My observations about Pep.
Clearly, Pep is an exceptionally innovative manager. He has a very clear idea in his mind about what he wants to achieve and the players he will need to achieve it. From what I understand, Pep has spent years studying football as well as other sports, obsessed with the idea of creating space and attacking patterns.
Pep also brings an aura to the club. Obviously City were rich before and could sign 95% of the players in world football but now with Pep at the helm they almost have that extra bit of credibility and I could see Neymar ending up at City before long.
Now what I am going to criticise Pep for are two things - one is his record in the transfer market the other is his lack of flexibility.
Throughout his career Pep has always had the biggest chequebook at each of his clubs. Despite that, he has made many, many very poor signings. Most managers have to make a decision - do I sign a RB this summer or a LB? Not Pep, he signs both plus an extra just in case. Do I stick with Bravo, the keeper I paid £25m for or bring back Hart who I booted out? Not Pep, he will just try again and buy another. No other club in England has this luxury and I would be interested to see how far Pep would have progressed City had he had a budget of £150m per year like Jose from the beginning
As far as lack of flexibility goes, Pep only has one way of playing. We saw this when they took on Monaco in the CL last year. They just needed not to be hammered and they would go through but Pep was incapable of closing the game out. Will this cost them against a PSG or a Real Madrid later on in this seasons CL? It’s fair to say that Pep is great at making great players better, which makes the argument about “could he manage Stoke” a bit moot, but still for the sake of an experiment I would love to see whether he can coach his method into average sides or whether it’s for a very niche market
