Manchester City banned from CL for 2 seasons and fined 30 million euros | CAS - Ban lifted, fined 10 million
- Thread starter roonster09
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Well... that is a hard one to answer but I will try: Arguably one of the best managers in the Premier League is Nuno Espirito Santo. I'm assuming he doesn't plan to stay his entire career at Wolves, so if City's board feel like Pep peaked...
Laporte being out totally hijacked them this season, as he's by far their key defender, aerially and on the ball.
You take him out and you suddenly look over the whole team and can barely name someone who is strong in the air!
The decision to let Kompany leave without replacing him, but going to the effort to swap Danilo + cash for Cancelo, is one of the biggest mistakes City have made since the takeover. It’s up there with us failing to buy even one full-back ahead of Pep’s first-season.
This ban is huge.
Almost every player will be thinking of a possible move. Their agents will be in their ears all season.
As good as city are they are there for the taking. A team full of players with movement in their mind wont function like the well oiled machine it takes to win the premier league.
There is a huge opportunity here.
Almost every player will be thinking of a possible move. Their agents will be in their ears all season.
As good as city are they are there for the taking. A team full of players with movement in their mind wont function like the well oiled machine it takes to win the premier league.
There is a huge opportunity here.
The mix of Kompany going without a big signing, plus Laporte getting injured was a massive part of the poor season.
Even with the best midfield and an attack as good as anyones it was too big a handicap.
To be fair I think the problems went deeper than just Laporte’s absence. We’ve conceded a lot more chances from counter attacks after we went the whole 18/19 season without conceding from one. And Otamendi and Stones both have been poor even for there standards. We’re lucky Fernandinho adapted to it so quickly.
Why do you think you've conceded more counter attacks? Haven't watched City as much as usual this year.
Switching out Fernandinho for Rodri as the shield in midfield? The tactical fouling high up the field somehow not working as well? Worse control over the ball? Or just having Laporte out and therefore less last line protection from counters?
Cheeky bid for Jesus and Mahrez?
......oh and feck City!
......oh and feck City!
30 pieces of silver for Jesus
yeah that'll work.
Rodri is about as useful in the fernandinho role as a statue. Our midfield is a shadow of what it was.
The change from Kdb, fernandinho and David Silva. To Rodri (slow), Gundogan (coward) and Kdb is huge. It's hard for Gundo to tackle or foul anyone when hes afraid to stick his leg out and Rodri will never catch anyone when he refuses to sprint.
Both are pretty on the ball though so get away with it most the time.
The other thing is a lack of leadership, not sure there's anyone in the dressing room to pick them up/lead when things go wrong.
Pep himself doesn't value tackling, didn't he once say that if you're in a situation where you have to tackle then you're already late or something like that? He isn't putting Rodri and Gundo in there to tackle, but because they're good on the ball.
The problem with Rodri is that he isn't fast but he goes up the pitch to participate way more than Fernandinho did, and when the opponent get the ball to counter, well it's a wrap. And his positioning isn't great yet like Busquets once was.
Some City fans just seem to want to hate on
Gundogan for weird reasons even in games where atleast 5 other players were worse, he often seems to be the one to gets the most criticized by their fans.
I don't know about the drop in quality from Fern/KDB/Silva midfield because if you remember the 2nd half of last season the midfield was more often Gundo/Silva/Silva (or KDB when he wasn't injured), Fernandinho was often on the bench when he recovered from his injury and City won every game.
This season, City conceeded less goal occasions than other teams but they almost often conceeded goals whenever the opponent had a goal occasion. IMO it had more to do with the individual qualities of the defenders (their best defender by far was injured) and some goal keeping blunders....
Well, City like to overspend on Mendes' clients - Mangala, Otamendi, now Cancelo (City's his fifth club in six years, I believe).
Same things could be said about Arsenal as well with their £80-100m income from tickets.
Whatever happened to Mangala? Didn't he cost £40m or something like that?
Free transfer to Valencia. £43m when there were no other offers. Ugh.
See I disagree here, we got 100 pts without Laporte for the 1st half of a season with stones and otamendi as starting CB. Our defenders aren't amazing but they are better than they get credit for. We give up less chances but the ones we give up are guilt edged because our cbs are left 2v2 or 2v3.
