Man City 2020/21 - General discussion
- Thread starter Suedesi
- Start date
Absolutely dire today. As bad as we were midweek, but got the win. The difference in goals conceded this season tells you where we still need real improvement.
It's foolish to suddenly be all broken up about not winning a league given pretty much nobody even expected a challenge, but this is a poor city side, so a shame we weren't a year further along in rebuild. Sancho and a defender would have balanced the team well
It's foolish to suddenly be all broken up about not winning a league given pretty much nobody even expected a challenge, but this is a poor city side, so a shame we weren't a year further along in rebuild. Sancho and a defender would have balanced the team well
Quite the opposite, this is Pep's strongest City side to date. What they gonna win we will see at the end of the season but the balance of this team is something else.
Difference is we had a perfectly good goal ruled out. A few weeks ago they had a goal that was the most offside goal I’ve ever seen.
Little things like that have put them above us.
To say this city team is stronger than the one of 2 or 3 seasons ago is borderline delusional. They may well win trophies but it makes them the best team this year, not a neccesarily strong side
Can only hope that balances out in coming weeks. If they play like they did today in some tougher fixtures they'll drop points. So will United of course.
Not a chance.
I disagree. This side lacks a huge punch compared to his first two titles. Better defensively through necessity.
That said we were poor today and didn't look like conceding at all. Its such a weird thing watching City and not expecting to score 3 or 4 whilst also not expecting to concede every time the oppo get the ball.
They had to go and alter the rule to make that goal offside from now on. Perfectly legal goal.
City toothless today but were missing a couple. They’ll only improve, all of their attackers have been out of form all season, once they click them they’ll start hammering teams again. I’d say it’s more worrying how solid they look despite not clicking going forward as opposed to it suggesting that they aren’t that good and will eventually struggle.
No they didn’t. The rule didn’t change, the FA just changed the “guidance” on its interpretation.
Which is as close as you’ll get from the FA to an admission that they made a mistake.
They have the best squad blood money can buy. I expect them to be favourites.
Well at least its not Liverpool winning it again.
Shite today, not that surprising though. Cancelo, Sterling and De Bruyne not playing and they make them play a lot quicker. They always look crapper to me when Jesus plays. Game would have basically ended 0-0 had Chris Basham not taken a bribe pre game (it’s the only logical reason for explaining what he did).
To be fair, when Jesus scores City never lose in the league (33W 2D) but yeah he doesn't look good enough. Works hard, can press very well, good movement without the ball but you know even if he'd start every PL game he wouldn't score more than 12-14 goals.
Opta: "Manchester City have won all nine matches in all competitions in January 2021, the most wins by a team in the top four tiers of English football in a single month since the formation of the Football League in 1888."
City are unquestionably in a rich vein of form, but I hate arbitrary stats like this, which are helped by the fact all teams are playing a metric fecktonne of matches each month thanks to the packed schedule.
We're going okay at the moment. But there's no medals handed out in january. Lots (and lots) of opportunities to slip up yet.
Goal: "In 126 years of existence, Manchester City had never managed to win 12 games in a row. Until today."
Name the failed investments. You'll struggle.
Bravo
Mangala
Mendy
Danilo
Up until the last few weeks you could have had Stones on the list.
Danilo wasn't a flop, he left because he wanted more minutes. Mangala wasn't a Pep signing. The only player Pep has signed and replaced is Bravo.
But they played under him no? Which was the point @Sylar made.
The point that was being made, atleast how I interpreted it, was that Pep bought a load of players and decided to rectify the ones he didn't like by deciding to spend more and replace them. Outside of Bravo, that's simply not been the case.
When Pep first arrived, the squad management in regards to defence was shocking. 4 fullbacks over 30, Kompany, Otamendi, Mangala and Demichelis.
Otamendi made PFA TOTY. Kompany and Mangala have PL medals at home. He made use of the players to a reasonable extent that can be expected given the constraints of the players themselves.
Not really, the point he was initially trying to make was that Pep just defenders and just replaced them if they flopped.
As the other poster said, Danilo wasn't a flop and Mangala was there before Pep came and barely ever played under Pep.
'Pep didn't go in and coach what they had'.... Otamendi gets into PFA TOTS, Kompany and Mangala have PL medals, Delph is the mainstay LB for the team that got the most points in PL history and Zinchenko is our main LB right now.
