Varchester City 18/19 discussion

cesc's_mullet

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The only way other teams have a chance is if Fernandinho and Gundogan both get long term injuries. It's not out of the question since Fernandinho is getting on and Gundogan is a crock.

Liverpool are definitely not getting near them, since this Liverpool team are worse than Klopps' Dortmund team who got nowhere near the points per game required to beat a Guardiola team.

At the moment it's United or Chelsea to get near City if they get in 2 more players each. Otherwise It'll be a one horse race again.
City and Liverpool are current miles ahead of the rest, with City as far again ahead of Liverpool IMO.

Jose needs a miracle and it looks more likely that we will all witness another 3rd season implosion, instead of him getting his list of 5 signings done and competing with City. It won't happen.
 

burnageboy

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It grieves me to write this but I think the Scousers in red will win the PL next season. Why? Because they were playing the best footy last season and had a muppet keeper. This season they have spent big time, unlike Guardiola for a change, and bought well.

City will be overcome with arrogance and will face a battle in every game next season. I can’t wait for West Ham v City with an agrieved Yaya fired up to show Guardiola a thing or two. Sterling will be in a big sulk unless the Sheik bungs him a skip full of money into a secret account to keep the other players , and UEFA, happy.

United will either just sneak the title or finish third at best depending on JM smiling or sulking. He’s sulking just now.
How can you seriously state that Liverpool played the best footy last season. They had a whole bunch of bore draws with bottom half/relegated sides and only appeared to b e really 'up for it' for the big games, when as you will well know, it is the games against the lesser sides, that you get the winning goal in the 96th minute, that win you titles. And as for potentially being 'overcome with arrogance', you clearly know nothing about Pep. Why would you? He will not allow once single ounce of arrogance.
And if the Sheik does bung Stirling a skip full of money, it will still only be 1/2 of what the Glazers threw at Sanchez.

For what its worth, I do not think that City will repeat what they did last season and Liverpool will be much closer that before. It is difficult to believe that they won't after the close on £250m they have spent since Van Dyke.
 

PSingh

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They’re relentless. The way City pin teams into their own half is excellent.
The fluidity of their wingers really impresses me. Yesterday, without the ball, Sterling and Mahrez were so wide making it difficult for Arsenal’s fullbacks to push on. As soon as City win it back you see how Mahrez and Sterling come inside to link with Aguero, that’s when Walker and Mendy hold the width.

I expect them to be similar to last season and blow most teams away.
 

Thisistheone

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They’re relentless. The way City pin teams into their own half is excellent.
The fluidity of their wingers really impresses me. Yesterday, without the ball, Sterling and Mahrez were so wide making it difficult for Arsenal’s fullbacks to push on. As soon as City win it back you see how Mahrez and Sterling come inside to link with Aguero, that’s when Walker and Mendy hold the width.

I expect them to be similar to last season and blow most teams away.
And on top of it, they bring KDB, Jesus and Sane off their bench. Unreal depth.
 

WensleyMU

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Being inpressed with City is like being impressed by someones team on FM after they've played around with the database.
 

SilentWitness

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They've signed just enough players to make it competitive and people like Bernardo Silva and Mendy will be getting more game time this year (granted the latter was due to injury) to make it more competitive and ensure the squad doesn't lose its competitiveness. Will be difficult to look past them this season again.
 

GhastlyHun

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They've signed just enough players to make it competitive and people like Bernardo Silva and Mendy will be getting more game time this year (granted the latter was due to injury) to make it more competitive and ensure the squad doesn't lose its competitiveness. Will be difficult to look past them this season again.
Also Bernardo Silva seems to have stepped up, too. He was great for them in both of their two first competitive matches of the season.
 

Classical Mechanic

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Also Bernardo Silva seems to have stepped up, too. He was great for them in both of their two first competitive matches of the season.
He was very poor yesterday aside from his goal. Only had 44 touches. 36 passes. 69% pass completion. Created 0 chances. 1 dribble. 0 tackles 0 interceptions. Pretty anonymous and poor with the ball when he had it. Nice movement and finish. But when you consider how on top of that game City were yesterday and that D Silva averaged 84 passes a game, 89% pass completion, 2 chances created each game last season, he needs to play a lot better than that if he's going to replace him long term.
 

GhastlyHun

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He was very poor yesterday aside from his goal. Only had 44 touches. 36 passes. 69% pass completion. Created 0 chances. 1 dribble. 0 tackles 0 interceptions. Pretty anonymous and poor with the ball when he had it. Nice movement and finish. But when you consider how on top of that game City were yesterday and that D Silva averaged 84 passes a game, 89% pass completion, 2 chances created each game last season, he needs to play a lot better than that if he's going to replace him long term.
Well, his assist and goal, each for the 2-0, were very important though. You're right that the rest of the stats are not the level that are expected of a starter under Pep.
 