Gundogan is a coward without the ball, simple as. Understandable after the horror injuries he has but still true. David Silva, Bernardo arent the biggest but get stuck in, Gundo doesn't. City fans slate him because time and again, he jogs back and pulls out of challenges. Hes a fantastic player on the ball but needs people to do the physical work for him. In a midfield where the others will run themselves into the ground it's fine. In a midfield with Rodri, hes exposed time and again.
Hes also one of the slowest players in our squad, even David Silva covers ground faster than him, and again that's an effort thing. paired with Rodri our entire midfield is too slow so easier to break against.
Laporte was already important in that 2nd half of the 100pts season. Let's be honest here, Otamendi and Stones won't be starting for any other team in the top 6 in the PL this season, they just aren't that good defensively and tend to have atleast 1 huge error in each of them that leads to or almost lead to a goal every game they play.
As for Gundogan, well Rodri is there to do most of the dirty work, and it's not like they often need to get "stuck in" since they have the ball more often than the opponent. Like I said, he seems to be the one often more criticized even when there's atleast 5 other players that played worse. I really think the main issue of those critics are because they believe he's taking up Foden's play time.
Pep isn't stupid though, he knows why he keeps playing him especially in big games, and i'll take a guess and say it's because he does what Pep wants.
Genuinely wonder who's slower? Rodri, Gundogan or Javi Garcia? However Rodri - Aouar could be a good combination if that transfer actually happens.
Your midfield is looking alot weaker these days it feels.
Rodri's definitely the slowest.
As for Aouar, it's better to play him higher up the pitch either close to the striker or as a left winger who'll constantly drift inside (like Iniesta did for the Spanish NT and sometimes for Barca). He isn't very fast either and he has the tendencies of not often putting in an effort to get the ball back when it's lost to the opponent.
He isn't close to the level of Gundogan, B. Silva, or KDB as a midfielder yet IMO
City's current best midfield combination right now IMO is either Rodri/Gundogan/KDB (but this works extremely well with B. Silva and Jesus in front of the midfield like against Madrid in the CL) or Gundogan/KDB/B. Silva (I personally think this one's the best but it maybe lacks a little physicality and Rodri's height in corners, but you can swap Gundogan for Rodri I guess).
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Get back on topic and stop talking about players.
Appeal to be heard next month.
Great news for us. Will likely be concluded long before CL registration for next season
How long does it normally take from the hearing to the verdict being announced at CAS?
=(days until too late to impact 20/21)+1
about the time it takes to transfer a large quantity of money
Agreed, and enough time for the PL to decide to hand us the slippy title* (aka no.20*) this summer if they follow suit with Uefa's ruling.
Imagine if they actually uncovered even more shenanigans and gave them a 3 year ban.
The owners and Pep all walk out.
They fade back down to their natural level in either the relegation zone/upper to mid championship, and that's the end of that little period.
The owners and Pep all walk out.
They fade back down to their natural level in either the relegation zone/upper to mid championship, and that's the end of that little period.
If they have their 2 year bad reduced to 1 year, then that would still be phenomenal for whoever finishes 5th! Having their ban wiped out altogether would tell us that corruption is alive and well in the game.
I wouldn't be surprised if the ban is wiped out altogether.
It‘s the worst time to be bringing such a case against City tbh, with the future of many clubs in doubt, fair play currently being relaxed to save clubs, and you want to hang City at a time like this for spending.
It’s probably as sympathetic a climate as they could possibly hope for.
If anything FFP is more important than ever. They couldn't choose a worse time to appeal this. Theres nowhere to hide.
Club finances are now too fragile to allow clubs to bypass these laws
Yet FIFA have thought it the right time to announce that they will be ‘relaxing fair play laws for the time being’.
Indeed. Slap on the wrist in exchange for a promise from the City owners to pump a load of money into the game this summer.
I think it would be a poor form and argument by Man City if they try and wrap up the recent relaxation of fair play because of the unprecedented impact COVID-19 has had on clubs cash flows and very survival to justify their historic overspending and flouting the rules.
That obviously won’t be the basis of their argument. My point is that the authorities may be potentially compromising themselves if they are overzealous with their condemnation of the very activity that they have amended when they have decided it suits them. Them hammering on about all the immorality behind something they are encouraging is contradictory. If there was ever a time for some to empathise with City, I imagine it will be now.