Manchester City 17/18 discussion | "If you're here for the Champions clap your hands" (#6505)

Don‘t think so! Bayern Munich looked spectacularly good under Guardiola, but the longer the season went, the worse their style of play got. In february, march i expect a huge drop in performance level from them, when it‘s crunchtime, Guardiola will bottle it without Messi, just like a leopard doesn‘t change its spot.
Last season he looked completely out of his depth against Monaco, he‘s too stubborn to change and win something big in Europe again, IMO.

Mourinho‘s team will be ready and clever when the big time arrives, but other teams can play too, especially Bayern Mumich under Heynckes, who sets up similarly, the first objective is to defend, that‘s the best chance to win something big. Guardiola to this day fails to comprehend that.

What?
 
They're really not. City won't suddenly become a more popular club than us with a CL win.

No it won't, but they are well on the way if they continue to be successful after they won a CL. And if we continue to fail to win the league and CL, while City keep up the pace, I can see the next generations of international fans leaning towards following City over Utd.

I don't actually believe we are too far away from retaking the throne in England and in Europe, but let's not forget we have a prime example of a club fallen from grace at a crucial time, and have yet to recover after over nearly 3 decades - Liverpool. Let's not be like them.
 
Way ahead of us.
The sad truth and I think that's the real reason Mourinho has been irritable these past few weeks.

Its definitely the reason he's so grumpy and can you blame him, he's thinking feck not this cnut again ruining the good thing I've got going. On any normal season I think we would be top of the league by a couple of points and the media wouldnt be on Mou's back at all, in fact they'd all be singing his praises, Mou's second season and all that. Truth is the reason he is so grumpy is that he is in full swing doing his thing but he realises that its probably not going to be enough with Pep around and the shite thing is they are only going to get better by the look things given how young their squad is, I'd be grumpy too if I was him.
 
Both the Stoke goals were massive deflections and yeah 2 sloppy goals against West Brom, but whilst we're scoring we can afford to let the odd couple in bad I doubt we'll play against a team with better movement than Napoli in the prem

But you will face better teams who are tactically better than Napoli. Spurs will be a major test for you. Jose if he has all his players fit would not be a cakewalk. Napoli are strong in attack but their defence is pretty bad. I think you lot will face better and bigger tests
 
Its definitely the reason he's so grumpy and can you blame him, he's thinking feck not this cnut again ruining the good thing I've got going. On any normal season I think we would be top of the league by a couple of points and the media wouldnt be on Mou's back at all, in fact they'd all be singing his praises, Mou's second season and all that. Truth is the reason he is so grumpy is that he is in full swing doing his thing but he realises that its probably not going to be enough with Pep around and the shite thing is they are only going to get better by the look things given how young their squad is, I'd be grumpy too if I was him.

The truth is that neither of that is the truth, but your far-stretched assumption of what's happening in someone else's head.

Also, he has beaten him already twice when he had better teams than this one.
 
Its definitely the reason he's so grumpy and can you blame him, he's thinking feck not this cnut again ruining the good thing I've got going. On any normal season I think we would be top of the league by a couple of points and the media wouldnt be on Mou's back at all, in fact they'd all be singing his praises, Mou's second season and all that. Truth is the reason he is so grumpy is that he is in full swing doing his thing but he realises that its probably not going to be enough with Pep around and the shite thing is they are only going to get better by the look things given how young their squad is, I'd be grumpy too if I was him.

Mourinho knew what he was taking on. We appointed him after Guardiola’s announcement. If anything Mourinho thrives on such challenges. He got the better of Pep and Barca eventually.

City are in their moment. Patience is a virtue.

The only thing that will really test Mourinho’s resolve is if he isn’t backed in the transfer market going forward.
 
No it won't, but they are well on the way if they continue to be successful after they won a CL. And if we continue to fail to win the league and CL, while City keep up the pace, I can see the next generations of international fans leaning towards following City over Utd.

I don't actually believe we are too far away from retaking the throne in England and in Europe, but let's not forget we have a prime example of a club fallen from grace at a crucial time, and have yet to recover after over nearly 3 decades - Liverpool. Let's not be like them.
For them to overtake us , we have to become a midtable club for the next decade and city win 3 or 4 trebles. Can't see either happening. Take the example of chelsea, even though they have literally been the best club in London for more than a decade but yet arsenal will always be more popular and respected. And trying not to be arrogant we are no arsenal , so if a club like chelsea cannot dethrone arsenal, how can you think city will dethrone us. Not happening.

