Man City 2020/21 - General discussion

@padr81 How long is Aguero out for, seems he's been injured for ages? What's the cause of injury and do you think he'll come back as good as he was?
 
padr81 said:
We're missing 6 players... Aguero, Jesus, Cancelo, Gundogan, Bernardo, Zinchenko would make it a little stronger.
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What's is Peps fascination with Gundogan?
He is way past it. I've never seen him have a great game. Thiago would have been an ideal replacement for him.
 
Suedesi said:
@padr81 How long is Aguero out for, seems he's been injured for ages? What's the cause of injury and do you think he'll come back as good as he was?
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Not back till after the Liverpool game so probably 6 or 7 games in. We have a tricky start and by the time he's back will have played Wolves, Leicester, Liverpool, Arsenal, Leeds, Sheffield United, West Ham and depending how long he might miss Spurs.

Might be weird but if we're 5 or 6 points of them I'd still fancy us long term, we can't be missing a half a squad forever and they can't keep doing what they are doing. Plus we'll have 5 of the stronger teams out of the way.

The problem is I'm not sure we'll be within 6 points of them with our current problems and touch fixtures. Only game I'm confident of winning is West Ham.
 
Josh 76 said:
What's is Peps fascination with Gundogan?
He is way past it. I've never seen him have a great game. Thiago would have been an ideal replacement for him.
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As far as I can tell Gundo must have evidence of him banging a prostitute or something... For all the shit I give Gundogan, its playing both him and Rodri thats the problem. Either or with Fernandinho as DM wouldn't be nearly as bad.
 
They do not look like title winners. Liverpool have not impressed much either so far.
The title will be up for grabs, but we will probably be far away from it.
 
Paul_Scholes18 said:
They do not look like title winners. Liverpool have not impressed much either so far.
The title will be up for grabs, but we will probably be far away from it.
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Difference is, City look dodgy at the back so instantly go and sign a £60m CB. £400m in four years
Meanwhile Ole has to put up with Lindelof and Bailly.
 
Josh 76 said:
What's is Peps fascination with Gundogan?
He is way past it. I've never seen him have a great game. Thiago would have been an ideal replacement for him.
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Thiago didn’t want to be play for Pep again.

I loved Gundo when he was at Dortmund, I think he has done well for City, but of course not seen that much of him in comparison. He does seem to be City fans scapegoat though. Maybe his time there as an effective part of their team is coming to an end.
 
They really haven’t strengthened to close the gap.

They really need some leadership and personality in that side.
 
Wow, watching motd2 and Ake looks like he’s running through sand! So slow!
 
Zlatan 7 said:
Wow, watching motd2 and Ake looks like he’s running through sand! So slow!
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Nah I don't agree. Right now he is their only decent CB. But today esp after Fernandinho was taken off Ake carried the burden of most defence duties. He is a very good defender and I have no doubt his quality will show.
 
Che Guevara said:
Nah I don't agree. Right now he is their only decent CB. But today esp after Fernandinho was taken off Ake carried the burden of most defence duties. He is a very good defender and I have no doubt his quality will show.
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Fair enough, I just seen him running towards the ball at a snails pace twice in one phase of play
 
I think they may struggle to get top four this season. Defending has been woeful for quite some time now.
 
tentan said:
I think they may struggle to get top four this season. Defending has been woeful for quite some time now.
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Depends on how often Aguero, De Bruyne and Laporte are injured. City's last world-class players. The rest is a team fighting for 3rd-6th position.
 
SilentWitness said:
Richards is spot on about a Rodri, he’s shit.
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Rodri can only play a cb in PL, I think. Rather than signing Dias they should have moved Rodri there, sell Gundogan and sign two mobile, physical, high energy centre-midfielders.
 
Maybe we could finish higher than City?

On second thought, maybe not, we are not any better.
 
Losing Kompany, Fernandinho is 35 & then Silva is gone. IMO the biggest loss are Kompany & Fernandinho, they haven't properly replace them even after spent massive on centre backs & Rodri which made them inconsistent and weak defensively. Let's see how Ruben Dias will do.
 
Pep Guardiola is my idol, always gets the best teams, with the best squads, spends the most money, wins a league or two and then pants that's it.
 
They just seem incredibly reliant on Fernandinho. When he's there in the midfield they have that stability to build on, but when he's not playing (or is in the defence) they are just so easy to go through. The search for defenders seems to mean they can move him back into the midfield again, but at his age it'll be interesting to see how much he can play and whether he'll be able to stay in top form.
 
How on earth has Pep spent almost a Billion in 4 years and they line up like this against Leicester:

Ederson
Walker - Garcia - Ake - Mendy
Fernandinho - Rodrigo
Mahrez - KDB - Foden
Sterling

There are maybe 3, at a push 4, players there you would say are the required standard. It makes our own squad look pretty good for a change.
 
kouroux said:
I wonder if they will still be considered as favorites for the CL despite not coming close to winning it
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They'll get a piss easy draw in the Ro16, blast them about 8-2 on aggregate then go out to the first decent team they play against. Likely due to Pep tinkering with the team so much he'll have 2 wingers in midfield and a RB up front.
 
