Pep Guardiola - 2023/24

[alexmcity]

Pep is only human and makes mistakes, but basic decency and intelligence should stop people from being too critical of him.

 

[nellyonthewing]

not trusting his bench much. selling Palmer seems a worse decision with time. he is probably better than Doku currently , certainly way ahead of Bobb.

what the hell going on with Nunes.

or making Akanji play the hybrid role. or Walker being first name on the teamsheet when he was on his way out of the first eleven last season which was our best season ever. or Gvardiol at LB or Alvarez in a much deeper role that he is suited to.

too many strange things.

if Chelsea has a better conversion rate they score 2-3 today easily from a very few chances gifted to them due to our tactics which left way too much space at the back vs quick counter players.

recently trying to revert back to last seasons tactics compared to first half of the season with pushed up fullbacks. not sure it will work with our defenders in much worse for overall and the lack of Gundogan. also not much coming from the winger, Foden has had his best games centrally, not so much from the wings, and Grealish, Doku has an end product of close to zero goals/assists these days. Mahrez alone scored more goals last season than all our wingers this season from the wing.

he wasnt helped by Txiki for the transfer window, hope he has had a world with him, because Mcallister, Rice, Szoboszlai gave so much more to our rivals than any of our new signings to us.

That bench looked more like a Championship side not a Champions side.

 

[ojeme]

Playing Gvardiol at LB/LCB has hurt us this season. Also playing Alvarez as one of the AMs has also had its repercussions. I think Ake would probably be on the bench if Gvardiol was fit and we would have missed the brilliance of the former as we have seen in the last few games.

Alvarez is a great guy but from now on I think it should be either him or Haaland ti start in games. When the team is dysfunctional, everyone suffers.

 

[super_city_si]

I hope Foden confronts Pep again. cant believe hes been sacrificed for Alvarez. Absolute joke.

Fair to say we are missing right sided players but you cant tell me we would be worse with foden middle and alvarez wide. Even Nunes wide. I dont understand how he has been marginalized after being superb. He was even grasping the defensive side or the mid role.

 

[Middedon]

Playing Gvardiol at LB/LCB has hurt us this season. Also playing Alvarez as one of the AMs has also had its repercussions. I think Ake would probably be on the bench if Gvardiol was fit and we would have missed the brilliance of the former as we have seen in the last few games.

Alvarez is a great guy but from now on I think it should be either him or Haaland ti start in games. When the team is dysfunctional, everyone suffers.

How long are we going to blame the ills of the season on Gvardiol? He didn’t even play today. He’s also often played next to Ake of late, so it clearly has not been an either or situation. And this Ake is “forgotten” line of thought is odd. He was the top defender and the third ranked player in the Etihad Player of the Season last year. Pep and every fan loves him - but it’s been said it’s hard for him to play every game. Gvardiol has rarely taken his spot when he’s been 100% healthy or fully rested.

 

[vanchi]

Playing Gvardiol at LB/LCB has hurt us this season. Also playing Alvarez as one of the AMs has also had its repercussions. I think Ake would probably be on the bench if Gvardiol was fit and we would have missed the brilliance of the former as we have seen in the last few games.

Alvarez is a great guy but from now on I think it should be either him or Haaland ti start in games. When the team is dysfunctional, everyone suffers.

why is gvardiol catching strays now?

pep switched between joško and ake when ake couldn’t play every game. after that they played together often.

how tf did you miss the whole new thing pep was doing with playing gvardiol as a winger?

also, since he signed, gvardiol was benched for 8 games in all competitions, and has so far missed 2 due to injuries.

so, 10 games without gvardiol so far, only 1 clean sheet in 10 games without gvardiol.
every other defender is a treble winning defender. there were some individual errors, but in general, even if you think gvardiol’s utter crap, what about the treble winning defenders? did every single one forget how to play football?

it’s the system, the no midfield games, players playing out of their natural positions and so on.

 

[vanchi]

How long are we going to blame the ills of the season on Gvardiol? He didn’t even play today. He’s also often played next to Ake of late, so it clearly has not been an either or situation. And this Ake is “forgotten” line of thought is odd. He was the top defender and the third ranked player in the Etihad Player of the Season last year. Pep and every fan loves him - but it’s been said it’s hard for him to play every game. Gvardiol has rarely taken his spot when he’s been 100% healthy or fully rested.

yeah this is ridiculous, i can’t even type what i really think cause i’d be banned. hopefully i’ll bump into ojeme the expert on twitter…

do you know that there was a let’s shit on new players thing in the match thread? it was lovely. especially considering the fact that 10 players on that pitch were not new players. makes a lot of sense eh?

but yeah, joško gvardiol, managing to ruin city’s whole season even with an ankle ligament injury.
what next? were kova and nunes existing too much on the bench today or something?

 

[Nour]

I was getting abuse before the game questioning peps setup of having Akanji play there when stones is fit , Alvarez in the attacking mid won't ever work. On midweek he never played those two players and we comfortably controlled that games.

 

[Alvin-blue-qhd]

Triangle near the box: Alvarez + Foden + Haaland
Kdb pass the ball to that triangle
No Doku, When the defender is fast enough, his performance will be poor. And he stand in wide position, that makes the midfield too empty.
Need kovacic to play in the midfield. He is strong and can help to make some confrontation in the midfield.
So we have Rodri, Kova, KDB, Alvarez, Foden, Haaland.
6 players
4 defenders, Gvardiol is important, because sometimes we need him to stand in the left wing position. He has good ability to keep the ball.
I think that will be the best start 11, when we play teams like chelsea. We need a strong midfield.

 

[Goater=Legend]

Results against the top teams this season is a concern.

Needs to be ruthless like he was in the run in last year if some players are unhappy with it then so be it