I'm proper confused. Thought City were the real best team in the country?
City have a weird mentality issue.
They're suddenly a bit like an incredibly quality version of us in the 90s. They put everything into playing the best sides, do enough to play most of the above average teams, but are inconsistent as fuck against some of them & get beat when you least expect it.
Their set up would expose the best defenders, but that ramshackled, rag tag bunch of midfielders and mercurial talents shoehorned into a back four is a nightmare. Add the fact that they've spent hundreds of millions on full backs alone is enough to make your eyes water.
Zinchenko Garcia Laporte Cancelo
Just look at that back four. For all of Guardiola's strengths, he doesn't know how to build a defence. He more often than not just sticks midfielders there and hopes the team's superior technical ability smothers the opposition. Which it does, 9 times out of 10.
They'll always give you a chance at the back. And if they have a rare off day up top, there's a good chance they can be beaten.
It's a God send that Virgil chose us over them. He would have made a huge difference, though I suspect he wouldn't look as good as he does here. But still.
Let's hope Guardiola carries on stubbornly ploughing that furrow. If they get another Kompany to play alongside Laporte, they'll be a force.
I wouldn't put it past him spending another £200m on full backs, though.
These games? As in all the games this season?Agree, but don't think we can read too much into these games.
What also gives me hope is that so far in his career the longer he stays at one team, the more radical/outlandish his ideas become. In Barca he went from a superb balance of athleticism and technique to peak tiki-taka by the end of his reign. At Bayern he lost in the CL due to defensive problems in the 1st and 2nd seasons and didn't really do anything to fix these issues in the 3rd (instead focusing on converting the world's best attacking LB into a CB). To be fair, I have to admit that he actually became more pragmatic with his attacking approach by the last season at Bayern, simply playing Lewandowski instead of trying to create the "false 9" systems like he did initially.
But anyway, it seems he thinks a solution like just going into the market and buying the best specialist CB available is somehow too simple and almost beneath him. If other decision-makers at the club don't prevail upon him, I fully expect to see the CB pairing of Walker and Fernandinho at some point.
They've lost 9 league games over the course of a season. You can defo read something into that shit.
Koulibaly would make a huge difference. The only saving grace is he's 29 and will have to replace him again in five years.
These games? As in all the games this season?
That's how long this inconsistency has been going on for.
I'd say we can read at least something into this.
Five years is such a long time in football though. It's not like he's 33 or 34. Same age as Van Dijk.
I'm proper confused. Thought City were the real best team in the country?
I hope they don't buy Kouilbaly as that will seriously improve them. I hope they do what man u did last year and panic
harry maguire is like when you go into town to get a hdmi cable or something and they're out of all the cheap good ones so you need to buy a gold plated Monster™ cable that costs 20x the price cos you really need one now
So am I - are we worse than Southampton???
You know, if he would come, I think Willian would be a very very sweet backup for our front three.
You know, if he would come, I think Willian would be a very very sweet backup for our front three.