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

A near flalwess execution of Guardiolas position game. La Pausa, drawing a disorgainsed press that is prevalent in English football and then exploiting the space between the lines. "Pep's football won't work in England" they said.

German football made him more than prepared for this league as they have better organisation and infinitely superior pressing schemes and compactness.
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totaalvoetbal said:
A near flalwess execution of Guardiolas position game. La Pausa, drawing a disorgainsed press that is prevalent in English football and then exploiting the space between the lines. "Pep's football won't work in England" they said.

German football made him more than prepared for this league as they have better organisation and infinitely superior pressing schemes and compactness.
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I watched this on a loop for two minutes now. Nicely executed!
 
totaalvoetbal said:
A near flalwess execution of Guardiolas position game. La Pausa, drawing a disorgainsed press that is prevalent in English football and then exploiting the space between the lines. "Pep's football won't work in England" they said.

German football made him more than prepared for this league as they have better organisation and infinitely superior pressing schemes and compactness.
vUIWSrJ.gif
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How would you classify Liverpool's pressing under Klopp?
 
adexkola said:
How would you classify Liverpool's pressing under Klopp?
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Very good, the best in the EPL along with City, although they press in different ways. City Counter press the passing lanes which means that they cut off the pasing lanes of the player wit the ball and block the passing lanes of possible passing options. This means they retaion their shape better and they back off and cut off passing lanes so the oppsition end up passing the ball backwards and forwards and then kicking it long because they cannot pass into midfield with a clear pathway.

Klopp presses the zones round the ball and the ball itself because his team is a transition team so that means if the press doesn't work, Liverpool would be more out of shape and would be able to be countered quicker. The key to pressing properly is compactness. There is no point in your frontline pressing if your midfield and defence don't push up to compress the spaces between the lines. Then you have a situation like above, where City can easily find free men between the lines.

The lack of compactness is what makes the EPL the 'most exciting league' because teams can just counter punch each other without effective pressing schemes there. City's main problem last year was the lack of compactness in their pressing so they pretty much ran for nothing and their initial press was a lot easier to bypass. Pressing is all about coaching and tactical awareness and little to do with physicality, If Toni Kroos and Iniesta can press effectively despite both not being 'physical' players then it is possible for any team to pick it up, but it requires good coaching which is something ENgland is quite far behind comparedf to Spain and Germany., I'll leave you with this

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First time since the opening day that hey have looked genuinely awful.
A good sign for them, that they will still win.
 
Adisa said:
First time since the opening day that hey have looked genuinely awful.
A good sign for them, that they will still win.
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Piss poor today, KDB, Silva and Gundogan all off form. Think one of them might get pulled for Navas or Sane either now or early in second half. Our passing has been terrible. Losing the ball in silly positions and giving up too many chances as well as KDB missing a sitter (by his standards) and messing up the final ball. Gundogans pass to Sterling was absolutely shocking. We'll either win or lose, don't see us drawing. I'll be hoping Swansea tire early as they are working really, really hard. Certainly our worst 45 minutes of the season.
 
Don't think they'll be mentally weak like they used to be under Pellegrini and Mancini.

The reason I don't think this is the way they are working off the ball. Even when winning comfortably they are constantly pressuring and winning the ball back quickly.

You can already see Pep's intense nature being drilled into that team. Doubt they will let up like they used to in the past.
 
Every season there's a team that starts in dominant fashion and gets proclaimed as unbeatable and unstoppable. It never works out like that though.

They look good going forward (albeit fragile defensively) but there's a long way to go. If we keep Fellaini and Rooney out I think we can challenge them.
 
Ole's_toe_poke said:
Don't think they'll be mentally weak like they used to be under Pellegrini and Mancini.

The reason I don't think this is the way they are working off the ball. Even when winning comfortably they are constantly pressuring and winning the ball back quickly.

You can already see Pep's intense nature being drilled into that team. Doubt they will let up like they used to in the past.
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I think they've looked pretty flaky this season already. When West Ham and Sunderland scored they lost all sense of shape. I can see Guardiola whipping that out of them eventually but not just yet.
 
Agree with you Ole, thats the kind of game we'd of lost last season. We've been good this season in spells but not as good as many make out. Our second half against you guys and today are what impress me most about Pep's City as opposed to the lovely football. Workrate, effort and tenacity.

That said, anyone that thinks we're going to walk it is clearlywrong. United will come good (today was a start) and Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs, Liverpool and despite today Everton have all started the season well. I'd say we are early favourites but it's not a forgone conclusion. Next Sunday will be a test at Spurs, if we win that we're guaranteed a 5 point lead which will be nice so early in the season but tbh I'd take a draw gladly.
 
Guardiola's a far better manager than Pellegrini. They'll win the league by 8-10 points. Nobody will give a shit, though.
 
padr81 said:
Agree with you Ole, thats the kind of game we'd of lost last season. We've been good this season in spells but not as good as many make out. Our second half against you guys and today are what impress me most about Pep's City as opposed to the lovely football. Workrate, effort and tenacity.

