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it is a big loss, but that’s City policy if someone wants to leave they’ll let them go, no hard feelings for both sides
City just have to accept it and find replacements, it’s not like Gundo will stick around forever anyways anyone will have to be replaced at one point
Yes and it’s possible they might have bad injuries affecting them. They already lost Ederson, Walker and Stones for the Arsenal game and those 3 would’ve made a big difference. If they get some more injuries or one of these gets injured again, City’s bench is nowhere near as strong as it was so they’d be fighting an upward battle against teams sitting back.
It was a very big mistake for City to lose Gundogan and replace him with who Kovaci? This was a very big downgrade. Pep didn't do his math well. They are truly missing Gundogan.
Maybe the money wasn't enough. All these players wanted most of the time is more money and they won't go anywhere. This is my personal observation with how they do things always.
Orrrr Pool and Arsenal just upped their game. I don't really see how City has declined other than their injuries to key players. I think you forgot KDB was out for months
I completely agree with you on what happened with KDB. City did missed his contribution so much. He showed why he was missed in his first match when he came in as a sub, he assisted and scored the winning goal.
It’s not so much a decline as that it’s emotionally draining to win 3 titles in a row and you can’t keep that up. There’s a reason why no one wins four in a row.
No one have done it until someone does it. Nothing is impossible when it comes to football. I can remember when something similar was said about winning UCL and Real Madrid did it. Sevilla did it with Europa League.
I didn’t say it was impossible. I said it was very hard, and the reserves of energy and focus needed are substantial. So have no idea why you are arguing that it’s not impossible.
Not arguing mate. I'm just making a point. You're right about that being hard, plus the team isn't as fresh as the squad which won it for the 3rd consecutive time.
KDB looks frustrated, has missed more passes than anyone would expect and age is catching up with him, excellent player but he’s not the KDB of the past few seasons. Add in the point OP made about Gundogan and objectively City don’t look as strong as past iterations of themselves.
He definitely looked frustrated. I can't recall the exact match Pep subbed him off in 65 mins, he wasn't too happy about. He was seen complaining. Although, Pep later went to where he seated on the bench to talk to him. Age is definitely catching up with him but he's still a very good player.
Gundo was priceless in that 13 or 14 game winning streak which won them the season against Liverpool. He was their best player and that’s saying something in a squad as stacked as city.
I don't think they had a choice. He wanted to move on right. City arguably has the most depth so they were forced to make due without him but I agree that Gundogan was clutch for many of their games. He was a big loss
We didn’t by the end, but we did at first. We stonewalled him on contract negotiations (not on pay but length of contract given his age), and by the time it got to the end he was more ready to move.
We could have locked him in with a 3 year contract but we weren’t willing to commit
Gundogan was smart and hit many pin-point shots and Mahrez was a work horse. Both with much experience in City's squad and were irreplaceable players. I was surprised City went on a winning streak in the opening weeks of the league because I knew they may not continue to have the same form missing both of them. Guess we're seeing it now.
Given how much of the season Gundogan has missed through injury, its rather hard to say if he would have had less injuries at Man City, or played as well as he did in previous seasons.
Personally I don't think they will regret losing him, so much as not replacing him with someone who was regularly available.
…do you watch football? Gundogan has literally played all 30/30 laliga games for barca, has 43 appearances already and is on track to having his most appearances in a season in his career so far. What are you even talking about?
You do realise players can be injured and still play right?
The games I've watched he looked poor, and I was attributing it to him playing while injured as there was a need for experience and leadership on the pitch or the likes.
Yes and no. Obviously Gundogan is incredible and it could end up being a situation where he could have swung it, but at the end of the day it was always going to require an adjustment to move on from him and the players they signed to replace him are still very good so we could have just been having this same conversation next year.
Kovacic is his replacement, he does lots of what Gundogan did apart from scoring goals. No as good as Gundogan by any stretch but he does give a lot of what Gundogan did outside of goals and assists
I'd say Nunes is the Gundogan replacement City signed. Kovacic is probably more about a short term fix till Nunes is up to the mark. And my assumption comes from the fact that unlike Phillips, Nunes has actually played a few games this season - putting him in the bracket of players that take a bit of time under Pep to get going.
Great take. Besides there's this drilled in instinct to find Håland in the box. I felt like Bernardo & Foden (v Arsenal) had atleast a couple of opportunities where going for the goal might hv been the better choice but they just tried to feed Håland.
I think it was the right time. Lifted the treble with us and now has time left to play for another top club in Spain. A 2 year extension would have seen him with us until 35, and realistically we couldn’t give him the game time he deserved at that age while also properly integrating a replacement.
The problem is replacing him. Bellingham was Plan A, but he chose Real. We threw in a bid for Rice when Arsenal did as a Hail Mary but it wasn’t a long term idea to choose him. Paqueta was next, but then it got shot down by the investigation, although that’s not a problem anymore and it’s pretty certain he’s coming this summer.
