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

padr81 said:
100%, Jose had a better season than Pep, 2 trophies albeit one you don't ever wanna be in again.

I'm only trying to point out complete over exaggeration that was that post. In reality Pep had a so-so season last season (but drastically improved the team on Pellers). We misfired again tonight and messed up alot of final balls ala last season. You guys look ruthless so far in comparison to last year but comments like Pep is falling apart are as silly as those saying you've already won the league.

Last season at times, Pep, Jose and early days even after 3 games Conte was out of his depth and would be first manager sacked. Klop to towards the end. This season already Pep, Conte and Klopp are failures and we're only 2 games in. Silly season really and hyperbole posts already.
Had we taken one more chance tonight and we had plenty, half those posts wouldn't be there or they'd be a saying 10 man City just battered Everton and are going to win the league.
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I agree there's a lot of exaggeration here about Pep's body language and mental collapse etc. He's always been a bit difficult with the press, and he doesn't seem to like journalists very much. Probably some of it stems back to the doping allegations during his playing career (he was upset about how the papers misreported it).

Two games in, far too early to tell. The par expectation for Pep is to win the league, considering he's easily outspent all his rivals and started with a good City side. I think City's owners would have brought him in to take the club to the next level in Europe, but maybe that's on the back-burner for now after a difficult first season. City are still PL favorites, but even if you don't win I expect Pep to stay and try again next year.
 
The way he moved at the end.. like he'd heard there was a nearby fire sale of the white stuff (limited offer only)
 
Camy89 said:
Proudest moment of his life? To snatch a draw at home to Everton? You've spent 200 odd million so far this summer mate.

Bizarre character, not likeable and generally awkward.
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People are giving him a bit too much sh1t for the interview. English is still a second language, no matter how well he speaks it. He clearly meant that he was proud of his team. We don't need to be language police.

He's clearly under more pressure than last year but I'm not going to call him on quirks of language.

Again setting up for the season with an average keeper and a mid-table defensive unit. I can call him out for that.

With that said, they deserved to win the game. We had close draws last year and claimed we should have won. They had decent chances to score and should have had the game sewn up before Rooney scored.
 
They were robbed. Mike Oliver made his typically stupid impact on the game, yet even with 10 men City were brilliant second half. Everton had to strain every signew to survive in order to escape the shame of succumbing to less men. I also thought Pep's interview was spot on. I also so why he says he needs like 2 to three more players. He definitely needs another natural left back, and another center forward. I see them as our biggest threat this year. Especially if they get over this disease of constantly wasting excellent chances.
 
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No one serious would really go there , nevermind the cash , they just don't have the aura .

PSG also realized that and that's why they made the big buy Neymar - only now would others be really attracted and believe them they are serious .
 
kouroux said:
Guardiola is a poseur, always trying to be the more interesting man. I don't even know who I find the most unbearable between him and Klopp.
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Klopp no doubt. At least Pep was minding his own bussiness. Klopp now have a habit of bringing other teams into his mumbling.
 
If Jonny Evans is the one he's buying to play in a back 3, he's lost the plot. Hope that happens.

They will be the same as last season, brilliant in stretches blowing lesser teams away, and maybe some big team as well, but ultimately drop too many points due to defensive errors. A slow and dull Everton side got the goal despite being battered the whole match, plenty more will do the same to them.
 
Not really impressed so far. All the sparkling names on the Team sheet and quite mediocre perfomances.

Do they really Play better Football than before Guardiola?
 
Cnaiür urs Skiötha said:
Not really impressed so far. All the sparkling names on the Team sheet and quite mediocre perfomances.

Do they really Play better Football than before Guardiola?
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Slightly harsh given we completely dominated Everton with 10 men, but even with a man less I think we looked a far better side when he ditched 3 at the back. Our biggest strength is in attack, but only if you play them.
 
This 3-5-2 formation isn't good for them. I'm curious how long it will last before Guardiola reverts to 4 at the back. If he is too stubborn it will cost them a lot in the league.

Ironically, Madrid implement better his philosophy: they are winning everything under the sun with a brilliant attack and a shaky defence. It's simple: you outscore the opposition, you win. Guardiola's problem isn't that he isn't flexible enough. Right now it's the opposite: he's tinkering too much with formations and doesn't trust his attacking players enough.
 
