ways.

It's really, really hard to take a long view after a day like today. But we won't get anywhere as a club overreacting to today either. It is not an exaggeration to say that Pep could lose every match for the rest of the season and he'd still be the most successful manager in world football. As fans, we need to back him, even during a tough spell. This season clearly doesn't seem like it's going to produce what we would have wanted but there's nobody I'd rather have turning the squad over. I keep coming back to this point. The core group here essentially quit on everyone's re-favorite, Mancini. Dressing room unrest, absolutely dire performances that everyone conveniently forgets. We sacked him, brought in Pellegrini. The same exact thing happens. Now, we go and get the undisputed best manager in the game and he suffers the same problems with largely the same group. Can we maybe put to rest the idea that the Managers were the problem? If anything, I have a lot more respect for both Roberto and Pellegrini today because I feel like this season is proving that there really wasn't much they could have done.

Excellent post.

I was pretty much ciber bullied for defending Pellegrini.

I think like you, perhaps Pellegrini deserves a bit more credit. The issues he was blamed for are still as clear as day.

I much like you feel the problems lies within the squad. It's dated both in age and type of player. We clearly lack the pace, energy and physicality as a squad. Too many players with no future, and they know it. That is never a good thing. I was slaughter by the usual keyboard warriors for this belief at the start of the season.
Fans are very reactionary, regardless of blame, we have issues and Guardiola is the man to address them and it will take time.

 

[vmsuhail]

No. Because when I wipe the tears from my misty eyes of the sick swan and the first cups and title I remember a lot of sideways passing, dull draws, frustrating slow play,and threads like this.

The difference is, you don't remember any humiliating defeats. Pep needs to be given time and especially the coming summer is crucial, which in turn means Top 4 is crucial.