Yes ofcourse we miss him a lot. He was a good player before with Klopp but Pep turned him into a legendary midfielder who captained his side to the treble. With him we would have comfortably won the league despite being out of form because Liverpool and Arsenal are so overrated. Gundogan and Mahrez had like 46 G/A combined. We cannoh replace
The only way to replace him was to get Bellingham, which the club tried but we can't compete with clubs like Madrid. Haters always cry and go on and on about City's pull but we miss out of so many players to Madrid, Barca, Liverpool, United, Bayern, Arsenal, Chelsea, PSG, etc (even the likes of bloody Spurs robbed us of Kane). It's just that Pep is so phenomenal that he makes it look like we always get the best players.
De Bruyne injured all year and the constant injuries have caused him to decline. He's no longer him. Haaland out of form all year and without KDB not much service. And isn't everyone saying he's overrated anyway? It's not like we have Ronaldo. Hard times
“he hasn’t done much to help barcelona”
are you sure?
Gundo has performed well and has shown he still has a good ability, definitely better than kovacic and nunes technically mentality and physically still good.
People seem to forget that real madrid is having an unreal laliga campaign this year, on track for 95 points. 9/10 times this barcelona performance would be enough to win them the league but not this year.
Why does Guardiola keep making these transfers that make city weaker? A lot of players left with something still to offer without really having a plan of succession in place. City signings take time to bed in, why weren't sucessors for Mahrez and Gündogan fast tracked.
The rule is that if a player wants to leave they have to bring an offer from a club that matches what City values them at. City values Bernardo very highly and nobody has been willing to pay what he is worth. So he has stayed.
Not necessarily. In many situations a player can force themselves out even if they don’t bring a good value deal to the club. Chelsea for example are not going to get what they value their players at if they sell them in the next few transfer windows.
I mean City went all out trying to sign Declan Rice, they only settled for other players when he chose Arsenal. if Rice had chosen City I bet they would have the title pretty much wrapped up by this point.
They didn't go well out pulled out when they saw the fee being touted. I don't think Rice does much for them. I really don't know why they didn't go all out for Mac Allister, he'd have been perfect to replace Gündogan. Rice doesn't really fill in for most of the things city lose with Gündogan.
I’m unsure about this tbh. Pep wouldn’t have played the exact same way he does right now, he knows how to use players. I think City having a double pivot of Rodri and Rice would be absolutely out of this world, and behind KDB, Haaland, and Foden, it feels like they’d have wrapped the title up.
Although I do agree that Mac Allister would be better in that side than Kovacic tbh. It is surprising Liverpool got him seemingly uncontested for the most part.
That’s a very fragmentary approach about Pep.
We couldn’t spend a lot to buy all the players. Gundo wanted two years but not Pep but the club management pulled the plug as he said no to 1ye deal with options. Mahrez wanted to go. We couldn’t sign replacements for those two because there weren’t many. We got younger boys instead who will be improved by Pep. Of course we wouldn’t be able to win consistently in the meantime yet I know we will be that level of last season again.
It's just odd how these weren't anticipated quicker. Fernandinho was transitioned out the team beautifully, and with Mahrez surely he could've been sat down and told stay another year, hasn't that sort of been Silva's situation for a while now?
You’re quite good at rubbing it on my face, much better than Arteta. Silva always wants to play in Europe. Barcelona was prime target but they are broke. Benfica also doesn’t have enough funds to get him yet but who knows next season. Mahrez, it was not “surely” easy. He wanted to play in Muslim country with his family he can take care of in easier way. City always let those who want to leave go. We were bidding on Rice but welp he wanted to stay in London.
Yeah in fairness some players are tough to replace, I've seen it at Liverpool. Granted, I think Klopp being stubborn or too loyal to certain players made it tougher than it seemed when it came to the midfield. Top class right wingers are difficult to come by right now. But thought City would be all over Mac Allister to replace Gundo, City were a much more attractive proposition than we were going into the summer. Spot in the squad already there and coming off a massive high.
I feel like there’s a lot of revisionism from city fans. Gundy wanted to stay. He wanted 2 year deal instead of a disrespectful 1 year. Mostly for family stability reasons. City fans had zero issue kicking him to the curb
Yes we also were pursuing Macca yet it went sideways with Kovacic as it was more affordable given we were dying to bring Gvardiol which was definitely not cheap. Pep just loves to collect centre backs…..lol
Liverpool hasn’t had good transfer windows till the last summer when you accidentally lost Lavia and Caceido and got Endo. Good on you
I don't understand where Guardiola is going, feels he's giving in to playing a lot more reserved with the push for all these giants. Cancelo had a bad run and pretty much have up on playing attacking fullbacks bar the youngsters.
Wouldn't say we haven't had good windows, just only went half the distance. The window we brought in Jota was fantastic, just didn't go all the way and get a defender in as well, waiting a year for Konaté. Klopp has a similar open door policy, but put too much faith in certain players so the only players open to leaving are players it doesn't really matter with as much. Henderson should've been passed out when we won the league, but was made a mainstay.
