I am waiting until the injuries start piling up before passing judgement
Translation
Palace are shit and we wonāt need him against them but heāll be back next weekend anyway.
They donāt play again until after Christmas. Maybe planning to hold him out of the Club World Cup? But I suspect Haaland would not be happy about that.
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Yeah the mighty teams in that competition
My feet would have stress fractures supporting his wallet too.
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So this has to be the benchmark for future discipline after Man City are found guilty of 115 charges, amirite?
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I hope not. 135 of those points are suspended, and will not be levied if there are no further violations.
They probably bought him to ensure none of the others get him including us.
Shit way to treat a player
Like most of 'em , I doubt he actually gives a fuck.
Ā£150,000 a week for six years nets him north of Ā£40m. Why bother playing football ?
I might be mistaken, but I still want to believe there is some honor or romance left in the game. Yes, he is making millions and is financially set for life, unless he squanders it.
But Iād like to think that in addition to the money, he still wants to play some footy in front of a crowd, while he is still of a good age, and he misses that.
Man City have mistreated him, not by not paying him or giving him great conditions, but by acquiring the player seemingly with no plan to use him.
Edit
And the way Pep talks about that so openly is appalling.
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Just saw that Pep made just one change today. Stones on for Lewis in the 96th minute after Palace made it 2-2.
What an arrogant prick he is. He has players like Akandji, Nunes, Phillips and Kovacic on bench. Risks injuries to the starting players and them running out of energy - as seen late on.
And the foul by Foden for the pen - that kick is clearly also a yellow card.
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If City buying Kalvin Phillips without any idea where heād fit in the squad prevented us from buying from Kalvin Phillips, Iām all for it.
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Yeah , Phillips might well have been a regular in other teams being talked about in the same calibre as Declan Rice. But Guardiola by not playing him , probably cost him his chance of an England call up for major tournaments too.
That said , it would have been a gamble for us to take Phillips given the injury he suffered at Leeds. But a risky gamble for other teams is just loose change at City.
Since Pep became manager of Man City, this season has seen their lowest point total after 17 matches. Here are their points totals after 17 matches under Pep
2017-18 49 Champions
2018-19 44 Champions
2021-22 41 Champions
2022-23 39 Champions
2016-17 37 Third
2020-21 35 Champions
2019-20 35 Runners-Up
2023-24 34 ??
It should noted that in the 2020-21 season, they went 17-0-4 in their remaining matches to win the league. Theyāre going to have to go on a run like that again if they are to be top again this season since both us and Arsenal are on pace to win 85 or so points. That seems unlikely given that they donāt seem to have the depth and are missing some key elements in midfield.
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I have to wonder if he has hit that point where his players are just tired of listening to him that we heard about at Bayern. Granted, there has been a good deal of squad turnover, quite a bit more than during his three years in Munich, which would work against reaching that point. But many of the veteran players of that Bayern side seemed to balance respecting him enormously as a teacher of the game with being delighted to see him go.
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Its not like Phillips didnāt have some choice in the transfer from Leeds.
Anyone with a modicum of sense could at least suspect he would end up on the bench, most of the time.
City have more options in his position, and Pep isnāt afraid to play defenders at DM.
Phillips fucked up his own career, but got well paid to do so.
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How come Ederson didnāt get sent off for that tackle on Mateta?
Because by the letter of the law the player was moving away from goal, a load of balderdash the rule, as that was a better goal scoring opportunity than Isakās when Virg was sent off, as Isak still had the keeper to beat, whereas Mateta had an open goal
Yeah but in isolation, wasnāt the tackle itself a red card? Iām trying to imagine that situation in the centre of the pitch and it would possibly be one.