Pep Guardiola - 2022/23

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Rammy Blue said:
Nah, don’t buy that. We’ve not played for 7 days, we’ve only got 1 more game before an international break and he picked a team that was always going to struggle, and what a surprise it did. We got out of jail tonight due to 2 wonder strikes.

He has always prioritised the Champs league and for some bizarre reason tonight he picked an underwhelming line up. No idea why.
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I'd have said this was a classic line up against a team he expected to be tough.

He regularly picks "control" lineups in the Champions League. Mahrez is a CL regular, and Grealish and Gundogan are players who slow the game down and control it.

Foden, de Bruyne, Alvarez, Haaland, are all disruptors who create a more chaotic game. Bernardo arguably does both, but is not as likely to slow things down.
 
bluenova said:
I'd have said this was a classic line up against a team he expected to be tough.

He regularly picks "control" lineups in the Champions League. Mahrez is a CL regular, and Grealish and Gundogan are players who slow the game down and control it.

Foden, de Bruyne, Alvarez, Haaland, are all disruptors who create a more chaotic game. Bernardo arguably does both, but is not as likely to slow things down.
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Last night's starting XI was OD-ing on control, that was one of the problems. Mahrez's chronic lack of form so far is another, he and Grealish are just too similar to be effective as a pairing out wide, show them inside where they can run into traffic and they're little threat, especially Grealish.

I think we do "chaotic" better than any team I've ever watched, it's remarkably successful. We tend to stumble more often when we go for control.
 
With that lineup he expect Dortmund will be their usual attacking styles, been surprised that they do the opposite and playing pragmatic counter attacking tactic.

Maybe if he do opposite playing foden, bernardo and alvarez as starter and bring Grealish, Mahrez and Gundogan as sub to control the game and protect the lead it will be much better
 
Pep's biggest challenge this season is, how to make the team stronger with a goalscorer like Haaland?

It may seem easy: you take a team that creates a lot of chances, you add a fantastic finisher up front and win every game. Well, in reality it's not easy, because they are various trade-offs in moving from a system that won you 2 consecutive titles and made you the best in Europe defensively and offensively to a new system of playing with a superstar striker at the end of most attacks.

The problem for Pep won't be tactical but psychological: how to maintain the unity and spirit of the squad when you have a player who gets much more attention from the media than the other players? How to make sure that the team will be more important than any star, and that the players will give everything for the team when one of them will be praised much more than the rest? It's a big challenge as Pep's last season at Barca showed: Messi broke individual records (73 goals!) but Barca won nothing big.

Think the transition from City from the last two seasons to Haaland City will feel a bit frustrating at times (Newcastle, Palace, Villa, Dortmund...) But hopefilly it will end up with a City team for the ages. Pep was a hero in that a strikerless team won back to back titles and scored most goals in Europe last season. But Pep will be an anti-hero if he fails to win big trophies with Haaland. The better the players, the stronger the pressure to succeed. It may seem an easy challenge from outside, the reality is it's difficult to manage a squad full of stars. Tuchel managed to stay only 20 months at Chelsea...Mourinho was finished after two years at every big club he managed. It's a very, very difficult job to win titles at the same club for many seasons.
 
alexmcity said:
Pep's biggest challenge this season is, how to make the team stronger with a goalscorer like Haaland?

It may seem easy: you take a team that creates a lot of chances, you add a fantastic finisher up front and win every game. Well, in reality it's not easy, because they are various trade-offs in moving from a system that won you 2 consecutive titles and made you the best in Europe defensively and offensively to a new system of playing with a superstar striker at the end of most attacks.

The problem for Pep won't be tactical but psychological: how to maintain the unity and spirit of the squad when you have a player who gets much more attention from the media than the other players? How to make sure that the team will be more important than any star, and that the players will give everything for the team when one of them will be praised much more than the rest? It's a big challenge as Pep's last season at Barca showed: Messi broke individual records (73 goals!) but Barca won nothing big.

Think the transition from City from the last two seasons to Haaland City will feel a bit frustrating at times (Newcastle, Palace, Villa, Dortmund...) But hopefilly it will end up with a City team for the ages. Pep was a hero in that a strikerless team won back to back titles and scored most goals in Europe last season. But Pep will be an anti-hero if he fails to win big trophies with Haaland. The better the players, the stronger the pressure to succeed. It may seem an easy challenge from outside, the reality is it's difficult to manage a squad full of stars. Tuchel managed to stay only 20 months at Chelsea...Mourinho was finished after two years at every big club he managed. It's a very, very difficult job to win titles at the same club for many seasons.
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There are a few things going for Pep though.

1 He will always have the backing of Txiki, Soriano, Khaldoon and probably Sheik Mansour as well.
2 Haaland is a star player, but with respect to other players and a down to Earth yet determined character. He is no Ronaldo or Neymar.

The start is promising to say the least. And there will be harder times ahead. But my guess is the character within the squad is as perfect as any manager would like. Or at least it seems that way.
 
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