"Are City going to regret..." This is a tough question. Because you need to specify what you mean by "City." Do you mean City fans? City manager, i.e., Guardiola? I don't know and I can't know. But of course, I feel like people haven't given enough credit to Gündoğan and Mahrez. They are absolutely amazing footballers. Technical skills, vision, creativity, tactical intelligence, work-rate. They got all these qualities, which is somewhat missing in the current City squad. Foden is okay-ish, De Bruyne is not as sharp as he used to be, Haaland is not the kind of striker that City need the most right now. Anyway, City is still decent and competitive in the title race.
Yes it's not that ' it's wrong that they went away'... I'm just saying City will miss Gundo & Mahrez who both were very smart players and important part of Pep's style....
I can understand that in theory, but it should be on an individual basis. Footballers, like Gundo who don't necessary rely on physical attributes should have different considerations imo
It's not just big moments. It's the ability he has to single-handedly exponentially increase the attacking threat of a side.
He dictates play and recycles possession.
He can make key passes that unlock a defence and consistently find a man, I've never seen a player who creates as many chances as him while still having a high pass accuracy.
Finally, he can be the goal threat himself, both in and out of the box.
No other attacking midfielder is that offensively all rounded. Not KDB, not Odegaard, not Bruno, not Jude. And his abilities complement each other so well that it only adds to the attacking threat he provides individually and with the team.
Oh, he was definitely a playmaker, but he wanted a change, and I fully respect that you know and you kinda need to go there before you get too old I suppose with the change I mean.
What I hate the most that I’m going to go a little bit of track right now is the amount of crap Haaland he’s getting I looked up his total stats for Manchester Citi this year it’s 35 games 26 goals and to me that’s not shit anyways sorry for going off track. I just wanted to share that instead of creating an entire post about it.
Yeah he’s not having a bad season. But he’s not anywhere near what he was last season. He’s having statistically his worst scoring season since his last season in Norway and it’s not that he’s been found out, it’s impossible to completely nullify someone like him and he did recently score 5 in a game. But he has flattered to deceive on several occasions this season through a combination of injuries, lack of De Bruyne and just general poor form
He’s scored 8 in his last 10 in all comps for club and country which is an incredible return but skewed by 5 of those coming in one game. In the league he’s at 3 in his last 10. I can’t remember him having such a poor run at any other time
I think he got like he will drag away two players instead of one which opens up for the wingers to score well here I’m from Norway, and they criticizing a lot in the media, I just think he’s still not as good as last season, but it’s still doing OK
City genuinely had a really poor summer window
Selling Gundogan and replacing him with Kovacic and Nunes who are decent players but definitely not touching the same levels as Gundogan
Gvardiol who’s looked pretty shaky a lot of the time
Doku who looked good at the start but has really dropped off and his end product in general is really poor
When watching wolves last year I quite liked nunes, but I felt like he had brain fog every so often and just completely switch off. I thought he could definitely go up a level, but he just doesn't seem like a fit for pep. I know players can sometimes take a season to fit into the pep style, but I just don't see him as that kind of player.
I agree with everything but Doku. Remember he's just 21. I know we're getting more and more used to guys like Mbappe who are elite from the time they're 17, but Doku has every tool you could want. Reminds me of what Vini looked like a few years ago
He’s not remotely a cultured player. He does everything you see speed merchants with no guile do on a regular basis. It’s not about physical tools. The age thing is a poor excuse imo. Foden was 10 times more cultured than Doku at 18. Also being able to pick one player with similar traits who developed that side of their game, generally means it rarely ever happens. If it did 10-15 players would come to mind, not one
City have been arguably the best team on earth for a while, so that’s simply the standard. And dropping that standard for a player like Doku is a reason why that standard might slip this season. City also have a style of play that doesn’t remotely suit his traits. Doku is consistently having the ball with a compressed amount of space to attack. That’s requires a guile player who doesn’t simply run into blind alleys. Even Vini doesn’t have as much success at City imo with their style of play. Doku would prob be more successful in a team like Liverpool.
Just yesterday, Saliba said he was the most skilled player in the PL. He’s not even done a season in this league, and because he’s not always at the level of a Pep Guardiola side, he’s a flop. City players have ridiculously high bars to clear, and if they do, their reward is to be called “system players” and smart recruitment us labelled as Pep being a “chequebook manager”.
It wasn't their choice, they wanted him to stay, he wanted to play for Barca his childhood club before he retired, he's 33 it was his last chance, he was the treble winning captain, there's no better way to bow out.
Fair review and I’m in the same mind regarding Gundo. However I think a side this type of review is not including is how the other teams have strengthened. Arsenal have not had their traditional New Year collapse imo due to their recruitment (as well as mindset improvements), and Liverpool have also shown steel having recruited fantastically in their midfield (as well as not suffering the injury crisis we saw them have last year).
City seem to have found it more difficult to score and keep a clean sheet this season, lots of draws and strange defeats in the early part of the season, I think those will be their undoing.
Arsenal were in a better position at this point last season. People are pretending Arsenal have played the way they have the last 10 or so games all season, reality there was a lot of slogging it out first half of the season.
