Pep Guardiola - 2019/20 Performances

[Tugay One Cup]

Whether it's our domination of the ball or defensive personnel, the ends are the same and that's what matters.

Couldn't agree with you more. Unfortunately, with us being past the halfway point of Pep's fourth season, that's a 50% success rate. In his first and fourth season, we have looked absolutely soft.

Truth be told, I think that vulnerable underbelly was there in both the title winning seasons too but, as you say, the results speak for themselves.

I do think that the losses of Kompany and Laporte are two of the major reasons for our downturn and we are in need of a personnel shakeup at the back. The recruitment in that department has been hit and miss for years now and I'd have to say the hits are the anomalies.

In the meantime, I would expect the manager and coaching staff to work with and improve what they have and I don't think they're coming close to that.

 

[oldius]

It is nonsense to talk about a lack of defensive structure. We play a game where the principle is to dominate the ball and concede few chances and it has brought us unprecedented domestic success.
We play a high line which makes our one Achilles heel a vulnerability to pacy counter attacks. Teams have learnt how to beat us but often still can't. We have lost Sane and Laporte. We have lost Kompany. We have lost Zinchenko. We have also lost others for large parts of the season. It doesn't take a genius to establish why we are more vulnerable than before. As always, we have a defeat and the bell tolls with a gang of Quasimodos on the rope.

 

[balotellishaircut]

How much has Pep spent on the defence though.

Stones 47m
Walker 50m
Cancelo 52m ?
Mendy 50m
Laporte 60m
Ederson 32m

Our defensive coach needs a rocket up his arse, or Pep to change it up.

 

[itisrising]

Couldn't agree with you more. Unfortunately, with us being past the halfway point of Pep's fourth season, that's a 50% success rate. In his first and fourth season, we have looked absolutely soft.

Truth be told, I think that vulnerable underbelly was there in both the title winning seasons too but, as you say, the results speak for themselves.

I do think that the losses of Kompany and Laporte are two of the major reasons for our downturn and we are in need of a personnel shakeup at the back. The recruitment in that department has been hit and miss for years now and I'd have to say the hits are the anomalies.

In the meantime, I would expect the manager and coaching staff to work with and improve what they have and I don't think they're coming close to that.

I don't think Pep trusts the players that he has at his disposal to play the style that won us so much. And, while this may be a critique of Pep, he has managed to win Prems with the likes of Otamendi, Delph and Zinchenko key players in our side in the past. I just think, right now, we're at a point in time where we just can't hide our fragility at the back. We lost Kompany and Laporte at just the wrong time where we couldn't mask our deficiencies without them. Otamendi is past his prime, we don't know if Mendy will be the player he once was, Stones has halted and any chance of him being a world class CB are long gone imo, Fernandinho isn't a CB and Garcia is just a kid.

Our defensive recruitment has generally been very poor but Laporte and Kompany are probably the best two examples of us getting it right which makes it a real shame to lose both.

 

[oldius]

How much has Pep spent on the defence though.

Stones 47m
Walker 50m
Cancelo 52m ?
Mendy 50m
Laporte 60m
Ederson 32m

Our defensive coach needs a rocket up his arse, or Pep to change it up.

He has spent but two of those players have been out most of the season, one more is currently injured and one was sent off.

 

[balotellishaircut]

It is nonsense to talk about a lack of defensive structure. We play a game where the principle is to dominate the ball and concede few chances and it has brought us unprecedented domestic success.
We play a high line which makes our one Achilles heel a vulnerability to pacy counter attacks. Teams have learnt how to beat us but often still can't. We have lost Sane and Laporte. We have lost Kompany. We have lost Zinchenko. We have also lost others for large parts of the season. It doesn't take a genius to establish why we are more vulnerable than before. As always, we have a defeat and the bell tolls with a gang of Quasimodos on the rope.

Its not nonsense to talk about defensive structure when you cant see a game out.

Newcastle away and now Wolves away, Rags home, Norwich away need i go on.

If we only have one way of playing, you need a defensive structure, i thought this is obvious.

 

[Tugay One Cup]

How much has Pep spent on the defence though.

Stones 47m
Walker 50m
Cancelo 52m ?
Mendy 50m
Laporte 60m
Ederson 32m

Our defensive coach needs a rocket up his arse, or Pep to change it up.

I don't hold the amount spent against Pep whatsoever. From the recruitment side of things, I'm sure he has a big input but he doesn't get the final say or decide on the figures.

What I believe is that we are currently marginally less than the sum of our parts and it's entirely acceptable to expect someone of Pep's considerable talent to be doing more with what's at his disposal.

We are missing important players and we have been unlucky at times but the same issues keep reoccurring and he's continuing to fail to address them.

 

[ArmchairPundit]

He's had four years to sort it out and we're still nowhere near having anything close to resembling a defence.

He can whinge about not getting Maguire as much as he wants but that wouldn't sort it out. Weaknesses of current players simply aren't being worked on effectively and those players aren't being held responsible for consistently making the same bad decisions.

Otamendi is an absolute fucking brain-dead moron and I don't even know where you'd start with him other than not playing him. I'd genuinely rather see lettuce on the team sheet. He belongs at a team who play three at the back and where the other two centrebacks cover him while he runs around like a fat dog with ADHD. But that's the player he is and we've had about five years of watching him do the same shit time after time so it's on Pep for continuing to pick him.

Walker can't hold a defensive line. Amongst various other brainfarts, I would have thought this is absolutely imperative and something the coaches would insist on the players getting right.

We've got zero fullbacks who can defend well consistently and, to be perfectly honest, they're limited going forward, too. Their natural abilities are what they are but I don't think a single one of them has improved since coming to us.

We still can't defend as a cohesive unit and that's down to coaching.

Our time will come again I am certain of that. Our levels have dropped this season and I believe even Pep can see that he has players that have zero left in the tank to give anymore and we will see changes at the end of the season.

Not many people were complaining about his aproach to football coaching during the previous three seasons. We (as a club) have a lot to be proud about and we will bounce back even stronger.

For what it is worth: I think something absolutely stinks about this league over the past two seasons and I don't quite know what is , but there is something that just doesn't quite seem right.

The message is clear to the league and PGMO: if this is the best you can do to stop the bluemoon from continuing to rise, then God help you because we will comeback stronger and sharper next season.

 

[balotellishaircut]

I don't hold the amount spent against Pep whatsoever. From the recruitment side of things, I'm sure he has a big input but he doesn't get the final say or decide on the figures.

What I believe is that we are currently marginally less than the sum of our parts and it's entirely acceptable to expect someone of Pep's considerable talent to be doing more with what's at his disposal.

We are missing important players and we have been unlucky at times but the same issues keep reoccurring and he's continuing to fail to address them.

What im trying to say is, we should still be doing better regardless of Vinnie and Laporte..

 

[Tugay One Cup]

I don't think Pep trusts the players that he has at his disposal to play the style that won us so much. And, while this may be a critique of Pep, he has managed to win Prems with the likes of Otamendi, Delph and Zinchenko key players in our side in the past. I just think, right now, we're at a point in time where we just can't hide our fragility at the back. We lost Kompany and Laporte at just the wrong time where we couldn't mask our deficiencies without them. Otamendi is past his prime, we don't know if Mendy will be the player he once was, Stones has halted and any chance of him being a world class CB are long gone imo, Fernandinho isn't a CB and Garcia is just a kid.

Our defensive recruitment has generally been very poor but Laporte and Kompany are probably the best two examples of us getting it right which makes it a real shame to lose both.

This is a totally fair assessment.