Thats what Pep gets for stealing Ryan Giggs' scintillating pre-match motivational speech. We need to 'play the perfect game'. From 17.20.
Manchester City under Pep Guardiola | Pep on City v Liverpool ref: "He likes to be special"
- Thread starter Adisa
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Eh.. hate to break the news but draws are perfectly fine, United 6 wins, 89 points, City 6 draws 90 points.
6 draws would be perfectly fine, infact 5 will get the job done, unless you guys score 100000000000000 goals (may not be the legitimate number of goals you need to score.).
. And the Liverpool tie was a dead rubber too. That's why they held back players for the Spurs match. Makes a lot of sense. I guess plastic is a kind of dead rubber.December 16th - away to City.
I think Spurs have gained more league points than any other Prem club since Xmas.
As opposed to us, showing our character and no-pant-shitting mentality by destroying Sevilla?Just love it
Theyve been battering teams the whole season, but when the most important matches of the year arrive, they bottle it and they show what a small club they are, shitting in their pants and all that
You've been here long enough to know that the Caf, like most fan forum, has always been reactionary. I don't doubt there are loads of blue-moon posters who are mad at St Pep but he is literally their greatest manager ever so they cant really say much negative about him. More rational United fans would have looked past a bad run of three games, especially if we had such massive gap at the top of the table and a carling cup in the bag. We lost badly home and away to Benitez's and Mancini's Liverpool and City teams and the sky did not fall.
I think you’ll beat them on Saturday. You can play with a similar intensity that we do and that they hate to play against.
All well and good except they managed to play much worse tonight than they did on Saturday.
If that's what pressure does to them maybe they're better off playing dead rubber games.
That Chelsea also never lost like this. They knocked barca and bayern out before going out to a ghost goal. They only lost once and were very hard to beat. Yes this city side may be more goal scoring but overall that Chelsea side was on another level considering they did for 2 seasons.
Can’t buy passion hahah
All well and good moaning at the ref but they played terribly. Everything was being done in a panic and the decision making that they're usually so good at was non existent.
De Bruyne must have had about 30 shots and not one from a position where it was the correct choice to take one on. Sane spent the whole game either being offside or panicking with the ball. Jesus I'm pretty sure didn't touch the ball between scoring and in about the 75th minute when he ran with it a bit then fell over.
I think what the last week or so has shown is this team isn't all it's cracked up to be. They've been led to believe they're the greatest team on the planet and then the second that's been challenged they've not been able to handle it at all. Don't think it was even particularly close over the two legs...and I don't think Liverpool even played particularly brilliantly for three quarters of the tie. Just like United weren't particularly briiliant for at least half the game on Saturday.
De Bruyne must have had about 30 shots and not one from a position where it was the correct choice to take one on. Sane spent the whole game either being offside or panicking with the ball. Jesus I'm pretty sure didn't touch the ball between scoring and in about the 75th minute when he ran with it a bit then fell over.
I think what the last week or so has shown is this team isn't all it's cracked up to be. They've been led to believe they're the greatest team on the planet and then the second that's been challenged they've not been able to handle it at all. Don't think it was even particularly close over the two legs...and I don't think Liverpool even played particularly brilliantly for three quarters of the tie. Just like United weren't particularly briiliant for at least half the game on Saturday.
He was really bad in this match. Before Liverpool scored their 1st in the second half he was driving the ball forward with Firmino tracking back. Jesus was on the inside left and there was a wide gap to slip the ball to him between their CBs but KDB kept carrying the ball forward and eventually Firmino made up the ground and dispossessed him. I thought that was shocking and summed up his performance.
And considering the fact how every pundit said this is the best thing they have seen since sliced bread and butter.
He was always cracking, he was running like a wild dog after drawing to Everton at home earlier in the season. Fortunately for him after that everything worked in his favour. Sterling was saving his ass in numerous games and that meant the pressure never mounted. But he has a habit of not taking losses gracefully, after the Wigan loss he went on a crazy mode by fighting with Wigan manager. He is still moaning about Young's penalty. Truth to be told he is no different to Jose, but he has that media love which unfortunately jose doesn't.
What is a ref doing that shit for though? Touch of the Clattenburgs about him. I remember he was trying to stare down a City player who was questioning a decision too.
Do you think Guardiola runs his players into the ground and they're just too jaded at the end of the season for cups then? Hes had similar problems at Bayern, where they fairly consistently looked a shadow of the team from the start of the season every year. Or is it more that a few good coaches have exposed a few weaknesses which you can work on and improve? (it happens).