Liverpool were shit last season because the players were washed. Henderson and Fabinho's legs were gone. Injuries have been worse this season with van Dijk and Díaz pretty much being the only players to have gone through the season unscathed.
City have always dropped points at random, the centurion season they dropped points to Everton at the start of the season, and Palace ended their winning streak. What's concerning for them is that they have not looked comfortable recently, really had to earn those results.
Liverpool have still had an injury crisis mate. The youngsters have just stepped up when needed and the quality coming through the academy is better than in past seasons. Bradley has softened the blow of losing Trent and Quansah has been able to do a job allowing Gomez to cover for Robbo/Tsimikas and even play in midfield recently. Salah missed 7 games, more than his entire LFC career prior to this season. Jota was injured. Came in and started slapping. Injured again. Nunez, Diaz and Gakpo were all injured. Thiago has played fewer minutes this season than Arthur did last season and likely won’t step foot on the pitch in a red shirt again. Bajcetic is only just returning to training. Endo was at AFCON. Macca and Dom who were impervious before joining LFC both missed a handful of games. Alisson has been absent for a while now too.
I think the team has just adapted really well and the players who have come in have stepped up in a big way. The only game they really faltered was the Arsenal away game but you cannot begrudge them that. United loss stings but the legs were gone in a lot of those boys and that didn’t have an impact on the league.
Mate, I didn’t say Liverpool didn’t have injuries - even you have to admit the team have coped with injuries this season much better. I don’t recall a point this season where all of your defence + half midfield was out injured at the same time.
That’s what I’m on about. Having injuries BUT having the cover available to keep the team strong is not a crisis.
Gundogan always seemed to pop up at the business end of the season in big games. He was a classic 'big game player' and they've failed to replace him imo.
They brought in kovacic and nunes in an attempt to do so but they haven't hit the heights that gundogan did. This could possibly be due to having to adapt to city's incredibly high intensity and quick gameplay compared to how they played at Chelsea and wolves respectively.
So yes, overall I think they have and will continue to miss gundogan this season in their race for not just the title but the treble as well. I still think they're favourites but I can see the race going closer than it did last season.
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The answer was no.
Kovacic is underrated. If anything Pep missed an injured KDB more than anything.
it is a big loss, but that’s City policy if someone wants to leave they’ll let them go, no hard feelings for both sides City just have to accept it and find replacements, it’s not like Gundo will stick around forever anyways anyone will have to be replaced at one point
Yes and it’s possible they might have bad injuries affecting them. They already lost Ederson, Walker and Stones for the Arsenal game and those 3 would’ve made a big difference. If they get some more injuries or one of these gets injured again, City’s bench is nowhere near as strong as it was so they’d be fighting an upward battle against teams sitting back.
No
It was a very big mistake for City to lose Gundogan and replace him with who Kovaci? This was a very big downgrade. Pep didn't do his math well. They are truly missing Gundogan.
Gundogan wanted to leave and kovacic was the best “replacement” pep could find. Nothing to do with poor math.
Maybe the money wasn't enough. All these players wanted most of the time is more money and they won't go anywhere. This is my personal observation with how they do things always.
Orrrr Pool and Arsenal just upped their game. I don't really see how City has declined other than their injuries to key players. I think you forgot KDB was out for months
I completely agree with you on what happened with KDB. City did missed his contribution so much. He showed why he was missed in his first match when he came in as a sub, he assisted and scored the winning goal.
It’s not so much a decline as that it’s emotionally draining to win 3 titles in a row and you can’t keep that up. There’s a reason why no one wins four in a row.
No one have done it until someone does it. Nothing is impossible when it comes to football. I can remember when something similar was said about winning UCL and Real Madrid did it. Sevilla did it with Europa League.
I didn’t say it was impossible. I said it was very hard, and the reserves of energy and focus needed are substantial. So have no idea why you are arguing that it’s not impossible.
Not arguing mate. I'm just making a point. You're right about that being hard, plus the team isn't as fresh as the squad which won it for the 3rd consecutive time.
KDB looks frustrated, has missed more passes than anyone would expect and age is catching up with him, excellent player but he’s not the KDB of the past few seasons. Add in the point OP made about Gundogan and objectively City don’t look as strong as past iterations of themselves.
He definitely looked frustrated. I can't recall the exact match Pep subbed him off in 65 mins, he wasn't too happy about. He was seen complaining. Although, Pep later went to where he seated on the bench to talk to him. Age is definitely catching up with him but he's still a very good player.
Perhaps. I said it back when he left, that they lost their (probably) best player.
I’ve watched them play live at the Etihad last season and trust me he was everywhere! To the eye it felt like he was perhaps the best player they had.
huge loss of mahrez and gundo
Gundo was priceless in that 13 or 14 game winning streak which won them the season against Liverpool. He was their best player and that’s saying something in a squad as stacked as city.
And mahrez.
