Who is Pep's rival right now?

[RedStarUnited]

Yes, I know another City/Pep thread...bear with me.

Has there ever been a team so successful yet has no real rival? Im talking about the way Viera and Keane hated each other, the way that the great Barca team and Madrid hated each other. There should be another team/manager who absolutely hates City and Pep's guts but I just don't see it.

When I look at it I see:

Consistent Challenger/Klopp = Seemingly a fan of Pep and enjoys the way his team play football. He cant bring himself to hate them
Current Title Challenger/Arteta = Peps student
Local rivals/ETH = Basically Peps student and again has no bone to pick with Pep

I don't feel Pep and his players have any real mental fatigue from these title wins. There isn't a single manager in this league that could rival the way Jose went at Pep in the 2010s. And honestly, without Jose doing that, Pep probably stays in Barcelona for a decade and wins 4/5 CL's.

I could be wrong...

 

[FrankFoot]

PL officials are the biggest threat he will have in England.

City needs to get punished for financial cheating, there is no other way...but expecting money-hungry suits to not be corrupt and do the correct things, it's way too much.

 

[alanjohnson]

Just to be clear about this..what Alex Ferguson did at Aberdeen, What Jose Mourinho did at Porto, what Klopp did at Dortmund and Liverpool, is miles better than anything Guardiola has done.

 

[adexkola]

Mods please merge all these threads into 1 City subforum for all these people who don't care about City

 

[Red Star One]

Himself, always has been.

 

[The Corinthian]

Mods please merge all these threads into 1 City subforum for all these people who don't care about City

Hypocrisy, thy name is you.

 

[SirScholes]

Managing a club without bottomless cash

 

[alanjohnson]

As for his rivals, it's still Klopp.

 

[11101]

They have no rivals because nobody really cares about them. We are theirs but they will always be a distant second to the scousers for us. They're so sanitised and dull as a club with everything setup perfectly, literally like a Championship Manager save if you had unlimited funds.

 

[SirMonteyne]

The press and pray tactics used by most PL teams can go very wrong against Pep's side. Fast transitions and buildups combined with high-pressing tactics (wisely used) can be very dangerous against Pep's style of play. IMO, Hansi Flick's football can destroy any possession-based team or team with high pressing. I hope Nagelsmann steals a few points from Pep next season though.

 

[Flying high]

Rules and regulations.

 

[Bastian]

PL officials are the biggest threat he will have in England.

City needs to get punished for financial cheating, there is no other way...but expecting money-hungry suits to not be corrupt and do the correct things, it's way too much.

/End thread.

 

[USREDEVIL]

the devil. Satan. Beelzebub

 

[MexicanCowboy]

Guardiola doesn't really have rivals. He doesn't care about what other managers do. What really bothers him is having players who don't obey him.

 

[ayushreddevil9]

Guardiola doesn't really have rivals. He doesn't care about what other managers do. What really bothers him is having players who don't obey him.

That problem is not unique to him.

 

[MUFC OK]

Sir Alex Ferguson, in debates on Twitter, badly designed graphics and on Talksport/MNF. Welcome to football content in 2023.

 

[MUFC OK]

The press and pray tactics used by most PL teams can go very wrong against Pep's side. Fast transitions and buildups combined with high-pressing tactics (wisely used) can be very dangerous against Pep's style of play. IMO, Hansi Flick's football can destroy any possession-based team or team with high pressing. I hope Nagelsmann steals a few points from Pep next season though.

Most underrated manager in modern football. Maybe not in Germany but elsewhere.

 

[mu4c_20le]

Spoiler

 

[Abraxas]

There is no rival. Pep plus bags of cash is a recipe for domination in domestic terms. You can get into specific achievements with different profiles of club, and argue the toss of what is most impressive, but when it comes to handing someone free reign to build sides and dominant styles of play he is the best by a landslide.

The longer the period you take, the more variance is reduced and then you see more domination. Which basically means over a season they're only stoppable if someone else is exceptional, and over a period of seasons they will win the majority. It is only cup competitions that provide increased variance that challenges their dominance. I think that's basically the only reason they haven't won the CL. It's not about quality it's to do with details on an individual match day.

