They might win the CL with Pep, but it will be tough. The CL is about clicking at the right time at the sharp end, assuming you aren’t a borderline CL team who is trying to get through the group stage and establish yourselves that way. But for those who might win it, it’s all about clicking at the sharp end of the tourney. There are several excellent teams who are well capable of doing that, and City are but one of them.
Winning the Prem, at least in recent years, with a new high bar established, is about racking up win after win after win. It is doing your job, week, in week out. City have been better than everyone over the past few years at doing that, exploiting their riches to do so, but the past two seasons show we have caught up.
City have one team that stands in the way of them becoming Prem champions. It’s us or them, most likely. In the CL there are about five such teams.
When all is said and done with the City Guardiola era, it will be interesting to see if he was any better than Pellegrini or Mancini. Win the Prem, but not the CL?
The talent and unity in our squad is ridiculous now. The other teams are praying for the season to get abandoned as it’s the only way we’re not going to walk it again IMO. I really believe Cheaty have gone as far as they can with their model of buying everyone. That is their entire game plan whereas ours for the last few years has been doggedly establishing parity in coaching at every level, unbelievably astute transfer business, careful and sensible player development and a happy, inclusive atmosphere for everyone at the club. Look at that Chel$ki game. Looking a bit weary in the second half so throw on Thiago, who has been at the club less than a week, and he and puts in an astounding record-breaking performance, leaving Lampard absolutely scratching his head. He gets what’s going on and wants a piece of it. We’re just getting warmed-up but I honestly think we’ve changed the way the game is done. It’s going to take years for anyone to be able to put our methods into practice, even if they’re capable of it. Butcher The Cheats again this season and it’s over for them, I tells ya!!
Yeah, I think often the expectation for champions league wins are really misguided. No matter how good your team is, you will never have the monopoly on exceptional players, and those players will also be managed by other talented managers. The nature of football and the structure of the competition just means that multiple really good teams are going to fail to win it every year through very little fault of their own. The key to success is to put yourself in the business end of the competition year after year so that the luck you typically need to win the thing has the chance to fall your way eventually. And that is where City have let themselves down…they cant even get to the business end of the competition. What is it? One semi ever, and that before Pep even got there?
Winning a CL is something not that easy, where you can bulldoze your way scoring against lesser teams and the squad depth (having two first team essentially) gets you in most of the games, which the remaining teams cannot afford.
It requires tactical maturity and adaption, which I somehow believe Pep lacks. He’s very good in making his team play (with right set of players only ofcourse) to ensure domination, but those tactics are easy to be found out. A good team, with good manager and that can concentrate and execute what their manager expects, have always found a way against City. Teams who are not scared and ready to have a go, usually give problems to Pep sides.
The second aspect is the referring, which is not as linient as in the PL, and players like Fernandinho suffer in CL because of that. Pep’s strategy to break counters right at the inception with tactical fouls gets punished more in CL than in prem.
Thirdly, the aura around playing and winning in European competition, makes only a few sides who have had that sort of success the mentality and push to compete in CL till then end. City lacks that. They, including the players also consider themselves as victims, which plays against them.
Hence, them being considered a perennial favourites always surprises me.
He’ll be seen largely as a failure considering he was bought in to win the CL. That was how Mancini and Pellegrini were judged. That’s how his time in a 1 team league with Bayern was judged.
Has Guardiola been left behind? He’s now entering the tenth season since he last won the Champions League and in that time he’s not once made the final. He hasn’t been beyond the quarter finals in over five years.
To me, he’s failed to build a team that can consistently mix it with the best. The teams that won’t just sit in and try and frustrate City, the teams that will actually front up to them.
The amount of games City have lost over the last 18 months suggests that teams now sense City can be got at. They know that they’ve got a soft underbelly. Guardiola’s lost that death by football ability to suffocate teams.
He’s still a very good manager but I think times have moved beyond him and players might not see him in the same light anymore. His methods are intense, which is fine when you’re winning the major trophies…but less tolerable if year after year the team falls short.
Envious glances, no doubt, in the direction of the joy and exuberance of Herr Klopp’s winning heavy metal football.
I think the difference between Pep and Klopp is the former is an idealist and the latter a pragmatist. You can see over the seasons since he arrived how Klopp has adapted the style that was so successful in Germany, due to a more physical league, congested schedule, no winter break etc, plus each season as team’s think they’ve worked out how to counter us, he throws in a curve ball like Thiago.
Pep is married to his ideals and seeks to perfect them, meanwhile football has moved on a bit and teams have worked him out to an extent. Obviously the sheer quality they have available means they still mostly win, but I think the types of team that have beaten them recently speaks volumes.
I think it is underselling Pep to suggest he’s stayed still with his approach. He definitely asks for different things than he did with his first great Barca side. However, I do think you can draw a contrast between them in why they adapted and the impact that had on their respective mindsets.
Klopp’s has mostly been to respond to the way teams tried to blunt his side. Couple that with a man who is by nature very positive and you just have a guy trying to make his side better. Pep’s adaptations have almost all been about plugging holes that good sides were able to exploit to hurt his teams in the past. Couple that with a mindset of a neurotic perfectionist and he comes across like a beaten dog constantly flinching at any movement towards him. Those attitudes rub off.
I think it’s also true that none of Pep’s adaptation ever simplify their approach, it just adds complexity onto complexity. There comes a point where that becomes too much even for a side as talented as theirs.
They didn’t do the obvious and counteract the loss of Kompany. They’ve now repeated the mistake at the other end of the pitch by going into the season with just two centre forwards. Both are now injured according to the reports and having to put Sterling in a false nine is a pretty big change so early in the season. They should still win their games until Jesus is back but it’s not great optics again for Pep’s visionary planning.
I think the point of teams actually turning up against is a good one, yes they win some of those games but there was a really odd stat with shots on target last season, Wolves apparently had one shot on target and scored it on Monday.
If a team has a go or doesn’t concede that they’ve lost from the first minute Man City have a game to play.
Reckon they’ve probably tried for the likes of Suarez and Morata and missed out. Maybe Martinez from Inter? I’d be surprised if they don’t try something. Saying that, that something may be signing another fullback for £50+.
