You mean the Mendy in jail or the Silva playing in Spain since Bernardo is already in the first team. I see just Fernandinho as midfielder. Do you want to give it another try?
Do City leave you cold?
- Thread starter Pogue Mahone
- Start date
You mean the Mendy in jail or the Silva playing in Spain since Bernardo is already in the first team. I see just Fernandinho as midfielder. Do you want to give it another try?
Given Sterling had the most dribbles of any player and was left winger that's a weird take again, he literally dribbled past Vrasjalko a couple of times in the first half. You can find it boring but the idea its cowardly is just plain wrong given as I said City lead the statistics in most attacking metrics.
They are 2nd top scorers, have the most big chances missed, hit the woodwork 20 times and have the 2nd highest xg in the league. Its not for everyone but the idea its risk averse football is nonsense.
If you want someone to blame for last night I suggest the opposition who did the same thing twice vs United in the last round and are notorious for it.
Sterlng dribbled past the full back a few times did he? And in zero of those cases did he cross it, or create a shooting chance. He went backwards. That's my point.
Again to your stats, I don't argue that it's not effective, especially against weaker teams. If you watched that first half and it got your blood racing, great for you. Never watch videos of late 90's football, you'll have a heart attack!
I'll start with the attacker, if Grealish, Foden and Jesus are all subs the starters are? I can only think of Foden and Mahrez. Who's the other starter.
If your benching Silva here you are putting KDB in midfield with Gundogan and Rodri. Ake, Stones and Zinchenko are fair.
Given our first XI is probably
Ederson, Walker, Dias, Laporte, Cancelo, Rodri, KDB, Silva, Mahrez, Foden and Grealish that leaves
Zinchenko, Ake, Stones, Fernandinho, Gundogan, Sterling and Jesus. Cities 2nd team is something like.
------------------------------Steffan-----------------------------
Egan Riley-------Stones-----Ake-------Zinchenko
------------------------Fernandinho-------------------------
-------------------McAtee---------Gundogan------------
Palmer---------------------------------------------Sterling
-----------------------------Jesus-------------------------------
A good side but not near 2 men for every position.
Lets look at Liverpool
1st team - Ali, TAA, Matip, VVD, Robertson, Fabinho, Thaigo, Keita, Salah, Mane, Diaz
2nd team
----------------------------Kelleher----------------------------
Gomez-------Konate--------Williams---Tsmikas
--------------------------Henderson-------------------------
--------------------Jones----------The Ox------------------
Minamino---------------------------------------------Jota
---------------------------Firmino-----------------------------
I've built 2 teams and left out Milner, Harvey Elliot, Origi, Adrian and Karius. Not a knock at Liverpool btw great work by their transfer committee and fantastic depth on such a budget.
Even United.
1st team: DDG, AWB, Varane, Maguire, Shaw, Fred, McT, Bruno, Sancho, Ronaldo, Rashford.
2nd team: Henderson, Dalot, Bailly, Lindelof, Telles, Matic, Pogba, Lingard, Elanga, Cavani, Mata
Chelsea:
1st XI: Mendy, James, Silva, Rudiger, Chalobah, Alonso, Kante, Jorginho, Mount, Havertz, Lukaku
2nd XI: Kepa, Azpi, Christiansen, Sarr, Chilwell, Kovacic, Loftus Cheek, Saul, Pulisic, Werner, Ziyech
Extra's: CHO, Barkley
Chelsea rotate a lot so I picked my best XI.
Of all those 2nd XI's Cities probably has the most individual talent but is not even close on Liverpool or Chelsea's for depth which is why 3 of the players have barely kicked a ball in comparison to the other 2nd XI's.
Not really. Take out Mendy (who’s still on the books and not yet replaced) and Silva and replace them with whoever’s left and that’s still a damn good team.
It’s your turn anyway. Take out the eleven best players from City’s rivals and show me a team that will beat the side I picked. Or even run them close.
He got kicked over on the end of two of those 3 dribbles. I never said it got my blood racing, I said its not cautious or whatever the word you used to describe Pep was...
