Pep Guardiola - 2024/25

[Richie Rich]

One defeat and these people are calling for Pep to go.

How many? 2?

 

[Phil1]

How many? 2

What point are you making? Just so I know how to react to your next post.

 

[Akira]

Dear fucking me, the state of this thread.

And it's the same posts every time we lose one or two games. Could fill a bingo card at this point.

 

[Tricky_Trev]

On the one hand, we are clearly paying the price for Pep's 'oh I hate leaving players out of the XI so I'd rather just not have any players' philosophy.

On the other hand, this is the first time in nine years that it might genuinely cost us a title. He's earned our trust, surely? Even if I personally would much rather he dealt with a few disgruntled players than this, but clearly his approach works well for the most part.

I agree with the sentiment, but tbf there was a significant difference ahead of this season - both the Champions League and Club World Cup were expanded and involve more fixtures. So whilst Pep’s approach absolutely has worked, I think he should also have been able to adapt and suitably expand his squad in line with the expanding tournaments. His approach works, but for me, the magic number of players to run with has now increased. And not unpredictably so, as we were saying this in the summer before a ball was kicked.

 

[Saddleworth2]

I agree with the sentiment, but tbf there was a significant difference ahead of this season - both the Champions League and Club World Cup were expanded and involve more fixtures. So whilst Pep’s approach absolutely has worked, I think he should also have been able to adapt and suitably expand his squad in line with the expanding tournaments. His approach works, but for me, the magic number of players to run with has now increased. And not unpredictably so, as we were saying this in the summer before a ball was kicked.

This and this and this.
More games per season + same squad numbers = additional player fatigue/injury
More games per season + additional squad numbers = equilibrium

We played 61 games last season, how many this? between 65 and 68?
Its enough to run two teams and keep players relatively satisfied re game time. You need an available squad of say 25 to do that. We are around 3 players short just on simple maths.

 

[Mancini’s Pastilles]

We could lose in the chumps and against Brighton next week and I would still fancy us to be thereabouts come the business end of the season.

Normally yes. But the amount of injuries are too much. We are one of best in world but no team can cope with that many of their players missing. Picture victims without salah van dijk diaz. Ars without rice odegaard saliba.

 

[John Wayne]

Does the answer to this issue not lie somewhere in the middle? Yes, we will be playing more games this season and, yes, Pep likes a relatively small squad. So perhaps just slightly more use of our academy lads at convenient times could go a long way to solving this problem. Were we really in danger of not beating Slovan or Sparta if we'd started McAtee or given O'Reilly minutes?

 

[eastmanc]

Fucking hell

only read this page, but Pep out?

I know.