cityfanlee23

Most on here know what I think about the style, but often it was frustration at teams who attempted to play the style but pretty much always failed to replicate it, even though i'm not a huge fan of patient control, I often found City watchable and were one of the best teams at executing it, Pep is one of the greatest managers ever to grace the game. Few managers can say they fundamentally changed the way football was played in entire countries, in England, managers like Ferguson and Wenger had that honour, Pep Guardiola also shares that honour. The shift that Pep has moved the game in is absolutely phenomenal and the game will be much worse off without him in it. He said he wants to experience international management one day, he loves England, dare to dream? I've no doubt Pep would bring us a world cup. He's a man of principle, and a man of class, yes he's been at clubs brimming with money and talent, but how many times have clubs spent absolute fortunes on flops? His strike rate for buying players for big sums and getting the most out of them has been pretty exceptional, very few of his big signings flopped. He's more than proven himself as one of the greatest managers in history in Spain, Germany, and on the hardest stage of all, England. I can't see him returning to manage another prem club unless it's a return to City to be honest, he really took to the club and from his leaving video built a love for the city. I know it's often in Jest when people say that "even pep wouldn't have kept us up" in both the prem seasons and at times this season, nonsense. He is one of the greatest ever.

He'd probably buy him AFTER he gets sacked.

Yep, I actually think he will do well at City though, I said when he was here that he really needs an Elite team to make his system work well, for us at times it just felt rigid, I completely got the idea of why we would play the ball sideways and backwards to create pockets and to move the opposition around and tire them out, but we often did it so slowly that opposition midfielders were walking around the pitch taking up new positions. The endless horse shoe where it went from Mavididi on the left wing, backwards and across the back line before reaching Fatawu, who would then horse shoe it back, it just made the inevitable low block even harder to break down. One thing Maresca did spot though that we have dramatically failed to do since, is create constant space for the wingers. Both Mavididi and Fatawu thrived because Marescas system created both overlaps and underlaps for the wingers. Winks was also in his element controlling the tempo with short passes. You know me though, I'm a glutton for the Red Bull/Rangnick/Klopp style systems so I was always biased against Enzo/Pep, I just find it really tiresome, it's interesting to see the chess pieces being played, but often it just felt like control for the sake of control. Thought that we were far more entertaining towards the end of the season where we played far more directly. The stats don't like, we scored a lot of goals and conceded few, but for the majority of the game I just couldn't get into it.

The point being many people felt that line was too often blurred especially with the squad we had. Chelsea fans were also divided on the same issue.

Completely agree with this. Results are great and we all want to support a successful club, but the reason I watch football is to be entertained, the reason I don't watch cricket personally is because I don't find it entertaining, the reason others don't watch F1 is because they don't find it entertaining. Enzo was incredibly successful at getting results with us, and there is no doubt he inherited a mess and forced us to turn a corner, but the football just wasn't entertaining for the vast majority of the match, and I don't watch football to be excited for less than 10 minutes of the 95+. If we were for example fighting for survival, then sure, I'd take boring results over entertainment, but as a general philosophy, I want to see us going hell for leather to score, high press, high aggression, fast paced football. Enzo is the complete opposite of that.

Just because we were worse under other managers, doesn't make Enzo's style enjoyable for everyone. Yes, we scored a lot of goals and conceded relatively few, but you can achieve that with any style if the setup is right. For many of us, the style was boring to watch.

I don't think he really needs to "replace him" I suspect whatever happens Enzo will get a "get out of jail free" card if the rumoured punishments for Man City ring true regarding the charges.

Could we go back in for Brian Barry-Murphy? The work he's done at Cardiff has been fantastic. Can't imagine he would be easy to get, but he's worked here, he knows the facilities, knows a lot of the players. He knows the club, then again, that's probably why he wouldn't come

Definitely benefits to him coming if his wages are a fraction of what he's on now, less than 15k it would need to be to make sense, he could give a season of coaching to younger attackers, but my gut on this is to say lets move on, he doesn't deserve to be in League One, I'd rather we spend the £1m+ he will cost us for a season on a player that will be here for the future. In League One he's going to be taking a lot of minutes off of anyone we sign, now is the time to be giving youngsters and new signings all the minutes they can get on the pitch so that if we do manage to scrape up, they have more chance of establishing themselves at higher levels. The last thing we need is players like Evans losing minutes because Vardy is here.

Please don’t put £1 in the dickhead (me) again. If rangers sack Rohl. We need to throw the kitchen sink at him. Name the stadium after him.

Yep. lower league defenders simply wouldn't be able to cope with it. Bring it on. Let's hope Schreuder is mental enough to want to take us on, moderate success would make him richer than his wildest dreams with this ownership, and he would be a cult hero if he got us back to the big time.

You're right with the young players. DS did have a big turnover of players during the transfer windows so would likely need something similar here, however a lot of Eredivisie teams are arguable lower champ/league 1 level, and he managed to bring in dozens of players for £5m which I'd imagine we can stretch to. The concern being his team are defensively a bomb scare with very complex tactical transitions, we are a bomb scare doing the basics . With that said though, I said over and over again last season, if we'd approached every single game with the intention to simply outscore our opponents, I think we'd have stayed up.

