City Player Reaction Yesterday

[Rojofiam]

I previously thought the parade thing was a bit overblown but just look at these tweets The celebrations are so cringe and forced, it's difficult to watch for me

How many times has Pep complained about the turnout and atmosphere at the Etihad as well?

And then there's the 115 charges

And then there's the fact that if you're not totally uninformed about politics and state-ownership in football, you know very well what kind of a soulless, blood money pumped project you're joining when you sign for the likes of City, Newcastle and PSG

It's all just so artificial and soulless, other big clubs built their way up through decades of hard work by local people before they became the giants they are. City were just an irrelevant championship / lower table PL side bought by a despotic middle eastern regime because they were based in Manchester and had no real success to their name for decades.

Compare City winning the treble to potentially United, Liverpool or Arsenal winning a major trophy. Everyone remembers the latter. When City win something, people just go on about their day. To this day I never saw their trophy lifts and title celebrations in the PL and I suspect there are loads of people like me, but everyone remembers the Leicester trophy lift, our trophy lifts, even Liverpool's covid trophy lift, etc.

 

[tenpoless]

Wtf is 4 peat?
For Pete you mean?

 

[giggs-beckham]

They just won a record 4th Premier League title in a row and are coming off of a historical treble. A lost FA cup final isn't something to get too fussed about in light of that. Not everyone is Ronaldo.

I remember us losing to Chelsea after winning the league, and Giggsy looking crestfallen walking up the steps.

 

[b20times]

They don't see utd as rivals anymore. They even gave us a guard of honour before going up for the cup, some laughing and some probably on their phones.
They are streets ahead mentally on and off the pitch.
Was very strange reaction to losing though.

 

[giorno]

There were a lot of butt-hurt Liverpool fans after they lost 4-0 to us in pre-season last year. I'd imagine we are to City what Liverpool are to us. Maybe I imagine wrong.

You're not. Manchester City FC, founded in 1880 and one of the 2 main club of Manchester, died in 2008. It was replaced by an Abu Dhabi club by the same name who happens to play in Manchester. That Club doesn't care about intercity rivalries, they're irrelevant. It also doesn't care about Manchester City's history, since the purpose of that club is to promote the image and interests of Abu Dhabi, not Manchester. Anything involving the old club is actually counterproductive to their interests

Remember: they only bought the club because it was available and shared part of its name with world famous Manchester United in the first place

 

[GazTheLegend]

See, this is definitely true historically and for their fans. But for the club in its current incarnation, for the players? I'm not even sure they see United as rivals at this point, let alone biggest. In much the same way United fans didn't think much of the City rivalry 25 years ago

They don't treat Liverpool as rivals though? Or Arsenal? And I remember there being a lot of talk about the city celebrations when they beat United at OT a few years back.

I think Pep deliberately distances himself AND his teams from the emotional element of games. Everything for city works like a machine - their fouls are unemotional and tactical. Their players don't try tricks or skills. They don't take too many pot shots. They work the ball the same way pretty much every time and it's all under instructions.

So it's to his advantage to make games as distanced and mechanical as possible and to do that you have to play down rivalries, remove emotion and play as if you don't care. That way, the plan is followed always.

Sometimes emotions work for you in a game, sometimes against. Pep tries to remove them from the equation completely. So to him, rivalry is an unnecessary distraction from winning.

That's my take on it anyway.

 

[tomaldinho1]

They don't treat Liverpool as rivals though? Or Arsenal? And I remember there being a lot of talk about the city celebrations when they beat United at OT a few years back.

I think Pep deliberately distances himself AND his teams from the emotional element of games. Everything for city works like a machine - their fouls are unemotional and tactical. Their players don't try tricks or skills. They don't take too many pot shots. They work the ball the same way pretty much every time and it's all under instructions.

So it's to his advantage to make games as distanced and mechanical as possible and to do that you have to play down rivalries, remove emotion and play as if you don't care. That way, the plan is followed always.

Sometimes emotions work for you in a game, sometimes against. Pep tries to remove them from the equation completely. So to him, rivalry is an unnecessary distraction from winning.

That's my take on it anyway.

If anything I think Pep does the opposite because he needs to believe/wants other people to believe he’s not bringing a gun to a knife fight every season. He will talk up other clubs and managers and gets ratty whenever someone points money out. The fact he says Klopp has been his greatest rival (when he was in a pressure cooker vs Mou for three seasons in the biggest European football rivalry that burnt him out and made him quit his job) is just added proof.

In terms of how they play though, you’re right. Risk adverse, heavy possession, you can see he only brought Doku on because he was out of ideas for example, and that style must deliberately or unwittingly take some of the passion away from the players. I was genuinely annoyed for them watching the final, like actually do something with the ball, take some risk, they have such good players on the pitch and bench.

 

[giorno]

They don't treat Liverpool as rivals though? Or Arsenal? And I remember there being a lot of talk about the city celebrations when they beat United at OT a few years back.

They aren't. Their rivalries start and end on the pitch, with trophies involved, and are therefore transient things. Liverpool aren't competition for the PL anymore, therefore they're not rivals. In the same vein Manchester United aren't rivals right now either.

And I don't think it's Guardiola, I think there's been a deliberate push in that direction by the club

 

[GazTheLegend]

If anything I think Pep does the opposite because he needs to believe/wants other people to believe he’s not bringing a gun to a knife fight every season. He will talk up other clubs and managers and gets ratty whenever someone points money out. The fact he says Klopp has been his greatest rival (when he was in a pressure cooker vs Mou for three seasons in the biggest European football rivalry that burnt him out and made him quit his job) is just added proof.

In terms of how they play though, you’re right. Risk adverse, heavy possession, you can see he only brought Doku on because he was out of ideas for example, and that style must deliberately or unwittingly take some of the passion away from the players. I was genuinely annoyed for them watching the final, like actually do something with the ball, take some risk, they have such good players on the pitch and bench.

Yeah - in the last 10 minutes there was no urgency, no desire to get forward, they just kept playing the same square passes they always play. And it was honestly the most relaxed I've ever felt in a final, because they didn't dare mix it up / go long even with only 7 minutes added time. I'd have been furious if I was a City fan in part because I've seen our side fall to pieces all season against far worse teams than them.

 

[Red00012]

I remember Keano talking about the some of the lads post 99 treble and saying some of them were saying “that’s it, I don’t care if I don’t win anything else now, we’ve done everything” and Keano said well yeah, there’s next season now.

Fergie also moved a bunch of players on after 99. Ambition and desire are huge in football.

Dwight Yorke was definitely one of those

 

[Solius]

Maybe they're able to put things in perspective, and losing an FA Cup isn't the end of the world (they've won a PL), and they're thinking about their short breaks before international football?

I'm going with the easy explanation. Occam's razor and all

Did you know you post twice as much about City than you do about Utd?