He finally gets a start now that it’s mathematically impossible to lose the title. What faith. 
Kalvin Phillips | City Player (West Ham loan watch)
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
Why would City only buy Phillips for quota purposes when Pep has more faith in his academy players? Surely they can fill the same quota? Pep's always had absurd signings that just didn't hit off at all.
You really do get a lot of leeway on bad transfers when you are winning anyway.
Does he get a PL medal? I thought you had to play a minimum number of games?
5 now, used to be 10 and he just hit '10' yesterday. Fortunately for him I don't think minutes played comes into it as he's only on 195 and that's including the 90 yesterday.
Yeah was just thinking he hadn't played and can't believe he's made 10 appearances.5 now, used to be 10 and he just hit '10' yesterday. Fortunately for him I don't think minutes played comes into it as he's only on 195 and that's including the 90 yesterday.
Presumably he was a back-up to Rodri? With Rodri available all season that means his back-up stays on the sidelines.
Not quite right. I think they have 40 medals to give out. If a player makes 5 appearances they have to be given a medal, below that it’s at the club’s discretion. I imagine that he would have got one.5 now, used to be 10 and he just hit '10' yesterday. Fortunately for him I don't think minutes played comes into it as he's only on 195 and that's including the 90 yesterday.
Well kind of, it's certainly fair that that was the case early in the season but during most of that period he was injured. However over the past few months since their change to a 3-2-4-1 type of formation, you'd have thought that he would get more minutes whereas they have played others such as Stones, Walker and Rico Lewis sat next to Rodri instead of him.
Why? He's not a defender, and he's never been one. He's less suited to sit in the back line than all the names you've mentioned during defensive phases
That is true.
You're questioning it but you've essentially proven the point I was making. He's not a defender so you wouldn't expect him to play in defence. Yet they have played three different actual defenders with no experience of playing in midfield in the defensive midfield spot next to Rodri ahead of playing Phillips in his supposedly natural position.
Because they are all technically proficient and can make the plays needed in midfield, but they can also drop into the back line when defending. Phillips can only play in midfield.
Yes, I understand the reasoning behind it, you're missing the general point here. The point Pogue made was that in signing for the club, he would have expected to purely a back-up to Rodri. However, the reality was that midway through the season, they amended their system to play with two holding midfielders rather than one, as such he would have likely expected to see more minutes. However that simply has not happened, he's had to watch players who have never played in midfield, step into his position, because the manager believes (correctly btw, I'm not arguing) that they can do it better than him.
It'd be like us bringing in Declan Rice to be Casemiro's back-up but instead playing Ethan Laid ahead of him. Bit of a kick in the teeth I'd imagine.
It also proves that even the best teams get transfers wrong.
Nathan Ake didn't play much in his first season at City and this year he seemed to play a pretty significant role throughout the season, so you never know.
How is it necessarily City who got this wrong? It's also about Phillips' fitness and ability to adjust. Also, if he turns good for them next season after having a miserable first year, he wouldn't be the first....
Pep seems to be happy to wait a year or two to get new signings fully up to speed with how he likes to play. So when he has established players ready and able to help out makes sense to go with them and keep Phillips out of the firing line a while longer, a lack of injuries allows him that luxury. We’ve all seen how long Grealish took to “get” Pep football and what a great asset he is now he’s been fully on-boarded. There’s every chance Phillips will follow the same trajectory.
I'd hold your horses on that. Nobody though Stones could play this role or Delph would end up a LB in a 100 point team.
Very true
Fixed that for you
Same with Grealish. Gradually they learn and improve.
It's nice to have £100m+ players (on and off the books of course) sitting quietly on the bench, not making any noise to move or get poached with their 300k+ per week salaries (on and off the books of course).
You have to wonder how P£p does it.
Well they would have normally rotated as Pep does with the rest of his players especially with the amount of games they play but he didn't seem to fancy Phillips at all.
Has barely been fit this season and obviously has struggled to adapt when he has been selected.
He'll likely improve next season and hopefully take some of the work load off Rodri at the very least.
Personally I'd rather bring Lavia back to the club, he's a far better player.
He'll likely improve next season and hopefully take some of the work load off Rodri at the very least.
Personally I'd rather bring Lavia back to the club, he's a far better player.
Been speaking about how his lack of game time has affected him.
What was he thinking?
What was he thinking?
£££
Yeah, Pep usually gets a lot of players performing from the second year onwards, after usually starting slow in year 1 and integrating them into the team, but Phillips has barely been integrated into anything (injuries aside). Seems he'll get the money, the trophies but in the medium to long term, it might be at the expense of his form/playing time, even for the NT.
And those other players who were slowly integrated into the team, at least seemed like Pep type technical players, whereas Phillips doesn't and i think he's competing with Rodri in his favored position. So yeah, difficult to see him ever becoming a regular for them (under Pep) - but who knows, he might be ok with that.
The guy was injured for 109% of the season. We're lucky Rodri was as fit as he was as this guy didn't help him out at all.
Surprised Pep bought him tbh, quite the drop off going from Rodri to him.
bought him by accident, were trying to con others into overpaying again
Imagine that - setting United up to overpay for a dud as usual, incidentally this time we don't take the bait and they end up having to pay up!
I think the flops are exaggerated at City - more so when they are England internationals.
When I say exaggerated I mean it’s Pep that exaggerates them, he has a very specific way of playing and demands on his players. The first season he uses to bed them in and bring them up to speed and when they are ready they become an integral part of his squad. Conversely if they never make the cut they are basically exiled and to the outsider “never given a chance”.
At other clubs signings are signed to make an instant impact and need to be integrated straight away.
When I say exaggerated I mean it’s Pep that exaggerates them, he has a very specific way of playing and demands on his players. The first season he uses to bed them in and bring them up to speed and when they are ready they become an integral part of his squad. Conversely if they never make the cut they are basically exiled and to the outsider “never given a chance”.
At other clubs signings are signed to make an instant impact and need to be integrated straight away.
Pep doesn't buy the players.
I hoped that the aggressive physical game from Newcastle last night would have brought out the best in him, but the writing is on the wall. He's not good enough for us and never was.
Really poor yesterday.
He was bought for first team squad HG purposes.
Looks as lost as Rodri did in his first season. DM is an extremely difficult position under Pep. Felt he was a bit let down by the team shape and personnel around him (Kovacic was just ignoring passing lanes) but not the best showing from him if he wants to lock down a spot in the squad.
Rodri was never this bad and had actually proved himself at a much higher level than Leeds before moving to City.
Well, yes, I'm not arguing Kalvin is or has ever been remotely close to the best DM in the world right now. But even an excellent Rodri struggled massively in his first season, which reinforces my point about the position being very difficult in a Pep team. Any surprise Kalvin is having a rough go of it?
https://www.redcafe.net/threads/rodri-man-city-player.446355/page-7
Not the best reviews on his first season. Someone actually said Neves was twice the player Rodri was
On loan to West Ham
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