Manchester City under Pep Guardiola | Pep on City v Liverpool ref: "He likes to be special"

[Womp]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, he is one of the best managers in the world (probably atm the top but its a tight elite group up there) but like all the others he has flaws and against the best they show. While I find the half the Caf too hard on him, the other half are too in love with him. This is not the first time this has happened and it will not be the last but as capable and all as he is at getting thrashed away from home, he is capable of beating any top team well at home.

Given the nature of the big 3 managers in the premier league and their inflexibility Klopp will always have a stylistical edge on Pep, Pep will always have an edge on Jose and Jose will always have the edge on Klopp, its kind of fascinating and also interesting none of the better manager these days have any real tactical flexibility (not even Pochettino or Conte). They seem to settle into playing how they play and never adapt to either their players or the upcoming opposition.

That’s actually quite an interesting point, never really occurred to me, really is interesting.

In regards to flexibility though, I agree, although that could be down to the fact that these guys have won everything there is to win doing it their way, they probably see no need to change anything. That being said, I still think Klopp and Jose are more capable of adapting than Pep. Klopp has done it before, when we played them at Anfield Liverpool still played their style but with much more caution, for example and I don’t think Jose’s pragmatism needs to even be discussed, his teams can play great football one game and look devoid of creativity the next.

Whilst Pep’s teams are more than capable of dismantling smaller teams in leagues, I do think he needs to start thinking of ways he can switch things up in games like today’s. His record in Europe since his Barca days has been underwhelming to say the least, especially when you take into account the team’s he managed. Leaving your defenders 1 on 1 against teams with the attacking power that QF CL teams possess is always going to be risky, especially when it’s a knock out competition and one game can potentially settle the tie

 

[amolbhatia50k]

He’s probably the best manager in the World, but what is this? The third year running he’s been embarrassed in Europe due to his refusal to adapt?

I do think he's the best and that he has done a brilliant job at City thus far. But Klopps completely done him over last night. You look at the teams at their disposal and what they got out of them and Klopp has elevated his team on the night and deflated City's in the process.

There does seem to be a theme with Pep and CL games against good attacking teams where he over commits and causes his defenders to be exposed.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

OT somewhat: I wasn't able to catch the game, but was D.Silva his usual MIA self in big CL games?

 

[Rhyme Animal]

They've been over-rated for most of the season and most importantly, they've been over respected by lots of PL teams.

When it really, really mattered in a single game, they couldn't do anything.

And having effectively won the PL so early, the season will probably feel like a let down to a lot of Citeh fans, though they won't say so, not on here at least.

Call it snobbery if you like, but I feel as though the CL just shouldn't be won by oil clubs with small, badly attended stadiums.

It's an historic event, a place for the big clubs in Europe to flex their muscles, and for me, citeh will never really, truly belong there - despite the pretty footy against PL teams.

It's almost as if their players deep down know this and have a kind of in-built ceiling in the CL that they stop at.

Who knows, maybe they'll manage to get through in the 2nd match, Liverpool are, afterall, incredible flakes when it comes to seeing out a lead.

 

[Darkhorsez]

I see the press’s love affair with Pep is over after one game - too funny! I enjoy this nevertheless ....

http://www.espn.com/soccer/blog/the...gain-as-liverpool-exploit-city-tactical-risks

 

[PedroMendez]

Pep did it again in a cl-KO away game. He overloaded the center with gundogan and laporte to add control. It took away most of city's attacking threat and allowed liverpool's defence to sit comfortable with very little pressure. Consequently it was also easier for pool to counterattack.
Instead of using the lineup and tactics that dominate the EPL, he makes these silly changes.
Gündogan was completely lost and it forced city to only attack with sane on the left, who had no fullback to overlap. Sane had a bad day, but he didn't get the necessary support to take defenders from him.
That defeat is 100% on pep.

 

[Lentwood]

If every team played the way Liverpool did against City, City would win lots of games 6-0, but they would also lose 6/7 PL games a season

Jose needs to learn from this. I’m all for pragmatism but the best way to beat this City side is to outscore them and that means making players like Silva, Sane, De Bruyne, Walker, Laporte, Otamendi etc....do the dirty stuff and defend

 

[Raees]

I do think he's the best and that he has done a brilliant job at City thus far. But Klopps completely done him over last night. You look at the teams at their disposal and what they got out of them and Klopp has elevated his team on the night and deflated City's in the process.

