Pep Guardiola - 2022/23

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Looking above Pep. The squad is a shambles if we're being honest.

5 CBs = constant rotating and crowbarring them in at fullback

2 fullbacks - Walker been injured and Cancelo not looking remotely close to his best. Left us with an 18 year old(who to his credit has been decent), CBs at fullback and Gomez who isn't good enough(at least yet).

Midfield - Rodri - arguably best in his position in football. But then you have Gundo and Bernardo who don't really want to be here and are playing like it. Gundos quality taken a nosedive back to his early days here. Kev whose engine is going and with it a lot of his non creative qualities. Signed Phillips who been injured until now and has never played the lone cdm role he'd be asked to play for us and thus the drop in quality when he rotates for Rodders is huge. Then Palmer and Foden picked up minutes centrally and if we're being honest neither are good enough to play there for us there except vs fodder/early cup

Forwards - Haaland, great signing his strength of running in behind is currently being completely ignored in favour of retaining possession.
Alvarez, been brilliant especially when starting. Not getting him on the pitch enough.
Foden, Grealish and Mahrez. All had decent games and bits of form. All lack any goal threat consistency, all lack genuine pace and ability to get past their man and make things happen regularly. Palmer long term isn't good enough for us, has flashes but overall lacks the quality.
 
Brewster's millions said:
The warning signs have been there all season.

As you say, we’ve looked good in maybe 30, 40% of our games. But the failure to close the game off against Villa suggested a lack of focus, as did the way we eased off against Newcastle when we got back to 3-3. The Champions League performances away at Dortmund and Copenhagen were also very mediocre.

We’ve not helped ourselves by playing around with the team though. The match at Anfield was a case in point - no one knew where they were playing - and we got away with one against Chelsea last week. Every week seems to bring a different formation and it hasn’t helped us defensively.
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I expected a bit of drop of just because we been incredible since second season under pep you can not keep that up indefinitely! Top four and champs league we should be looking at now! We ain’t going to be top dogs for ever we will drop back to the pack while others will get there lift improvement! It’s football! Don’t be spoiled
 
waspish said:
I expected a bit of drop of just because we been incredible since second season under pep you can not keep that up indefinitely! Top four and champs league we should be looking at now! We ain’t going to be top dogs for ever we will drop back to the pack while others will get there lift improvement! It’s football! Don’t be spoiled
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This is how I see it. Top 4 and a good cup run is hardly the end of the world.
 
We don't look the terrifying side we once were. We have terrifying individuals (Haaland, KdB), but as a whole we aren't.

We aren't creating enough chances anymore, can't remember how many times I've heard the commentator say we have yet to test the opposition goalkeeper. To make matters worse, we aren't even that watertight in defence.

Can't remember when it started, but for most games now, we have been slow and ponderous. Almost like each player just passing to each other safely, going through the motions, hoping for something to happen.

Whether we need new players, or some players need a kick up the arse, I don't know.

Hopefully this loss is the spark needed for a rethink.
 
waspish said:
I expected a bit of drop of just because we been incredible since second season under pep you can not keep that up indefinitely! Top four and champs league we should be looking at now! We ain’t going to be top dogs for ever we will drop back to the pack while others will get there lift improvement! It’s football! Don’t be spoiled
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I don’t expect to be top dogs indefinitely, and at some point a decline would inevitably occur. Haaland apart, we’ve bought mediocre players over the past year and lost some very good ones. Replacing Fernandinho and Zinchenko with Gomez and Phillips - two pub team players by comparison - is only going to weaken the squad.

But we haven’t exactly helped ourselves this year either. Every week seems to bring a different tactic, and we’ve had several games where the players genuinely appeared to not know where they should be playing. Even when we’ve hit form, we’ve then shuffled the team and prevented a rhythm from being established. We’ve also failed to fully integrate Haaland into the team, and our play has become predictable and passive.

Like I said, a decline was inevitable, and personally I’m more concerned about how we’re going to correct it, as more of the same isn’t going to cut it unfortunately.
 
The most frustrating thing under him is that we can't just draw a game. We either win it or go and lose it at the death. It's like clockwork
 
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