Pep Guardiola - 2020/21 Performances

[Xhavenjoe]

Laporte Ake and Stones are either coming back from injuries or regaining form". They won't get match fit on the bench which is probably the exact reason they played

I was pleased to see Ake and Laporte starting.
The issue I had was that when Diaz got injured we brought on Stones.
Assuming Garcia is out for the next match or so we had the possibility of getting another centre half injured with 3 of them now on the pitch.
I think Stones looks as fit as he has been for a good while and Pep could have given a run out to several others on the bench

 

[The Fat el Hombre]

18 Senior squad players got starts over 2 games, Aguero got a brief run, Raheem got a goal to boost his confidence, Foden, Torres and Garcia are all "kids" in relative term, not a bad week's work. Including the newer batch of kids like Palmer etc. when fit we have close to 30 players competing for 14 places on a match day, do you understand how hard it is to keep 25 + players match fit and ready to play. Look at his record for bringing through young players, read what players have said about him, ask Messi, Pedro, Thiago, Busquets, Kimmich, Foden, etc. where have they said he doesn't care about young players. Khaldoon has regularly stated the owner's long term ambition is to field a team largely made up of players brought through the club, who did he say was the best coach to begin this process ? .
"we can buy pretty much any player we like" No, where is Haaland, Mbappe, Neymar, Messi,if we could we would, there are budgets to be met to keep the club self sufficient, not to mention PL and European ffp rules, and that's only the beginning of restrictions internal or external to what we can do.

If of 2 of the 3 "kids" you use as examples one is a player who clearly has no intention of being here by the end of the season and the other is a 20/30 million first team signing who has never and will never play a game at any level in City's youth setup then you have a very weak argument and/or you clearly don't understand what people mean when they say they want to see more minutes of the kids.

That said, when Palmer, Doyle and co were sat on the bench not getting a sniff again last night hopefully they were encouraged by Pep's continued dedication to bringing through Barcelona B players by starting eric garcia

 

[Xhavenjoe]

Since when has Bernabe been a left back?

He came off injured for the 1st team this year and he had started as a left back. Could have been a Carabao cup game.

 

[twosips]

I under the frustration around academy players, as I get that too, but why do people say stuff like 'academy may as well not exist' when we literally have two academy players as regular squad members. Garcia and Foden. Do they suddenly not exist? I know people aren't happy with Garcia generally, and fair enough, but we just can't pretend he isn't an academy graduate to suit our own agenda. We certainly can't do that with Foden either.

Yes, it could be better, but it isn't anywhere near as bad as people make out.

 

[blueparrot]

My opinion would be Pep has got the progression of Foden just about right, if he uses the same pathway for Doyle and Palmer i,possibly a couple of others too, that should work out just fine by me,and we'll see the benefit in 2 or 3 seaosns.

 

[FantasyIreland]

I under the frustration around academy players, as I get that too, but why do people say stuff like 'academy may as well not exist' when we literally have two academy players as regular squad members. Garcia and Foden. Do they suddenly not exist? I know people aren't happy with Garcia generally, and fair enough, but we just can't pretend he isn't an academy graduate to suit our own agenda. We certainly can't do that with Foden either.

Yes, it could be better, but it isn't anywhere near as bad as people make out.

Youre correct,but not taking advantage of last nights situation/game just provokes confusion and frustration.

 

[twosips]

Youre correct,but not taking advantage of last nights situation/game just provokes confusion and frustration.

Sure. You can see why he did what he did though, and it makes sense whether we like it or not. As long as it's justifiable, there's not really much we can say.

 

[FantasyIreland]

Sure. You can see why he did what he did though, and it makes sense whether we like it or not. As long as it's justifiable, there's not really much we can say.

I don't see how taking them away from an EDS game, to have them sat on the first team bench,while Gundogan,Mahrez and Sterling get unnecessary minutes,comes under the justifiable banner?

 

[Cobra]

Aren’t Bernarbe and Nmecha both out of contract next summer? Assuming Pep rates them to some extent (obviously not to the extent of actually playing them though), aren’t we in danger of losing them both for free (or minimal compensation)? If you’re Nmecha and you’re nearly 21 but you still aren’t even given minutes in a dead rubber game then why on Earth would you sign a new contract?

 

[Clercqs]

I under the frustration around academy players, as I get that too, but why do people say stuff like 'academy may as well not exist' when we literally have two academy players as regular squad members. Garcia and Foden. Do they suddenly not exist? I know people aren't happy with Garcia generally, and fair enough, but we just can't pretend he isn't an academy graduate to suit our own agenda. We certainly can't do that with Foden either.

Yes, it could be better, but it isn't anywhere near as bad as people make out.

One could argue that if we actually started playing Garcia earlier he maybe would have signed a new contract.