As I said theres a common link between the poor games last night and the poor game United had in the last 16. A great Spanish wall!
How can a team who play that far up the pitch be cowardly or cautious?
https://www.marca.com/en/football/champions-league/2022/04/05/624cafc7e2704eb98e8b45b1.html - You can see the problem clearly here and its not City.
I did it in the post above yours.
Laughable in its hypocrisy would be more precise
You've got a city fan here doing anything he can to embellish a death penalty sentence for a drugs charge and riled up for speaking about the barbaric, neanderthal, scum behavior of their owners. Our consciences are easily bought
Wish I was as poor as Gucci Boy!Poor Jack Grealish. Whitewashed from their squad already
Kelleher; Milner, Gomez, Konate, Tsimikas; Henderson, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jones; Elliott, Firmino, Diaz.
Let alone "run them close", I'd back that team to beat the one you listed for City. Like others have mentioned, even Chelsea and United have decent second XI's. City's squad depth isn't what it used to be a few years ago - they are rich in attacking options but otherwise nothing special at all.
This is a non biased look, not sure why you think it’s ‘bantz’.
City have 2 RBs at elite level, 4 CBs of which 3 are elite (I’d include Stones) and one is good (Ake). 2 LBs although Mendy situation isn’t really their fault.
There are 2 specialist DMs. KdB, Gundogan, Silva, Foden, Grealish can all rotate in and out of various CM and CAM roles.
Then you have Mahrez, Sterling in the more traditional wide attacker mould if needed. Foden, Grealish and Silva also play these positions.
Jesús as a 9 - maybe that’s where they are a lit light but they did just buy Alvarez so we’ll see if he plays next season.
Hate them for making me have to listen to past legends such as Danny fecking Mills.
Summary of all these is that they do not have 2 world class players in each position and can barely make 2 elevens of players. Thus the narrative is false
It is the narrative is based around the money they’ve spent, they’ve spent enough to maybe have two world class players in each position but the reality is that when you’re spending 100 m for example on Grealish you neglect other areas where you could have strengthened even more like up front for example. Saying that they were willing to spend another 150 on Kane so maybe it’s a case of not getting the right target.
There isn’t a single team in the world who can do that though. Not sure what narrative you’re talking about?
Man Utd and Chelsea have spent similar amount to them. We dont usually hear about Man Ud and Chelsea having 2 world class players in each position. The Grealish part is not different that what Chelsea has done with Kepa or Lukaku or what Man Utd did many of their squad. which is overpaying for players who have little positive effect on your team play
Ok but I’m not that poster?
For what is worth they have 2 elite players in RB,CB,LB,DM,CM,AM, RW, LW. Not shabby.
If it's any consolation we hate Danny mills too
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Please name the 2 elite players in these positions.
I'm guessing you're counting Sterling as one of RW forwards right? It's really arguable (it's even constantly argued on this forum) to call him an elite player...
It's not City's fault they walk through a lot of games. Today their dominance in that first half against a usually insanely good Liverpool side just shows how good they are.
Their football is excellent. They may leave people cold as they are backed by a state which is the only reason for their relevance at the highest level but their football is great. I like their style much better than Liverpools.
Whoever doesn't like their football must be blind. They're amazing. KDB and Foden alone are special.
They don’t leave me cold when they play Liverpool
Blind and/or too influenced by bias.
If the next Man Utd Manager said we must aspire to play like City, maybe this time round it will be more acceptable.
Just watched that Sky doc on them.
Mancini was on there.
Kompany was on.
And who else?
That fecking Oasis prat.
Thought he was being funny by referencing Fergie as "What's his name... " Complete tool.
Mancini was on there.
Kompany was on.
And who else?
That fecking Oasis prat.
Thought he was being funny by referencing Fergie as "What's his name... " Complete tool.
Before Aguero, Kompany and Silva et al left the narrative absolutely held true.
Kompany left after the 2018/19 season. So for the past 3 seasons the narrative has not been true.