Saturdays game was crazy and hard to draw too much from but I wasn't impressed by his false 9 tactic again. He used it against Moyes when he was managing Bayern and they passed rings around us for 2 legs creating loads of chances while scoring feck all. Similar again on Saturday. Of your 3 front players Sterling is the most dangerous goal threat by a fair distance really - and compared to a decent striker hes lacking. If he started Aguero then they probably would have had less chances, less control. Probably would have been easier for our defenders. But he would have buried any chances he did get and probably would have created one or two for himself.
Liverpool have had similar set ups in recent years too with Firmino and i remember Wijnaldum getting loads of great chances in our box over a few games ... but your just never worried about the guy scoring cause hes not very good at it. Strikers are undervalued today.
Saturdays game was crazy and hard to draw too much from but I wasn't impressed by his false 9 tactic again. He used it against Moyes when he was managing Bayern and they passed rings around us for 2 legs creating loads of chances while scoring feck all. Similar again on Saturday. Of your 3 front players Sterling is the most dangerous goal threat by a fair distance really - and compared to a decent striker hes lacking. If he started Aguero then they probably would have had less chances, less control. Probably would have been easier for our defenders. But he would have buried any chances he did get and probably would have created one or two for himself.
Liverpool have had similar set ups in recent years too with Firmino and i remember Wijnaldum getting loads of great chances in our box over a few games ... but your just never worried about the guy scoring cause hes not very good at it. Strikers are undervalued today.
Best PL team ever?
- If They win the league with the most points ever that would make them A team that wins the PL with the best ever points and not the best PL team ever.
- Will that make it the most impressive title win ever? Nope, that belongs to Leicester, what Leicester did considering They amount of money They invested is impossible to do never mind to repeat. So City won't be a team who wins it in the best or most impressive way.
- If you're talking the technicality or the ability to win games, will this side even be able to beat the Man Utd 1999/2008 or Arsenal's invicible? Nope, there's a big doubt about their mentality under immense pressure, especially after their three times in a row losses in games that matter the most, I doubt They'd beat those teams.
I think that unfair for Saturday, Pep can't be blamed because Sterling shit himself thrice on Saturday. In reality he can't sub himself on and take shots when Sterling is 1 on 1 with the keeper from 12-15 yards. We paid the price for our rather inexperienced front 3 shitting the bed for lack of a better word in the last 3 games. If we're 4-0 up vs United, no way they comeback like they did. If we gotta outta Anfield with a goal, no way would we buckle like second half today.
In the two legs vs Liverpool we had 31 shots at their goal of which we got 3 on target (2 of them shitty ones from KDB), in the derby we had 20 shots or which 6 were on target. We hit the post twice through Gundogan and Bernardo.
That means we've had 9 of our last 51 shots on target and scored 3 goals. We need 17 shots to a goal at the minute.
Had the front 3's been swapped for the Liverpool tie we'd probably have hammered them, but ours (who are excellent, just young and inexperienced) shit themselves when it counted.
Atm, Aguero is literally our only real goal threat and its last season all over again, bossing games, creating chances, fluffing our lines and getting punished. The first game at Anfield was the only one where we shouldn't have been out of sight at half time and we've paid the price for it along with having some horrendous bad luck (post twice, goal disallowed tonight, Young's potential pen in the derby, Salah offside for Liverpools first, Sane possibly on for the disallowed goal in the 1st leg).
Every single thing was falling our way early in the season, a ball breaks in the box, always landed at our feet (see the OT derby), right now the opposite is happening, ball missing players by a yard, bouncing balls bouncing to defenders. Cutbacks that we were always on the end of early in the season now missing the target. We got more than our fair share of things going our way early on and right now, we're getting less than our fair share. It's football.
No real excuses but its hard to blame the manager when his team hit the target with 1/10th of their efforts on goal. Sterling and Sane have imploded at the worst possible time.
Wait so earlier in the season when they were being called the best premier league side ever, gabriel Jesus was likened to messi and de bruyne was called one of the best players in the world- it might have all been a bit premature??
The thing I would worry about if I were a City fan is, how do we improve? The team has such class in all positions, yes they had a few injuries along the way like with Mendy. But for the most part they were a full strength team and looked a finished article. Who do they buy or what do they tweak to actually improve this team. They are good and have been excellent but this week as washed away some of their shine and just like with Chelsea 16-17 people stop being afraid of you and start figuring out how to play you.