And as for the entertaining football, well who knows jose may win the league or CL and the next manager coming in could play even better football than pep . It's all a cycle and city have to really dominate for next 10 to 15 years , and hope that we keep on having Moyes season for next 10 years.
 
I don't believe the Pep v José ever ceased to exist.
I don't believe it's necessary the results of City that bug him- its probably more the fact he feels he is just getting by at the moment with important players injured and missing out on at least one of his desired transfers it seems - all the while watching City being stacked like crazy and being relatively carefree lately.
 
Its definitely the reason he's so grumpy and can you blame him, he's thinking feck not this cnut again ruining the good thing I've got going. On any normal season I think we would be top of the league by a couple of points and the media wouldnt be on Mou's back at all, in fact they'd all be singing his praises, Mou's second season and all that. Truth is the reason he is so grumpy is that he is in full swing doing his thing but he realises that its probably not going to be enough with Pep around and the shite thing is they are only going to get better by the look things given how young their squad is, I'd be grumpy too if I was him.

You should write a novel, you have a big imagination.

You begin with "Its definitely the reason he's so grumpy and can you blame him", like it's a fact "definitely", when you don't know the first thing about the reasons he is grumpy and when he said continuously that it's because of the media.

and then you proceed to discredit and doubt the work he's doing here based on your alternative fact but not saying it outright, more like, jose is the one thinking that. it is a paragraph worthy of a sun article.
 
the link you provided is old, January 2017, we sold players in January when city didn't.

And i am talking about spending, not current squad cost.

When you spend 1.5 billions, you're bound to get some transfers right.

Here you go, some stats i did a few weeks ago, the source is transferMarkt, so the same source you're using for the teams' costs.

City's net spend is almost twice ours, it's almost equal to Ours + Chelsea + liverpool's spending from 2008 to now.

  • dhdqS99.png

You made an unfactual statement and I corrected you about wages.

Your now making another one about players leaving and I'll correct you again my friend because I'm nice like that.

Since that January you've moved on Januzaj, Rooney, Varela, Schneiderlan, Depay.
City have moved on Jovetic, Rulli, Zuculini, Iheanacho, Bony, Nolito, Fernando, Kolarov, Clichy, Zabaleta, Hart, Sagna, Nasri, Denayer, Caballero.

Like Zlatan, Yaya has taken a pay cut to 100k from his previous wages.

I really don't care about your graph tbh all it shows me is Liverpool have spunked almost €1bn, Daniel Levy is good at managing finances and Arsenals board or maybe Wenger are completely shafting them. Along with this I see how lucky City are to have the owners they have in comparsion.

The current registered Man City squad cost €690m to assemble, the current registered United squad cost €650m to assemble and your fancy graph changes naught about that.
 
Don‘t think so! Bayern Munich looked spectacularly good under Guardiola, but the longer the season went, the worse their style of play got. In february, march i expect a huge drop in performance level from them, when it‘s crunchtime, Guardiola will bottle it without Messi, just like a leopard doesn‘t change its spot.
Last season he looked completely out of his depth against Monaco, he‘s too stubborn to change and win something big in Europe again, IMO.

Mourinho‘s team will be ready and clever when the big time arrives, but other teams can play too, especially Bayern Mumich under Heynckes, who sets up similarly, the first objective is to defend, that‘s the best chance to win something big. Guardiola to this day fails to comprehend that.

Duncan Castles is that you?
 
They just keep winning, like every week regardless of the competition or opposition

It’s really annoying :(
 
Way ahead of us.
The sad truth and I think that's the real reason Mourinho has been irritable these past few weeks.
Probably. It was the same last season as soon as results started going against us, his mood in press conferences etc changed.
 
We're not way ahead of United, we're probably marginally ahead. United looked amazing too till Pogba's injury. When he's back you'll be back. It's like taking KDB out of the current City team.
 
We're not way ahead of United, we're probably marginally ahead. United looked amazing too till Pogba's injury. When he's back you'll be back. It's like taking KDB out of the current City team.

I think your only being nice since your on a Man Utd forum :lol:

We haven't went to Stamford Bridge and a tough European ground and played and won in such confident fashion that you have
 
You made an unfactual statement and I corrected you about wages.

Your now making another one about players leaving and I'll correct you again my friend because I'm nice like that.

Since that January you've moved on Januzaj, Rooney, Varela, Schneiderlan, Depay.
City have moved on Jovetic, Rulli, Zuculini, Iheanacho, Bony, Nolito, Fernando, Kolarov, Clichy, Zabaleta, Hart, Sagna, Nasri, Denayer, Caballero.

Like Zlatan, Yaya has taken a pay cut to 100k from his previous wages.

