Mancheater City: 115

[al-Ustaadh]

 

[Tir Na Nog]

So conflicted with a City vs Liverpool and Pep vs Klopp title race. On one hand you'd love to see Pep and City with all their money lose out. The football purist in me would like to see a manager like Klopp who's had to overcome Bayern with Dortmund and is now in a similar yet probably more extreme situation with City, get the best of a manager like Pep who's managed arguably the best teams in each domestic league, with the most money available to him and under the best circumstances to win. But then I think of the Liverpool fanbase and the Klopp acting like a clown.

It's quite tough. In the end though, I think the purist might win out. As much as I can't stand the Scousers and Klopp irritates me a lot, I think in the end I'd like to see that there's still something to hope for in football.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

Not sure if many will get what I'm trying to say here but does anyone else feel like this City side lack character and personality? To me all their players seem like a bunch of robots just there doing their job, don't really have an eccentric individual or a real character on the field. Maybe Kompany whenever he plays, other than that Aguero and at a stretch KDB are the closest you get in that aspect. But the latter especially has a tendency to hide at times in the big moments especially in the CL over the last few years.

You think about them struggling in the CL and you think to about the Chelsea side that won the CL but also made quite a number of semis as well as another final in 08. They had guys like Terry, Cech, Lampard, Essien, Ballack, Drogba, heck even Luiz the year they won it. They all had character and personality and they had an aura about them. Perhaps it's that which holds them back a bit. I don't want to ay leadership because it's such a cliche thing to say but they just lack something from the individuals which make up the team.

They can do their jobs very well and like a well oiled machine do what Pep wants of them but we've seen a few times that when they're really in a real fight and are put in situations they're not comfortable in they fall short in it. 3 times last year Liverpool got the better of them, one time United had a remarkable comeback against them and the year before we saw with Conte's Chelsea beating them in a real war of a game at the Etihad or the Monaco CL tie. When they're in 50-50 games with teams who really take it to them a lot of the time over the past 3 seasons they've came out on the losing end. I honestly feel it's because of the qualities I've mentioned which they lack. It's all well and good when they're in a game they can dominate and just do what they usually do while the other time try to concede as little as possible. Or against a team with much less quality and are easily exposed by City's quality.

 

[Camron]

Not sure if many will get what I'm trying to say here but does anyone else feel like this City side lack character and personality? To me all their players seem like a bunch of robots just there doing their job, don't really have an eccentric individual or a real character on the field. Maybe Kompany whenever he plays, other than that Aguero and at a stretch KDB are the closest you get in that aspect. But the latter especially has a tendency to hide at times in the big moments especially in the CL over the last few years.

You think about them struggling in the CL and you think to about the Chelsea side that won the CL but also made quite a number of semis as well as another final in 08. They had guys like Terry, Cech, Lampard, Essien, Ballack, Drogba, heck even Luiz the year they won it. They all had character and personality and they had an aura about them. Perhaps it's that which holds them back a bit. I don't want to ay leadership because it's such a cliche thing to say but they just lack something from the individuals which make up the team.

They can do their jobs very well and like a well oiled machine do what Pep wants of them but we've seen a few times that when they're really in a real fight and are put in situations they're not comfortable in they fall short in it. 3 times last year Liverpool got the better of them, one time United had a remarkable comeback against them and the year before we saw with Conte's Chelsea beating them in a real war of a game at the Etihad or the Monaco CL tie. When they're in 50-50 games with teams who really take it to them a lot of the time over the past 3 seasons they've came out on the losing end. I honestly feel it's because of the qualities I've mentioned which they lack. It's all well and good when they're in a game they can dominate and just do what they usually do while the other time try to concede as little as possible. Or against a team with much less quality and are easily exposed by City's quality.

Guardiola loves nice guys with talent and skill. He can't deal with outspoken characters like Toure, Ronaldinho, Zlatan, Ribery. Barca was always full of nice guys (Messi, Xavi, Iniesta) with a few exceptions like Busquets and Pique - but they were more annoying than actual characters - and Dani Alves mainly, but he never really stepped out of line. In the current side I guess Kompany could be one, but he's kind of a nice guy and Walker possibly. Even players with some character have to turn into schoolboys if they wanna make his squad.

 

[BobP]

Not sure if many will get what I'm trying to say here but does anyone else feel like this City side lack character and personality? To me all their players seem like a bunch of robots just there doing their job, don't really have an eccentric individual or a real character on the field. Maybe Kompany whenever he plays, other than that Aguero and at a stretch KDB are the closest you get in that aspect. But the latter especially has a tendency to hide at times in the big moments especially in the CL over the last few years.

You think about them struggling in the CL and you think to about the Chelsea side that won the CL but also made quite a number of semis as well as another final in 08. They had guys like Terry, Cech, Lampard, Essien, Ballack, Drogba, heck even Luiz the year they won it. They all had character and personality and they had an aura about them. Perhaps it's that which holds them back a bit. I don't want to ay leadership because it's such a cliche thing to say but they just lack something from the individuals which make up the team.

