Brewster's millions
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Sad but true, and as you say happening every other week now.
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Pep Guardiola - 2022/23
- Thread starter MAG
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Perfectly stated. If we were lining up in our traditional 4-4-3 with our best 11 on the pitch and shitting the bed it'd be one thing. But what we're seeing over the past 2 months is absurd.I’ve tried to calm down and relax after yet another shit-show yesterday but I am getting more and more concerned about the teams direction. No side, however great, is immune to bad results or a bad season, but I can’t help but worry about us next season and beyond.
For whatever reason, we now find ourselves playing week in, week out, with at least half a dozen of our best players/bona fide winners, not there for one reason or another. Some can’t get in the side (Dias, Laporte). Some have had their form/standard fall off a cliff (Bernie, Gundo, KDB), others seem to be in limbo (Walker, Foden) and Cancelo has been booted out.
No team can handle this number of missing top players and let’s face it, no other team would even attempt it, because 99.99999% of other clubs, would boot the manager out of the club, as it is far more cost effective (and easier) than thinking about trying to replace so many players.
Let me be clear…I do not want us to part ways with the best manager in the world but something has got to give. If the club is backing the manager over the players (and I fully expect them to) then it means we need to back him with a summer of spending that makes Todd Boehly look like Peter Swales.
The club cannot and MUST NOT go into next season with Akanji, Ake, Rico, Grealish and Mahrez as nailed on starters.
Akanji must be nothing more than a back up CB.
Ake can possibly be our LB, much like Delph or Zin were. Not the long-term answer but serviceable in an otherwise solid/top-class back 4.
Rico must be what he is…a kid working his way into professional football.
Grealish a squad player as he won’t ever deliver enough playing wide forward every week.
Mahrez a squad player as he is too flaky and cannot be 1st choice when he goes missing for months on end.
Before people lose their shit with “Ake is our best defender” or “Mahrez has been great since the WC” or “Grealish is working hard”…look at what we are watching collectively out on the pitch. The level of these players (no matter how hard they are trying), is nowhere near the level of those they have replaced from previous title-winning seasons. Most top sides (we have done it ourselves) can handle one or two players in the side that are a level or two below the rest. No side remains a top side, when there are more squad players in the starting XI, than there are top players and at the moment that’s where we are at.
If the likes of Dias, Laporte, Cancelo, Gundo, Bernie are done, then it requires replacing them with players of equal quality. That means no more squad-padding with Akanji, Ake, or Calvin Philips like purchases. It means buying proper top-class players. If we don’t, then we have started to see the end of our dominance cycle and this side is in a top four battle next season.
If these Prem charges have any teeth we can forget both a refresh and Pep.It would be like us to win the CL this year, like Chelsea and Liverpool finishing nowhere near the title when they did. I think Pep needs to decide how he wants to play, if he wants to keep,the ball at all costs then sell Haaland because that lad thrives off making runs in to space,if they are only trusting KDB to do that pass then forget it. The best game we’ve played this year was without Haaland against Chelsea at home, fast paced lasts of movement interchanging positions, I know Chelsea aren’t the best but it was the old style of play we’ve enjoyed the last few years. Pep said Haaland would have to adapt to our style, but he can’t he’s nit a mobile forward like Aguero or Alvarez, so he has a choice change the style and build the team around Haaland or drop him put Alvarez in there and go back to the old style which Pep has used forever. I don’t mind if we don’t win anything this year as long as the players try, a massive rebuild in summer 2 fast wingers, a left back, and a leader On and off the pitch!
I still have a nagging feeling Pep may walk, his body language is not good, so unless Tixi opens that cheque book he may well part ways.
Very sad...Sad but true, and as you say happening every other week now.
Money...Peps Ego is so big that he'd rather sabotage the season than admit his 442 system is utter nonsense.
The players don't believe in the tactics. The squad are mentally exhausted. Last season was so tough on the players, Kevin said
"This was the hardest one!"
A gruelling title fight and a dramatic champions league defeat to end the season. This season started early with cramed fixtures because of the winter world cup.
This should have been the season where the players where given more freedom, its impossible to maintain the same intensity. Gundogan, Kev, Laporte, Bernardo, Walker, Stones, Mahrez, let them play to the best of thier abilities in a system they're familiar with, instead he's marginalizing our best players because they've realised this 442 inverted set-up is crap!
Players like Ake, Akanji, Lewis, Grealish are just happy to be playing, they will never question Pep, the established players have voiced their discontent thats clear. Its a dangerous territory Pep is entering, he has insecurities (UCL) that is affecting the team.
Because unlike to a large part of the fandom here the Champions League is huge to Bayern and he wasn't getting it done to the board's expectations. Rightly or wrongly they expect to win the league every year by having the best squad. They don't consider that being entitled. They have a standard and unless another team is able to build an equal or superior squad to them they expect to win the league. They've won the league all 6 six years since Pep left and also won the CL since. The team he took over were the defending CL champs as well so he wasn't stepping into a project of any sort. He won the league title all 3 years and lost in the CL semi finals all 3 years.Why did Pep leave Munich? Had he lost the dressing room or just his normal 3 years and I’m off?
Lavinda Past
Well-Known Member
It's not a matter of being backed, it's about having full control.If you are the best, why would you stay with an employer who does not back you?
Bayern weren't prepared to let go of the reins and Pep knew that City would give him the freedom he feels he needs to deliver the goods.
Problem is that, just like at Bayern, he's still not delivered the goods that he was brought in to deliver... the CL.
Seven years is a long time considering the levels of investment the club has made in that time.
I'm certainly not saying Pep should go now, but given the lack of CL success and a squad obviously in decline, there's got to be a point when someone on the Board asks whether £12m+ a year salary is still good value.
Because a club is bigger than the persons in it?If you are the best, why would you stay with an employer who does not back you?
He left Bayern because of City. He did not lose the dressing room and the board did not want to get rid. It was his wish. I think he even understood that in a club like Bayern you never get 100% control as a coach but have to compromise.
melrose40yarder
Well-Known Member
Something is very wrong.
How can Dias and Laporte not be in that defence.Same goes for Gundo and Kdb.You have to play your best players.I feel they aint listening anymore.Something has to give
How can Dias and Laporte not be in that defence.Same goes for Gundo and Kdb.You have to play your best players.I feel they aint listening anymore.Something has to give
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