Or, maybe I'm being hasty......
Or, maybe I'm being hasty......
Improve by Sterling and Sane learning not to panic in the big games (with experience), Jesus learning to stop running around crashing into things and to keep his head. The main thing this team is missing and needs to improve is its balls. It's been questionable with the last team and this one is young and inexperienced but atm have an issue with getting the job done. I believe Sterling hasn't scored against United in 14 attempts or something.
They have to learn to be ruthless, peak Barca would never have bollixed up the last 2 games like we have, when we should be outta sight at half time.
Indeed. Personal experience and growth/improvement for each player as well as the team growing together can only make your team better.
This got me thinking.
The following is all competitions:
United 98/99
P 62
W 36
D 22
L 4
Trophies: PL, FA, CL
W 36
D 22
L 4
Trophies: PL, FA, CL
United 07/08
P 56
W 40
D 9
L 7
Trophies: PL, CL
W 40
D 9
L 7
Trophies: PL, CL
Arsenal 03/04
P 58
W 37
D 15
L 6
Trophies: PL
W 37
D 15
L 6
Trophies: PL
Chelsea 04/05
P 57
W 40
D 11
L 6
Trophies: PL, LC
W 40
D 11
L 6
Trophies: PL, LC
City 17/18
P 51
W 39
D 5
L 7
Trophies: PL, LC
W 39
D 5
L 7
Trophies: PL, LC
City will end up with the most wins and least amount of draws. I don't really know what all this means, but I've awake for a long time, and I'm very bored.
Yeah that's all fair. Luck definitely isn't in your favour atm. Think tiredness has a fair bit to answer for too though. You were really, really sharp and quick to any loose or 2nd balls last time we played you and any time i watched you at the start of the season. You're not atm - your not that slow but you're far from quick.
Jesus form doesn't look great at the moment but give him sterlings chances and you'd expect him to score wouldn't you? Think your being a bit harsh on Sane and Sterling for Saturday at least tbh. They carved out lots of good chances, had great movement, didn't give our full backs an easy time. I wouldn't expect them to be that clinical really. Sane as good as hes been has never looked much of a goalscorer to me. Sterling ... creates a lot of chances, gets on the end of a lot of chances and misses a lot of chances - nothing new there. The shot that hit the post was pure luck, could've happened to anyone imo. I'd rather play against that group of players every time than dropping one for a recognised striker basically. Think 2 goals is about the best i'd hope for from Sane, Sterling, Silva, Silva and Gundogan as an attacking group against anyone good. Think you got them 2 more from us being utterly shit at defending corners and panicking after conceding the first than it being a recipe for success going forward tbh.
I don't think it worked with Muller (who's about as close to the perfect false 9 as you can come) and Robben both of whom score a fair bit more than most attacking midfielders so I'm a bit surprised to see him continuing to use it really. Similar story with them imo. They carved out lots of chances and looked amazing but they weren't really blowing teams out of the water (Moyes stayed in a tie against them for 170 mins or so) and their results against top tier teams were underwhelming from memory. And they had a spectacular collection of players at the time. He could have and should have got more from them really.
Youth is definitely a fair excuse and that shots to goal stat is awful. Rashford and Martial have their ups and downs same as your lot.
UEFA's fault, three same people shouldn't be sitting near each other in a stadium (50m distance is minimum).
They will end up winning the premier league with the most points in history and that's all
.I see they had their plassie flags out on the seats for tonights game.
Man City . The Northen Chelsea.
Just watched it. People say Mourinho moan a lot about referring ffs. This is a longest list of moaning I have seen about referring for a while. He even went on to blame the ref for the Monaco game last season.
Look at the lines on the pitch for the City offside goal at Anfield last week. He was actually offside.
Sanchez would have made a difference today and last week
100% he has a problem with pacing his players throughout a season. It's not hard to see that they play at an extreme intensity and with the same nucleus of players in the most demanding positions. Both de Bruyne and Silva look out of it at the moment.
In the first half of the season de Bruyne got a score of 8 or above on WhoScored in 11 games. Since January he's had 2 games at that level, and none since February onwards. You can see from the way he gets around the pitch that it's more than just form. He ran himself into the ground.
That said if that way of pacing your players means you win 3/4 of league titles while you suffer in the cups...I think that's not a bad trade off. They're not a team that should be expecting to win the CL anyway. Not yet.
Good time to bump that PED thread now that it looks like this squad has completely run out of gas.