Why must people be totally oblivious to what Pep came in and worked with defensively? By the same token, Klopp didn't come in and coach what they had because Clyne, Moreno, Karius, Kolo Toure, Caulker, Sakho got shifted out. In fact, only Joe Gomez remains from the backline Klopp inherited. Unless the expectation was that Pep was going to lead a 33 year old Sagna, 36 year old Demichelis and a 32 year old Clichy to PL glory, it's a ridiculous observation being made.
To be fair, Guardiola did coach Otamendi into a solid part of two title winning teams. He’d been dealt a pretty awful hand in terms of defenders, with Sagna, Kolarov, Clichy and Zabaleta all either old or not up to standard, Mangala a disaster and Kompany’s fitness being massively unreliable.
While it’s undeniable that he’s spent a lot of money that very few other managers would get, his success rate in building a new defence has been decent. Dias, Laporte, Stones and Walker have all been hits and Cancelo’s been class once he got over his dodgy settling in period. Mendy’s been the only real flop but nobody could have predicted him being ruined by injuries the way he has. His failure has been mitigated by Guardiola converting first Delph and the Zinchenko into title winning left backs. (It’s also worth noting that nobody ever brings up Zinchenko when talking about defenders Guardiola signed but for £1m he’s arguably been one of the most underrated transfers I can remember.)
While it’s undeniable that he’s spent a lot of money that very few other managers would get, his success rate in building a new defence has been decent. Dias, Laporte, Stones and Walker have all been hits and Cancelo’s been class once he got over his dodgy settling in period. Mendy’s been the only real flop but nobody could have predicted him being ruined by injuries the way he has. His failure has been mitigated by Guardiola converting first Delph and the Zinchenko into title winning left backs. (It’s also worth noting that nobody ever brings up Zinchenko when talking about defenders Guardiola signed but for £1m he’s arguably been one of the most underrated transfers I can remember.)
Another season where I’ll be cheering on City in the hope they stop Liverpool from winning the league. Brilliant.
I think the defenders have been greater than the sum of its parts.
The likes of Otamendi, Stones and Zinchenko have been steady rather than excellent, but steady combined with a decent midfield and keeper translates into something better.
I wouldn't say it was coaching that achieved this, more likely the quality in front of the defendant.
For example, it's no coincidence that City always look more solid when Fernandinho played.
out of form attackers, yet still second highest scorers in the division, thats a bit scary
In 4 games' time, Liverpool will be back on top.
Yep, thank you, saved me some time
I mean I'm not calling them flops but he was also allowed to buy Ake for 40m and he's not even starting
And angelino was 10m, and again is out on loan and he's 24. Not often teams can do that (with either the view to sell him as he's hardly played for the first team or to get back into the first team ready with so much experience gained)
And the whole city hierarchy (we've been hearing) was put in place with Pep in mind before he even joined the club.
We could do this for a few teams though couldnt we?
Ole came in and had Valencia as RB, young as lb, and cb choices of lindelof and Bailly with Jones and smalling (and Rojo)
He had to work to get lindelof and Bailly basically first team rotated between them. He bought Maguire and has turned shaw around completely after the previous two managers basically gave up on him. And he bought a RB too.
I'm not saying Pep is a bad coach or anything but it's also obvious he's been afforded more luxury than other managers.
Pep came in, worked with what he had and came 3rd?
Then bought in 5 players for the back line?
I don't blame him if he has the ability to do so, and again, he's a top coach but he has advantages others don't
The same could be said about us. Martial, Greenwood and Rashford have all been playing terribly almost all season, and even Bruno has only been decent overall. Thankfully Rashford and Bruno have at least been getting the goals and assists even though they haven't been playing well, although there are worrying signs that might be drying up. It's amazing that we're equal second highest scorers.
Presumably that’s because you see Liverpool beating City at Anfield, City dropping points in other games and Liverpool winning all theirs?
All this may happen but all of those things are open to considerable doubt.
Last edited:
This is true, but from what I've read about how Pep and City operate, I do often wonder why we bought Mendy. We're known for extensively researching player's personalities, temperaments and disciplinary records before buying them so spending over £50m on a man known for being a bit of a loose cannon and not usually taking his football too seriously was a strange move in hindsight.
Hard for Nathan to be starting when he's constantly injured.
He's been afforded the same luxury that "top coaches" in other big/rich clubs are been offered.
You said he came in and finished 3rd with the defenders he had and then bought 5 players in his defence line, that's true but you forgot to mention that the defenders he had that season were already in their thirties and some very injury prone. Offcourse he had to get new younger defenders who also fits the kind of football he wanted his team to play.
Practically all of the big club's attacking units have been out of form up until now apart from maybe Spurs but they looked to be going off the boil before Kane's injury.