That said, anyone that thinks we're going to walk it is clearlywrong. United will come good (today was a start) and Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs, Liverpool and despite today Everton have all started the season well. I'd say we are early favourites but it's not a forgone conclusion. Next Sunday will be a test at Spurs, if we win that we're guaranteed a 5 point lead which will be nice so early in the season but tbh I'd take a draw gladly.
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Yup, the season is a long one, there will be ups and downs as every team will have that. The positive thing for you is that you lot are getting points even when you have off games, something that was sorely lacking last season.

Also, how is the situation with injuries right now ?? Is Kompany the only one injured.
 
Ace of Spades said:
Yup, the season is a long one, there will be ups and downs as every team will have that. The positive thing for you is that you lot are getting points even when you have off games, something that was sorely lacking last season.

Also, how is the situation with injuries right now ?? Is Kompany the only one injured.
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Kompany, Silva is still not 100% but got through today and I'd imagine Pep is sweating on KDB at the minute. If KDB has done a muscle ahead of of Spurs its trouble. We only won today because Pep moved him back into the middle where hopefully he keeps him. Silva, Gundogan in there together lack the pace and explosiveness we need breaking forward.
 
It's games like today that make me convinced the title is theirs. They won't be this bad often and even when they are, you just know things will go their way.
Already opening up a gap.
 
Hopefully KDB limping off was a sign that the injury isn't too serious. We can almost afford a free hit at Spurs away next week now because of the little gap we've built up. Good position to be in but by no means do we look unstoppable. I'd actually take a point at WHL.

I actually thought some of our attacking football today was silly good, but our finishing was very poor and we made some bad final ball decisions. Defensively we did show some frailty again, not so much for the goal as that was a Sagna slip, but in general Swansea had success on the flanks.
 
Ramshock said:
Yeah these lot wont be stopped often if at all this season, could even beat Barca in the group stages.
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Not a hope, if Messi is fit, MSN will tear a back four of Sagna, Kola, Ota and Stones apart. We give up far too many chances to beat Barca. They won't mess the final balls or stick the ball in the stand like United, Swansea and Bournemouth did.
 
padr81 said:
Kompany, Silva is still not 100% but got through today and I'd imagine Pep is sweating on KDB at the minute. If KDB has done a muscle ahead of of Spurs its trouble. We only won today because Pep moved him back into the middle where hopefully he keeps him. Silva, Gundogan in there together lack the pace and explosiveness we need breaking forward.
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Isn't the mighty Delph injured?

Gabriel Jesus to come back in Jan, Sane and Gundogan still not fully up to speed, maybe some other signings in Jan.
 
Mark_Barca said:
Isn't the mighty Delph injured?

Gabriel Jesus to come back in Jan, Sane and Gundogan still not fully up to speed, maybe some other signings in Jan.
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Delph is always injured so he doesn't count Gundogan looked tired today but seems pretty much match fit. Sane too during the week.
 
Brwned said:
I think they've looked pretty flaky this season already. When West Ham and Sunderland scored they lost all sense of shape. I can see Guardiola whipping that out of them eventually but not just yet.
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1st and 3rd games. To be expected. Conversely they'd have lost those matches last season.

That Spurs match is potentially looking very tasty next week. Let's see how they do against another hard working and pressing side.
 
10 wins out of 10 in all competitions for Guardiola. You can't fault that.
 
Made peace with the fact that they will win the league. Mourinho needs a year.
 
I still think their ageing squad will cause them problems later in the season with their high tempo game and aspirations for the CL, but sadly they'll probably be too far ahead in the league for it to have a big enough effect.
 
Definitely the team to beat they are. But every team faces a slump where everything goes wrong and hope they lose some points when it hits. Anyway cant see them losing against any of the bottom teams.
 
An Irish Red said:
Every season there's a team that starts in dominant fashion and gets proclaimed as unbeatable and unstoppable. It never works out like that though.

They look good going forward (albeit fragile defensively) but there's a long way to go. If we keep Fellaini and Rooney out I think we can challenge them.
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Other than Chelsea in 2009/10 and the Arsenal 'invincibles' ...

City now match Chelsea EPL start in 2009/10 and can next match Tottenham 1961(?) for most wins on the bounce at the start of a season.
 
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Adisa said:
Made peace with the fact that they will win the league. Mourinho needs a year.
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Part of me wonders if we need a year, or they need a year to hit a slump. Too bad they bought well and Sterling came into his own this season. Last year I thought they were finally on the slippery slope. .
 
Feck City. I had £4,200 on them to win the title last season and I thought they were dead-cert when they won the first five games and they fecked it up so I'm not going to make the same mistake again. Let's see if they are still top by Christmas.
 
An Irish Red said:
Every season there's a team that starts in dominant fashion and gets proclaimed as unbeatable and unstoppable. It never works out like that though.

They look good going forward (albeit fragile defensively) but there's a long way to go. If we keep Fellaini and Rooney out I think we can challenge them.
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Yeah, that's a fair point. In 2011/12 we looked dominant at the start of the season (as did City), but we obviously didn't win the title and both sides had slumps. Chelsea looked imperious at the start of 2010/11 but of course had a disastrous spell of a couple of months and had to fight to just get 2nd in the end. Then going further back you think of Keegan's Newcastle sides.

I do think City look fantastic though and that they're a brilliant side with a superb manager, so I'd be shocked if they don't win the title this season. They will almost certainly have slumps though, and there are three or four sides who could potentially take advantage.
 
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