Pep Guardiola - 2020/21 Performances

[tonea2003]

I’ve never seen him so tetchy and spiky. Was it the penalty? He certainly had plenty to say about that, especially as it didn’t affect the result. He got a barb in that “we are Manchester City and we have to win everything ourselves”.

Or was it the players? There were comments about less rotation in future and players not playing for the shirt needing to sit on the bench. Who was that?

My guess is that tonight showed our underbelly. A few players looked complacent and made daft errors. We let the opposition dictate for spells. Good opposition could have beaten us tonight. It was a significantly inferior performance to the derby at the weekend yet we won 5-2. But, and it’s a significant but, I remember him being like this a couple of years ago and it turned out that his family had been evicted from a plane to the game because of their support for Catalonia (or something similar). He’s a human being and gets grumpy. Was it something external like that? He actually looked spiky in the pre-match interview to me.

Did anyone else sense this? What was eating The bald genius tonight?

eventually blatant cheating from officials and constant inane questions from soundbite chasing press and media, he was going to blow at some point and good on him he's fighting our corner, he's one of us

IN-CRED-IBLE

 

[Sir peace frog]

Us bald fellas get techy from time to time, thinking what could of been with blonde long beach bum hair:)

 

[Rammy Blue]

Probably a combination of a few things.

He said in the interview with Ferdinand last week, “They have to do well, we prepare, and they have to do well. The human beings have a tendency to relax, and in this team with me, this is not going to happen! So they have to do it better and better.”

We haven’t been doing it better and better. Since about the 15th minute at the Emirates, we’ve been doing it worse and worse.

This is guess work, but his comment at the end last night; “Now we arrive in the right moment for the season, and the right moment in the season where there’s not many games, and they’re not going to play. The players that help me a lot during this season, help the team a lot, the players are going to rotate less, and it’s going to the players who thinks about the, you know, the club, and the team, and the rest will sit on the bench!”

Straight away I thought of Laporte, and he didn’t have a good game last night. Mendy has barely been seen since he broke lockdown rules. What’s going on with the contract situations with Sterling? and de Bruyne? and Agüero?

But most of all, he just seemed pissed off with the penalty decision and in saying three important things:

“You know that for a long time, maybe in four or five years, I’ve never really complained about the referees, but this action is really in-cre-di-ble, in-cre-di-ble!” - and it was, it was a fucking STONE WALL penalty!

Which is important because, like he said, “Today, okay, it was 5-2, but at that moment it was 1-1. If we are not able to win the game with the quality of the opponent, we are just - not “just”, it’s enough - we are eight points clear and in that moment it’s 1-1”. - implying that decisions like that at crucial times of the game, like 1-1, can change the game, and possibly the title race. Let’s say we did lose last night and after we are just 8 points clear (once games are caught up), the mentality of everyone at City United/Leicester changes and the title race can be swung on little moments like that. Referees need to be better than getting decisions like that wrong.

And then finally, his point saying, “in this club, I don’t know in other ones, but in this club, what we have done this decade, over the last years, we won it, we did it for ourself, that’s for sure!” - that’s literally a swipe at PIGMOB, VAR, the Cartel, the Premier League, UEFA, the Spiteful 9, letters being written, Scudamore’s comments, FFP, Der Spiegel, the emails being cropped and tampered with... because we have had to do everything for ourselves, we’ve had no helping hand from anyone like others have consistently. Everything we win, we win through our own quality and battles against all of that shit. Decisions like that penalty last night could indicate that the Premier League want a closer end to the season. It was that bad a decision that you start to think things like that... That would certainly make me angry!

The decision wasn’t “wrong”, it was bent. Pure and simple.

 

[AshtonBlueMooner]

Laporte only a few weeks ago said he would assess his situation at the end of the season. I'm pretty sure this would have upset Pep as the only reason he was out of the team was because of injury followed by the excellent form of Dias and Stones.

He also saw last night some of the doubt creeping into our play. Unforced errors that put us in panic mode and give Southampton an opportunity to try and stay in the game. He knows teams of higher quality will seize that opportunity and he clearly wants every player to be focused, concentrating for the full game and playing in his style. Not hoof ball and inviting pressure time and time again.

The penalty decision is the straw that broke the camels back. He has called it out now, he knows that this will pick up a lot of media attention and he has carefully chosen his words to say, you are corrupt, without using those very words.

He has also re-iterated that we are only where we are because of the cash spent. He knows that by him saying it, it reduces the impact of some smart arse journalist asking a loaded question about it. Very astute reverse psychology.

