Lyon were a very good CL side, which you should know given they repeatedly knocked you guys out
and were unlucky not to win a CL in their pomp imo. Better side than PSG currently is in Europe, for sure.Manchester City under Pep Guardiola | Pep on City v Liverpool ref: "He likes to be special"
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Lyon were a very good CL side, which you should know given they repeatedly knocked you guys out
and were unlucky not to win a CL in their pomp imo. Better side than PSG currently is in Europe, for sure.been saying the same for ages, I believe Gundogan would be a great #6 in this team
Maybe he likes to watch easy-on-the-eye football? There is a friend of mine, who supports United and Barcelona (idk how that works), who watches every city match diligently( after pep arrived) and said that we should have gone for pep in 2013. I was like duh, the man had the option of either managing a treble winning side or a league winning team on it's last legs. Of course he would select the former option. And he now says that he has stopped supporting the club unless Mou leaves. I didn't know what to say.
I watch a lot of football and football highlights. They're the current champions and always on TV, hard to avoid them.
FWIW I see a lot of games involving the other top 6 members as well.
Eh, bit of a simplification. But if high quality football is on I'll watch it. Doesn't matter who's playing. You learn a lot watching how different top flight clubs set up their teams on the pitch.
Disagree buddy, he won't do the hard yards defensively and despite what TF says we don't have the ball for 90 minutes, can you imagine a midfield 3 of Gundo and the 2 Silva's at Anfield, we could have 90% of the ball but it wouldn't matter when Liverpool would be attacking our cb's uncovered with 4-5 players.
The myth we don't need to fight for second balls vs top teams is just that. Liverpool are very direct, Spurs at times too. We might get away with Gundo there vs poor teams with no pace but it'd be footballing suicide against any top team. The kind of tactical arrogance and looking down on other teams that kicked us square in the arse last night imho.
Our man..
I think he's intelligent enough to do that, he needs to do something as he's never going to be a consistent enough 8, but Fena needs some backup if Delph is going to play left back for any period of time
Liverpool are one thing but we had no prob when Gundog played with Dinho out for 4 league games and we won all 4:
3-0 at Arsenal
1-0 Chelsea
3-1 at Spurs
5-0 Swansea.
He's got the brain and the skills, just don't think he has the heart for the dirty work tbh, you very rarely see him help out the defence, thought it was very telling, it was Silva back last night and not him. He's a talented player but I'm not sure where or how we get the best from him. Might be worth a try. Personally, I'd prefer to see us try Stones at no.6 ahead of Laporte and Otamendi. He's pretty press resistant on the ball and works harder than Gundo. It's a problem position for us though.
Fair point. I just don't see it with him tbh (in that role), in fact its hard to find a role that suits him in our midfield.
They were OK, not as good as current City or PSG, us being shit at the time and going out against anyone doesn't change anything.Lyon were a very good CL side, which you should know given they repeatedly knocked you guys out
Nah thats just wrong. What have PSG done to justify being better than that Lyon team?
IMO he's actually the best fit for a Guardiola system among your CMs. The Gündogan that reached the CL final with Dortmund was the perfect Xavi replacement and incredibly pressing resistant.
Strangely, Guardiola plays comparably direct players in the CM roles for City with KDB and also the two Silvas. They are very different to Xavi and Iniesta. I'd say you'd be better and more consistent with a player like Gündogan as the distributor. But he can also play the Fernandinho role. I think the idea that a number 6 has to do the dirty work is quite old fashioned. Busquets doesn't do it at all, doesn't cover much ground and avoids tackling and yet he's the best DM of his generation.
Gundog
Looks like me during my Maths exam.Busy shooting season 5 of Peaky Blinders.
Their performances have been poor since the start of the season. It's clear KDB is a big big miss.
Same question can be asked about Lyon though, they almost always went out in last 16, had one SF appearance during like a million years, look, they weren't a bad side by any means, but beating Madrid at the time wasn't an achievement, it was the norm. PSG and City have had same-ish results as them, and, though still laughing stocks in Europe rel. to their domestic success, are gonna find their feet sooner or later, and they look more like a contender than Lyon ever was. Lyon was simply an underdog punching above its weight, a side that you knew might get a result or two, but never go all the way.
Inter Milan.
Guardiola's a brilliant coach but his style has its limitations too and he's dependent on his best players.
I've come across a stat that since the start of last season City have won all games in which KDB, Aguero and Silva started apart from Everton home when Walker was red carded already in the first half. In all other games in which City drew/lost, one of them didn't start:
Shakhtar away - no KDB and Silva, Aguero bench
Palace away - no Silva, Aguero bench
Liverpool away - no Silva
Burnley away - no Silva
Basel home CL - none of them
Liverpool away CL - no Aguero
United home - KDB and Aguero on the bench
Liverpool home CL - Aguero bench
Huddesrfield home - no Aguero
Wolves away - no KDB
Lyon home - no KDB, Aguero bench
For all their depth, they've been very dependent on 3 players which Guardiola inherited.