There does seem to be a theme with Pep and CL games against good attacking teams where he over commits and causes his defenders to be exposed.

He was over cautious in this game and ruined his sides natural attacking flow.

 

[Janson]

Well if that's the Mourinho way then I expect him to attack Man City on Saturday because he's a pragmatic manager. Being pragmatic means you take the best possible route to victory. Use the tactics which give you the best chance of winning the game.

That's not the best way to win the game, it would be suicide.

 

[JDoe]

Given the nature of the big 3 managers in the premier league and their inflexibility Klopp will always have a stylistical edge on Pep, Pep will always have an edge on Jose and Jose will always have the edge on Klopp, its kind of fascinating and also interesting none of the better manager these days have any real tactical flexibility (not even Pochettino or Conte). They seem to settle into playing how they play and never adapt to either their players or the upcoming opposition.

Pep has already shown when he was at our club how to beat Klopp. The thing is that Klopp's teams have always been individually far inferior to the top teams. Pep played Martinez in the hole in one game, giving Dortmund the ball and sitting back soaking up the pressure. Mou did the same thing a few weeks ago and by doing that, Klopp's teams' flaws are exposed badly (low individual quality), his front three is fast but none of them is able to do that cliché "something out of nothing" when they play against a packed defence, while the midfield offers zero creativity especially after Coutinho left and the defence is very prone to brainfarts. There is no fix for that unless Klopp gets the same money as Mou and Pep and starts buying top tier players.

Going toe on toe with a Klopp team is a bad idea especially if your team is individually superior, they are drilled to bring the opposition down to their level and their playing style and on their day (which is quite often) they'll smash absolutely any team on the planet.

 

[Jack - City Fan]

Too me it seemed noticeable last night that city weren't committing as many men forward as normal, I really think Pep saw how much we got hammered at Anfield last time and was more cautious and it came back to bite him.

We were definitely the worse team last night but I would have liked it if we'd been braver on the attack. Or maybe we just were't good enough. Laporte had a couple of good moments but he is not a left back, and in our system where we're so reliant on our Full backs to add to the attack it's really noticeable, as well as getting torn to shreds by Salah (Not that there are many whom you could say would never havee that happen).

As it is it's going to be really tough for us to get through, but never say never, it wouldn't be the first time we've scored 3 goals in a game, the real problem being we're unlikely to keep a clean sheet and will likely need 5 goals.

 

[Jim Beam]

I looked up Fergie's career-wide figures in the Champions League knock outs for comparison.

His stat amounts to 9 wins, 10 draws, 8 losses + 2 wins and 2 losses on neutral ground (99 treble against Bayern and Moscow ≠ 2 final losses against Barca).

I actually thought their records would be more comparable, but Pep's figures aren't too far off the greatest manager of all time.

For Pep it gets a lot worse since Barcelona days, though. 2 wins (Basel and Arsenal) in 12 away games.

 

[Sing you a song]

The result shows the power of positive thinking.Klopp played to the strengths of his team rather than be intimidated by City.
City have been fantastic this season but they are not a team of supermen.
If more teams had taken them on this season rather then than running scared then they would have dropped more points .
Pace scares all defenders so Klopp unleashed his forwards and City so used to controlling games couldn't cope.
Congrats to Klopp, Jose would never have done this he would have set up defensively and played into there hands as he did against Seville let's hope we go for it on Saturday

 

[kouroux]

The result shows the power of positive thinking.Klopp played to the strengths of his team rather than be intimidated by City.
City have been fantastic this season but they are not a team of supermen.
If more teams had taken them on this season rather then than running scared then they would have dropped more points .
Pace scares all defenders so Klopp unleashed his forwards and City so used to controlling games couldn't cope.
Congrats to Klopp, Jose would never have done this he would have set up defensively and played into there hands as he did against Seville let's hope we go for it on Saturday

Exactly. Liverpool wouldn't have even needed to win by 3-0 for what you said to be true.

