Our Rivals' squads next year - Manchester City (2016/2017)

They're going to take a lot of stopping this season
 
What really impressed me today was not the first half but the grit we showed in the second after watching the team strolling around under Pelligrini watching them throw every last drop of energy today was something I really enjoyed. Dealing with Uniteds size and power (although we did give up a couple of half chances) especially in the air was unexpected and Otamendi was absolutely brilliant.

Bravo was a worry after the dropped that clanger it really turned the momentum of the game. Had that not happened I think we'd have been more comfortable second half. Credit to United who were excellent second half and made us earn it.
 
I thought Sane was a bit unimpressive. Looked a bit leggy or not fully fit or something. They still have Gundogan coming back from an injury who I almost completely forgot about.
 
padr81 said:
What really impressed me today was not the first half but the grit we showed in the second after watching the team strolling around under Pelligrini watching them throw every last drop of energy today was something I really enjoyed. Dealing with Uniteds size and power (although we did give up a couple of half chances) especially in the air was unexpected and Otamendi was absolutely brilliant.

Bravo was a worry after the dropped that clanger it really turned the momentum of the game. Had that not happened I think we'd have been more comfortable second half. Credit to United who were excellent second half and made us earn it.
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The speed and ability you showed winning the ball and winning the ball back in the first half was something else.That and the speed of thought and pace of your forwards we couldn't deal with. Battered us for over half an hour. If you can put a period like that in each half of a game going forward you could do the league without much fuss.
 
Raw said:
Fernandinho is incredibly underrated. He's a top class midfielder.
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Was getting too much stick in the past years when he had a lazy as feck Toure next to him. He's a good player.
 
Irrational. said:
Getting rid of Joe Hart was a mistake.
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Bravo was really good at Barcelona. He was also good with crosses. The game today certainly wasn't typical for his performances in any way so I'd really just wait a bit longer before making statements like that.
 
Irrational. said:
Getting rid of Joe Hart was a mistake.
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I don't think so to be honest. I remember alot of the same issues Bravo had today been thrown at DDG who ironically is now the perfect Pep keeper (his pass for Rashford was wonderful, reminded me of Frank Lebouf), till the clanger Bravo was excellent and a big reason we dominated the first half an hour like we did with his ball skills. If the issues continue we might be in trouble as it is a slight worry more because of the way he paniced afterwards than the mistake itself though he won't be dealing with a crowd that size week in week out. He of course doesn't have the time to adapt and is too old to improve the way DDG has so it will be interesting to see.

Parry Gallister said:
The speed and ability you showed winning the ball and winning the ball back in the first half was something else.That and the speed of thought and pace of your forwards we couldn't deal with. Battered us for over half an hour. If you can put a period like that in each half of a game going forward you could do the league without much fuss.
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Yeah but we do seem to run out of steam, we were the same against West Ham, 45 minutes of brilliance than a more comfortable but similar problem as today. We probably need to be a tad more ruthless when we're on top. Once you guys got the goal back it was easy to see the second half going the way it did. Thats the difference between this City and Pep's old side. Barca or Bayern in that position after 30 minutes don't need a second half like we did as they put the game to bed. That said maybe I'm being too hard on them as it was away at Old Trafford against what will be a brilliant United side.
 
De Bruyne had one of the finest individual performances in the Premier League I've ever seen. If he can keep this up, he's the league's best player. He already is good enough to be considered top 5.

This may be wishful thinking but if we can get Mkhi up to speed and somehow end his mental fragility we'll see similar performances from him as well.
 
legolegs said:
Bravo was really good at Barcelona. He was also good with crosses. The game today certainly wasn't typical for his performances in any way so I'd really just wait a bit longer before making statements like that.
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Pep has an obsession with keepers using their feet and Hart was ousted on the basis of that. I didn't see anything about Bravo that showed me he's good with his feet.

Sure it's his first game, but if Hart was in net today they wouldn't have conceded.
 
Comparing Bravo to De Gea is ridiculous.

One was 19 when he joined us and the other is 31. Bravo is not going to improve. But it's too early to say how it is going to work out.
 
Impressed with their pressing, movement and their tactical intelligence. Incredible how much effect Pep has already had on them.

