Pep Guardiola - 2024/25

[Damocles]

We need a new manager who accepts that you must not lose before you attempt to win.

I think we should have the greatest manager in the history of football instead

 

[Saddleworth2]

I think most people thought Rodri being out for the year was going to make this season a bridge too far, but NO-ONE could foresee that City would be breaking NEGATIVE stats this season instead of positive ones.

Yes, we have a very large group of injuries, and a team with some walking wounded being forced to play, but some of that HAS TO be laid at Pep’s feet.

Every week, we see teams blooding youngsters and players making debuts. Sadly, Pep trusts his old, slow and walking wounded over the young players who have been training with the squad all season. If not now, when?

And, maybe it sounds stupid, but when you desperately need to keep a clean sheet, away, in the Champions League, why is it the HOME team can play a back 4/5, but we persist with a back 3 that leaks like a sieve and is susceptible to both the fast counter and a cross into the box?

One clear reason: NO-ONE we play in midfield has the ability to play as a box to box midfielder for 90 minutes. No-one. Not a single player on the field. So, we have to try to play the “overload game,” where we keep and move the ball SLOWLY into the opposition half, pin them back, and then allow us to try to CREATE an overload by shifting the ball around to the open man. Sadly, even the bottom third of the teams in the Premier League, let alone the best managers in the world of European football, have learned OVER THE LAST 5 YEARS how to blunt this approach, then spring into attack and stuff us with the same old “one shot, one goal” that is as common today as LEE ONE PEN was in the 70s!!!

Pep is a football genius.

Or, maybe Pep WAS a football genius and it has taken the coaching disciples a decade to learn his methods, mark out their training grounds with his rectangles, and learn his systems…all while developing their own bigger, stronger, faster players to both blunt his plans and exploit his way of playing?

I have said for a few seasons now that football was leaving this slow, aging squad behind and that the “Three S’s” were the future of football…Size, Speed and Strength!

Yes, of course, technical ability is a requirement, but at the apex of the game, this is a given. However, as age takes over, the speed of the game robs you of your technique, because you simply cannot play that fast, don’t have the strength to hold off younger, stronger players, and then lack the size, speed or strength to retrieve the ball.

I think, in Nunes, Txiki saw the Three S’s and believed her could be a good addition to the midfield, but Pep doesn’t trust him to hold onto the ball, won’t take the keash of him to run at teams, and thus has blunted the advantages he MIGHT be able to bring to the team…just like Jack, Phil, Savinho and Doku on the wings!

We love to have wingers who hug the touchline, but we don’t have the speed in getting forward to help them be one on one or be able to play the ball inside the full back and set them away!

Son at Spurs has made a career out of setting up wide and being played in, but he would be another Jack Grealish in this team set up…just like Cole Palmer would be driving sideways, not forward into the box if he were still here.

My fear is that Pep honestly believes it is a simple matter of getting his injured players back, his half fit players fit, and getting back to where we were at the start of the season after Christmas. If so, he is deluded.

Sadly, I don’t believe it is just age, pace, size and nagging injuries that have doomed this season, I believe it is THE LACK OF ANY TACTICAL PROGRESS AND THE REPETITION OF ONCE REVOLUTIONARY, BUT NOW MERELY STALE, IDEAS coming from the coaching staff.

We lack dynamism. We lack speed. We lack strength. We lack size in the middle of the park. We lack a second goal scorer. We lack a safe pair of hands. We lack an on field leader. We lack any Plan B when Plan A hadn’t worked for 75 minutes…although I actually think Pep thinks a few subs and shuffling half the team into a different position IS a Plan B!

This season, 2024/25, is a season too far for this team. I don’t know if 115 concerns has stopped us doing the business that has been needed. Maybe the club has been amassing FFP funds for the rebuild they THOUGHT could wait until 2025 IF/AFTER Pep signed a new deal? Or, maybe there is some other, unknown, internal, executive reason why we have been hoarding FFP monies, such as wanting the wage bill clipped when older stars on millions per month move on?

Whatever the reason City have not consistently and systematically introduced players who are ready-made replacements and younger, high quality potential improvements, has been the ONLY MAJOR MISTAKE OF THIS EXECUTIVE TEAM DINCE THEY ARRIVED…unless they have actually been flying too close to the sun and they know (even though they refuse to admit it) that we are about to be schwacked and will need every penny and more to build their way back out of the mess they have created?

Whatever the reason we find ourselves here, THEY are the only ones that can fix it, be it by coaching, a coaching change or the injection of personnel that will turn the ship around.

The complete lack of midfield strengthening, while ignoring the blooding of internal, Academy talent, has IMHO been down to Pep’s stubbornness and nothing more.

Wright, O’Reilly, Simpson-Pusey (and THB before him), Bobb and McAtee have been given a little lip service and a seat on the bench for the season (which means they aren’t playing hardly any games anywhere for any team) and have thus gained almost ZERO FIRST TEAM EXPERIENCE. What’s the point? Where will our Conor Bradley come from?

This weekend’s derby looms very, very large indeed.

Amorim is the big new thing. His team is faster, stronger and hungrier than ours, even with its multiple flaws. And, their position in the table has probably only one direction to go, while we (with the exception of Forest) look to be in free fall now that the rest of the Top 6 have basically caught up and even overtaken us.

If we defend like we are, we are sunk.

If we lack the midfield bite needed for the second ball, we are sunk.

If we miss the opportunities we do create, we are sunk.