Manchester Dan said:
Slightly harsh given we completely dominated Everton with 10 men, but even with a man less I think we looked a far better side when he ditched 3 at the back. Our biggest strength is in attack, but only if you play them.
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Yes you dominated them but I expected more. To me only Silva and surprisingly Sterling looked like real threats.
 
Manchester Dan said:
Slightly harsh given we completely dominated Everton with 10 men, but even with a man less I think we looked a far better side when he ditched 3 at the back. Our biggest strength is in attack, but only if you play them.
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IMO what is hurting your team is taking chances. People underestimate how it breeds confidence through a team.
 
If 3-5-2 is not working out for City, they can still revert back to 4 at the back as both Mendy and Walker are used to being part of such formation. However they did just go and spend £100m on two full backs with a view to make them more than classic, defensive full backs IMO. They were supposed to be wing backs and thus have a much more advanced role in the team.
 
Watching 2 games I am not worried about that City side. They simply lack midfield and don't have CB for playing 3 at the back like Chelsea have in Luiz. Also Walker isn't a player who can play WB in that system, he needs help and he doesn't have any. Aguero isn't a player who he was 2-3 seasons ago. It's all names but no balance.
 
Sarni said:
If 3-5-2 is not working out for City, they can still revert back to 4 at the back as both Mendy and Walker are used to being part of such formation. However they did just go and spend £100m on two full backs with a view to make them more than classic, defensive full backs IMO. They were supposed to be wing backs and thus have a much more advanced role in the team.
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And who they play in midfield in that case? They should play 4 at the back an allow WBs to go forward like for example Real Madrid, but they don't have midfield good enough for this.
 
Jerch said:
And who they play in midfield in that case? They should play 4 at the back an allow WBs to go forward like for example Real Madrid, but they don't have midfield good enough for this.
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They got shitloads of offensive midfielders who can do the job but pretty much nobody to defend. Trying to circumvent that by playing 5 defenders is IMO not a good idea. I don't know why they needed Bernardo Silva.
 
Red Indian Chief Torn Rubber said:
IMO what is hurting your team is taking chances. People underestimate how it breeds confidence through a team.
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Agreed. Aguero at 0-0 made a yard of space and instead of pulling the trigger held on to it too long. A confident Aguero puts that away, 10 yards out. If the chances keep coming you'd hope the goals will flow. Overall though I was pleased with the fight with 10 men. A win at Bournemouth away at weekend early doors and last night will be forgotten.
 
Sarni said:
They got shitloads of offensive midfielders who can do the job but pretty much nobody to defend. Trying to circumvent that by playing 5 defenders is IMO not a good idea. I don't know why they needed Bernardo Silva.
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Bernardo Silva was quite a strange buy. Let`s see how he turns out in the Long run.
 
With that attacking talent, they should be murdering smaller teams and beefing up their GD. Something's wrong and its' got a lot to do with Pep's tactics.
 
Kapardin said:
With that attacking talent, they should be murdering smaller teams and beefing up their GD. Something's wrong and its' got a lot to do with Pep's tactics.
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Doesn't help when both of your keepers and all of your defenders play like they've got brain injuries.
 
Let's hope he spends the season trying to shoehorn in all the attackers and the balance of the team suffers as a result of it.
 
Kapardin said:
With that attacking talent, they should be murdering smaller teams and beefing up their GD. Something's wrong and its' got a lot to do with Pep's tactics.
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He's playing with 3 suspect defenders on an island and 5 attacking midfielders on another with only Fernandinho anywhere close to linking them and he is a hot headed nutter to begin with. Any half decent and organized team like Everton could cut through them like a hot knife through butter. I'm disappointed we don't play them soon because we'd probably destroy their confidence right now like Chelsea did to us last season.

The fraud is still trying to sign more wingers or Messi rather than add a proper midfield.
 
kouroux said:
Guardiola is a poseur, always trying to be the more interesting man. I don't even know who I find the most unbearable between him and Klopp.
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Strangely enough, I find Guardiola the manager version of RAWK, with Kopp being the equivalent of Blue moon. Pep does weird things and chats shit but ultimately is harmless while Kopp looks genuinely bitter, brings other teams into it and has the smalltime mentality. They should swap managers.
 
padr81 said:
What a huge and ridiculous exaggeration. He brought in 6 players for the first team squad last season, 2 wingers, 1cm, 1fc, 1cb and a goalkeeper. One of them got injured for the season, another homesick. So he played the season with 4 new players Bravo, Stones, Sane, Nolito (who was the homesick and couldn't settle one) and Jesus arriving in January who also got injured.

