I never mentioned him walking into a great team (although he did, imo). Look at the seasonal date for the 78 points. They were already European Champions.
This was his complete/best squad, which was the greatest squad ever seen and in its prime.
Manchester City under Pep Guardiola | Pep on City v Liverpool ref: "He likes to be special"
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This was his complete/best squad, which was the greatest squad ever seen and in its prime.
It's insane. The transformation is backed by videos on youtube, journalists and news articles at the time, and their actual results. But that doesn't fit the narrative of him having it easy, so we can't have factual information ruining all of that.
Will be pretty impressive if/when they break Chelsea's record points total.
Can't see them failing to do so given the amount of games left. Would need to be a relative crisis (for their season) to stop it.
Hopefully United can give them a good game and suggest a bit more competition next season.
Can't see them failing to do so given the amount of games left. Would need to be a relative crisis (for their season) to stop it.
Hopefully United can give them a good game and suggest a bit more competition next season.
The same will happen with City, I can already see it. He joined a struggling team that barely finished 4th under Pellegrini, had an average first season and has had a tremendous second season so far but this will all be put down to an amazing team he inherited and the amount of money he spent by some, even though the team was barely above United and they did not spend much more than United either.
Exactly. Pep took Barcelona in a season that they finish 4th in La Liga, with Frank R. beign eaten by the dressing room, making a Pasillo to Real Madrid.... And then, he make that the almost same squad win the treble in his first year.
We're not talking about his overall time at Barcelona. We're talking about the table on the previous page showing his top points achieved at this point in a season. The Barcelona one we're talking about is 2010-11. My point is, his record points that season isn't overly impressive because the team he had (regardless of how it was assembled). If anyone managed that team, they'd be expected to have similar points. Whereas regardless of City's stocked squad, it's more of an impressive achievement given the league.
Prime Messi (Greatest player of all team).
World cup winners in Valdez, Puyol, Pique, Iniesta, Xavi, Pedro, Villa, Busquets
Honorable mention - Alvez (attacking RB of his generation, arguably).
Knows exactly how to use them as well. They provide so many passing options for Silva and De Bruyne, it just makes their job so much easier.
No doubt he did something special at Barca. The ingrediants were there but they still needed the michelin star chef to put it all together.
He needs to win another CL though. If his career ends with 'just' the Barca CL wins, there will be question marks for some people.
He's got a great oportunity with City now. This 3 CL's in 4 years Madrid team is coming to an end and there doesn't appear to be any clear successor to their crown.
Sure, but he's played in the cups and city had no particular defensive issues because of it
Bravo was very good in his two seasons in Barcelona as far as i can recall, i still have no idea why was he so bad his first year at City...
I maintain that the goal against Wigan that led to their hilarious exit could have been prevented with Ederson instead of Bravo.
(could, not would. It would still have taken heroic effort.)Bravo is shockingly bad at shot stopping. Grigg's shot in the FA cup was very weak and slow, the best GKs in the world would have saved it (probably not ederson though). Horrible positioning and basically gave him free reign of half the goal.
TBF he was great at shot stopping at Barca, that was his strength there while Ter Stegen was better on the ball.
Just to clarify, is this because you don't rate Ederson as a top keeper or because he would have failed to save the shot?
I think bravo has improved immensely this season, ederson would make any keeper look inferior but on the whole what I've seen of him he's looked more on it, still looks like an accident waiting to happen though 
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That was kind of Bravo's problem. He got ripped to shreds because he replaced England #1 keeper and wasn't some amazing miracle worker. In truth the problems last season were structural and not down to any single player(but rather a lot of players), which is why this season even Mangala hasn't been able to lose them games despite always looking on the verge of a meltdownI maintain that the goal against Wigan that led to their hilarious exit could have been prevented with Ederson instead of Bravo.
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I thought he'd bomb this season like last but he's shut everybody up. Didn't paddy Barclay say Guardiolas heart must have sank when jose came to us? I think he got the managers mixed up there. I think everybody else has made city look better than they are personally.
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Raiola likes his headlines doesn’t he...
Preach Mino. Preach
I believe you are mistaken. We normally have a torrid time whenever we play with Bravo in goal. Its because all the opposition needs to do is take a shot, 90% of shots on target will end up inside the goal.
Bravo was a calamity in his first season. If Ederson was our goalie in Pep's first season, we surely would have finished far better than 4th. He screwed up in so many games that Pep had to bring Willy in goalpost.
Another factor was the ageing fullbacks who just didn't have the legs to fulfill Pep's ask.
What impresses me the most is that Pep knew what he needed to build a better team. He bought a phenomenal goalie as well as couple of best fullbacks available in Walker and Mendy.
I think most people ignore the tremendous impact Mendy had before his injury. If Mendy was fit throughout the season, we might arguably be having an even better season.
Another impressive thing is using Delph/Zinchencko as full backs. No one saw that coming and even though we had our fears on using them in that position, they have done a remarkable job.
Hats Off
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My feelings on Pep are known so I agree with the sentiment, but didn’t Mendy only play 4 games? One of which was his injury. Hard to argue a huge case for him being tremendous. I still don’t think we can assess whether he’ll be a success on the pitch yet in this set-up.I believe you are mistaken. We normally have a torrid time whenever we play with Bravo in goal. Its because all the opposition needs to do is take a shot, 90% of shots on target will end up inside the goal.