I think it all comes from the consistency of play Pep manages to get compared to everyone else. They dominate territory, possession, create more than anyone else. Game after game after game. There isn't any big swings in what they do. I don't really see anyone that does that to the same extent.

 

[KikiDaKats]

When all the drooling stops after the final, ETH will be his biggest threat because is the only manager currently in this league that has the right tactics to nullify him.
We will beat them in the finals and it won’t be a smash and grab.

 

[DOTA]

Yes, I know another City/Pep thread...bear with me.

No. Stick this shit in one of the other twelve or shut up.

 

[Tyrion]

Himself, always has been.

He's certainly been his biggest enemy in Europe. There's probably at least 2 champions league titles he's messed up since he left Barca.

 

[TheLord]

No one, bar none, in today's football. He's that good.

 

[meamth]

It's the age of good PR and personnel reputation.

We won't be seeing any mind games, criticism from fellow managers anymore.

 

[Wilt]

Spoiler

Fecks sake! where did you get this from

 

[RedRonaldo]

It used to be Mourinho, until Mourinho got found. Probably it’s Klopp now but he never manage to match the same level of consistency.

 

[marktan]

Well obviously it'd be Klopp if Klopp had anywhere near the same backing as Pep.

He came 1 points behind in the league twice, with a squad that had almost no rotation for the front 3.

People can talk about Chelsea and United spending a lot, but those have really poor owners and thus often bad structures and bad managers. The one team that has a manager that's as good if not better than Pep, has to rely on Fabinho and Henderson still being their starting midfield 7 years on.

 

[jm99]

It used to be Mourinho, until Mourinho got found. Probably it’s Klopp now but he never manage to match the same level of consistency.

Over his career its definitely mourinho, even it was only for 2 seasons, that period of time was unlike anything else I've ever seen in football, plus the season before mourinho knocked him out of the champions league with Inter.

 

[Sky1981]

Klopp is a very good manager but nowhere near GOAT level.

He's a 2 trick pony with Dortmund and Liverpool

 

[croadyman]

Managing a club without bottomless cash

He would never go to one

 

[croadyman]

PL officials are the biggest threat he will have in England.

City needs to get punished for financial cheating, there is no other way...but expecting money-hungry suits to not be corrupt and do the correct things, it's way too much.

Yeah PL officials are bunch of bottle jobs when it comes to punishing City. They know how to get round loopholes too as well

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Rules and fair play

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Klopp is a very good manager but nowhere near GOAT level.

He's a 2 trick pony with Dortmund and Liverpool

He’d have beaten Pep to three titles if he didn’t have a puny squad in comparison.

 

[croadyman]

Rules and fair play

Yeah he has those tucked up in top pocket

 

[Sky1981]

He’d have beaten Pep to three titles if he didn’t have a puny squad in comparison.

Well he didnt.

At the end of the day he won 1 league. Same as Ranieri. And many managers managed to win against Bayern. It's not like he successfully dominated Bayern for a long period

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Well he didnt.

At the end of the day he won 1 league. Same as Ranieri. And many managers managed to win against Bayern. It's not like he successfully dominated Bayern for a long period

Well he was up against state backed cheats. I don’t even like buck toothed weirdo but he was always fighting a losing battle in that face off despite often having managed his team better than Pep.

No, nobody has won against Bayern for aeons. I think Klopp was the last exception to the Bayern rule.

 

[Chekov]

I think you need to constantly push their midfield. They got good players in midfields but they don't have players that can keep the ball under pressure that well.

And then go on the flanks constantly. I think you will see in the final, Inter will close their midfield, they got good players for it. Then also use the flanks while attacking.

City is a poor-mans barcelona with Xavi and Iniesta. City will be easier to disturb in midfield and use the flanks.

Haaland will go shallow in the final, he already seems to go shallow in the big games and might dissapear if we play it right.

 

[That_Bloke]

Mods please merge all these threads into 1 City subforum for all these people who don't care about City

 

[ExoduS]

This win for them doesn't nullify choke of the century they went through last year. They will choke again and Inter will probably beat them 1:0.

 

[Waynne]

Klopp comes closest for me at the time when Liverpool had Mane, Firminho and Salah as the front 3.
Always felt that City team had to dig really deep against that Liverpool side.