VorZakone

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Oh man, we're in for a tough season again. However, I don't think they'll get 100 points again.
 

charlie9882

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He was very poor yesterday aside from his goal. Only had 44 touches. 36 passes. 69% pass completion. Created 0 chances. 1 dribble. 0 tackles 0 interceptions. Pretty anonymous and poor with the ball when he had it. Nice movement and finish. But when you consider how on top of that game City were yesterday and that D Silva averaged 84 passes a game, 89% pass completion, 2 chances created each game last season, he needs to play a lot better than that if he's going to replace him long term.
He was anonymous and did little with the ball because City weren't playing through the midfield. City were playing through the wings and their overlapping fullbacks, almost bypassing Bernardo and Gundogan at times. He switched to RW with Mahrez's substitution and became much more involved, eventually scoring.
 

RobinLFC

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Don't think a lot of teams have figured out how to play against them tbh. If you sit back and defend deep they're bound to score sooner or later. If you attack them, you're leaving your defense exposed and they'll rip you apart with their pace and deadly strikers.

The only way seems to be to take all your chances and hope your defense holds up.
 

Classical Mechanic

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He was anonymous and did little with the ball because City weren't playing through the midfield. City were playing through the wings and their overlapping fullbacks, almost bypassing Bernardo and Gundogan at times. He switched to RW with Mahrez's substitution and became much more involved, eventually scoring.
He wasn't that much more involved. His involvement, touch and pass, wise in the second half was boosted mainly in the last 10 minutes when they were keeping possession. His pass completion was the same in both halves, very poor.
 

Vialli_92

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They are on a other level, as others have said I can only see Liverpool getting close to them
 

Adisa

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One thing that is forgotten about the cnuts is how athletic they are. They can run all day.
Just hope we give the feckers a challenge.
 

JK-27

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Pep's comment re: 'The CEO, the Sporting Director we go in the same path...at the end Machester City gave me a great squad, I can not complain' is surely a dig at Utd, our board, and Jose.
 

charlie9882

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Don't think a lot of teams have figured out how to play against them tbh. If you sit back and defend deep they're bound to score sooner or later. If you attack them, you're leaving your defense exposed and they'll rip you apart with their pace and deadly strikers.

The only way seems to be to take all your chances and hope your defense holds up.
Pep's definitely tinkered with City's tactical setup as well going by yesterdays game. It was quite a different way of playing to last season.
 

SqualorVictoria

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Pep's comment re: 'The CEO, the Sporting Director we go in the same path...at the end Machester City gave me a great squad, I can not complain' is surely a dig at Utd, our board, and Jose.
Or... He just shared his views on City's current state.
 

Jcrossley94

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There for the taking yesterday... could be wrong but I’m expecting them to lose a few more games than last season. Not sure if they can maintain that ruthless Mentality. Will be a real test for them...
 

izec

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They will win the legue again, unless Liverpool show some consistency. We will drop too many points
 

DonnieDarko

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City players look like they do drugs. They run all game on all positions, no matter if they are in possession or pressing. That's very impressive, and I really dontd see any other team with similar pace in the league.
It was the same last season and dmany predicted they will soon run out of fuel, but they didn't. Now they added one more pacy attacker and Mendy is back from injury. Tough ask for anybody to outplay them.
 

ErranMorad

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They are very good, but very little pressure put on them the last season. Three teams who could hurt them; Chelsea, Liverpool and United; should have made life harder for them the first time they played. Liverpool imploded after Mane's red and we were tame in our approach to the game. Chelsea had their own shit going on last season. If we had won our game, the gap would have reduced to only 5 points after match day 16 and would have had us in the running. There is very little chance to recover when you allow a team 11 points lead that early on in the season. Teams only buckle when the chasing pack maintains a constant threat and puts them under pressure.

This season the chasing pack, which I am assuming will be those three teams again, need to do better than they did last time. They won't run away like they did last time if they don't give them 3 easy points. I think it'll happen too. No way they are going to score 100 points again.

Don't think a lot of teams have figured out how to play against them tbh. If you sit back and defend deep they're bound to score sooner or later. If you attack them, you're leaving your defense exposed and they'll rip you apart with their pace and deadly strikers.

The only way seems to be to take all your chances and hope your defense holds up.
For the smaller teams there is only one way to play against them, i.e. to put 10 men behind the ball and hope to nick the game on an off chance. Those teams are not going to match by going toe to toe against them. The only struggles I remember Pep's Barca and Barca faced were then they played against a team who were extremely compact in defense and were ready to deny them any space.

Top teams like Liverpool, United and Spurs should look to exploit their vulnerability on the counter. A team that plays that high a line is extremely susceptible on the counter if done right. There is no other way to overcome a Pep team; you are not going to beat them at their own game. Poch tried it and came out looking extremely naive doing it.
 

GhastlyHun

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City players look like they do drugs. They run all game on all positions, no matter if they are in possession or pressing. That's very impressive, and I really dontd see any other team with similar pace in the league.
It was the same last season and dmany predicted they will soon run out of fuel, but they didn't. Now they added one more pacy attacker and Mendy is back from injury. Tough ask for anybody to outplay them.
Arsenal outran them yesterday, though.
 

totaalvoetbal

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They were well below their standards yesterday but it was undertandable as a lot of the players had no pre season. A lot of wrong decisions being made especially from Gundogan.
 