Moreover posters making those claims were not referring to 3 seasons ago they are talking about now
Note: you cannot add a single player in two different positions. It only seems like they do because Pep uses his players in multiple positions. But strictly in terms of numbers City do not have 2 capable players in two positions.
Right back: Walker (not correct)
Left back: Cancelo (not correct)
Center back: Dias, Laporte, Stones (not correct)
DM: Fernandinho and Rodri (correct)
CM/AM: KDB, Gundogan, Bernardo (not correct)
RW/LW: Grealish, Foden, Mahrez, Sterling (correct)
Fernandinho in the last 2 seasons can't be considered an elite player, his legs are gone. There's a reason why he barely ever plays now.
You can’t say I’m not able to put players who play multiple roles in position and then put Cancelo as LB. He can play there but he was originally an RB.
RB: Walker, Cancelo.
CB: Dias, Stones, Laporte, Ake. 3 elite, 1 good.
LB. Mendy, Zinchenko. Appreciate Mendy is on bail but he’s still their player and Zinchecko is likely top 5 LB in the league. They don’t lack depth here or quality until Mendy situation over (and then I’m sure they’ll buy an LB if he goes to jail).
CM/AM - even if I just agree, that’s 3 world class players for 2 roles and with 2-3 other elite players who can play that position.
As I said before, no team in the world literally has 2 elite players for every position - mostly because no one has 4 elite CBs or 4 elite CMs (given they are position pairs) but this City team is as well rounded as I can think of.
Pool are closest but I think their midfield is weaker and then they have no depth at full back so defensively City are more stacked. Pool have a better players in attack though. They’ve also got a lot of average players like Ox, Milner, Origi who Klopp manages well to be happy with a reserves-esqe roles but are nowhere near elite, Pep seems to like a much smaller squad.
Agree with this. Looking back, I think Joe Mercer's 1968 title-winning side was a lot easier on the eye than the current City side. Mercer and Allison built that team up from scratch using players from their own youth set-up such as Doyle and Pardoe, with clever buys like Colin Bell and Francis Lee. However, there were a few teams then challenging for the title; Leeds, Everton, Liverpool, and Derby County and City were soon overtaken by a combination of those sides and they could not sustain success in the league. They won the FA Cup and ECWC and made a bit of a comeback in the early 70s but that was it.
This City side is built for domination as you say and they may well succeed but I could never warm to them. There's something almost robotic about them. So yes, cold indifference is what I feel for them.
I know Pep speaks of this rivalry with Liverpool as his greatest, footballing-wise it could well be the case, but aren't rivalries supposed to have...you know, emotions/tension?
Pep/Klopp only say nice things to each other, and it doesn't appear the players really care(as in dislike etc) for the opponent to any great extent.
Of course, most rivalries aren't as crazy as they used to be in the past though.
Pep/Klopp only say nice things to each other, and it doesn't appear the players really care(as in dislike etc) for the opponent to any great extent.
Of course, most rivalries aren't as crazy as they used to be in the past though.
Why should they? At the end of the day it's only football and it's just their job, nothing personal. The extra stuff is for the fans of each club.
The only emotion/tension that should be required is on the pitch and i think it's safe to say that we get a good dose of that whenever they play each other.
My point is, this rivalry is all a bit "too nice", if you get my meaning.
Both Klopp and Pep are respectful people, even when they faced off in Bundesliga they were respectful of each other. Klopp vs Jupp, Klopp vs Pep, Pep vs Tuchel, Pep vs Pellegrini. Its mainly when Mourinho gets in the mix that he tries to rile up people
Some people just want to watch a tactical chess game and not the side attraction of poking eyes, kicking each other and games stopping every 5mins for a 10 min riot
I get what you mean, but i don't see how that's a problem. The only thing I care about is the quality of the football being served on the pitch.
Exactly this.
Nadal vs Federer, Palmer vs Nicholaus, Evert vs Navratilova are easily 3 of sports greatest ever rivalries and not a whiff of animosity in them, at least publicly.