Puts Van Gaal's whole "it's a process" shtick to shame.
 
padr81 said:
I don't think so to be honest. I remember alot of the same issues Bravo had today been thrown at DDG who ironically is now the perfect Pep keeper (his pass for Rashford was wonderful, reminded me of Frank Lebouf), till the clanger Bravo was excellent and a big reason we dominated the first half an hour like we did with his ball skills. If the issues continue we might be in trouble as it is a slight worry more because of the way he paniced afterwards than the mistake itself though he won't be dealing with a crowd that size week in week out. He of course doesn't have the time to adapt and is too old to improve the way DDG has so it will be interesting to see.
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Agreed, we managed to iron out the errors out of DDG's game whilst Bravo is 33 and has less time to improve.

Hart was established in the City set-up, and I can't see much difference between their footwork.
 
Irrational. said:
Pep has an obsession with keepers using their feet and Hart was ousted on the basis of that. I didn't see anything about Bravo that showed me he's good with his feet.

Sure it's his first game, but if Hart was in net today they wouldn't have conceded.
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Bravo was obviously abysmal today and almost cost City the win or even the game but I wouldn't judge him solely based on that game. I wouldn't have expected Bravo to make any of the errors he did today after watching him regularly play for Barcelona, certainly not all of them.
I think he lost his confidence in this game. At some point he looked scared to make a mistake. They need to fix that, then he should be fine again. Don't see a reason why he should have turned into a crap keeper all of a sudden.
 
Bravo will make more mistakes over the season for sure. He didn't look very assured and they bought him to play the sweeper keeper and his distribution wasn't the best I've seen.
 
Bojan11 said:
Comparing Bravo to De Gea is ridiculous.

One was 19 when he joined us and the other is 31. Bravo is not going to improve. But it's too early to say how it is going to work out.
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Isn't that exactly what I said. Bravo has to adapt fast, DDG had time.
 
legolegs said:
Bravo was obviously abysmal today and almost cost City the win or even the game but I wouldn't judge him solely based on that game. I wouldn't have expected Bravo to make any of the errors he did today after watching him regularly play for Barcelona, certainly not all of them.
I think he lost his confidence in this game. At some point he looked scared to make a mistake. They need to fix that, then he should be fine again. Don't see a reason why he should have turned into a crap keeper all of a sudden.
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I guess so, it'll certainly be interesting to see how he does this season - especially as teams will now set up to target him by overloading the box and making him uncomfortable.
 
In all the PL games I watched from City so far they looked like a Pep team in the first half and couldn't keep it up in the second. They need to work on that.
 
charlenefan said:
They're going to take a lot of stopping this season
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They were magnificent for the first 40 minutes, but the weaknesses are there.

I remember how well they started last season, blowing teams away during their first 5 PL fixtures. I wouldn't get too excited about them just yet.
 
Bojan11 said:
Comparing Bravo to De Gea is ridiculous.

One was 19 when he joined us and the other is 31. Bravo is not going to improve. But it's too early to say how it is going to work out.
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De Gea was 20, close to 21 when he joined United and had two seasons under his belt, it's got nothing to do with age. It's about dealing with different aspects of style in a different league. The comparison holds ground, Bravo in his first game would obviously be nervous. I was sticking up for DDG for the year or two he was getting shocking comments towards him, people were blaming him for things that were not his fault and Hart's mistakes were getting ignored.

Bravo will be a great signing and will adapt and perform better, very good goalkeeper.
 
Said they will win the league. Even more convinced of it. At highest gear, they're the best team in the league.
They are also more flexible. They don't have players that must play. We need them to drop points very quickly or they could get away from us. October is a very hard month for us.
 
I also think Jose's "defend first" in big games will cost us some points but Pep being very attacking in every game will see than win a lot of big matches.
 
Xivon said:
In all the PL games I watched from City so far they looked like a Pep team in the first half and couldn't keep it up in the second. They need to work on that.
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And when we do, like Henry said, it's going to be scary!
 
They aren't faultless like any team, they are beatable and will be beaten over the season. Question is can we put a run good enough to overtake them when they do?
 
They were very impressive in the first but we were equally as bad as they were good to be fair.
 
Irrational. said:
I guess so, it'll certainly be interesting to see how he does this season - especially as teams will now set up to target him by overloading the box and making him uncomfortable.
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Just like DDG was targeted from long range shots for a while until teams realized it was pointless. It remains to be seen if Bravo will recover just as comfortably.
 