The more I look into Dick Schreuder the more I'm sold. I have so many reservations about firstly our capacity to even get him, but if he did sign, massive reservations about our squad being able to play his way, or our capacity to bring in the players he would need to build his style. But if he did manage to get our lot playing his system, we would absolutely destroy this division. League one teams simply wouldn't have the capacity to keep track and pick up the right man, he builds his attacks from chaos and I just cannot see L1 teams being able to defend against it. I'm not sure he's my #1 target, but my god he would be fun to have as manager. Plus, a season at a lower level would give him a little bit of breathing room to properly rebuild and get a full season of his style bedded in should we go back up. If we are going to gamble on this kind of appointment, now is the time to do it.

Skubala would be a very good signing for them, but to be honest I can see them going for a "bigger name", I think they might go all out for Scott Parker. Pure guesswork from me though.

The first big quality is that he's FREE 32 games, 9 goals 6 assists. (33/10/7 in all comps) He's sort of a box to box midfielder but he's definitely more attack minded, he has played mainly as a CM but has also slotted into CAM behind the striker a few times, so he usually picks up play in the middle and drives forward. He's quite a tidy player, he often manages to get himself out of positions where he's surrounded by players and is comfortable in those tight spaces. 25 years old. His Key stats (per 90): - 0.32 goals, which is elite for a midfielder, works out 15+ goals per season over 46 games - 0.22xg, which shows he's consistently in goalscoring positions - 2.77 touches in the opponents box - 1.93 chances created per 90 - combined 0.59 xG+xA per 90, so he's got a 60% chance of scoring or assisting each game. In League One I think he would be a cheat code. I can see him going to a championship club, but he is a wassermann client so maybe there could be something to come from that? Obligatory video showing only the best parts of his game:

My absolute, full send, #1 priority, cannot miss this opportunity player signing this summer is Enzo Bardeli on a free transfer from Dunkerque. If Sanchez gets on well with him and could bring him too, i'd take him.

I agree, but I think if they ultimately fall a point or so short, he would probably be tempted to try again rather than jump ship for a basket case like Leicester. I think it could happen though, moving from a lower budget Eredivisie club to a "huge" league 1 club that has world class facilities and is prime for a rebuild is definitely possible. Nobody expected Bielsa would go to Leeds when he realistically could have gotten a bigger European job. I'd love to be wrong. I just can't see it happening.

With 10+ new players that fit the profile required to play his system it might work, and we could pull it off. But with the current group we have, and the players likely to be left over like Thomas/Choudhury/Nelson, it is hopeless imo. I’m 100% down for that gamble if he was mad enough to want to come here and rebuild us though.

I’m open to being proven wrong, but look at his system, then tell me how the likes of Luke Thomas, Stolarczyk, Choudhury, BDCR etc are going to be able to cope with it? They can barely do the most basic instructions. Seems to me like at NEC he inherited a squad of players that have ended up suiting the club quite well in terms of being dynamic, almost like when Puel left, he left a group of players that had the capacity to play multiple styles, all Rodgers did was turn up and make tweaks to it. Our squad in my opinion needs a minimum of 10+ new signings to make it work. If he came here and immediately got us up playing his style, with barely any money spent, it would be one of the best managerial performances of my lifetime.

Having previously never heard of Dick Schreuder I spent a little time digging into him, firstly, it's a pipe dream. I cannot seriously see him leaving to join us with them within touching distance of the Champions League either this season or next. Secondly, I am not convinced it would be a good move for either of us right now. I mean, the sheer amount of work that would be required to get us playing his system in such a short time I just don't think is viable, He has wingbacks pushing centrally ahead of strikers, centre backs on the wing, pretty much none of their players have a fixed position, just imagine any of the players in our team trying to work out which position they need to move into next, there's so many positional rotations half our squad would end up in the ****ing car park. They also need ELITE levels of fitness. My concern is that he would need more than 1 season to just nail the tactics down, and he would need to find a way to win immediately here, he would also need a mass clearout and would need to bring in 15+ players, and I just cannot see us being in a position to do this. But IF he was mad enough to join us, I think it could be a huge amount of fun, absolute chaos on the pitch.

Under the right manager, could Brandon Williams turn his career around? Seems like a bit of a lost cause now, but I can't help but think a manager like Pearson would get him back on track. If someone could wake him up and get him to sort himself out off the pitch, he still has a career ahead of him at a very good level. Probably not worth the gamble for us though.

Yeah it can definitely backfire if you're not careful. Richie has waited until the end of season to unload on them though as he now has a full summer to get the dead wood out, something Rodgers needs to learn from. Will be following the transfers of Leyton Orient over summer for sure to see who he brings in and forces out!

This is EXACTLY what this club needs, but you're right, our owners prefer managers to tip toe around everything and allow the players to do whatever the hell they want. Very refreshing to see Richie hitting back here.

Credit to Fuchs, would be an interesting gamble and I'd love to see him here, but if I was in charge of appointing I wouldn't take the gamble on him just yet. He has a very strong affinity to us, so if he has another good couple of seasons and he gets offers from clubs around our level, he will likely choose us over them. So there is no need to rush it. The difference between our League One campaign under pearson and what we have today, is that if we'd not gone up under NP, we would have been fine, if we don't go up next season, the financial pressures will ramp up and could tip us over the edge if we don't come up quickly. Even our lower earners are going to be near the top of the League One wage table, we simply need to get promoted next season, I don't think now is the right time to gamble on Fuchs.