he's had 'protectionism from the press' since he was managing Barca, especially when Mourinho was Madrid manager.
Manchester City under Pep Guardiola | Pep on City v Liverpool ref: "He likes to be special"
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MUFC version of Jose never gets on the 4th refs back, in fact he is by far the most reserved of all the top 6 managers, which is a relief since he never would get away with the shite that for example Klopp and Pep pulls.
Pep's always in a bad mood. I get the feeling he hates people and wishes football was played by robots.
What about Rashford's goal last season against Hull? This righteousness over goal celebrations is bewildering. We watch the game to be entertained and it doesn't come more entertaining than a last minute winner irrespective of the context. It's a competitive match.
I should have added that but yes, his behavior at United has been much better, more Real era Jose. And yes Klopp and lately Pep are far worse.
You both sound paranoid, sounds like the sort of thing opposition fans say about us, especially during the Fergie era.
We aren't criticising the last minute winner, I really couldn't care less about it.
Jose never gets that benefit though. If it was jose instead of pep, all rival fans would already have called jose a murderer. Just saying.
That's why we're rival fans mate. People here will jump on Pep, I'll defend him being a City fan. Was that Jose, I'd be saying "Look at Jose picking on poor Eddie Howe" and you guys would be saying (Joses a changed man at United, Howe must have started it). Its whats great about this place.
Was he always like this, or is this a recent thing ??
Simples
Pep has set himself up for so many jokes with this comment today.
Why does it make it so easy?
Why does it make it so easy?
I wonder how many games he will get in the EPL ?
Wouldnt be surprised if he beats the Bundesliga record and gets 20 in England.
Can't wait for the inevitable Barca 10/11 comparisons if they win their next 2...
I'd fancy Spurs to get a point at least and stop them one short, they've been a bit of a bogey-team for City in recent years and tend to show up in these kinds of games, although they aren't in particularly great form (you know, aside from beating Stoke 5-1) and Alderweireld will be a big miss. Then again City haven't particularly impressed me the last few games either.
If they do beat Spurs they'll probably eclipse Bayern though seeing as their run of games up to 20 goes Bournemouth, Newcastle, Palace, Watford.
Swansea loss incoming.
Not that it will happen, but it would wonderful if they didn't win the league. Not so much for the obvious reasons, but more for this absolute arse licking the entire footballing nation seems to be involved in.
Yeah agree. Look to be fair he seems a good coach. But the praise he receives and holier than thou attitude he and his Barca teams had rubs me the wrong way
This. For all the extreme talent his Barca team had, there were divers, play-actors and what not in that team. I used to get shocked when they did such stuff, because they could just win everything purely on talent alone.
Ya, the holier than thou attitude ticks me off. And also some arguments like he is best in the world etc.
It would be interesting how this campaign and next season goes. City job (despite all the money) is in my opinion, his biggest challenge till date.
Not sure if serious but I genuinely think they might drop points tonight. They're a great team but they've noticeably dropped off in the last 3 or 4 games. They have to slip up at some point.
Wish they had a tougher CL tie. With Basel, they will probably pump them for 5 or 6 in the first leg and then rest players for the second. Should have got Madrid, it would certainly have had an impact on their league form.
I once heard an American Football Pundit describe a struggling NFL team as "the meat in a Baloney Sandwich".
They were due to play a top ranked team who had just come off a big win against a bitter rival and had a crunch game the week after playing the strugglers.
As you can guess the Baloney Team turned over the top team who then recovered to win the big game the following week.
So, in short, I agree that City may well lose tonight if they are not fully focused on the job in hand.
Going forward - and I have said this before - I am genuinely concerned about Pep's health because of certain bi-polar tendencies that seem Milligan-esque in their intensity, comedy and downright bizarreness.
The Redmond incident, of course, but also the 'greatest day of my life' quotes directly after a bad result and the need for a sabbatical so soon after going into management.
The intensity will only increase when the Champions League starts again - and I do wonder how long he'll last at City (or any high pressure job) once squeaky-bum time becomes the norm rather than exception.
But you could argue the pressure's been ramped up in the last few weeks (Saints, Huddersfield, derby) - and he's done okay.