I really don't care about your graph tbh all it shows me is Liverpool have spunked almost €1bn, Daniel Levy is good at managing finances and Arsenals board or maybe Wenger are completely shafting them. Along with this I see how lucky City are to have the owners they have in comparsion.

The current registered Man City squad cost €690m to assemble, the current registered United squad cost €650m to assemble and your fancy graph changes naught about that.

The point you're trying to make isn't clear at all.

To assemble the actual squad, city have been spending money for years, they didn't get the squad directly this summer. it's easier to have a good 690M squad when you spend 1.1B to get it, than when you spend 650M to do so. they could get transferts wrong in order to get their current squad. the bravo situation is a good example of that. you could afford to pay almost 20M for a keeper to then replace him with a 40M one.

+ City's squad is composed of 21 players, the united one is composed of 25 players.

I think everyone agrees on the bolded part :lol:.
 
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We're not way ahead of United, we're probably marginally ahead. United looked amazing too till Pogba's injury. When he's back you'll be back. It's like taking KDB out of the current City team.

Difference is you take KDB out and still have the likes of Yaya, Silva and Gundogan who can operate as play makers. We just don't.

City have a much stronger squad overall sadly. Pep has spent a lot yes, but he's spent it well.
 
You should write a novel, you have a big imagination.

You begin with "Its definitely the reason he's so grumpy and can you blame him", like it's a fact "definitely", when you don't know the first thing about the reasons he is grumpy and when he said continuously that it's because of the media.

and then you proceed to discredit and doubt the work he's doing here based on your alternative fact but not saying it outright, more like, jose is the one thinking that. it is a paragraph worthy of a sun article.

Your right I should not have said definitely but rather my opinion. And yes he has said it is because of the media but what are the media saying? That Pep walks on water because of how well he has City playing, do you think this has no effect on an ego like Jose's?

And I'm not discrediting his work this season at all, I am just going by the information at hand and that is that Mourinho is actually doing really well this season and in other seasons we could well be top of the league but we are not and that is because of how amazing City are playing so far. Peps the golden manager in England at present and the press are loving it which I'm sure pisses him off even more when they start getting on his back.
 
I think your only being nice since your on a Man Utd forum :lol:

We haven't went to Stamford Bridge and a tough European ground and played and won in such confident fashion that you have

Yeah, you know why is that, because we haven't been to SB yet, it is not easy to win in confident fashion in a game that we haven't played yet you know.
 
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Its definitely the reason he's so grumpy and can you blame him, he's thinking feck not this cnut again ruining the good thing I've got going. On any normal season I think we would be top of the league by a couple of points and the media wouldnt be on Mou's back at all, in fact they'd all be singing his praises, Mou's second season and all that. Truth is the reason he is so grumpy is that he is in full swing doing his thing but he realises that its probably not going to be enough with Pep around and the shite thing is they are only going to get better by the look things given how young their squad is, I'd be grumpy too if I was him.

It makes me feel grumpy after all the results they get as well. I so much hoped Wolfes could feck them would have celebrated like crazy.

Hopefully we can beat them though this season!
 
I think your only being nice since your on a Man Utd forum :lol:

We haven't went to Stamford Bridge and a tough European ground and played and won in such confident fashion that you have


United cant even play decent football against an average Liverpool side.
 
Regarding the City squad I am not sure it is as great as people claim at times as well. It do got some gaps. I think Ederson look like a top keeper for them though. Peps management is improving a lot of players as well.

The real gem for them is Kevin De Bruyne. Clearly best player in the league sadly and also Leroy Sane looks very good. Those two players have really lifted them since Sane got more regular starts.
 
Mourinho knew what he was taking on. We appointed him after Guardiola’s announcement. If anything Mourinho thrives on such challenges. He got the better of Pep and Barca eventually.

City are in their moment. Patience is a virtue.

The only thing that will really test Mourinho’s resolve is if he isn’t backed in the transfer market going forward.


This Jose took the united job knowing Pep was at city, knowing City already had a better team and Pep would have far more money to spend than he would.

City being where they are is not a surprise to him if anything he is more likely to be surprised that we are their closest challengers at this stage of his tenure

The fact we are in a position to beat them even though he hasn't quite got the team he wants yet is what is making him twitch at the moment .
 
It makes me feel grumpy after all the results they get as well. I so much hoped Wolfes could feck them would have celebrated like crazy.

Hopefully we can beat them though this season!

At least you're honest.

When you have delusionals like Dept saying 'no injuries', 'no backbone when they are under pressure', 'dodgy defense' then you just have to laugh.

He's on the level of 'not in my lifetime' and 'I wouldn't pay to watch de bruyne'.

