Manchester City under Pep Guardiola | Pep on City v Liverpool ref: "He likes to be special"

Since Mancini left city, they have won one title and two league cups. In the same period United have one title and one FA cup, and could possibly add another League cup.
The jobs on Peps and Jose's plates are more similar than you would first think. Of course United have slumped lower in the league during that time.
One thing that is striking is the personnel in the team's.
City's successes are the old guard from Mancini's team, plus KDB.
United's defence has changed little but from there forward are unrecognisable, with sporadic appearances from Rooney and Carrick.
I hope that improvements under Jose continue. City still need to rebuild as their team ages, and they have tried, but most signings have not been an improvement on what they had.

So, I'd say that Pep has the harder job, even though I thought Jose had it tougher at the start of this season.
This is probably a good indicator of their relative success in the transfer market, so far.
 
First glimpse of what you'd expect would be the future front three of the club with Sane (21), Sterling (22) and Jesus (19). It's all very early days for Jesus but it's Sane I'm getting very excited about after his last few performances. He seems to have settled in and found a bit of confidence now and he's got everything you'd want from a winger.

They're obviously very quick together but perhaps more surprisingly they're extremely aggressive at defending from the front which is exactly why I think Pep likes them. Throw in De Bruyne just behind them at 25 (who I think Pep has to build his team around next summer) and it could well be a front four you'll see for large chunks of next season.

I'm really struggling to shake the feeling that Pep will look to sell Aguero in the summer if the right offer comes in. I think to do that and not replace him would be a huge mistake, but if he's capable of prizing a younger talent away from a top club then you probably have to consider that now. It's a very difficult call to make.
 
First glimpse of what you'd expect would be the future front three of the club with Sane (21), Sterling (22) and Jesus (19). It's all very early days for Jesus but it's Sane I'm getting very excited about after his last few performances. He seems to have settled in and found a bit of confidence now and he's got everything you'd want from a winger.

They impressed me yesterday, ok it was an FA Cup match and Palace, but for me Jesus was an surprise because it is not normal for an Brazilian to arrive and play like that in England, for me the biggest talent Brazil produced after Neymar.

I would not be surprised if they sell Aguero, for me Pep is not a big fan of him.

The key next season will be a new goalkeeper to replace Caballero and chalenge Bravo, because Joe Hart for me is out, and replace Sagna, Yaya, Zabaleta and Fernandinho.

I suspect they will make an revolution on the squad and lets see if they will put players from the Academy on the squad.
 
The rumours started very early this season that Guardiola didn't think too highly of Augero. At the time I thought they were just daft rumours but it does increasingly look like that's the case.

He won't be short of offers if they do want to sell.
 
Monaco 3:1 Man City (6:6 on aggregate)
Goes out of the Round of 16 for the first time in his career.
 
Aweful tactics. Going away in Europe with a 2 goal lead. :wenger:
 
I have absolutely no idea what he was thinking today.

Sure, I get the underlying logic of 'we're shit at defending we have to attack', but surely a football genius realises that there's other ways of attacking then picking 5 attacking players and Fernadinho?
 
Pep is undoubtedly a good manager but he's proved a lot of people right that thought he would struggle at City.

His style of football only works with 11 extremely good/world class players. He isn't pragmatic enough to win leagues/CL trophies with a squad like City's.

For him to succeed there he really needs to bring in a LOT of new players and ship out the crap.
 
Aweful tactics. Going away in Europe with a 2 goal lead. :wenger:

He has always been shown up away from home in Europe.

Whats saved him is having awesome teams who can destroy opposition 5-0 in the home legs.
 
Eamonn Dunphy is going in hard. Savaging him.

Dunphy is an idiot. "Ronaldo is hype, Kaka is reality", those words showed how much he knows about football.
 
I have absolutely no idea what he was thinking today.

Sure, I get the underlying logic of 'we're shit at defending we have to attack', but surely a football genius realises that there's other ways of attacking then picking 5 attacking players and Fernadinho?
Baffling really. Just drop one of them and play Toure, hell, even Delph or Zabaleta. Team would still be very attacking, but at least some sort of balance.
 