I've come across a stat that since the start of last season City have won all games in which KDB, Aguero and Silva started apart from Everton home when Walker was red carded already in the first half. In all other games in which City drew/lost, one of them didn't start:
Shakhtar away - no KDB and Silva, Aguero bench
Palace away - no Silva, Aguero bench
Liverpool away - no Silva
Burnley away - no Silva
Basel home CL - none of them
Liverpool away CL - no Aguero
United home - KDB and Aguero on the bench
Liverpool home CL - Aguero bench
Huddesrfield home - no Aguero
Wolves away - no KDB
Lyon home - no KDB, Aguero bench
For all their depth, they've been very dependent on 3 players which Guardiola inherited.
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Really don't agree with that. They were dominating their league and had world class players at the time (Essien, Juninho) with a solid core of a team and squad. It's revisionism at its finest imo.
If Essien and Juninho -who tbf were really good- were world class, I don't know what to call Neymar, Mbappe etc., not that a team is just about the names... as that's been part of the problem with the oil teams.
Anyways, I think you've been overrating Lyon and underrating PSG and City a bit at the same time, that's mostly due to the expectations (of Lyon to do as a good underdog would do, and of the oil clubs to win the whole thing), so let's agree to disagree.
Instead of wasting money on Mahrez, this is something they should have adressed
They were dominating their league but never really looked that strong in Europe. Very decent with awesome players, but french teams overall were rather weak in european terms, Lyon being the best of a bad bunch doesn't say much.
The sole reason Porto won the champions league in 2004 was because we were lucky to get 3 French teams and dispatched every single one of them with ease, unlike United or Coruña against whom we struggled a lot more.
I'm mainly underrating PSG, not City. I think PSG haven't shown anything in Europe as good as Lyon had (with the semi), and actually seem to be regressing. I also think the discrepancy between Lyon and the other French teams at the time isn't as big as PSG and the others at the moment (bar Monaco's freak season), which I think is going to make it harder for PSG to progress in Europe. I just think overall PSG are an incredibly overrated project, and haven't really shown up on a consistent basis when faced with true quality.
Neither did Lyon, they almost always went out in last 16, for one, PSG would've gone past Barca (who had got a treble the year before) if not for super one-sided refereeing.
Think what I seen of the other night, I have no idea why teams would stand off them. They still looked like scoring against Lyon but had an off-night. They've got attacking talent coming out of their arse, it's never going to be a problem for them to score. What was more surprising (or encouraging for other teams) is the shite defending/teamwork.
Liverpool proved this last season, fcuking attack them and you might just win. Amazingly despite the records they busted through (and it was impressive) last season - I definitely had more fear of Mourinho's Chelsea side in 2004-07 than this team.
Liverpool proved this last season, fcuking attack them and you might just win. Amazingly despite the records they busted through (and it was impressive) last season - I definitely had more fear of Mourinho's Chelsea side in 2004-07 than this team.
Most teams don't have the quality to attack City. First is taking the ball off the likes of Silva/Silva/Gundogan/KdB, then is to run past cnuts like Fernandinho and the army or attackers that hack at your ankles whenever they lose the ball.
He's developed the ultimate bully footballing system; takes apart inferior opposition making the team very consistent in league formats while constantly losing to teams with attacking talent.
Well if Lyon can (no offence), the top six of the PL shouldn’t be cowering against them.
I'm not aware that the top 6 are cowering against them though? Everyone except Chelsea has had a go at them, and Liverpool and United actually beat them.
Arsenal and Spurs didnt cower, but tried to attack and just got slaughtered. Liverpool and United have had the most success against them which is not a surprise. Both Mourinho and Klopp put emphasis on direct counter attacking which is most effective against his teams.
It can also be said that City just had an off-day against Lyon, just like against Wigan. They lost the ball a lot and were much slower in their build up.
I thought United were too cautious against them at Old Trafford especially early on and the first half at City was dreadful.
I'm not saying it's only option (to attack) but it seems like it's your best option.
That game at old trafford was weird, united were shitting but once city score we came out and played. Bar a lukaku horrorshow it should have been a draw
Away last season i don't think there was much we could do to stop them - it was more them being really good that united being bad. They should have been 5 up at half time. Incredible mental strength from our lads to turn that game around, would love to have seen Jose's half time talk.
Sitting back is dangerous against city because they have the players to unpick any defence - get them on the back foot and try to out score them is the only way, sometimes it will work but sometimes it results in a heavy defeat.
I see a few of their most important players have picked up some longer term injuries.
Let's see how they cope with that.
Let's see how they cope with that.
How much of that is down to City being good though? If they keep the ball so well you can't actually get a chance to attack. As soon as City scored we upped the tempo which is a clear indication that the players needed a wake up call to actually implement the tactics.
We've seen it countless times where we complain that we don't play properly until we concede; then Mourinho says in the post match that the players didn't have enough intensity.
Chelsea were the only team that actually decided to not attack at all. They just watched City pass the ball around for most of both games.