pmcla26

I agree with what you are saying there in a broad perspective. The issue is where people don't realise that there are parts of Guardiola's tactics that aren't tiki-taka, especially in the most recent iterations of Man City or playing against the big sides. The lightning pace and directness of Sane and Sterling in transition previously, which he has tried to recreate with Doku and Savinho with not such great effect, aren't symptomatic of his teams pre mid-2010s. He said this was looking at how effective teams were in transition in the Premier League, and copied that. You also see since Haaland has been the focal point, a player running in behind as opposed to playing false 9 or as a deep-lying forward - this would have been much less effective in old Guardiola teams. With Haaland (particularly in his first season), they would put more crosses into the box than a Guardiola side ever has. Or in 22/23, when his back 4 would primarily be made of 4 natural central defenders (or 3 plus Walker), and it would be Stones as the extra man. This was also not symptomatic of a tiki-taka team. Basically, Pep adapts all the time, or his side very occasionally go into something resembling closer to what people have in their head as a counter-attacking team (against Bayern in one CL game in the last couple of years they sat in a mid-block 442 for large portions of the tie), but people are so fixated on this tiki-taka shape they have in their head that they don't notice the adaptations that Pep makes.

I think what Man City are lacking currently (looking at last night's lineup) is that Gundogan, De Bruyne, Walker and Bernardo Silva are no longer at their physical peaks. Grealish, Dias and Lewis aren't super athletic players either (in the context of the elite level they are more ball-players or Dias' strength lies in his reading of the game defensively rather than lightning pace or super-strength). Gvardiol, Haaland and Doku are the only three who you would say are athletic types at peak performance. They are all falling a yard off of it at the same time and collectively it's costing them. They need a squad refresh. It's a bit like when Man United all of a sudden fell off a cliff the season after Fergie left.

Pep Guardiola Near on total domination of the league for 7 years: meh 10 game run: THIS IS NOT THE WAY TO PLAY FOOTBALL

Faes about to put in a David Luiz vs Fulham away 2012/13 performance and rifle one in from 40 yards out playing CDM.

Do wonder if Ademola Lookman has any regret over declaring for Nigeria. He would surely be the starting left winger for England these days.

Extra time off after they play Rangers on the Thursday before.

How? Barnes scored 13 goals for us as we went down. It's just annoying we didn't end up with both. Not one or the other.

Let's be honest he is too good to play in the Championship. I've always liked the player but just thought it was going to be on of those transfers that never work but can't explain why, and also think he was used wrong by Rodgers. Was/has never been a number 6 in a single pivot. He needs a bit of license to go. Reminds me of Mousa Dembele. I don't think our previous midfield with Maddison and Tielemans was set up to make him look good either as all of their strengths are in possession rather than without it, or passing the ball rather than carrying it. He quite often played instead of Ndidi rather than next to him and I think that really highlighted his defensive short comings.

Bilal yes (albeit in a completely different mould), but in what world is Skipp anything like either of those two?

As we saw a couple of years ago. Our attack then was better than Wolves' this season, too. I genuinely don't see changing the manager doing much for them - I just don't think their squad is very good.

The semi-realistic ideal attacking midfield options by the end of the summer window: AM: KDH and El Khannouss RW: New starter, Ayew, ease Fatawu back from injury, loan McAteer out LW: Barnes and Mavididi

Why? 4 of the top 6 goalkeepers are settled, Man City/Chelsea might not necessarily be interested in Hermansen (Jorgenson might develop in to number 1, then there are other goalkeepers on the market too) and he is under contract until 2028.

Not so sure we can praise the strategy as none of those PL experience players have looked like they'll to be nailed on starters for us, but we've got Vardy, Vestergaard, Justin and Ndidi all having years of experience at this level before and then Hermansen, Soumare, El Khannouss, VK, Buonanotte all being too good for anything other than top flight football. Then you add squad players like Coady, Skipp, Ayew and Reid in as a supplement.

Think we could do with a winger who is a bit more direct. El Khannouss and Buonanotte already provide the guile and close control in tight spaces.

It looked like he tried to shoot?

Hermansen Justin Okoli Vestergaard VK Skipp Ndidi (Winks, if he's back and Wilf isn't) Buonanotte El Khannouss Mavididi Vardy

Only Alisson and Kepa have ever cost more than £50m. Onana was the best goalkeeper in the Champions League in 22/23 and was sold for £43.8m. I'm not saying we won't ask for more but I'd be surprised if anyone went above £50m for him. Liverpool spent around £30m for Mamardashvilli and he's seen as one of the next best goalkeepers in the world. Raya cost less than £30m, too.

Hermansen is brilliant but I do think people underestimate how good other goalkeepers actually are. Like all last season when everyone was saying Onana is crap, when he obviously isn't. We also don't treat goalkeepers like outfield players where we say they have different attributes that make them good in different set-ups (everyone wants goalkeepers to be good at everything - a striker for example doesn't need to be a target man and a run-in-behind player). Pickford is brilliantly suited to Everton but wouldn't be great for Man City, he's still the same quality of goalkeeper, though. There's no chance anyone would pay upwards of £50m for Hermansen ever.

I wonder if they will replace them all to match the new ones when the expansion is complete.

Even if they win their next two games you can tell long-term that it just won't work there for Lopetegui.

Like El Khannouss's goal?

No, he's not. He does boxing/combat sport announcing more often and is a journalist, too.

Depends on context - in Martin's case he probably knows his lads aren't good enough to compete at this level - no point in hammering them when they aren't underperforming, they're just crap

If he's available we have to try to bring him home. What do they need for amortisation?

Mads JJ Coady Vestergaard VK Ndidi Soumare McAteer El Khannouss Mavididi Vardy