Still, early days.
 
This Jose took the united job knowing Pep was at city, knowing City already had a better team and Pep would have far more money to spend than he would.

City being where they are is not a surprise to him if anything he is more likely to be surprised that we are their closest challengers at this stage of his tenure

The fact we are in a position to beat them even though he hasn't quite got the team he wants yet is what is making him twitch at the moment .

How I feel too. They are flying atm, but Jose knows what he's got to do. He's done it against Pep before, whilst Pep had a much better team with arguably the best ever player in it. It might not be this season, but if there's any manager who can figure this out, it's Jose. His whole career he's been renowned for figuring tactics out.
 
Duncan Castles is that you?
I for one find the waxing over City ridiculous. At the moment they play good football, got that, but they‘re definitely not the eight wonder of the world, there will be so many more games yet to come and Guardiola won‘t held onto this style of play over the course of a season, he‘s never done that without Messi in a tough league anyway, last season they barely made top 4. They can win the Premiership this season, maybe Guardiola can be as good as Pellegrini and reach the semis in Europe, but i don‘t think they can do better. Last season Guardiola took a top 4 team in Europe to the first stages of the knockout competition, of course City with all their talent can do better than that this season.
 
I for one find the waxing over City ridiculous. At the moment they play good football, got that, but they‘re definitely not the eight wonder of the world, there will be so many more games yet to come and Guardiola won‘t held onto this style of play over the course of a season, he‘s never done that without Messi in a tough league anyway, last season they barely made top 4. They can win the Premiership this season, maybe Guardiola can be as good as Pellegrini and reach the semis in Europe, but i don‘t think they can do better. Last season Guardiola took a top 4 team in Europe to the first stages of the knockout competition, of course City with all their talent can do better than that this season.

So pep deserves absolutely no credit for that Barca team, it was all Messi right?.
 
I for one find the waxing over City ridiculous. At the moment they play good football, got that, but they‘re definitely not the eight wonder of the world, there will be so many more games yet to come and Guardiola won‘t held onto this style of play over the course of a season, he‘s never done that without Messi in a tough league anyway, last season they barely made top 4. They can win the Premiership this season, maybe Guardiola can be as good as Pellegrini and reach the semis in Europe, but i don‘t think they can do better. Last season Guardiola took a top 4 team in Europe to the first stages of the knockout competition, of course City with all their talent can do better than that this season.
Some bizarre statements in here.

Pep has never done it without Messi in a tough league, so discounting his time at Barca and no doubt for you his time at Bayern then he’s had ONE season for you to judge him on. You’re happy to discount an entire managerial career of success to focus on one season managing a new club in a new league? Ever just thought that was a bit of a transition and now we’ve progressed since then?

Secondly the fact that City can’t do better than the Semi of the CL. Well it’s a cup competition so it depends entirely on who we draw. In your head which sides knock us out? In mine Bayern, Barca, Madrid and PSG would all be tough draws, and any other draw we would probably be favourite, but there’s no way to know who or when we might face those teams. You could realistically get to the final without facing one, so you could be completely wrong. Equally we could draw one in the last 16 and be out.
 
How I feel too. They are flying atm, but Jose knows what he's got to do. He's done it against Pep before, whilst Pep had a much better team with arguably the best ever player in it. It might not be this season, but if there's any manager who can figure this out, it's Jose. His whole career he's been renowned for figuring tactics out.

It took an almost perfect 3/4 of a season from Madrid/Jose to do it. After they lost 3-1 in the first clasico around December, they didn't lose a single match again for the rest of the season. 21 games, 18 wins and 3 draws. Ronaldo would only fail to score in 3 games in that run (2 of them were draws). 100 points, 121 goals scored - Both La liga records.

Basically, I hope it doesnt need that level of team consistency or striker (Lukaku is no Ronaldo) to win the league. Because if it does, chances are we wont be winning it.
 
You know City had a good game when people are talking about wages in this thread.
 
It took an almost perfect 3/4 of a season from Madrid/Jose to do it. After they lost 3-1 in the first clasico around December, they didn't lose a single match again for the rest of the season. 21 games, 18 wins and 3 draws. Ronaldo would only fail to score in 3 games in that run (2 of them were draws). 100 points, 121 goals scored - Both La liga records.

Basically, I hope it doesnt need that level of team consistency or striker (Lukaku is no Ronaldo) to win the league. Because if it does, chances are we wont be winning it.

To be fair though, Jose's teams are almost always very consistent. When was the last time we even lost at home, for exmaple? Like I said, if he doesn't get it right this season (even though I believe we'll run City close, they won't blow us out like everyone thinks) we will get even closer next season.