One could argue you last seasons assessment this way.

He spent £191m and came 3rd not 4th, there was another manager in the league who spent £166m for 6th btw lets use your logic there...
Pep net spend in 2 seasons £300m, Joses net spend in 2 seasons £265m.

Pep came 3rd spending 190m on the 4th place team who only beat 5th on GD. He gained 12 points on the previous manager.
Jose came 6th spending £125m on the 5th place who only missed 4th on GD. He gained 3 points on the previous manager.

Pep took a team with 66 points to 78, Jose took a team with 66 points to 69...

Is it than fair to say? "You really can't argue the guy is a bit of a nutter, we saw signs last seasons. His movements amongst other things are nothing short of odd at times. He's a good manager, but he's running out of time to prove he's some sort of footballing genius as many in the footballing community would have had you believe before he joined United.

Spending close to 170m on midfielders alone and having yet another season of coming up short and I think he'd walk anyway."

I can answer for you. No, no its not. See how silly that looks......
All this on the back of a 1-1 draw at home to Everton after a shocking red card decision (two actually).
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Come on Jose had a better season than Pep last year. Plus if you want to really look honestly into it Pep inherited a much better team and squad. City downed tools under Pelegrini hence the 4th place finish (most people had them as favourites for the league). Peps first season was underwhelming as was Jose but Jose still produced 2 trophies. The improvement is being seen at old Trafford with a lot of deadwood being moved on and players like Lukaku and Pogba signing, over at City you have signed some very good players but it's the old guard who are still your best players compared to us but Sane and Jesus do look great prospects. My point is Pep has a far better squad to start with Hart, Kompany, Fernd x2, KDB, Augero, Sterling, Silva all top top premier league players. United had DDG, Valencia, Herrera, Mata at most.
 
I still think they'll have a great season when their new signings (most of them players a lot of us would be happy to sign as well) gel with the rest of the team, we're two games in so any talks of them having a meltdown are premature. I hope I'm wrong though, and that Ederson has a miserable season.
 
I don't think comparing the total points tally of Man Utd and Man City last season is a fair measure of how well Pep and Jose had done compared to their predecessors when we probably dropped 5 points or so purely due to focusing on Europa League at one point, and it was clear that Pellegrini underachieved way more in the season before than United so they were probably much better than 66 points when Pep came. City had a stronger squad than us even before transfer window, and he spend £70m more to improve it.

Jose had a much stronger first season with two cups. League campaign was disappointing but we had so many close games that we dominated and should have won, that our 69-point tally is also not fair on team's performances. With Lukaku and Matic we would have comfortably got 8-10 more points last season.
 
He's a weirdo allright, but then again it was evident when he left the greatest team ever just so he could have a sabbatical. I find his passive aggressiveness quite funny, he always looks to have a rant in him and he comes up with OTT praise of the team and players when they have lost points against lesser teams. Sometimes I just think he tries too hard to portray himself like some kind of genius, especially when altering with players' positions (ie. Sané yesterday).

Still think the critisism is way OTT after this match. It's still only two games in and they lost points in a match where they got one player sent off after a joke decision and battered them after that. The signings have been very expensive but overall very good. Shame we didn't go for Bernardo Silva, he looks like a gem of a player.
 
Privately, Pep must be pretty dismayed at the atmosphere (at lack of) at the Etihad. Yes, the onus is on the players to inspire the the fans, but on occasion, like like night, the supporters need to galvanise the team - it was sterile last night.
 
2 games are also two few for anyone to claim 3-5-2 isn't working out for City. That team has a lot of telling to do ahead. Kompany was not fit almost all of last season, yet now he is being asked to form a center half trio with Stones and Otamandi. That will take time to gel. Added to that the wingbacks to protect them are completely new, which requires more gelling too.
To top it off, only the center midfield department is a gelled unit. Even up top Aguero and Jesus are getting used to being a duo. After 10 league games is about the time we will know for sure if it ain't working....
 
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