11101

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Arsenal outran them yesterday, though.
It's not that which makes it suspicious, total distance doesn't mean much. It's how they press so voraciously all the way up to the 90th minute. There seems to be zero drop off. That, and their managers history with it.

They look like a fairly complete squad already. They need one of their players to emerge as a superstar and they'll be unbeatable. Their bench is already full of players who would start for any other club.
 

pacifictheme

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Being inpressed with City is like being impressed by someones team on FM after they've played around with the database.
Its worth remembering post fergie how much money we've spent. City have just been much better at spending it.
 

DWelbz19

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Not replacing Fernandinho will hinder any major CL progression.
 

Bwuk

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Personally think they'll piss the league again unfortunately.

Ridiculous amount of depth throughout the squad.
 

Scarecrow

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It's nearly impossible to press them now. I'm not sure how you beat them at full strength. Getting every first and second ball maybe and disrupting their rhythm as much as possible.
 

Noo Noo

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It's nearly impossible to press them now. I'm not sure how you beat them at full strength. Getting every first and second ball maybe and disrupting their rhythm as much as possible.
Disagree with that. While Stones is playing they can moat certainly be got at.

That said they are 100% clear favourites by a country mile in my book.
 

Jcrossley94

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It's nearly impossible to press them now. I'm not sure how you beat them at full strength. Getting every first and second ball maybe and disrupting their rhythm as much as possible.
I think we layed out a pretty decent blueprint towards the end of last season. Soaking up a lot of pressure, accepting you will lose the battle for possession, then Being direct and using raw pace on the counter seems the only way to disrupt their unbelievable positional discipline.
 

VorZakone

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I think we layed out a pretty decent blueprint towards the end of last season. Soaking up a lot of pressure, accepting you will lose the battle for possession, then Being direct and using raw pace on the counter seems the only way to disrupt their unbelievable positional discipline.
City were all over United in the 1st half at the Etihad. Sterling had plenty of opportunities to kill it off. 2nd half by United was great but the 1st half was hardly a decent blueprint.
 

Jcrossley94

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City were all over United in the 1st half at the Etihad. Sterling had plenty of opportunities to kill it off. 2nd half by United was great but the 1st half was hardly a decent blueprint.
You disagree that pace and directness are the best way to get at them ?
 

padr81

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Pep's comment re: 'The CEO, the Sporting Director we go in the same path...at the end Machester City gave me a great squad, I can not complain' is surely a dig at Utd, our board, and Jose.
Not everything's about United you know... maybe just maybe, he's being grateful that everyone at City is actually aiming the same direction and have handed him the most expensive squad in football history with pretty much the exact players or at least type of players he wants.
 

WensleyMU

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Its worth remembering post fergie how much money we've spent. City have just been much better at spending it.
These figures were taken from Transfermarkt.

United - £774.54million
City - £913.2million

No doubt we have spent a fortune, but the £138 million difference isn't minor. If we add Chelsea to the mix, they have spent £799.97million. So while we are spending obscene amounts of money, the two clubs who have won 4 of the 5 titles post Fergie have spent more than us. So yes, City, and even Chelsea at times have spent better than us, they have also spent more and irrespective of our spending, how often does the 3rd biggest spending side, finish top, in any league?
 

padr81

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Not replacing Fernandinho will hinder any major CL progression.
Think we thought Jorginho was nailed on, so we let Fred and Fabinho slip away (not saying we'd have gotten either but we didn't put up a fight), he instead plumped for Chelsea and we got caught cold on that position, I think we'll be in for one in Jan if the right one is available.
 

VorZakone

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These figures were taken from Transfermarkt.

United - £774.54million
City - £913.2million

No doubt we have spent a fortune, but the £138 million difference isn't minor. If we add Chelsea to the mix, they have spent £799.97million. So while we are spending obscene amounts of money, the two clubs who have won 4 of the 5 titles post Fergie have spent more than us. So yes, City, and even Chelsea at times have spent better than us, they have also spent more and irrespective of our spending, how often does the 3rd biggest spending side, finish top, in any league?
United's net spend since 2014 is vastly higher than Chelsea's though.
 

DWelbz19

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Think we thought Jorginho was nailed on, so we let Fred and Fabinho slip away (not saying we'd have gotten either but we didn't put up a fight), he instead plumped for Chelsea and we got caught cold on that position, I think we'll be in for one in Jan if the right one is available.
Will there be one that good, who isn’t cup tied?

Think Fernandinho being as good as he was last season blindsided Pep a bit, too. No doubt Fernandinho is a good player but him basically holding such a demanding position on his own at 32 last season was extremely impressive. Maybe factored into the clubs thought process when the Jorginho deal was getting a bit twitchy.