I wrote a detailed textual analysis of Mr Guardiola's remarks, and then pared it down to a concise and succinct summary:
Me said:
Guardiola aims jibe at United | Fellaini heads it clear
- Thread starter Strachans Cigar
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) was joined by comedian Ali Woods to look back at the best and worst moments of a rollercoaster season with the annual United Hour Awards.
Has Ten Hag been sacked yet? We're not sure and we hope not, but it's looking more likely as the days pass.
Who should replace him and why is it taking so long to make a decision?
Nothing wrong with what he said, Linekar just stirred up stuff
I hope United win the derby with a long ball that accidently floats in to City's goal surprising everyone after which a frustrated Pep tries to attack Mourinho only to be KO'd by a Fellaini elbow.
Of course, in all seriousness this is absolutely nothing. In some ways its a bit of a shame, I was quite looking forward to the theatre of their great rivalry, like the SAF and Wenger rivalry of 15 years ago. Though in other ways Im glad they are both being more mature - and on balance I think the latter view prevails.
I think the total opposite! I love the little digs it just intensifies the rivalry further and adds some entertainment. Mourinho won't let this slide, he lives for this stuff and no one does it better than him.
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Very strong message.
I hope it wasn't too complex for the general reader, chief.
He has heard Lukaku's song and is obsessed with his balls, the bald c-nut.
Where's the jibe?
Thank you for serious answers about serious problem.
Grow up, guys!
:-p
Thanks.
There isn't one. He's just pointing out the differences in style, not judging. He even listed Rashford when he talked about English players who liked to play with the ball (the conversation had turned to the English National Team and playing long ball).
Here's the source for anyone who doesn't want to be led along by the media:
He didn't say that though. That's something you've projected into the discussion.
He was giving an interview. These quotes don't just appear from nowhere, you know.
I know, hence the question (rhetorical).
Just seemed like a humorous take by the interviewer. Don't get why people take such things to heart.
disagree - plays with width and stretches the game with quick clever movement up front.
Pep's style of football could not be more different than Fergie's - genuinely can't believe you're suggesting otherwise!
How has this thread gotten to 5 pages in a few hours? You lot amaze me sometimes.
Clearly he's just jealous he's not managing a proper club.
Outside of the asylum that's Bluemoon there isn't a human being on earth who would sign for City over United, and even they're in denial.
Outside of the asylum that's Bluemoon there isn't a human being on earth who would sign for City over United, and even they're in denial.
Pep's comments shows he's clueless about United especially this season. Just saw some stat on twitter https://mobile.twitter.com/SemperFiUnited/status/913724753176698880/photo/1 which ranks United among the bottom 3 (together with arsenal and city) of teams who play long ball. Yet, clueless Pep calls us long ball United
I might. He could stay 7-8 years and be the defining figure of their club. Why join a big club when you can make a club big?
Oh my, shots fired from Guardiola. Seems like he has a problem when we *hoof* the ball to the main strikers. I honestly believe that's how we should approach the derby against Man City because Guardiola is used to football being played on the ground and he is not comfortable when the ball is more in the air and Lukaku can head the second balls for Fellaini. Let's face it, we have the tallest players in any PL team and we should use it to our advantage when teams play the ball on the ground. We are no match for them when we play football on the ground. Pep's teams are better conditioned for that, we found that out in the 2011 CL final against Barca and last year's derby game at OT against City. I think it will be very difficult to stop City's attacking lineup from scoring as they have the likes of Aguero, Jesus, Sane, Sterling and De Bryune playing together. These players like the ball on the ground and they definitely do not enjoy it when the ball is up in the air and the challenges are flying. I feel if we play this brand of football we can really trouble City and not only pick up the 3 points but piss Pep off even more.
Exactly! But Pep (and some of his acolytes on here) seem to see it as almost 'cheating' to do it! Hope we batter them - metaphorically and actually!
Yes, this is News Media 101 and not in any way surprising.
Love this juxtaposition.Or maybe he means it takes “a second” to send it to where it needs to go. As opposed to his tiki-taka style which takes 100 passes and minutes to achieve the same thing.
It was a sad day for football the day Pep and Jose started being nice to each other in England.
How I miss those crazy El Classico fireworks.
I reckon they will be back if one or the other starts to get properly on top of the other. Last season neither had bragging rights really, and Chelsea outshone both Manchester clubs, but if things continue how they've started the sparks will be flying soon enough...
Oh baldy, he just doesn't learn does he? You don't mess with Jose when it comes to the war of words.
Worst. Mind games. Ever.
Hardly care about what he's saying.
Try harder Pep. We've been fecking glorious to watch this season.Is there "hatred" in what I said? You must be very sensitiveThere just seems to be no middle ground regarding Pep on the Caf here most of the times. It's either he's a lovable genius or there is pure hatred against him.
Absolutely easy to be civil when both are doing feck all in the league. If we compete for the title, sparks will fly.
