How many 23 year old's have "la pausa"?This is almost completely contradicted by the fact that Pep is willing to play others centrally who are far looser on the ball than Phil.
Between last season and now and from a very similar sample size of minutes- Foden is 'dispossessed' 1.31 times per 90 compared to Alvarez's 1.22. So while more, it's hardly anything negligible. During that same time, Phil has more goal-creating actions(.63 vs .46), and shot-creating actions(4.7 vs 3.54) per 90. The real kicker is despite Alvarez being well-known for his work rate off of the ball(which I'm not saying isn't valid), Phil has more tackles + interceptions per 90 as well.
I know it's unpopular but you can't convince me that Phil isn't treated somewhat differently by Pep than others who were bought, and likely can't get away with more than an academy lad who's a fan and more unlikely to kick up a fuss.
You'd think Phil had earned the opportunity to really make that spot that Alvarez seemingly walked into his own given how long he's sucked it up on the wing for the betterment of the team. I just hope the next manager sees things differently. If Phil hasn't developed that 'la pausa' that Pep loves to go on about him not having by now, then either Pep isn't doing a good job of coaching it into him, or he's not ever going to acquire it under him.
Not disagreeing with you but there are a lot of players who are not necessary great footballers but have won a plethora of medals/ trophies for just being members of a winning teamNo comparison with Kovacic - at Phil's age he'd played 36 minutes of Champions League knockout football. He's a very good player, but obviously his medal tally is mostly from being a squad player when Real Madrid dominated the CL.
Fair but IMO he does have it. I feel like this notion that he turns and attacks every time someone passes him the ball in the midfield is complete crap.How many 23 year old's have "la pausa"?
Gundogan was three years older when he joined City, and it took him a while to really start pulling the strings. David Silva was a year older then Phil is now when he joined us. Grealish can slow a game down, but he's also 5 years older than Phil. Bernardo was around Foden's age when he joined City, but it's only been the last 2-3 years that he's really come to dominate games with his presence.
He could not be as good as De Bruyne, and still be one of the top five in the World for half a decade :)Not disagreeing with you but there are a lot of players who are not necessary great footballers but have won a plethora of medals/ trophies for just being members of a winning team
2 that spring to mind are John O Shea and Christian Karembeu. Julian Alvarez is multi decorated but not necessarily a nailed on starter for us.
Foden will definitely end up with more silverware than DeBruyne by the end of his career.
I still think that Foden won't end up as good a player as DeBruyne
I hope I am wrong.
Seems to be if you win by scoring at the end of the game you get more points.See Arsenal have now won back to back titles again in November. How can we complete?
I don’t understand. You say others are looser on the ball than Phil and then you quote a stat showing he gets dispossessed more often than them.This is almost completely contradicted by the fact that Pep is willing to play others centrally who are far looser on the ball than Phil.
Between last season and now and from a very similar sample size of minutes- Foden is 'dispossessed' 1.31 times per 90 compared to Alvarez's 1.22. So while more, it's hardly anything negligible. During that same time, Phil has more goal-creating actions(.63 vs .46), and shot-creating actions(4.7 vs 3.54) per 90. The real kicker is despite Alvarez being well-known for his work rate off of the ball(which I'm not saying isn't valid), Phil has more tackles + interceptions per 90 as well.
I know it's unpopular but you can't convince me that Phil isn't treated somewhat differently by Pep than others who were bought, and likely can't get away with more than an academy lad who's a fan and more unlikely to kick up a fuss.
You'd think Phil had earned the opportunity to really make that spot that Alvarez seemingly walked into his own given how long he's sucked it up on the wing for the betterment of the team. I just hope the next manager sees things differently. If Phil hasn't developed that 'la pausa' that Pep loves to go on about him not having by now, then either Pep isn't doing a good job of coaching it into him, or he's not ever going to acquire it under him.
I didn't expect a win at Chelsea, wasn't sure about Liverpool either. I don't expect a winning run later in the season either. This season many teams are taking points off each other. No team is likely to win 8-10 games in a row. Spurs have many problems with injuries, they'll do well to make the top 4.