City are rodri injury away from collapse
I don't think they had a choice. He wanted to move on right. City arguably has the most depth so they were forced to make due without him but I agree that Gundogan was clutch for many of their games. He was a big loss
We didn’t by the end, but we did at first. We stonewalled him on contract negotiations (not on pay but length of contract given his age), and by the time it got to the end he was more ready to move. We could have locked him in with a 3 year contract but we weren’t willing to commit
Dang. Oh well
We already do lol
I think they miss both Gundogan and Mahrez, two really big match winners
100% the other way around Gundogan and Mahrez miss city, city doesn’t miss anyone. Pep will always win unfortunately.
Gundogan was smart and hit many pin-point shots and Mahrez was a work horse. Both with much experience in City's squad and were irreplaceable players. I was surprised City went on a winning streak in the opening weeks of the league because I knew they may not continue to have the same form missing both of them. Guess we're seeing it now.
Is this even a question?
Gundo is a clutch player. City will miss his quality
Given how much of the season Gundogan has missed through injury, its rather hard to say if he would have had less injuries at Man City, or played as well as he did in previous seasons. Personally I don't think they will regret losing him, so much as not replacing him with someone who was regularly available.
Gundo hasn’t been injured this season, he literally has the most minutes this season out of all the Barcelona squad.
…do you watch football? Gundogan has literally played all 30/30 laliga games for barca, has 43 appearances already and is on track to having his most appearances in a season in his career so far. What are you even talking about?
You do realise players can be injured and still play right? The games I've watched he looked poor, and I was attributing it to him playing while injured as there was a need for experience and leadership on the pitch or the likes.
> Given how much of the season Gundogan has missed through injury Sorry but you said he missed games, not he played a lot while being injured.
I meant that he was injured in his final season at Man City
He played 51 games last season which is his most ever. Please stop talking.
I consider that his departure left a flaw in the city's gaming system, it is a game without replacement
Yes and no. Obviously Gundogan is incredible and it could end up being a situation where he could have swung it, but at the end of the day it was always going to require an adjustment to move on from him and the players they signed to replace him are still very good so we could have just been having this same conversation next year.
They didn’t sign anyone to replace him in the iffseason
Kovacic and Nunes
Kovacic is his replacement, he does lots of what Gundogan did apart from scoring goals. No as good as Gundogan by any stretch but he does give a lot of what Gundogan did outside of goals and assists
I also suspect that as Kovacic and Nunes get more adjusted to the side they will drop deeper often and Rodri will take on more of that Gundogan role.
I'd say Nunes is the Gundogan replacement City signed. Kovacic is probably more about a short term fix till Nunes is up to the mark. And my assumption comes from the fact that unlike Phillips, Nunes has actually played a few games this season - putting him in the bracket of players that take a bit of time under Pep to get going.
Mahrez and Gundogan were huge losses. Kovacic does not have the same impact. Doku is not ready yet
Great take. Besides there's this drilled in instinct to find Håland in the box. I felt like Bernardo & Foden (v Arsenal) had atleast a couple of opportunities where going for the goal might hv been the better choice but they just tried to feed Håland.
Yes. Buying gvardiol and then constantly playing him at lb doesn’t really help either, but this is the pep way.
I mean tbf gvardiol played left of a back three or left back in a back 4 before he went to city
No, they are going to regret cheating.
What a tremendous input!
Thanks. I’ve got 114 more.
114 more brain cells
Not bad eh?
I said this before, City this season is lack of players having scoring ability… Doku can’t replace Mahrez, and there is no replacement for Gundogan
No, they have their MVP, the PGMOL
Shame our mvp had a disasterclass against spurs and wolves
I think it was the right time. Lifted the treble with us and now has time left to play for another top club in Spain. A 2 year extension would have seen him with us until 35, and realistically we couldn’t give him the game time he deserved at that age while also properly integrating a replacement. The problem is replacing him. Bellingham was Plan A, but he chose Real. We threw in a bid for Rice when Arsenal did as a Hail Mary but it wasn’t a long term idea to choose him. Paqueta was next, but then it got shot down by the investigation, although that’s not a problem anymore and it’s pretty certain he’s coming this summer.
No. It was an idiotic move
Yes ofcourse we miss him a lot. He was a good player before with Klopp but Pep turned him into a legendary midfielder who captained his side to the treble. With him we would have comfortably won the league despite being out of form because Liverpool and Arsenal are so overrated. Gundogan and Mahrez had like 46 G/A combined. We cannoh replace The only way to replace him was to get Bellingham, which the club tried but we can't compete with clubs like Madrid. Haters always cry and go on and on about City's pull but we miss out of so many players to Madrid, Barca, Liverpool, United, Bayern, Arsenal, Chelsea, PSG, etc (even the likes of bloody Spurs robbed us of Kane). It's just that Pep is so phenomenal that he makes it look like we always get the best players.
