Quote from: lizarder on Today at 07:27:57 AM

Quote from: shogun47 on December 22, 2024, 11:32:22 PM

There might be some real changes incoming for Manchester City. One thing that I didn't fully understand is the contract extension for Pep Guardiola. I think he wanted to send a signal to the team and the people supporting Manchester City, but as of now it rather looks like the wrong decision. It's insane how the best coach in the world is not able to solve those problems. Because this is no coincidence anymore. When they lost like a couple of games, I thought ok it can happen to anyone, but this is now getting really bad. They could theoretically drop out of the top 24, which would be the worst defeat ever and nobody would have ever seen that coming.

PSG away from home is a serious deal and since Manchester City has so much pressure now, I think the last game against Brugge won't be easy either as Brugge has nothing to lose, but can win so much there.

The changes are quite necessary considering Man City's performance so far in the Champions League and in the Premier League looks really bad. Pep Guardiola has said some weak points in the team and maybe there will be an effort to recruit new players to cover those weaknesses. Every coach has been in a golden age and then will face a decline, this is a natural thing to happen but what Man City experienced was too fast because they should have been much better when Pep Guardiola was able to see the problem and evaluate it.

PSG played well in Ligue 1 but not much better than Man City when playing in the Champions League so the chances in the match are still quite difficult to predict. But if you look at the abilities of both teams and the experience they have, I am a little more confident that Man City will win the match even though the match will be much more difficult for them.

Yes but Pep Guardiola is still a relatively young manager and this decline is not because he went to a club that has weak finances and a weak team. They have just had the world's best footballer in their line-up with Rodri. I know that they are missing him badly now, but he can't be the only reason for this decline. If the rest of the team wouldn't be of a certain quaity, Rodri would have not won the title for the best player in the world either. It is still a team performance to some degree.

If you take into account all the players that played against Aston Villa, the team is still brutally strong. Haaland, Silva, Foden, Grealish, then players like Kyle Walker, Doku and De Bruyne sitting on the bench. This team is still outstanding, but some of the best players are obviously not in shape or otherwise Walker and De Bruyne wouldn't be sitting on the bench.

This is what the independent.co.uk has posted recently

Quote

There had been hints of decline last season, camouflaged by another league title and a five-month unbeaten run. They were more pronounced this season, with a lack of clean sheets, with a reliance on late goals, but obscured by results that suggested they were still serial winners. Now there is no obscuring them, no camouflaging the problems.

They lost the FA cup final, but this happens to the best teams in the world. It was against Manchester United, which was quite a shame, but they played better football in that game. In the Premier League they had the best offense and the second best defense. In the Champions League they dominated Real Madrid in both games, but ok it is still Real Madrid and they got the upper hand in the penalty shootout, which again is not something that is unacceptable.

It's hard to understand what is going on with them and not it will become interesting. They extended Guardiola's contract and it would be ridiculous if they sack him weeks later, so I suppose they are going on with him no matter what's going to happen.