Bravo was a calamity in his first season. If Ederson was our goalie in Pep's first season, we surely would have finished far better than 4th. He screwed up in so many games that Pep had to bring Willy in goalpost.
Another factor was the ageing fullbacks who just didn't have the legs to fulfill Pep's ask.
What impresses me the most is that Pep knew what he needed to build a better team. He bought a phenomenal goalie as well as couple of best fullbacks available in Walker and Mendy.
I think most people ignore the tremendous impact Mendy had before his injury. If Mendy was fit throughout the season, we might arguably be having an even better season.
Another impressive thing is using Delph/Zinchencko as full backs. No one saw that coming and even though we had our fears on using them in that position, they have done a remarkable job.
Hats Off
Just to reheat this Bravo vs Ederson debate: https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...eason-ederson-firmino-manchester-city-burnley
Anyone waiting for Pep to bugga off out of English football should be discouraged by the words of young Phillipe Sandler who has recently signed for City.
Philippe Sandler to @VI_nl: "Pep Guardiola wants to work with young talent in the coming years. He wants to buy less polished players to train them himself. I can work with the best trainer in the world. That is a boy’s dream."
Looks like a broad hint that Pep has told him that he's here for a few years.
Philippe Sandler to @VI_nl: "Pep Guardiola wants to work with young talent in the coming years. He wants to buy less polished players to train them himself. I can work with the best trainer in the world. That is a boy’s dream."
Looks like a broad hint that Pep has told him that he's here for a few years.
Always the case.
He'll be there until at least 2022 imo.
Ederson is not that level of shot stopper, I would fancy De Gea and Neuer to save any shot. Grigg's shot was well placed, but it was quite slow and I've seen those keepers react to those type of shots and scramble them for a corner. Ederson is not a bad shot stopper, he's a decent one.
Ederson though would have been coming out soon as it looked like walker had fecked up, would have been much closer probably on top of grigg so a much tighter angle for grigg IMHO. Think it would have been a much tougher chance vs ederson than bravo.
Agree that ddg, neuer would have reached it too.
The greatest trick Guardiola has pulled is convincing the rest of the league that trying to go toe-to-toe with them is futile. Because it means the game is won without a ball being kicked.
The teams that have enjoyed most success against Guardiola are the ones brave enough to press together, make it physical and attack in numbers - but seldom have we seen teams to do that this season against Manchester City, for fear of what they may incur.
The teams that have enjoyed most success against Guardiola are the ones brave enough to press together, make it physical and attack in numbers - but seldom have we seen teams to do that this season against Manchester City, for fear of what they may incur.
The only teams who can try that in England are Liverpool or Spurs, with worse individual players.
Are you really that naive?
No chance Pep will remain at City longer than he has too. If he wins the CL with City this year (a frighteningly real possibility) I can see him moving on to a bigger, more prestigeous club by the end of next season.
At which point Niall Quinn will be in the running to take his place.
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Agreed. Credit to Pep for making them play fast, fluid, ruthless football. Do not want to sound bitter, but I hope that a non-English team wins CL this season.
I'm sure he bought some young players at Bayern too but still left after 3 years.
In modern football who would he really go to? Wouldn’t be Madrid, are PSG more prestigious than City? Would he fancy having a crack at Italian football with Juventus or something. I just can’t see why he’d leave City which is a club that geared itself up for him. I just don’t really see where he would go next except back to Barca.
I fear he is at City for the long haul.
We have got nothing but to pray that he gets homesick and goes back to Barcelona.
They'll almost certainly be setting a new points record. I thought this would be the potential banana skin for them.
He will extend for another year at City & then likely a sabbatical. Will then sign a bumper contract with PSG. He will only extend as he is behind in the 3 year plan due to last season being a a write off. He would have fully expected to win the PL last season & have a decent run in the CL. He could have then spent the next 2 seasons going hard for the CL. He has already said he is not a long term manager. His training is intense & players start to lose interest after a few years. He also put's himself under a lot of stress so needs regular down time to save from burn out.
City & PSG are basically the same kind of clubs. The bonus at PSG is that the league is a 1 horse race. He can take it easy & go all out for the CL. City owners want the CL badly but they also want a decent showing in the league. PSG are the only club apart from City who will give him the financial backing he needs. Think he will retire from club management after PSG. He would probably love to go back to Barca. A lot of their top players are coming to the end though & won't be there in 6 - 7 years time. I don't think he would relish the task of finding the new Messi, Iniesta etc etc.
Where's the logic in that? He could have had his pick of clubs already before moving to City. Apart from that, I don't see a club that is better suited as his personal playground for building a team after his ideas - virtually unlimited funds, a network of feeder clubs, everything run by his old pals.
He's already built one of the strongest teams the prem has ever seen, loathed as we are to admit it, how much further can he be expected to take them at this point? Should this team of his win the CL this season or next, there isn't a doubt in my mind that he will be heading for pastures new directly after. Pep is hot property right now, Barca would take him back in an instant, Real will be looking for a new manager very shortly following a poor season by their standards and PSG are rumoured to be sniffing around him as we speak. Plus he has refused to commit to City whenever the question has been asked of him.
That's right but he wasn't getting all his own way like he is at City.