Saying all that, they should be through.
I genuinley think Sergio can only score consistently from diverting in crosses these days.
Is it the yips?
 


Thanks for posting that link! Wow! Incredible.

Season 2008-09

Lyon 1 - 1 Barcelona

Bayern München 1 - 1 Barcelona

Chelsea 1 - 1 Barcelona

Season 2009-10

Rubin Kazan 0 - 0 Barcelona

Internazionale 0 - 0 Barcelona

Stuttgart 1 - 1 Barcelona

Arsenal 2 - 2 Barcelona

Internazionale 3 - 1 Barcelona

Season 2010-11

Rubin Kazan 1 - 1 Barcelona

Copenhagen 1 - 1 Barcelona

Arsenal 2 - 1 Barcelona

Season 2011-12

Milan 0 - 0 Barcelona

Chelsea 1 - 0 Barcelona

Season 2013-14

United 1 - 1 Bayern München

Real Madrid 1- 0 Bayern München

Season 2014-15

Manchester City 3 - 2 Bayern München

Shaktar 0 - 0 Bayern München

Porto 3 - 1 Bayern München

Barcelona 3 - 0 Bayern München

Season 2015-16

Arsenal 2 - 0 Bayern München

Juventus 2 - 2 Bayern München

Benfica 2 - 2 Bayern München

Atlético de Madrid 1 - 0 Bayern München

Season 2016-17

Celtic 3 - 3 Manchester City

Barcelona 4 - 0 Manchester City

Borussia Mönchengladbach 1 - 1 Manchester City

Monaco 3 - 1 Manchester City
 
Fraudiola :lol:

Playing with one recognised CM in Fernandinho in a crucial away tie, leaving Yaya on the bench and playing with Sane, Sterling, Silva AND KdB was madness. Especially when you consider they were protecting a two goal lead coming into the game. :lol:

Time and again his tactical naivety been bailed out by world class players. Not this time Pep, not this time.
 
He has always been shown up away from home in Europe.

Whats saved him is having awesome teams who can destroy opposition 5-0 in the home legs.
And referee denying opposition teams multiple penalties (Chelsea 09)
 
Big blow to his career.
Not really. First time in his career (8th attempts) that he didn't reach UCL semis. There isn't a single manager who has done anything close to that.

Also, Monaco are a fantastic team. They play the best attacking football in Europe.
 
I have absolutely no idea what he was thinking today.

Sure, I get the underlying logic of 'we're shit at defending we have to attack', but surely a football genius realises that there's other ways of attacking then picking 5 attacking players and Fernadinho?
He has an awful away record in Europe.
He even said straight after the first leg that they need to score tonight or they would be eliminated. They had a two goal lead!
No wonder his defensive players looked a bit flat after that vote of confidence
 
Damien Duff all about Pep needing to spend money on the defence. Says "yeah he got Stones but he needed another one and probably one more after that".

How many bloody 50mil defenders do City need to buy before they can stop conceding stupid goals?

They had Kompany and spent huge on Stones, Mangala and Otamendi.
 
Not really. First time in his career (8th attempts) that he didn't reach UCL semis. There isn't a single manager who has done anything close to that.

Also, Monaco are a fantastic team. They play the best attacking football in Europe.
There's not another manager who has been blessed with managing teams as strong as Bayern and Barcelona. I'd expect any half decent manager to reach the semis with those teams. It's no coincidence that he fails to make it as soon as he isn't managing either.
 
Damien Duff all about Pep needing to spend money on the defence. Says "yeah he got Stones but he needed another one and probably one more after that".

How many bloody 50mil defenders do City need to buy before they can stop conceding stupid goals?

They had Kompany and spent huge on Stones, Mangala and Otamendi.


David Dunne?
 
On a more serious note, PSG got lambasted for being too ultra defensive against Barcelona last week. The situations are different, but City were a Aguero goal away from going through.
 
Saying all that, they should be through.
I genuinley think Sergio can only score consistently from diverting in crosses these days.
Is it the yips?
No they shouldn't. Monaco being idiots in the 1st leg papered over the cracks. They were the much better side over both legs.