Jose had a much stronger squad then, but so too did Pep. Not saying he will do it again, but he's certainly capable. Like I said, this guy's whole career has revolved around figuring out other dominant teams.

I'd like for him to adapt and stay for the long run - but I don't see either Pep or Jose staying at their respective clubs for long, both will win stuff and go onto their next challenge imo. I'd be happy if Jose continued to build the team the way he has though for the next manager.
 
City will almost certainly have some weak patches but their firepower up top's probably going to be too much when it comes to the title race. Probably a key factor is that they can get away with missing their main striker a lot more than we can, although that may change a little once Zlatan's back and we've got more leeway. Still, no matter how well Mourinho organises us defensively catching up will be tough for as long as City are regularly putting several goals past their opponents...so far they've been alright defensively in the league but any weaknesses can probably be covered for over the rest of the field.
 
Gotta feeling that arsenal will hold them to a draw.

Hopefully - a team's real quality isn't apparent until they have to deal with adversity imo. For now everything is rosy with their wins and blowing everyone out of the water. In football things change quickly though, an injury or loss of form to KDB and a few other key players, with a few shaky results and then we'll see how good City really are.

They'd have to be extremely lucky as well as extremely focused/committed to maintain this level over the whole season.
 
The point you're trying to make isn't clear at all.

To assemble the actual squad, city have been spending money for years, they didn't get the squad directly this summer. it's easier to have a good 690M squad when you spend 1.1B to get it, than when you spend 650M to do so. they could get transferts wrong in order to get their current squad. the bravo situation is a good example of that. you could afford to pay almost 20M for a keeper to then replace him with a 40M one.

+ City's squad is composed of 21 players, the united one is composed of 25 players.

I think everyone agrees on the bolded part :lol:.

The point I'm trying to make is you posted typical uneducated lies. You lied about wages, you lied about players moved on all to try and justify your argument which in fact was wrong and based on more lies, all because you're a bit salty about our start, which is crazy considering United have been excellent too.

Bravo is part of the squad, so how he's wrong is anyone's guess, in fact he just had a great game in the Carling Cup putting us through to the next round. United have never brought in a replacement for a player who didn't work out after a season eh?

You think United have gotten no transfers wrong and just spend 650m to get this squad. £65m Di Maria ring a bell? Do you genuinely think you only spent £650m? Lets see there is the already mentioned Di Maria, Schneiderlin, Depay, Chicarito, Nani, Van Persie, Kagawa, Buttner, Zaha... all bought and sold on... how many more million is that? You've spent a billion pounds on getting your 650m squad and you're crying because another club came along and spent more... despite the fact they had to start from a much lower level...

Of course we're lucky to be where we are and loving every second of that. I'd rather be honest and lucky then salty and plain wrong. Because you know, other clubs have never caught a break in there history.
 
City will almost certainly have some weak patches but their firepower up top's probably going to be too much when it comes to the title race. Probably a key factor is that they can get away with missing their main striker a lot more than we can, although that may change a little once Zlatan's back and we've got more leeway. Still, no matter how well Mourinho organises us defensively catching up will be tough for as long as City are regularly putting several goals past their opponents...so far they've been alright defensively in the league but any weaknesses can probably be covered for over the rest of the field.

The striker issue isn't as big as our midfield issue. When we lose Pogba we essentially don't have another creative midfielder. Martial and Rashford can always play up top for Lukaku, even without Ibra. Pogba gets injured and we have two holding midfielders to replace him though. Much more damaging to us
 
Hopefully - a team's real quality isn't apparent until they have to deal with adversity imo. For now everything is rosy with their wins and blowing everyone out of the water. In football things change quickly though, an injury or loss of form to KDB and a few other key players, with a few shaky results and then we'll see how good City really are.

They'd have to be extremely lucky as well as extremely focused/committed to maintain this level over the whole season.

Ozil and sanchez will have to bring their a game to put themselves in shop window.
 
The striker issue isn't as big as our midfield issue. When we lose Pogba we essentially don't have another creative midfielder. Martial and Rashford can always play up top for Lukaku, even without Ibra. Pogba gets injured and we have two holding midfielders to replace him though. Much more damaging to us

They can, although in his short time so far at City, Jesus has already looked a lot more consistent and prolific in that department. Even if it's probably the case that Rashford and Martial's tallies sometimes lag a bit because their chances in the middle are limited.

But aye, midfield without Pogba's a bit of a problem. Although still...options like Herrera and Matic aren't bad, and Herrera demonstrated last season he's perfectly capable of being quite creative.