he just needed another body in midfield to outnumber us again. Fernando also allowed Fernandinho to continue pressing without exposing them too badly.
Our Rivals' squads next year - Manchester City (2016/2017)
- Thread starter Wumminator
- Start date
he just needed another body in midfield to outnumber us again. Fernando also allowed Fernandinho to continue pressing without exposing them too badly.
Most likely Sterling would have gone off, with de Bruyne moving out wide.
They look formidable thus far, but after four games last year they'd also not lost, not conceded a goal and had a better GD.
I've been fearing them since the summer. They have a ridiculous amount of quality there, the only question was whether they could pull it together cohesively in time. Just need to hope like hell they have a winter collapse.
They nutritiously start well if we're going by the past five or so seasons.
I doubt that any team with Pep as manger will implode. He is just too good at motivating his players.
Their depth would again be called into question once the CL and the Cups kick off.
I agree to an extent with this because we have quite a think squad compared to other teams - 22 first teamers, joint lowest in the league - so we'll have to rely on our youth for squad rotation in the cups. Plus with our hard work and pressing tactics it will be interesting to see if we can retain the same physical standards throughout the season.
However in terms of games, we are only in the same position as everyone else with the exception of Chelsea. United will have more games in the Europa League, Spurs and Arsenal equally don't have much squad depth. You look at United's bench on Saturday compared to ours and it is unquestionably stronger. Maybe if you exit the Europa League or cups early it will give you ad advantage in the league.
Pep teams do have a tendency to burn out in March/April, though. He has a pretty rigorous training regime, doesn't really rotate, and they play very high intensity football. With their small. ageing squad and injury prone star players they'll do well to see the season through without difficulties.
They'll probably win the league, though, but I reckon Europe will be a similar situation to Bayern for the last three seasons. Total burn out.
Are Bayern's problems in Europe related to this though? I'm not saying City won't face problems later in the season because of Pep's style, but I've never felt 'burn out' to be a factor in Bayern's three semi-final defeats. Against Madrid it was a lack of finishing in the first leg then suicidal tactics in the second, against Barca they just lost to a better team, and they were unlucky against Atletico and again did not take their chances. Their fitness never seemed to be an issue.
Dunno, I remember watching them in those games and thinking they definitely didn't look as strong as they had throughout the season. Obviously the strength of the opposition plays a part in that, though. They'll also have a tougher ride in the PL than Bayern did in the Bundesliga. I'd be surprised if they had it wrapped up by then.
It's be interesting to see. You obviously have the best team, the best individuals in Aguero, KDB and (when he's on it) Silva, and seem to be adapting well to your manager's play style earlier. But I still think you'll need some luck along the way due to your small and ageing squad.
CL is a different issue. City´s team is far from perfect, but they´ll win the league.
There was always a distinct drop from first-half-of-the-season-form to after-winter-form; increased by injury problems most of the time. Rampant results like 5-1 against Arsenal were always before the drop, and when it got important the team was back to very good (instead of superhumanly good).
That one is definitely wrong; Pep had almost as many starting line-ups as league matches in his three years at Bayern. Sure there were a few players who played and started nearly every match, but that was Neuer (3020 / 3060 minutes of Bundesliga) plus Lewandowski (2650) or Müller (2300).
Last edited:
Pep is bringing Academy players into the first team squad to supplement the senior pros. By the time there is any potential burnout they should be well drilled and ready to play in the first team if necessary.
In many ways I hope that we do need to play some of these young lads as it would be great to see some genuine Academy players coming through.
Ok thanks for that. Well that doesn't bode well for Pep in England given the ridiculously congested fixture list in the winter months. Still baffles me they play a game on boxing day and then one on the 28th. A day rest is a joke and it favours the big teams who can afford to rotate players. Will have to see how he fares, I imagine he'll rotate quite a lot around Christmas time. We should have kept Nasri really.
Who knows, maybe the lack of winter break will even help keeping the 'flow' or 'spirit' in the team; or whatever it was that went missing for Bayern over the holidays. The thing is that the team never showed great signs of exhaustion before the break, but something always was different when they came back for the second half of the season. No more blind understanding between the players, at least not to the same extent as before.
