hilts
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And :-) :-):-):-)
Pep Guardiola - 2022/23
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sir baconface
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Why does Pep play the likes of Rico, Ake, Akanji, Grealish, Mahrez ahead of Walker, Cancelo, Laporte, Foden...? Because Pep thinks that the team needs hungry players capable of challenging the more established players in the team. Pep is a tactical genius, and, given his experience, he understands the group dynamics infinitely better than the average fan. Anyone doubting this is being foolish. BUT, psychology is not Pep's specialty, and in experimenting with squad players he may make mistakes. Personally, I think he went a bit too far with Rico. Great talent but still far from the quality of Walker and Cancelo. He offered nothing in attack vs Everton.
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OB1
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It does help with perspective if you have stuck with the team through the years. Not only have I also done that, I also watched Pep's Barcelona almost as much as City at that time (and I saw pretty much every City game live whether in person or on "tv"). The idea that Pep would manage us one day seemed like a fantasy for most of his time at Barca but then things started to change and once he went to Bayern, it rapidly became a reasonable expectation.
We've had our ups and downs under Pep but it beats suffering away from home at Wycombe (I didn't go to York, not sure why because I liked the idea of visiting York for the weekend).
Having followed Pep's managerial career closely - although I didn't watch Bayern much - I've seen him continue to develop how he has his team play, albeit within the framework of Positional Play. He's done a good job of meeting the challenges thrown at him and I have no reason to doubt that he will continue to do so.
Arsenal have thrown a spanner in the works with their exceptional league form - although Pep may be one of those least surpised by it as he has consistenly talked up Artet - and Pep may not be able to have City overhaul them this season but we are not at the halfway point yet.
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I agree it didn’t work with Rico but he probably played perfectly to instruction. Play in midfield and keep the ball which he did very well whilst providing no threat whatsoever in a game where we’d always boss the midfield anyway.
Consequently we had nobody at right back for the goal and Mahrez had nobody to support him or overlap him. Seen as both our wingers have no pace it was a very strange set up with both fullbacks. Seems odd he didn’t change things much earlier as we weren’t good the whole match.
OB1
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People come on this forum regularly and say we played shite and the only shite is that comment.
City hardly ever play shite and certainly did not against Everton. City's standards are so hight that even, for them, below average perfromances are still good in comparison to other teams.
I think our average this season is lower than it needs to be have an outstanding trophy haul but the time when we need our best performances is still ahead of us.
Against Everton we had enough good chances to have scored more and allowed them next to nothing, unfortunately they produced one piece of quality to score and made life difficult for City by defending aggressively in large numbers and employing an unending series of spoiling tactics. Games sometimes come down to fine margins and the Everton game did.
City face what I see as an unprecedented parade of bus parkers on a level that none of our rivals face and it presents a real difficulty.
We are changing again, we have a completely different kind of centre forward in our team and Pep has little time on the training pitch to work with the players due to the compacted season and the frequency of games.
Patience in games and outside of them is a virtue.
OB1
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Hmmm, if Pep didn't do player psychology well, I don't believe he would have been as successful as he is.
TFC
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He's 'figured it out' plenty of times before, smart money is on him doing it again.
We already have and to great effect. When Foden Haaland and Grealish started the games at Sevilla and v Man U we ran roughshod up front. 10 goals, 5 by Erling and 4 by Little Philip. Versus NF we started Alvarez with Haaland and Foden and Haaland bagged another hat trick with Julian adding a brace. Why we have not gone back to these type of set ups up front is maddening. When you have the upper hand you play the fucking upper hand, not with a hand or two tied behind your back. I'll take the 3-3 v Newcastle any day of the week over the shit shows v Everton and Brentford because many more times than not we win those type of games 4-1, 5-2, 4-2 or whatever. Are we now going to play some fucking slow motion chess match against every team we face and wind up fucked anyway like at Anfield? What am I missing?
That's a big part of the problem. There's not that much to figure out. When you have the best roster you press the upper hand. We don't always need Pep to be a genius. Does anyone see Arteta experimenting with all sorts of inverted wingers and fullbacks and such? Pep was committed to his 4-3-3 for the longest time and it worked fabulously. Even without a recognized 9 he stuck with the 4-3-3 using a "false" 9 and it worked. We brought in a top level 9 and now Pep decides to start experimenting with the formation. What for? City don't need gimmicks. We're not a lesser team trying to find ways to make up the gap. It's so unnecessary. Why is playing Rico Lewis at RB and then essentially moving him into midfield in what becomes a 3-4-3 genius? If you're going to play a 3-4-3 just play Bernardo there joining Rodri, KDB, and Gundo. As good as Rico has been does it justify sitting Bernardo? In the end there's a fine line between a genius and a mad scientist.
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