 

[Murray3007]

always think pep's problem is he try's to fix things which aint broke, Sterling been one of the best players in the league this season yet drops him, if there was any player who should have been dropped should have been Silva as he dont usually perform in the biggest games for me. Delph or the young left back should have played instead. not 100% percent the tie is completly over if honest tho

 

[Shark]

I think that when City eventually lose Aguero to decline, or him deciding to move on, it's going to affect this City team more than most realize now. He's vital to them.

 

[Adisa]

The result shows the power of positive thinking.Klopp played to the strengths of his team rather than be intimidated by City.
City have been fantastic this season but they are not a team of supermen.
If more teams had taken them on this season rather then than running scared then they would have dropped more points .
Pace scares all defenders so Klopp unleashed his forwards and City so used to controlling games couldn't cope.
Congrats to Klopp, Jose would never have done this he would have set up defensively and played into there hands as he did against Seville let's hope we go for it on Saturday

You wish.

 

[Trizy]

OT somewhat: I wasn't able to catch the game, but was D.Silva his usual MIA self in big CL games?

Yup as was their entire team. KDB and Silva got no time on the ball and all Citys runs were marked so it completely nullified them to the point they had no shot on target.

Their tactic throughout the game was to hoof it to the left wing for Sane to chase (I'm not joking) and then Sane, who received that type of long ball about 50 times did absolutely feck all.

 

[TwoSheds]

Who's going to talk about what a mess Pep's team selection was? Laporte at LB, way too many centre mids, relying almost exclusively on Sane to make things happen...

 

[TwoSheds]

That’s actually quite an interesting point, never really occurred to me, really is interesting.

In regards to flexibility though, I agree, although that could be down to the fact that these guys have won everything there is to win doing it their way, they probably see no need to change anything. That being said, I still think Klopp and Jose are more capable of adapting than Pep. Klopp has done it before, when we played them at Anfield Liverpool still played their style but with much more caution, for example and I don’t think Jose’s pragmatism needs to even be discussed, his teams can play great football one game and look devoid of creativity the next.

Whilst Pep’s teams are more than capable of dismantling smaller teams in leagues, I do think he needs to start thinking of ways he can switch things up in games like today’s. His record in Europe since his Barca days has been underwhelming to say the least, especially when you take into account the team’s he managed. Leaving your defenders 1 on 1 against teams with the attacking power that QF CL teams possess is always going to be risky, especially when it’s a knock out competition and one game can potentially settle the tie

You might say it's Klopp, Peper, Joséssors...except completely in reverse.

 

[Mb194dc]

Technically and tactically City are a top side. On paper you would think they would beat Liverpool over two legs.

They lack character though because the players and manager are just mercenaries who have no other affiliation or affection for the club.

That showed hugely last night against Liverpool. They couldn’t cope with the game / stage. No one in the team to get them through it.

The best club sides are mix of home grown and world class big money stars.

Just buying a load of players with £££££ doesn’t work very well if you want to win the champions league. Real Madrid realised this in the early 2000s. Didn't work us either, we got closer though as had Terry, Lampard etc. We won it by pure luck in 2012.

PSG and City both have the same problem now.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Atmosphere at the Etihad will work in City's favor. Liverpool will be rattled. Blue seats will make big noise.

 

[Treble]

Guardiola's tactics of controlling games by passing the ball isn't very effective in big CL away games as the opposition is usually quite good at disrupting such tactics when playing at home. Given the state of Liverpool's defence, he should have taken a more direct approach and play Sterling/Bernardo from the start.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Oliie Holt will be more devastated than Pep.

 

[Ban]

To remember City fans sang
You live in the past
Just like United you live in past
yesterday.

Well that has bitten them in the arse massively.

 

[borrays]

Let his midfielders have possesion as much as they want. Press his defenders near their own penalty box & forced them for errors.
Counter attack with fast long ball football through the flanks

So these 3 tactics is still the right formula to stop Pep's teams. just like Conte, Pep only knows 1 way to play football and he's lucky that his players are mostly free from long injuries this season.

 

[Trizy]

Let his midfielders have possesion as much as they want. Press his defenders near their own penalty box & forced them for errors.
Counter attack with fast long ball football through the flanks

So these 3 tactics is still the right formula to stop Pep's teams. just like Conte, Pep only knows 1 way to play football and he's lucky that his players are mostly free from long injuries this season.