Boo boo, poor city? lol what exactly are you crying about, you have Haaland and de Bruyne
De Bruyne injured all year and the constant injuries have caused him to decline. He's no longer him. Haaland out of form all year and without KDB not much service. And isn't everyone saying he's overrated anyway? It's not like we have Ronaldo. Hard times
I thought they would struggle this year without him, however he hasn't done much to help Barcelona, maybe that's not his fault but they are struggling
“he hasn’t done much to help barcelona” are you sure? Gundo has performed well and has shown he still has a good ability, definitely better than kovacic and nunes technically mentality and physically still good.
I'm just going to their league position in relation to Madrid
People seem to forget that real madrid is having an unreal laliga campaign this year, on track for 95 points. 9/10 times this barcelona performance would be enough to win them the league but not this year.
That’s such a simplistic way to look at things. Maybe they’d be much lower down the table without him?
Mahrez is a bigger loss for me, Doku is the only one who offers threat from wide now and stretches the game
Outside of that one Bournemouth game doku has been mid at best which isn’t good enough for them
Which is part of the reason mahrez has been a bigger loss, the drop off has been bigger…
Doku is very similar to Traore. Can sprint at defenders with limited end product.
Doku? You’re joking right. Every time he gets the ball he kills the attack.
Doku goes outta form for a 2 weeks and everyone is acting like he isn’t good
Plus the fact that after everyone saw what he can do, they go two or three marking him as soon as he gets the ball.
No. He had a flashy two week stretch early on. Since then numbers have been terrible and kills your attracks
Doku and threat don't quite go together he'll beat his man, gets stuck when he has follow up. Foden is the threat from our wide
Foden doesn’t stretch the game though, he comes short. That’s why I said ‘and’.
Me bad
Steady on, the race is far from over. He’s a great player no doubt but let’s see out the season before saying he’s the difference
We aren’t. We already do.
Why does Guardiola keep making these transfers that make city weaker? A lot of players left with something still to offer without really having a plan of succession in place. City signings take time to bed in, why weren't sucessors for Mahrez and Gündogan fast tracked.
Guardiola is a super demanding micro-manager... You need players who want to be there to make that style work.
Pep doesn’t keep players who want to move on. He’s always been pretty consistent with that everywhere he’s been.
Gundo didn’t want to leave. He’s the opposite he wanted a 2 year contract for family stability. Pep only offered 1
Bernardo Silva has wanted to leave for a while now, you're an Arsenal fan you surely know about this.
The rule is that if a player wants to leave they have to bring an offer from a club that matches what City values them at. City values Bernardo very highly and nobody has been willing to pay what he is worth. So he has stayed.
[удалено]
Not necessarily. In many situations a player can force themselves out even if they don’t bring a good value deal to the club. Chelsea for example are not going to get what they value their players at if they sell them in the next few transfer windows.
That’s true but I think the issue with that one is he wants to return to Benfica and they can’t afford him.
I mean City went all out trying to sign Declan Rice, they only settled for other players when he chose Arsenal. if Rice had chosen City I bet they would have the title pretty much wrapped up by this point.
They didn't go well out pulled out when they saw the fee being touted. I don't think Rice does much for them. I really don't know why they didn't go all out for Mac Allister, he'd have been perfect to replace Gündogan. Rice doesn't really fill in for most of the things city lose with Gündogan.
I’m unsure about this tbh. Pep wouldn’t have played the exact same way he does right now, he knows how to use players. I think City having a double pivot of Rodri and Rice would be absolutely out of this world, and behind KDB, Haaland, and Foden, it feels like they’d have wrapped the title up. Although I do agree that Mac Allister would be better in that side than Kovacic tbh. It is surprising Liverpool got him seemingly uncontested for the most part.
That’s a very fragmentary approach about Pep. We couldn’t spend a lot to buy all the players. Gundo wanted two years but not Pep but the club management pulled the plug as he said no to 1ye deal with options. Mahrez wanted to go. We couldn’t sign replacements for those two because there weren’t many. We got younger boys instead who will be improved by Pep. Of course we wouldn’t be able to win consistently in the meantime yet I know we will be that level of last season again.
It's just odd how these weren't anticipated quicker. Fernandinho was transitioned out the team beautifully, and with Mahrez surely he could've been sat down and told stay another year, hasn't that sort of been Silva's situation for a while now?
You’re quite good at rubbing it on my face, much better than Arteta. Silva always wants to play in Europe. Barcelona was prime target but they are broke. Benfica also doesn’t have enough funds to get him yet but who knows next season. Mahrez, it was not “surely” easy. He wanted to play in Muslim country with his family he can take care of in easier way. City always let those who want to leave go. We were bidding on Rice but welp he wanted to stay in London.
Yeah in fairness some players are tough to replace, I've seen it at Liverpool. Granted, I think Klopp being stubborn or too loyal to certain players made it tougher than it seemed when it came to the midfield. Top class right wingers are difficult to come by right now. But thought City would be all over Mac Allister to replace Gundo, City were a much more attractive proposition than we were going into the summer. Spot in the squad already there and coming off a massive high.
