Pep Guardiola - 2024/25

[Blue Maverick]

Big couple of weeks, Pep needs to let city know what he’s doing now this will influence what/if we buy in January.

 

[AlexGrimaldo]

He is talking now and he is fuming with the two penalties. Stupid penalties. And that by Matheus? Crist

 

[BlueMonkey79]

He needs to stop this inverted full back tactic.

It's clear we haven't got the personnel to follow it through this season.

We lose the ball from midfield to out wide, fullback is caught inside, quick break down the wing, our midfield can't keep up, can't be arsed tracking runners and it creates an overload. Our centre half gets pulled out of position creating space for the opposition forwards to run in to.

We are getting done every game with it. The opposition don't always score from it, but we are gifting them opportunities to score.

Pep needs to address how wide open we are on the turnover, instead of being hell bent on keeping the ball and walking it towards the opponents box.

 

[houraisen]

The atmosphere is like that of Pellegrini's final season.

 

[eastmanc]

The atmosphere is like that of Pellegrini's final season.

Really.

 

[Don Karleone]

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

JWE could have played at left back with Gvardiol in the middle. I know there's a lot of question marks around JWE but i believe he would have done a better job at left back than Simpson-Pusey did in the middle.

This is absolutely what should have happened. Leaving a kid in his first game 1-1 with one of the in form strikers in Europe was just nuts. He has lost the plot this last week. His line up against Spurs in a game he “wasn’t prioritising” was stupid and it’s cost us.

 

[Richie Rich]

 

[Mr HJ]

That's our manager - I do like him coming out and saying he wants the challenge and thrives on that. Yet once again saying Rico was great is very odd to me - We look so vulnerable with him in the inverted fullback role and he's hardly creating any clear chances - he looks like he's panicky on the ball when he gets in the box and usually fails to deliver or score himself - strange.

 

[ninjamonkey]

Not going to repeat the problems we have with shape ive mentioned elsewhere even though its probably most appropriate here but safe to say it is all on him once more and his words worry me that we will persist with this approach and we will continue to struggle. Saying we pressed well for their second goal is mental, it was awful, worse than the two penalties we gave away. I really hope that's just pep in media mode and isn't his true views.

If a spanking against what was a distinctly average sporting side isn't the jolt up the arse he needs to change things, were going to be stuck with this for the foreseeable.

And sporting were average tonight by the way despite the united contingent wanking themselves silly over that, bournemouth were much better last weekend, they were just wasteful otherwise it would have been a similar scoreline.

Brighton are better than anything we've faced in the last month or so, do thr same against them and we'll get slapped. And then we've got actual quality sides like spurs, Dippers and villa on the horizon, they'll twat us in this setup.

I love him, but for me the biggest issue is he's putting players in positions they're not comfortable in. Kovacic and Lewis should not be defending transitions in the middle of the pitch, I also think this 3-1-6 system is far too cavalier. We lack the legs to press effectively.

I think by conceding some control, and defensively shoring up we'd be much better. I thought the high line today/at Bournemouth was absolute madness.

I agree with what you say but will add not only would we gain some solidity defensively, it arguably suits the attacking players we currently have more to play more directly, quickly and put the ball at risk more. having 70% possession with slow build up against a compact 11 is doing nothing for us anyway as we cannot break teams down or reliably create chances, haaland is built to play on transition, kdb and foden can supply and create more if they are direct, the wingers can beat a man. if we didn't have pep in charge, with this squad, I'm fairly certain we'd be playing more directly.