Very jealous they have Guardiola at the helm. Has a clearly defined vision of how he wants his teams to play and does everything to ensure that it happens. No half measures or pandering to any egos in the team. As dire as we were, they were fantastic in those first 40 minutes. Was interesting to hear Carragher's interview with Alonso before the derby and him talking about how Guardiola made him look at aspects of the game that he had never appreciated before. When you think that's an observation by a very intelligent footballer who is approaching the end of his career, it really puts in to perspective what a learning experience it must be for players who are coached by him.
 
They had all the posession in the first half but didn't really create anything. Their 2 goals were flukes TBF. They are very easy to get at & there's going to be lot's more howlers from Bravo. As soon as we woke up & started to impose ourself they were wobbling. It's a question of if teams will pay them too much respect rather than getting stuck into them.
 
This could be the year when Kompany's dream of a quadruple may come true.
 
Have to say Pep has started his City career quite brilliantly. 4 wins out of 4, cohesive football, seemingly full of goals, collective pressing that is working well AND Gundogan, Gabriel Jesus and Leroy Sane still to be really integrated into the team.
 
What do you do to get Gundogan in the team at the moment? Fernandinho, Silva and De Bruyne are working together really well. I wouldn't want to see De Bruyne out wide.
 
The general theme of Pep's philosophy is very similar in all of his 3 clubs.
Outnumber the opposition in midfield (by tucking in fullbacks narrow or playing a false nine etc) thereby reducing the action to a very small area in middle of pitch.This makes it easier to recover the ball as well.Meanwhile the wingers stay in their position hugging the touchline waiting to engage the opposition fullbacks 1 on 1.

Today in second half as soon as he found United matching the 3 in midfield , he took Kalechi off for Fernando to maintain numerical superiority (4 vs 3)
Although they had to dig deep and defend their lead in second half Sane , Sterling and Nolito found themselves isolated with fullbacks plenty of times and KDB should have finished from one such move when he hit post.

Today although we showed plenty of fight in second half , would love us to play with a clear plan rather than just hit crosses or lump it up to Zlatan / Fellaini and hope Bravo spills one of them.
 
Manchester Dan said:
What do you do to get Gundogan in the team at the moment? Fernandinho, Silva and De Bruyne are working together really well. I wouldn't want to see De Bruyne out wide.
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Gundogan Fernandinho
Sterling KDB Silva
Aguero

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Although could drop Sterling for Nolito.
 
shr89 said:
The general theme of Pep's philosophy is very similar in all of his 3 clubs.
Outnumber the opposition in midfield (by tucking in fullbacks narrow or playing a false nine etc) thereby reducing the action to a very small area in middle of pitch.This makes it easier to recover the ball as well.Meanwhile the wingers stay in their position hugging the touchline waiting to engage the opposition fullbacks 1 on 1.

Today in second half as soon as he found United matching the 3 in midfield , he took Kalechi off for Fernando to maintain numerical superiority (4 vs 3)
Although they had to dig deep and defend their lead in second half Sane , Sterling and Nolito found themselves isolated with fullbacks plenty of times and KDB should have finished from one such move when he hit post.

Today although we showed plenty of fight in second half , would love us to play with a clear plan rather than just hit crosses or lump it up to Zlatan / Fellaini and hope Bravo spills one of them.
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Nice summary. I missed most of the match but from the little I saw it did look like that. Midfield superiority also meant KdB was free, and I was really surprised Mou chose Fellaini-Pogba as the defensive duo against such opponents.
 
Will be interesting to see who gets moved for Gundogan. He'll probably play alongside Fernandinho so in for one of Silva or De Bruyne. My guess would be De Bruyne going wide, which could work quite well for them given he is a really good crosser of the ball. Today doesn't change my opinion that we'll be right up there with them as 1 and 2, but they were quite good it has to be said, and having Silva/De Bruyne/Aguero/Gundogan all on the pitch at the same time will see them win loads of games.
 
I expect them to win the league and said so from summer on. They will simply outscore most teams, with the usual suspects bottling it. We will have a much harder time winning games and need to grind out results, while they will blitz or just score too many goals against their opponents and control the game and the ball for long periods.
 
They're not winning shit this season with that piece of flaccid turd between the sticks. Pep hopes he will be a keeper-sweeper ala Neuer, but what he will end up being is a hybrid version of Barthez/Gomes that is a red card and penalty combo away every time he plays. Today was just glimpse of what he's gonna be up to this season.
 
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