10,000 passes that go nowhere, then get hit on the break. Will be interesting to see if Pep can evolve with the modern game.
One player I’ve never understood for them is Doku amazingly fast yet slows every attack to a snails pace: pep ball was successful until last season now it’s just boring and unproductive. City look very stale and in need of a refresh and they have tried that with some of the squad already.
I think it’s more that they’ve made poor signings over the past two years. They’re not bad players just not as good as the players they’ve replaced. Savinho, Doku, Marmoush, Khusanov, Nico Gonzalez, Trafford etc. A couple of them might get there in time but if you compare them with the signings Liverpool have made in the same period they’re nowhere near as good.
It's good to see Grealish flourishing elsewhere after having the creativity beaten out of him at City.
Teams don't fear them either. They know city can be beat, it gives players confidence before they've even kicked off
I think that Kevin DB is a massive miss. Also he sometimes suppresses natural talent Grealish being an example.
Agree to a certain extent mate. Strange how when Doku plays that he stills dribbles yet Grealish stopped trying get past defenders. Not sure what that was all about......looks like beginning of end regarding Pep for me at city tho.....they no better now than last season.
Their right back options are Lewis and a former winger in Nunes. Their wingers have no end product. Not sure whether Rodri will return to his old ballon dor self. Haaland still doesn't suit their system. Keeper isn't great. Lots of problems at city... they also notoriously start very slowly.
New keeper Trafford is supposedly poor with ball at feet so don’t understand that signing when Pep likes his goalie to be useful with ball at feet.....anyway who gives a flying .....Up the Reds ha
Wouldn't say he's poor but he's certainly no Ederson mate. They're definitely buying for the future again imo, think they got him that price due to buy back clause. When you think of David Silva, De Bruyne, Aguero, Mahrez, Toure.. compared to what they have now is night and day.
One of worst things about so called Pep ball is that it meant most coaches started telling centre halves they could all play about with ball in 18 yarder, taking it off goalie and passing it across 18 yarder to other centre half and such. It has made so many centre halves look daft it’s unreal. There is only so many cultured centre half’s in any era, i.e. Moore/Ferdinand/Stones and dear old Futcher, most of others are better off passing it into midfield or further up before coming under pressure from any pressing forwards, maybe sounds old fashioned but it works.
I've always wondered how these great managers would do if they had no money and had to achieve success at Crewe, Accrington or Morecambe....
I do hope so. Hopefully be the end of him in England too, that spittle thing he does is disgusting, turns my stomach he does.