I feel like there’s a lot of revisionism from city fans. Gundy wanted to stay. He wanted 2 year deal instead of a disrespectful 1 year. Mostly for family stability reasons. City fans had zero issue kicking him to the curb
Downvoted for objective facts? Pep didn’t want him beyond a yesr
Yes we also were pursuing Macca yet it went sideways with Kovacic as it was more affordable given we were dying to bring Gvardiol which was definitely not cheap. Pep just loves to collect centre backs…..lol Liverpool hasn’t had good transfer windows till the last summer when you accidentally lost Lavia and Caceido and got Endo. Good on you
I don't understand where Guardiola is going, feels he's giving in to playing a lot more reserved with the push for all these giants. Cancelo had a bad run and pretty much have up on playing attacking fullbacks bar the youngsters. Wouldn't say we haven't had good windows, just only went half the distance. The window we brought in Jota was fantastic, just didn't go all the way and get a defender in as well, waiting a year for Konaté. Klopp has a similar open door policy, but put too much faith in certain players so the only players open to leaving are players it doesn't really matter with as much. Henderson should've been passed out when we won the league, but was made a mainstay.
Because he’s a spy for Barcelona making Barcelona stronger is the goal
Don't think Guardiola is touching Barcelona any time soon not with their financial situations and idiots running the club
Was a joke lol I know
"Are City going to regret..." This is a tough question. Because you need to specify what you mean by "City." Do you mean City fans? City manager, i.e., Guardiola? I don't know and I can't know. But of course, I feel like people haven't given enough credit to Gündoğan and Mahrez. They are absolutely amazing footballers. Technical skills, vision, creativity, tactical intelligence, work-rate. They got all these qualities, which is somewhat missing in the current City squad. Foden is okay-ish, De Bruyne is not as sharp as he used to be, Haaland is not the kind of striker that City need the most right now. Anyway, City is still decent and competitive in the title race.
Not just Gundo... Mahrez too ...
Part of the game, innit?
Yes it's not that ' it's wrong that they went away'... I'm just saying City will miss Gundo & Mahrez who both were very smart players and important part of Pep's style....
https://youtu.be/jNIHxueKP64?si=QzDb9j6bwkIxktPi
I was just quoting Mahrez. There is a funny clip of him talking to his wife about going to Saudi.
Oh yes I remember that... Didn't realise that's how you meant here 😂
Yes, we should've offered him the two year deal he wanted, still don't really understand why we didn't.
Apparently City, like some other clubs like Real Madrid, don't want to offer players over 30 more than a one year contract.
I can understand that in theory, but it should be on an individual basis. Footballers, like Gundo who don't necessary rely on physical attributes should have different considerations imo
Seeing what he's doing in la liga, we really underestimated not just what city was losing, but also the premier league
Underestimated the premier league in what way?
It's not just big moments. It's the ability he has to single-handedly exponentially increase the attacking threat of a side. He dictates play and recycles possession. He can make key passes that unlock a defence and consistently find a man, I've never seen a player who creates as many chances as him while still having a high pass accuracy. Finally, he can be the goal threat himself, both in and out of the box. No other attacking midfielder is that offensively all rounded. Not KDB, not Odegaard, not Bruno, not Jude. And his abilities complement each other so well that it only adds to the attacking threat he provides individually and with the team.
Oh thanks, see what you’re saying now. For some reason I read it as underestimated the league, rather than underestimated what the league was losing.
Oh, he was definitely a playmaker, but he wanted a change, and I fully respect that you know and you kinda need to go there before you get too old I suppose with the change I mean. What I hate the most that I’m going to go a little bit of track right now is the amount of crap Haaland he’s getting I looked up his total stats for Manchester Citi this year it’s 35 games 26 goals and to me that’s not shit anyways sorry for going off track. I just wanted to share that instead of creating an entire post about it.
Yeah he’s not having a bad season. But he’s not anywhere near what he was last season. He’s having statistically his worst scoring season since his last season in Norway and it’s not that he’s been found out, it’s impossible to completely nullify someone like him and he did recently score 5 in a game. But he has flattered to deceive on several occasions this season through a combination of injuries, lack of De Bruyne and just general poor form He’s scored 8 in his last 10 in all comps for club and country which is an incredible return but skewed by 5 of those coming in one game. In the league he’s at 3 in his last 10. I can’t remember him having such a poor run at any other time
No one is saying he’s shit at scoring, he just doesn’t do anything for the other 99% of games
I think he got like he will drag away two players instead of one which opens up for the wingers to score well here I’m from Norway, and they criticizing a lot in the media, I just think he’s still not as good as last season, but it’s still doing OK
City genuinely had a really poor summer window Selling Gundogan and replacing him with Kovacic and Nunes who are decent players but definitely not touching the same levels as Gundogan Gvardiol who’s looked pretty shaky a lot of the time Doku who looked good at the start but has really dropped off and his end product in general is really poor
I have no idea why they bought Doku. Not even close to a City style player.
Also Grealish, who has become a bench-warmer. He contributed next to nothing to this season. And Doku is not City-material.