They can do their jobs very well and like a well oiled machine do what Pep wants of them but we've seen a few times that when they're really in a real fight and are put in situations they're not comfortable in they fall short in it. 3 times last year Liverpool got the better of them, one time United had a remarkable comeback against them and the year before we saw with Conte's Chelsea beating them in a real war of a game at the Etihad or the Monaco CL tie. When they're in 50-50 games with teams who really take it to them a lot of the time over the past 3 seasons they've came out on the losing end. I honestly feel it's because of the qualities I've mentioned which they lack. It's all well and good when they're in a game they can dominate and just do what they usually do while the other time try to concede as little as possible. Or against a team with much less quality and are easily exposed by City's quality.

They lack a 'theme' for want of a better word.

Behind every great team is a great story, something which City don't have.

It's very rare that a team succeeds in a memorable way without that crucial ingredient.

I don't think it's just us fans who both feed off of and play up such narratives, they positively influence the psyche of a player.

It's what I think made SAF such a great manager. He was intelligent enough to use the broader context, whether that be recent events or history, to propel his team to new heights.

Some stories are easier to convey than others. They could be real or contrived but that isn't necessarily important so long as they motivate the players.

Pep had it easy at Barcelona, a club which is a literal goldmine for narratives. In fact, these strands of narratives are so self-evident that I doubt Pep had to explicitly express them:

Catalonia, La Masia, and Johan Cruyff.

What do City have by way of a story or narrative which even comes close to this?

For a less meaty example, look to our unbeaten season, a season which wouldn't have happened had we not bottled it in 2002-2003.

Not a lot of substance but look where that took us.

City don't even have that.

 

[krackpot]

Sterling is the Neymar of Manchester. damn fine player.

 

[krengon]

lol at the end:

"my kids go to school with Indian people, black people, normal people"

 

[A_G]

I know what he's trying to say but that's a terrible place for your limited English to rear its head :rofl:

 

[Tir Na Nog]

The true Pep was very close to revealing himself there. Yaya Toure smirking somewhere.

 

[Rimaal]

Preach! Barnesy, Preach!

 

[Rex Stone]

Waiting for the Sun to say that Pep doesn’t see Sterling as a normal person.

 

[A_G]

Bluemoon's meltdown after the Palace game puts some of the Emery criticism on here in perspective..

Ridiculous team selection allied with poor summer recruitment.

Between Pep and Mariner we stood no chance.

**** from start to finish.

Walker shouldn't get a game after this.

Are we sure Walker is right footed?

That’s it! Christmas is cancelled in my house ... tree is already on the fire ;/

Astonishingly bad midfield selection and even worse was waiting until 50 mins to change anything. Then Walker ensures that a comeback was impossible. All on a Pep and Walker.

Pep ****,i said start with kev and sergio

This one's on Pep. Blasphemy, I know..

We need fullbacks and a plan b

Pep you turd. His fault today I'm afraid

If pep thinks team selections like todays will endear him to many he better think again. Not good enough in any way shape or form. No use him raving about foden and never giving him a chance

Terrible team selection/formation from Pep

Pep ****ed up with his midfield choices.

 

[tap-in]

I was only saying yesterday that City would lose again, I didn't think it would be to Palace at home though :rofl:

Merry Christmas Pep!

 

[al-Ustaadh]

Bluemoon's meltdown after the Palace game puts some of the Emery criticism on here in perspective..

Would've loved if Pep received "spend more money" chants.

 

[A_G]

Would've loved if Pep received "spend more money" chants.

I actually did wonder if him playing Stones in midfield was a message to the board that he wants Ndombele or De Jong in January...

 

[Malky]

Bluemoon's meltdown after the Palace game puts some of the Emery criticism on here in perspective..

" We need fullbacks " Because spending £100M on two of them in one transfer window wasn't enough.

 

[albakos]

Preach! Barnesy, Preach!

Wow, thanks for sharing that. Barnes was excellent here.

 

[krackpot]

I actually did wonder if him playing Stones in midfield was a message to the board that he wants Ndombele or De Jong in January...

and here we are, happily playing Xhaka at CB and AMN at RB.

Also, we had 5-6 of our own players on the pitch/bench yesterday.

 

[Ricardinho]

Bluemoon's meltdown after the Palace game puts some of the Emery criticism on here in perspective..

A new breed of city fan

By the way, has Bob Hope from Manchester been back on here since you exposed him as a united fan?

 

[Gooner Zig]

Not sure if many will get what I'm trying to say here but does anyone else feel like this City side lack character and personality? To me all their players seem like a bunch of robots just there doing their job, don't really have an eccentric individual or a real character on the field. Maybe Kompany whenever he plays, other than that Aguero and at a stretch KDB are the closest you get in that aspect. But the latter especially has a tendency to hide at times in the big moments especially in the CL over the last few years.

I'm starting to see more of this, I don't know if you can call it 'criticism' but definitely I've seen plenty of this observation recently.