A dig? He's talking about the difference of how the team plays. Tottenham and Chelsea play quite similarly this season but we're a more physical side where it's true that the second ball is more of a problem from his side of the table. We can play with Rashford, Martial, Mata, Mkhi but we can also start Pogba-Matic-Fellaini with Lukaku up top, all guys that will dominate the City player in a physical encounter (Yaya stands a chance).
Yeah, but why is he talking about it? Why is he attempting to single United out as being somehow different to the other top teams? Definitely a clumsy (or subtle, depending on how you view it) way of trying to say that we play a somehow substandard and less worthy version of football.
Because he was asked about the football styles in England. If you think he made a dig at United then he also made a dig at German football. I don't think it's a secret that Mourinho holds certain aspect of the game in higher regard than say Pep. Pep himself says he doesn't even train it. I think he just finds Mourinho harder to deal with than Chelsea's or Spurs' brand of football because he can relate less to it.
People read a lot more into words given by managers to the press than they think, especially considering the narrative the press chooses to put on each interview.
Do you think that if the headline would just be "Lineker interviews Pep Guardiola" and someone like the Daily Mail wouldn't make that piece clickbait that we would have a thread on it?
Do you know much about the history between Pep and Jose? I guess you do, and in that context he knew exactly how his comments would come across. Why couldn't he just say that there were lots of strong teams in the premier league? Why try and make United out to be different in some way?
Pep used Javi Martinez in the same way - he moved him upfront and used him as a focal point of long balls to bypass Dortmund's pressing game. Just saying.
He wasn't asked about the strength of football, he was asked about the different styles of football in England. Is he going to talk about Burnley?
Their history isn't so sour. It comes with the territory of being managers playing against each other but it isn't personal. Mourinho was friendly with SAF behind the scenes and SAF and Wenger shared wine after matches
The actual drama surrounding managers is soooooo much less than the press and fans make it out to be. I've been behind the scenes at Old Trafford both after a loss against Liverpool (with Benitez no less) and a crucial win against Chelsea and there was nothing but professionalism and friendships in the tunnels. Rivalries like we had with Arsenal are pretty much dead now. We're lucky to get a heated affair on the pitch these days but that business usually stays on the pitch.
Short term memory is such a funny, funny thing
Guardiola "ignored" Mourinho for 106 press conferences when he was at Real, and only aswered to him when Jose especifically mentioned Pep after the UCL 1st leg.
He said that Mou was the master of the press conference and that he always won there, he gifted him his "particular" UCL title there (but took the real one from Madrid in the field)
He mentioned how Barcelona weren't interested in enter the ref wars (when Mou showed a page of the help Barcelona got from refs in the last years), because we didn't have anyone making a list of errors against us, nor did we have a recently retired referee working for the club (Megia Davila, who retired in May 2009, and signed for Real Madrid 4 months later working in "institutional relationships")
That they worked together for 4 years and they knew eachother, if Mou wanted to judge Guardiola from the twisted headlines of the media instead of what he knew about him it was his problem.
That Jose already used a media/ref diversion 6 years before with the "teatro" thing in the Del Horno vs Messi incident, he had more than enough time to evolve his tactics in and out of the field
That Jose belittling him with the Stamford Bridge/Motta red card was petty, and he wanted to avoid that fight the same way he had never mentioned about the penalty to Dani Alves vs Chelsea or Milito's offside goal in a press conference until that same day.
A lot of managers have managed to destroy Mourinho in press conferences, starting with the late Manolo Preciado, who Mourinho attacked for "putting his B side vs Barcelona" saying a manager doing that would be jailed in England, and that eventually got his revenge not only in front of the media, but also winning 0-1 in the Bernabeu with Sporting and breaking Mou's record of 150 games without losing at home in the league.
Hopefully, the real Jose Mourinho (not his media persona) is a better man that eventually made peace with Preciado and even became friends with him, but at least here in Spain Preciado was the first that showed everyone that the colossal media persona wasn't invincible
You could watch the whole interview if you wanted to know why.
Lineker asked him (twice) if the long ball was hindering English football, Pep not only said that wasn't the case, he said that style should remain important and shoudln't change to chase titles.
His only "dig" is saying that he doesn't like the long ball/second play football because he gets bored training that, a personal opinion on what you find more entertainment to do is not an attack to say that your style is superior to everything else, something people have forgotten because is the media trying to push that argument as Guardiola's view
Ah, apologies, I didn't realise I was conversing with someone so deeply in the know about football and managerial relationships behind the scenes! ;-)
Stylistically I don't think we're extreme enough, or far enough removed from the likes of Chelsea, to warrant separating us out. On this very thread there are stats that show that we have played the third least long balls this season - so why did Pep feel the need to make us out to be different in some way? Glad to hear that their rivalry doesn't have a personal edge to it, but let's see what happens over the coming months.
Great post, my thoughts exactly, that's what annoys me about him, he likes to think he invented the game and to play any other way than his way is wrong.