Pep under pressure for the first time, I think. Starting to look like his methods are actually making the players worse now. There's so much criticism of our recruitment but there's no excuse, with the squad we have, for how bad we've been over the last 12 months. We've not replaced Kompany, and Aguero, Silva, and Fernandinho have all wilted a bit, but we've got a good squad worth millions and we should be doing better with them. It's not like the players who are currently underperforming were average when we signed them - we paid top dollar because they were highly rated, they've just not delivered.

The players we've signed under Pep; their reputation when we signed them; their reputation now.
16/17
Gundogan; well-rated technical midfielder, a good signing; decent but probably needs shifting.
Nolito; goal-scoring winger, a decent signing; gone after one season.
Zinchenko; well-rated attacking midfielder; not good enough as a left-back.
Sane; bright young winger with an eye for goal; gone to Bayern Munich.
Stones; centre-back with good potential; bit of a liability, never really fit.
Bravo; one of the world's best goalkeepers; total shite, gone to Betis.
Jesus; bright young striker with good potential; same really, just got less time to grow up.

17/18
Bernardo; one of Europe's best young wingers; squad player who needs to rediscover his form.
Ederson; one of Europe's best young keepers; one of Europe's best keepers, has a few mistakes in his game.
Walker; one of the best right-backs in the PL; one of the best right-backs in the PL.
Danilo; decent back-up, but error prone; gone to Juventus.
Mendy; one of Europe's best young full-backs; decent but error prone and unlikely to ever fulfil his potential.
Laporte; one of Europe's best young centre-backs; one of Europe's best centre-backs.

18/19
Mahrez; one of the PL's best wingers; one of the PL's best wingers.

19/20
Angelino; decent squad option, former City player coming back; loaned off to Leipzig twice.
Rodri; classy midfielder in the Busquets role; still classy but a square peg in a round hole.
Cancelo; good attacking full-back; decent squad option but hasn't really made an impact.
This is basically a list of good signings (on paper) where basically all of them go south.
 
robinamicrowave said:
Pep under pressure for the first time, I think. Starting to look like his methods are actually making the players worse now. There's so much criticism of our recruitment but there's no excuse, with the squad we have, for how bad we've been over the last 12 months. We've not replaced Kompany, and Aguero, Silva, and Fernandinho have all wilted a bit, but we've got a good squad worth millions and we should be doing better with them. It's not like the players who are currently underperforming were average when we signed them - we paid top dollar because they were highly rated, they've just not delivered.

The players we've signed under Pep; their reputation when we signed them; their reputation now.
16/17
Gundogan; well-rated technical midfielder, a good signing; decent but probably needs shifting.
Nolito; goal-scoring winger, a decent signing; gone after one season.
Zinchenko; well-rated attacking midfielder; not good enough as a left-back.
Sane; bright young winger with an eye for goal; gone to Bayern Munich.
Stones; centre-back with good potential; bit of a liability, never really fit.
Bravo; one of the world's best goalkeepers; total shite, gone to Betis.
Jesus; bright young striker with good potential; same really, just got less time to grow up.

17/18
Bernardo; one of Europe's best young wingers; squad player who needs to rediscover his form.
Ederson; one of Europe's best young keepers; one of Europe's best keepers, has a few mistakes in his game.
Walker; one of the best right-backs in the PL; one of the best right-backs in the PL.
Danilo; decent back-up, but error prone; gone to Juventus.
Mendy; one of Europe's best young full-backs; decent but error prone and unlikely to ever fulfil his potential.
Laporte; one of Europe's best young centre-backs; one of Europe's best centre-backs.

18/19
Mahrez; one of the PL's best wingers; one of the PL's best wingers.

19/20
Angelino; decent squad option, former City player coming back; loaned off to Leipzig twice.
Rodri; classy midfielder in the Busquets role; still classy but a square peg in a round hole.
Cancelo; good attacking full-back; decent squad option but hasn't really made an impact.
This is basically a list of good signings (on paper) where basically all of them go south.
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Pep simply became too stubborn and doesn't see his own mistakes or weaknesses of his players anymore.

Also when you have wingbacks in Cancelo and Angelino but never actually try them in 3-5-2 after you've switched to slower footballer and inverted wingers is... bizarre. Just makes me feel like he doesn't or can't challenge himself or players again and hiring a yes-man as his no.2 certainly didn't help. Unless Messi agrees to join City next summer I think for the first time this is Pep's last season.
 
Pep's Suit said:
Pep simply became too stubborn and doesn't see his own mistakes or weaknesses of his players anymore.