I just think he could walk away when we least expect it.
Hope not because he's created a smooth, mobile Man City side that are decent to watch right now.
Whether he can keep up those levels for the latter stages of the CL is another question.
The Redmond incident, of course, but also the 'greatest day of my life' quotes directly after a bad result and the need for a sabbatical so soon after going into management.
The intensity will only increase when the Champions League starts again - and I do wonder how long he'll last at City (or any high pressure job) once squeaky-bum time becomes the norm rather than exception.
But you could argue the pressure's been ramped up in the last few weeks (Saints, Huddersfield, derby) - and he's done okay.
I just think he could walk away when we least expect it.
Hope not because he's created a smooth, mobile Man City side that are decent to watch right now.
Whether he can keep up those levels for the latter stages of the CL is another question.
Don't give up the day job.
Amateur psychoanalysis is fine but a fans forum is the best place for it.
Don't give up the day job.
Amateur psychoanalysis is fine but a fans forum is the best place for it.
Okay, amateur.
Haven't seen the prem look so clueless to deal with a team hopefully someone does something serious against them and in a way lays the blueprint for other teams.
The biggest weakness opponents have is they keep trying to counter city strengths. Someone needs to be brave and try to force city to counter them by actually deliberately attacking their weaknesses.
What are those weaknesses? Because apart from a slightly dodgy defense that they seem to have somehow rectified, I can’t think of many.
They haven't rectified it, they suffocate teams to such an extent that they can't get to their defence. If teams find a way to get in or around their box, they'll definitely concede.
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Nice distribution from Ederson
First video shows them lose the ball three times then earn a typically soft free kick though. Would hope there are better examples of why they are dominating the league
Hard to pick the most impressive thing about City this season but easily Ederson has to be considered one of them, if not the most significant. Do any Portuguese fans know more about how he did in Portugal? It's remarkable really, he has great composure and is probably the best on the ball keeper I can recall. We still haven't even seen how much of a weapon his long ball accuracy can be. Extremely versatile keeper with great size and reflexes. Only weakness I've seen thus far is coming off his line in deadball situations but this was a knock on Valdes early on as well
Watch here his assist on his last match for Benfica last season
Or this performance vs Dortmund in the first leg of last 16
Or his first derby
Hate the club where he came from, but he clearly didn't learned to kick the ball in England, not to mention the current Benfica keepers are crap.
I've seen great stops from many keepers but I've never seen a keeper who can be such a weapon with goalkicks of 60-70m
I have no doubt they will hit a rough patch at some point. Possession football is great for a while but teams eventually find a way to overcome it. No team is unbeatable but at the moment they have such a physiological edge that they feel it's impossible to lose and that gets stronger with every win. We might have to wait until the CL resumes to find out whether they can be toppled because so far none of the teams in England have managed to do it.
Problem is there isn't really a way to counter it bar creating an equally formidable side, even last season a lot of the time we were relying on them missing sitters and Bravo failing to do the basics. The only times i have ever really seen a Pep side truly countered was by Hiddink with us in 2009, Jose with Inter, Ancelotti with Real in the 2015 (2nd leg only) and by the Barca sides still with his methods well and truly evident.
Other than that i can't think of other examples, certainly not with games i have watched.
I think the one with Ancelotti was 2014 when Madrid won La Decima. Don't forget Bayern getting knocked out by Atletico in the semi a couple of seasons back as well. They surrendered possession in both legs but still made it through. Chelsea in 2012 when Torres scored at the end. There are lots of examples where Pep's teams have been beaten by teams who sit back and soak up the pressure before hitting them on the counter. If Barcelona and Bayern lost games to inferior sides and got knocked out over 2 legs then why can't City be beaten? City aren't better than both of those teams however I do agree that you need top quality in attack to really expose their backline and any team who is good enough to take them on blow for blow will beat them IMO.
We got battered over two legs, if you ever for whatever reason see those highlights back you will be shocked at the amount of clear chances they squandered. Still to this day the only answer i have got to why we won (and Bayern) is someone in the sky was orchestring it.