It's all part of their delicious plan
Was there a drop off of intensity, maybe?
Pep's teams seem to thrive on physical and mental sharpness and when you've almost wrapped up the BL title with a couple of months left in the season, as Bayern sometimes did, is there not a tendency to inadvertently ease off a little and then find it tough to switch it back on on again at will?
Pep was downplaying City's chances in the CL in yesterday's presser.
Is the PL by far the greatest priority this season or is he just managing expectations in the CL given a likely difficult passage in the tournament?
I say Pep's main goal is the league.
Europe, I don't think City can win, especially if they play his way because of personnel and it's too early.
By next summer, Pep should have more signings that would be ideal to his playstyle.
Some guys I would watch for moving to City are
Thiago/Torres
Laporte
Robben
Gaya/Rodriguez
Gasper
Europe, I don't think City can win, especially if they play his way because of personnel and it's too early.
By next summer, Pep should have more signings that would be ideal to his playstyle.
Some guys I would watch for moving to City are
Thiago/Torres
Laporte
Robben
Gaya/Rodriguez
Gasper
Last edited:
Absolutely. 13/14 we lost our first match in the Bundesliga after having won the thing (in march). It broke the stride of the team. Needless to say, that's when thing get hot in the CL and domestic cup, so there couldn't be a really worse time for such a drop.
In my opinion Pep does not prioritize one competition over the other, he always wants to find the optimum game plan for every opponent, be it Watford or Real. Of course he also rests key players for big KO games when the match before that allows it, but I think he would never intentionally forfeit a league match for that. Instead he'll work day and night to come up with a match plan to compensate for the resting players and still try and win the game somehow.
There's food for thought.
I think a difference between the Bavarian & Catalan clubs is that Barcelona is his boyhood club and had intimate relations with many of the key players so much easier to demand or expect certain things from the players. At Bayern, perhaps the veterans that were there also had their approach that might not have always coincided with Pep's. At City, mostly younger team and this time he has a palpable authority over the squad - I don't foresee him forgiving a letdown. That twitchy/antsy personality he has? He is obsessive and will try to cover every angle.
Managing expectations on one hand and also pointing out that there are teams in the competition that have long been in a sort of winning form that will not be easy to topple. He will not prioritise one competition over another, he wants to win as he said in that pressy, everything. But realisitic too
Will be interesting to see how they'll use Gundogan, Sane and Gabriel Jesus (returning in January?).
They've gelled as a team pretty quick. Gotta hand it to Pep.
Way to go Pep.
Shame those stay aways into going.
Good atmosphere tonight, though, and a hugely satisfying performance.
Empty seats or not. City look very impressive.
Very frustrating watching them. They scream goals every time I watch them.
I don't get the same vibe with us. It's like we have to work harder to create chances. They create chances with ease.
I don't get the same vibe with us. It's like we have to work harder to create chances. They create chances with ease.
Sterling's looked great this season. Credit to Guardiola for getting the best out of him so far.
Clinical execution of the final pass and our goal scoring is not quite there yet.Very frustrating watching them. They scream goals every time I watch them.
I don't get the same vibe with us. It's like we have to work harder to create chances. They create chances with ease.
It's a common theme of discussion that one day soon it will just "click" and woe betide the opposition on that day.
Honestly thought the 30K in attendance were good from what I could hear whenever I turned over.
The fans had a legitimate reason for not making it today, with the rescheduling from yesterday.
We've been debating it a bit on here but I really have no idea who is the best three combo out or Ferds, Silva, KDB and Gudogan! Considering Gudogan hasn't played in months he was fantastic tonight!
Very frustrating watching them. They scream goals every time I watch them.
I don't get the same vibe with us. It's like we have to work harder to create chances. They create chances with ease.
Yeah their players have greater synergy than us. They mesh better. We still lack that.
Hopefully comes in time, but we'll see.
Might sound weird, but out of the 4 of those, Fernandinho has to play for me.
Meh, I'll judge them fully when the season actually properly gets going. Some teams hit the ground running, let's see if it lasts. I still back City to win the league mind you, but hopefully it'll be at least close.