So, our intelligent Boss has, in one interview, revved up his players, sent a message to all those corrupt parties trying to level the playing field, has disrupted the media narrative around expenditure and has sent a message to any unsettled players that it's his way or the highway. Very clever Pep, very clever indeed.

 

[richards30]

I can’t imagine Torres kicking off too much at this stage as he’s only been here not even one season yet and have Covid etc? Laporte will go I reckon though and Mendy will be gone as well but seemingly it’s the Barca media that have put out about aguero having had talks with them? The decisions besides the penalty today were a disgrace anyway! That fat twat moss give Southampton everything he could!

 

[Marvin]

I’ve never seen him so tetchy and spiky. Was it the penalty? He certainly had plenty to say about that, especially as it didn’t affect the result. He got a barb in that “we are Manchester City and we have to win everything ourselves”.

Or was it the players? There were comments about less rotation in future and players not playing for the shirt needing to sit on the bench. Who was that?

My guess is that tonight showed our underbelly. A few players looked complacent and made daft errors. We let the opposition dictate for spells. Good opposition could have beaten us tonight. It was a significantly inferior performance to the derby at the weekend yet we won 5-2. But, and it’s a significant but, I remember him being like this a couple of years ago and it turned out that his family had been evicted from a plane to the game because of their support for Catalonia (or something similar). He’s a human being and gets grumpy. Was it something external like that? He actually looked spiky in the pre-match interview to me.

Did anyone else sense this? What was eating The bald genius tonight?

Confidence that we are close to securing our prime objective? I'd be elated if I were him, and when you are elated you are not ordinary.

 

[Easy]

Because City has never won the champions league is it as simple as that. Our players are hungry asf because they have a challenge. After 2 or 3 champions league it can not be the same hunger.

How do you want to have the same hunger after 6 ballons d'or , 10 ligas and 3 champions league?
I would love to have Messi in our club but on certains conditions but i don't think he will accept. We are not talking just about a football player we are talking about a monster. This dude was bigger than Barça and you think if he comes to City he will accept to change his mentality? This dude has almost get Luis Enrique fired just because he was trying to tell him to run and help the team a lil bit more.

I think what is annoying him are the blatant 'inconsistencies' .
On Sunday Martial fouled = pen. Given on field.
Sterling stopped in the area and no pen given.

Tonight, Laporte touches Vesteegard = pen, given on field.
Foden fouled = no pen on field and not overturned.

So basically he knows this still isn't a level playing field.

I'd be furious too. This is his job AND he knows when he's been stitched up!!!!!!

If there is corruption within football I refuse to believe we wouldn’t know about it. Too many people would have to be involved and it would have leaked. Either in public or to our execs.

It was a shocking decision for the foden penalty so don’t blame him for being angry.
Then our levels have dipped recently so again for Pep the perfectionist this will annoy him given what a crucial time of year it is.

its corruption. Why? Money. Pep knows it, check the post match press conference around the 3:00 min mark it begins. The refs try to make the title race closer as it’s more interesting. More viewers watch and more money is made.

it’s also why Pep says whatever we as a club achieved, we did it ourselves i.e with no help from the referees.

Pep also mentions that we went out to Spurs in the CL due to Llorente handball goal which is the first time he mentioned it I believe.

There is corruption but it’s not as clear as you would imagine. The refs influence the game in certain actions. Last night, soft penalty for Soton given, clear penalty for Foden not given. In other games, Salah dives and gets a penalty. Other examples are giving 6 minutes of extra time when it should be really 3 minutes giving the “helped” team an extra push or maybe giving a free kick in a dangerous area for a foul that is never a foul after the player falls over. It’s little things like this.

 

[Mike N]

yes, some players strolling about like they think the season is over, walker being the main culprit

The back-heel that led to their equaliser. Unforgivable.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Bald genius. Eh? : /

We conceded 2 goals FFS. The bald fraud it is until we beat BM 10-0 In the CL Final, thanks; )

Only one, BM. One of 'em was a gift from Fat Jonny! And had Eddie stayed where he was instead of thinking about St. Bruno's pen he could have kicked Ferenc Johann RealRon Ward-Prowse's effort back down Mossy's gullet. I've amended the score to 6-1 to better reflect what happened on the pitch, in the gap between Jonny Moss's ears, and the technological ditherings from the VAR pop-up LotG shop.

 

[Goater10]

There was a lot to be annoyed with last night. Can't ever recall being so angry myself after winning by a 3 goal margin. Don't think it's anything deeper.