And, if, God forbid, we lose big, maybe Pep, too, will be sunk!

It’s all fine and dandy talking about 6 of 7 and more trophies under Prp than in our entire history before him, but time and tide wait for no man and football (and the business of football) is ALL about “What have you done for me lately?”

I’m not sure Pep and at least half of this team want to give an honest answer to that question.

Its a very thorough intelligent analysis. I would add that Pep doesn't use subs nearly as much as his competitors either, preferring to let his first picks prove him right.
He may yet surprise us though. There have always been teams that are faster, bigger, stronger and he managed to outthink and outplay them. The key for me is this squad is pretty much done and there lies the issue. They are either too old, too injury prone or just not good enough to form an elite squad capable of competing at the highest level for multiple trophies. There were signs last season but this season is just a bridge too far for most of them. The evidence of our own eyes is that Pep will not lean on the academy, now or ever, so that means that our Director/s of football are going to have to buy what he needs and have faith in his ability to outthink the new breed of coach that are currently snapping at his heels. Whatever, the next month is critical. They need to either back him (with all the investment that means) or sack him and choose someone better suited to todays environment.

 

[Kinkladze 1]

Pep is untouchable and would remain so in my eyes even if we lost the next 20 games in a row.

 

[Kinkladze 1]

We need a new manager who accepts that you must not lose before you attempt to win. That means 4 fecking defenders who play in back 4. We therefore need a right-back and to get Ake back. We additionally need a proper tackling No6 akin to a De Jong or even a Barry. Interesting to remember that Kompany came as as defensive midfielder initially. We also need a 2nd striker.

Dias needs appointing club captain, Walker needs sacking, Lewis needs returning to the EDS. Gundogan needs retiring, Ederson needs to be sold. Foden needs a kick up the arse, and Haaland needs to get fit. Grealish needs fecking off too. He's into his 4th year here and he's done less than nothing. Doku has no final delivery, and Silvinho must have been been shooting at larger goals in Spain, because he shows no sign of scoring here.

The reality is, it's a monumental mess. There's only Dias who I would be desperate to keep.

And what the feck must McAtee be thinking? He can't get in a side that has 1 win in 10. FFS, even his Sheff Utd team never had a run that poor!

I agree with everything apart from the first sentence!

 

[clarion]

It was a little bit sad seeing Douglas Luiz coming on for them while we have 0 defensive midfielders.

 

[decmancity]

It was a little bit sad seeing Douglas Luiz coming on for them while we have 0 defensive midfielders.

Luiz would be sat on our bench. Let's not get it twisted. Pep is obsessed with whatever the fuck he is trying to do in the past two months.

 

[ChicagoBlue]

There have always been teams that are faster, bigger, stronger and he managed to outthink and outplay them.

That’s the problem…they now know how to outplay us!

We regularly have 2/3 or more possession and lose by a goal or two…often with multiples more chances and shots than they do!

THAT is “outplaying” us.

Allowing us to have possession, as our CBs, FBs and DM rack up 100 passes each simply plays into their 4-5-1/5-4-1 hands, as they wait for the loose pass with 8 players committed to attack and 7 of them unable to sprint back into defence (and no-one expects him, Haaland, to do it!).

Teams play us like this all game, and don’t even change when losing 1-0 until the 70-75th minute, because they know!

They make their 4-5 subs, who are usually young and full of energy, and they attack the fuck out of us, put us back on our heels (as our aging Pep pets hang on for dear life!) and try to get the point, or even three these days!

We used to call it “smash and grab” when it happened in the last 20 minutes, but this season, teams do it from the kick off, which has led to multiple early goals against st and then City having to dig out of the hole and commit even more people forward…as the opposition go back into their customary shell!

We have become predictable. When certain players get the ball they are targeted (Gundo and Rico, and now Gvardiol and Walker), because if they lose possession, we are fucked! One shot, one goal!!

 

[ChicagoBlue]

Pep is untouchable and would remain so in my eyes even if we lost the next 20 games in a row.

No-one is bigger than the club.

 

[Saddleworth2]

That’s the problem…they now know how to outplay us!

We regularly have 2/3 or more possession and lose by a goal or two…often with multiples more chances and shots than they do!

THAT is “outplaying” us.

Allowing us to have possession, as our CBs, FBs and DM rack up 100 passes each simply plays into their 4-5-1/5-4-1 hands, as they wait for the loose pass with 8 players committed to attack and 7 of them unable to sprint back into defence (and no-one expects him, Haaland, to do it!).

Teams play us like this all game, and don’t even change when losing 1-0 until the 70-75th minute, because they know!

They make their 4-5 subs, who are usually young and full of energy, and they attack the fuck out of us, put us back on our heels (as our aging Pep pets hang on for dear life!) and try to get the point, or even three these days!

We used to call it “smash and grab” when it happened in the last 20 minutes, but this season, teams do it from the kick off, which has led to multiple early goals against st and then City having to dig out of the hole and commit even more people forward…as the opposition go back into their customary shell!

We have become predictable. When certain players get the ball they are targeted (Gundo and Rico, and now Gvardiol and Walker), because if they lose possession, we are fucked! One shot, one goal!!

I'm not disagreeing with you mate, quite the reverse. I'm just stating a fact that in the past Pep has been able to change tactics and stay ahead. He could do that again albeit he will need a rebuilt squad to do that.

 

[Txiki Txiki Bang Bang]

No-one is bigger than the club.

Mutiny! to the gallows you go.