The analysis after the derby was so shallow and I think is why Pep can’t be bothered with the UK media or media in general.
No one thinks like a manager they think like one who has nothing to lose if they make a mistake, as is the life of a pundit or even journalists who make a living not on tempered reasoning but reactionary analysis that evokes reaction from fans.
This isn’t just the Talk Sport world of analysis. We’re talking the “respected” football media who tbf don’t follow City as much, are shocked that we aren’t scoring/performing well, and we know like to see the bigger clubs fail.
I would say they don’t like to just see us fail, as I listen to enough pods and read enough articles to know they want to see more parity and less dominance, which I get. However, what it does is it skews their perspective to have so much desire to see clubs like us fail that means some views are less likely to appear.
So that means it’s good when they see United losing/suffering, or PSG. Maybe Bayern. They love it and want more. Except some of them are United, PSG or Bayern fans themselves. I could name them but some are quite famous in football jounalism and appear regularly on the pods I listen to.
I would say Liverpool, even being successful, get more sympathy and enjoy more of a bromance from “respected” journalists. Why?
Klopp’s background/media approach, their path to success this time in the face of the evil empires: Utd, City, Chelsea and the decline of the past darling Arsenal.
Liverpool, and at times Spurs, even if they dislike Mourhino, are the closest such journalists get to being an underdog they can root for and also being those who have nostalgia, holding HIGH levels of romance for football’s big club past glories.
They love Ajax. They want Forrest and Leeds to be back, and Newcastle with the right owner. City don’t fit the bill, because we weren’t in this category in this era they all recall as children.
United were the enemy of many regardless, are now seen as a carpetbagging, Yank cash cow, who cares nothing about these values. Emphasizing this plays to covert xenophobic foreigner stereotypes that City experience in a different way, but adds to its generation of “a story” to generate excitement, even if Liverpool also owned by an American who owns multiple sport clubs.
The point is their biases make it difficult to see things in a way that can recognise that Pep is trying something for the long game.
No it’s much more of “a good story” which isn’t always about selling papers as much as just wanting the attention of a pseudo-intelligent hot take, than to ponder alternative and nuanced views. Some journalists are good with words but that doesn’t mean their analysis is as good as the words themselves. Barnay Ronan is a bit of this to me, for example.
It’s like a quality action film director like Christopher Nolan (who I love btw) versus a documentary film maker interested in humanity and social conditions impacting behavior. They have different talents, but just because your good at the visuals and some good story telling with a bit of depth that creates drama and action, doesn’t mean you have the depth and insight as the latter.