Also when you have wingbacks in Cancelo and Angelino but never actually try them in 3-5-2 after you've switched to slower footballer and inverted wingers is... bizarre. Just makes me feel like he doesn't or can't challenge himself or players again and hiring a yes-man as his no.2 certainly didn't help. Unless Messi agrees to join City next summer I think for the first time this is Pep's last season.
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Yeah, I'm inclined to agree now. I've always said he'll go in 2022 but things are unravelling a lot quicker than I expected. We've lost 10 of our last 36 league games, for instance. Leicester weren't even particularly good yesterday, so them being able to get at us so easily is a big concern. Things will get better once Aguero, Jesus, Laporte, Bernardo, Gundogan, Stones, etc. are back (wow, we are missing a load of players, aren't we?), Dias arrives, and we're up to our full complement. We'll still finish in the top 4 and maybe win a cup. But we're not reaching Centurions/Fourmidables levels under Pep again.

In a way, I'm sort of glad. It was always going to come to an end for Pep eventually, and between 2017-2019 I was worried we'd collapse once he left. We played so well under him, and he seemed to be cause of all of it, so I was worried about what the future would hold once he left. That we'd fall apart as soon as he went. But now it seems that getting rid of him might be a necessary refresher. I'd send Soriano and Txiki with him as well - not because I think they're shit at their jobs or anything, just because getting Pep was their mission and they've achieved it, so it's fair enough to look at a new approach.
 
Obviously most of the focus is on their inept defending but for all the talk of how well coached they are the truth is their approach is largely hoping De Bruyne does something. Their goals yesterday were from set pieces and they created nothing of note outside of them.
 
robinamicrowave said:
Yeah, I'm inclined to agree now. I've always said he'll go in 2022 but things are unravelling a lot quicker than I expected. We've lost 10 of our last 36 league games, for instance. Leicester weren't even particularly good yesterday, so them being able to get at us so easily is a big concern. Things will get better once Aguero, Jesus, Laporte, Bernardo, Gundogan, Stones, etc. are back (wow, we are missing a load of players, aren't we?), Dias arrives, and we're up to our full complement. We'll still finish in the top 4 and maybe win a cup. But we're not reaching Centurions/Fourmidables levels under Pep again.

In a way, I'm sort of glad. It was always going to come to an end for Pep eventually, and between 2017-2019 I was worried we'd collapse once he left. We played so well under him, and he seemed to be cause of all of it, so I was worried about what the future would hold once he left. That we'd fall apart as soon as he went. But now it seems that getting rid of him might be a necessary refresher. I'd send Soriano and Txiki with him as well - not because I think they're shit at their jobs or anything, just because getting Pep was their mission and they've achieved it, so it's fair enough to look at a new approach.
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I think Soriano could/should stay but Txiki has to go. So many wrong-fit / never-good-enough / injury-prone players were signed under him and so many transfers collapsed in the very last moment... It's a bit ridiculous now. You can't have €150m+ net spend from two summers and make the team weaker. Also who knows who he's gonna prefer as Pep's replacement. Realistically, it HAS to be a big-name manager like Poch, Allegri or Zidane but wouldn't surprise me if this guy lobbies for someone like Marcelino to completely waste KDB's last 2-3 peak years.
 
Suedesi said:
They trailed Liverpool by a gazillion points last season, and yet they're still favorites for the league AND the Champions League - cuz expected goals innit.

I don't fecking get it, this team has major flaws defensively as proved time and time and time again - but they're going to do the quadruple according to English media who just can never take a critical look at Guardiola because he invented football or somthing.
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Just looked up the CL odds:

Bayern 5.50
City 5.50
Liverpool 7.00
PSG 9.00
Real 10.00
Barcelona 13.00
Juventus 13.00
Chelsea 21.00
United 21.00
Dortmund 23.00
Inter 26.00
Atletico 29.00

Why on earth is Atletico so low? They're no "elite team", sure, but they always seem to do well in the CL. No way they should be so low.

As for City ... yeah, I don't get why they're so high on them year after year. They made one (!) CL semifinal so far ffs.

As much as it pains me to say, I would rank Liverpool at #1. They have a great starting 11 and also superb depth.

Bayern should be #2. Their starting 11 is arguably the best of any team, but they simply don't have much depth and this season will be brutal.

PSG would be my #3. I could see two scenarios: They either totally implode because of that CL final loss, or they start a revenge tour and really win it this year. Talent is there.
 
robinamicrowave said:
Things will get better once Aguero, Jesus, Laporte, Bernardo, Gundogan, Stones, etc. are back (wow, we are missing a load of players, aren't we?), Dias arrives, and we're up to our full complement.
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I was wondering about that. Any particular reason why you have so many injuries? Do you have so many injury-prone players (which I do think is a thing), or is there something wrong with training intensity or the medical staff? (If it's rotation, then why don't Liverpool suffer from injuries?)

Or it's just bad luck, of course; but that's always a lame argument and gets poorer as time goes on and the injury trends continue.
 
Getting rid of Otamendi is a plus, thought he was woeful for most of his premier league spell.
 
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