I will get hammered for saying it, I’m sure, and while last season creates a treasure trove of reasons why I will be called crazy, but I think Pep’s time at City has almost run its course and the lack of bringing in the talent we clearly needed during the off season to replace the level of quality of those who left is only exacerbating Pep’s weaknesses.
He NEEDS the best players in the world to play his “full pitch Rondo” style and, as we have seen with Phillips, if you don’t have that in such a key position, then the whole system suffers.
We also saw it with Dias bringing the ball out from the back and pinging it forward to Alvarez and Haaland, who rarely made the ball stick because the pass was errant or they were under too much pressure to accept the pinged pass.
Lastly, I think some people still don’t understand just how technically gifted a player has to be to play in a Pep team, and when there are decrements in that area, either acutely in one game or chronically over a sustained period, then the player sticks out like a sore thumb and the entire system suffers.
Accepting the ball under pressure, controlling it and accurately, and then passing it into a lane where the player receiving it wants to receive it…over an over and over again (600-700 times a game) is the second hardest thing in football after putting it in the net.
We are, often and perhaps (somewhat arrogantly) expectedly of late, a well oiled machine when the big names are playing and on their game. Over the last 4 hrs, though, not only have we not had the big names, but their understudies have illustrated just how good those big name stars are when trying to replicate the skill and precision required. That doesn’t bode well for the next 2 away games in which Draws might be seen as a good result, leaving City with no wins in 4!
January and Summer 24 are going to be massive transfer windows for City. We have aging stars, stars at their peak and potential stars who need to show more than just their potential.
Without a very deliberate reorganization of who, what and where…which I feel went off the rails this summer and has left us with too many stop-gaps…we may very well fall back into the Top Six pack looking to qualify for the Champions League.
There are teams being built right now to try to replicate our success. It only takes one or two to be fairly successful to create a little chaos at the top…and that’s with Chelsea and United still struggling!
With Pe supposedly only 1 more season from being done at City, the next 12-18 months are going to be a very interesting period, especially given this project was literally built on getting Ferran & Txiki to build the club that Pep would want to lead!
I know it is “hair on fire” stuff yo even suggest it after two bad games, but last season may have been “Peak Man City” for my lifetime, which has included watching the club in person for about 55 years and hopefully another 20 or so!
We are a “defend with a 5-4-1 and break out on the counter” opponent for far too many clubs for us not to have an answer to that by now, but I fear that when “lesser” teams use this tactic against us so successfully, it becomes the norm, yet we haven’t found the answer against far too many of them!
Success has bred these opponents, but it is too productive (1 shot on target and we lose 2-1) to NOT use it!
I’m certainly not a “Pep out!” idiot, but I’m starting to become a little bit of a “WTF Pep?!” at some of what I’m seeing.
