Guardiola keeps picking weird, nonsensical, wonky lineups since Cancelo left. He's also overplaying some players and under-utilising others. No subs tonight was bizarre, too. Leipzig were well on top and he did nothing.
I wouldn't be surprised if all this is a deliberate ploy by him. Throwing his toys out bcos City haven't spent £500m like Chelsea... and then saying, "you see, this is what happens".
Haaland simply doesn't work hard enough. For a player who is immensely strong and quick, he could really put himself about much more and carve out spaces for other players by his mere presence, but his movement is both limited and predictable.
Fast track bully…a goal pig…the Scandinavian Darren Bent said it before a ball was kicked he’ll get you a brace in a 4 goal thumping will he get you the last gasp winner or equaliser or the only goal of the game? not fit to lace Kane’s boots
Scandinavian Darren Bent That’s a bit harsh; he has fantastic attributes. He has all these goals, but he could have more - and score more decisive ones- if City played to his strengths more. Their style requires another Aguero who, with his low centre of gravity and quick movement, was able to wrong foot defenders and find pockets of space in the penalty area when teams defended deep. Haaland would be best suited to a counter attacking team. When he can run in behind defenders, he’s lethal. I’d love to see him at Utd as he would fit in.
ironically I think he would work great for us and Kane would work superbly for City due to his superior intelligence levels but ultimately they couldn’t afford him. Haaland doesn’t bring players into the game…that’s what City’s little magicians need. They’ve spent most of their time trying to put it on a plate for the big oaf upfront when usually they would find the back of the net themselves and that has scuppered them this season.
That's presumably why Vlahovic was a target for us a couple of years ago, as his game is similar to Haaland's but without the massively inflated transfer fee and wages
Indeed, but that by definition confirms the Spurlock claim. Citeh can run amok in the PL / CL group stage etc without a top tier forward, but that is not the level required. Tis the "six pointer" games / KO cup ties etc, against serious opposition, where opportunities are both few and far between + high difficulty, where an apex forward delivers. And in fairness, this charge has on occasion been levelled at Kane himself (domestic cup SFs/finals, the 2019 CL final etc) .
He’s not played too many of those games for City yet. He did score v Arsenal recently and a hat- trick v Utd. We haven’t reached the latter stages of the PL or CL yet. Games v Real Madrid or Bayern are to come. But the issue for me is not his ability, but the way the team plays doesn’t suit his strengths. He makes runs and takes up positions, but nobody passes to him. Last night, he barely got a kick. You can see his frustration. The fact he gets goals when City steamroller teams doesn’t make him just a flat track bully. I think he can do that to better teams, as he did for Dortmund, but he isn’t getting the service he needs.
Haaland's problem is that De Bruyne seems to be the only player that's allowed to pass to him. Nobody else appears to have permission to cross the ball or make through balls. That's quite an issue when the Belgian isn't playing.
Hang on, isn't it compulsory to add at this point "however he is still the bestest manager in the world"... because that's effectively what the pundits do, when they consistently and usually ignore the many things he gets wrong. He often selects weird line ups and can't seem to play to the strengths of his striker. He gets away with a lot due to the individual quality of the players. Yet what happened in the CL final against Chelski... overthought it (probably). What happened in his first season in the PL? Didn't perform very well with the (very expensive) team he was given, bought a new defence at great cost and suddenly he's a great manager again. Yeah, but most managers have to stick with (most of) the players they get dealt. A great manager gets the best out of the situation he finds himself in. In that first season Pep clearly did not. I'm not sure what he has to do to stop being regarded as this great manager. Fail to win the CL again? But he keeps doing that and it seems to make no difference! Plus he may well have been doing all this by breaking the financial fair play rules at the same time!
Who was the manager screaming for more subs? Since that rule has come in Citeh have gone down hill , to use a music analogy , all of Princes best albums were on vynyl, CD's allowed more space for filler not thriller
Scandinavian Darren Bent , as our swedish coach Harrivk Redknappavik once said " my Astrid could have scored that "