Hopefully teams start trying to do it in the league. Apart from attack, it's not like Liverpool are brilliant in defense or midfield.

 

[SwSw]

133m on fullbacks, 65m euros on Laporte, 31.5m on Otamendi, 47.5m on Stones and Pep still can't coach a defense.

65m Laporte had a horrid time against Salah while Ashley Young, a converted winger kept Salah in his pockets.

Imagine if Mourinho spend those money on attackers and couldn't score. We would never hear the end of it. Funny, pep isn't getting much shit from the media.

 

[Janson]

Technically and tactically City are a top side. On paper you would think they would beat Liverpool over two legs.

They lack character though because the players and manager are just mercenaries who have no other affiliation or affection for the club.

That showed hugely last night against Liverpool. They couldn’t cope with the game / stage. No one in the team to get them through it.

The best club sides are mix of home grown and world class big money stars.

Just buying a load of players with £££££ doesn’t work very well if you want to win the champions league. Real Madrid realised this in the early 2000s. Didn't work us either, we got closer though as had Terry, Lampard etc. We won it by pure luck in 2012.

PSG and City both have the same problem now.

What's the difference between the PL and the CL? Why would it work in the league but not the PL? Chelsea were only worse than second in the league once between 2004 and 2011 and won it three times. I don't think there is really any relation between having home grown players and doing well in CL. I think winning the league is a much better and more reliable indicitaor of how good a team is. In the CL knockout stages, anything can happen. It doesn't always mean that the best team wins

 

[TwoSheds]

Hopefully teams start trying to do it in the league. Apart from attack, it's not like Liverpool are brilliant in defense or midfield.

Fernandinho, Silva and Dr Bruyne isn't a brilliant midfield?

 

[VanGaalEra]

 

[balaks]

133m on fullbacks, 65m euros on Laporte, 31.5m on Otamendi, 47.5m on Stones and Pep still can't coach a defense.

65m Laporte had a horrid time against Salah while Ashley Young, a converted winger kept Salah in his pockets.

Imagine if Mourinho spend those money on attackers and couldn't score. We would never hear the end of it. Funny, pep isn't getting much shit from the media.

Are you baseing all this on one game? Pep doesn't get much shit from the media because his team is about to win the league in April.

 

[Adisa]

Someone should have educated him.
Those are stewards.
Police are responsible for security outside the ground.

 

[Trizy]

Fernandinho, Silva and Dr Bruyne isn't a brilliant midfield?

What? I said Liverpool, not City.

A midfield of Herderson, Milner & Ox.

 

[Trizy]

Someone should have educated him.
Those are stewards.
Police are responsible for security outside the ground.

He's a dickhead.

Btw was this after the game? Love a good Pep Meltdown.

Happy new year, Pep!

 

[TwoSheds]

What? I said Liverpool, not City.

A midfield of Herderson, Milner & Ox.

Oh ok, apologies then sir. Fair, they are cack.

 

[Wumminator]

133m on fullbacks, 65m euros on Laporte, 31.5m on Otamendi, 47.5m on Stones and Pep still can't coach a defense.

65m Laporte had a horrid time against Salah while Ashley Young, a converted winger kept Salah in his pockets.

Imagine if Mourinho spend those money on attackers and couldn't score. We would never hear the end of it. Funny, pep isn't getting much shit from the media.

Why on Earth would Pep get much shit from the media FFS?

 

[Thunderhead]

He's a dickhead.

Btw was this after the game? Love a good Pep Meltdown.

Happy new year, Pep!

it was before the game, they're just getting off the bus.

 

[SwSw]

Are you baseing all this on one game? Pep doesn't get much shit from the media because his team is about to win the league in April.

Mourinho received tons of flak after the Sevilla debacle despite improving us a lot this year. If one is going to throw criticism, at least be consistent with how it is thrown.

 

[breakout67]

Of course Pep deserves criticism; just like any other top team would deserve criticism for being humiliated in the CL.

As far as I see it, this is a very similar situation as PSG. A team that bought the league yet failed to impress in Europe. If anything City deserve more criticism than PSG, because they faced a an easier opponent.