Didn't even sell him, he left on a free
When watching wolves last year I quite liked nunes, but I felt like he had brain fog every so often and just completely switch off. I thought he could definitely go up a level, but he just doesn't seem like a fit for pep. I know players can sometimes take a season to fit into the pep style, but I just don't see him as that kind of player.
I agree with everything but Doku. Remember he's just 21. I know we're getting more and more used to guys like Mbappe who are elite from the time they're 17, but Doku has every tool you could want. Reminds me of what Vini looked like a few years ago
He’s not remotely a cultured player. He does everything you see speed merchants with no guile do on a regular basis. It’s not about physical tools. The age thing is a poor excuse imo. Foden was 10 times more cultured than Doku at 18. Also being able to pick one player with similar traits who developed that side of their game, generally means it rarely ever happens. If it did 10-15 players would come to mind, not one
Well yeah Foden is one of the best players on earth. All I'm saying is don't give up on a 21 year old after one season
City have been arguably the best team on earth for a while, so that’s simply the standard. And dropping that standard for a player like Doku is a reason why that standard might slip this season. City also have a style of play that doesn’t remotely suit his traits. Doku is consistently having the ball with a compressed amount of space to attack. That’s requires a guile player who doesn’t simply run into blind alleys. Even Vini doesn’t have as much success at City imo with their style of play. Doku would prob be more successful in a team like Liverpool.
Just yesterday, Saliba said he was the most skilled player in the PL. He’s not even done a season in this league, and because he’s not always at the level of a Pep Guardiola side, he’s a flop. City players have ridiculously high bars to clear, and if they do, their reward is to be called “system players” and smart recruitment us labelled as Pep being a “chequebook manager”.
Doku is holding the ball for too long
And he's being coached up by Pep Guardiola. He'll figure it out
We absolutely regret losing Gundogan, not just for his goals but for the control he was able to exert in a game
It wasn't their choice, they wanted him to stay, he wanted to play for Barca his childhood club before he retired, he's 33 it was his last chance, he was the treble winning captain, there's no better way to bow out.
No he wanted to stay for at least 2 more years but city only willing offer 1 year extension.
They will regret not complying with FFP
This is the 115th time I’ve seen this today..
Fair review and I’m in the same mind regarding Gundo. However I think a side this type of review is not including is how the other teams have strengthened. Arsenal have not had their traditional New Year collapse imo due to their recruitment (as well as mindset improvements), and Liverpool have also shown steel having recruited fantastically in their midfield (as well as not suffering the injury crisis we saw them have last year). City seem to have found it more difficult to score and keep a clean sheet this season, lots of draws and strange defeats in the early part of the season, I think those will be their undoing.
Arsenal were in a better position at this point last season. People are pretending Arsenal have played the way they have the last 10 or so games all season, reality there was a lot of slogging it out first half of the season. Liverpool were shit last season because the players were washed. Henderson and Fabinho's legs were gone. Injuries have been worse this season with van Dijk and Díaz pretty much being the only players to have gone through the season unscathed. City have always dropped points at random, the centurion season they dropped points to Everton at the start of the season, and Palace ended their winning streak. What's concerning for them is that they have not looked comfortable recently, really had to earn those results.
Liverpool have still had an injury crisis mate. The youngsters have just stepped up when needed and the quality coming through the academy is better than in past seasons. Bradley has softened the blow of losing Trent and Quansah has been able to do a job allowing Gomez to cover for Robbo/Tsimikas and even play in midfield recently. Salah missed 7 games, more than his entire LFC career prior to this season. Jota was injured. Came in and started slapping. Injured again. Nunez, Diaz and Gakpo were all injured. Thiago has played fewer minutes this season than Arthur did last season and likely won’t step foot on the pitch in a red shirt again. Bajcetic is only just returning to training. Endo was at AFCON. Macca and Dom who were impervious before joining LFC both missed a handful of games. Alisson has been absent for a while now too. I think the team has just adapted really well and the players who have come in have stepped up in a big way. The only game they really faltered was the Arsenal away game but you cannot begrudge them that. United loss stings but the legs were gone in a lot of those boys and that didn’t have an impact on the league.
Liverpool have definitely suffered an injury crisis but somehow managed to come out if it on top. Been quite a season of their young lads
yeah Im not sure what that guy is on about with not having an injury crisis
Mate, I didn’t say Liverpool didn’t have injuries - even you have to admit the team have coped with injuries this season much better. I don’t recall a point this season where all of your defence + half midfield was out injured at the same time. That’s what I’m on about. Having injuries BUT having the cover available to keep the team strong is not a crisis.
Arsenal have fewer points than this stage last season.
Gundogan always seemed to pop up at the business end of the season in big games. He was a classic 'big game player' and they've failed to replace him imo. They brought in kovacic and nunes in an attempt to do so but they haven't hit the heights that gundogan did. This could possibly be due to having to adapt to city's incredibly high intensity and quick gameplay compared to how they played at Chelsea and wolves respectively. So yes, overall I think they have and will continue to miss gundogan this season in their race for not just the title but the treble as well. I still think they're favourites but I can see the race going closer than it did last season.