Manchester City Discussion 2021/22

Not seen anything of PSG this season, but it does all seem a little thrown together with what their trying to do, their potential front three this evening is pretty scary but are they all getting along merrily, reading some of the stories coming out of their camp there seems to be cracks.
 
I've watched some of their matches and basically the front 3 do barely any defending for the team so when the ball is lost everyone else is working their nuts off to get it back while they jog they don't press the ball to win it back either which was a hallmark of the best Poch sides.

Mbappe is getting annoyed as well as he feels like Messi/Neymar only pass to each other and don't try to involve him in moves.
 
Mbappe is annoyed he didn't get sold. But yeah is fed up with Neymar.

He called him a tramp at the weekend from the sidelines, after Neymar set up Draxler who came on for him. Mabppe feels like he's not getting the ball enough. But it probably all boils down to the fact he wanted to go to Madrid.

They should have sold him, much like Spurs and Kane.
 
Seems like Herrera is getting more playing time this season probably need him to do some of the running that the attackers aren't doing.

Yeah seemed an odd power move to force him to stay but also get the impression Madrid were never serious with their bids they made them knowing they'd be rejected if PSG said yes I reckon the deal would've collapsed as they don't actually have the money.

Noticed that Ramos hasn't actually played yet as he's not fit and Donnarumo seems to be number 2 as well.
 
Isn't Herrera top goal scorer or something strange?

And the keeper, it doesn't make much sense, Donnarumma has played a couple of times, then gets dropped.

It's an odd bunch.

I wonder if there will be any trouble, football violence at matches seems to be on the rise here.

I can't see anything but a good city win
 
They remind me of Utd maybe trying to fit in to many star names.

The thing with Donnarruma and Ramos is Poch probably didn't want them but the club signed them because they were free so they now become a problem for him to manage could even argue Messi falls into that bracket.

Not sure City will take to many over away travel is still a bit tricky with all the testing in and out.
 
This is where VAR doesn’t work as it’s not clear and obvious so they stick with the refs initial decision had the ref given AWB a yellow card last week there’s no way they would up it to a red. If that ref showed the red it wouldn’t be downgraded.

Footballs rules are far to subjective to allow video technology to provide consistency.
 
2-0 PSG I got it very wrong PSG and that front 3 have worked their socks off still 15 minutes to go.

Messi just got himself off the mark with a peach laid on by Mbappe.

Verratti is some player absolute baller should be testing himself in stronger leagues.
 
Yes, the laws of the game are subjective which doesn't lead to consistency, which is why I didn't think VAR would work in football as it does in other sports, like cricket. The main problem is that the interpretation of those laws keeps changing, case in point, the roughhousing allowed this season in the PL that won't be allowed after Christmas.

At the end of the day, there needs to be more of an effort made to ensure consistency because two similar tackles given very different results can't be allowed to happen.

Anyway, I found this match to be rather dull. Both sides defending well enough/attacking poorly enough so that there was a lot of play in midfield which broke down as soon as it reached the box.

EDIT: Check out the penalty that Madrid got and compare it to the ones Ronaldo didn't.
 
Lets not go down the Herrera rabbit hole again he was a decent player for us who wanted superstar wages and turned down a very good offer to take the money at PSG. Draw a line under it and move on if we matched the PSG offer he'd have been getting hounded.

Last night was his sort of game though he was always a good performer in the bigger games which is why he was popular but he was always innefective against weaker opponents.

As for the refs you get this a lot in Europe you get some refs who are very strict on any contact and others who allow a bit more flow to a game I felt the ref in the young boys game was very quick to get his cards out whereas last night this ref probably more experienced didn't want to go straight red unless he had to. Both those tackles were the classic "orange card" scenario you are always going to be booked for that and there's a risk that the ref will go to the red card.

The laws allow for interpretation so it really comes down to how the ref sees it in that split second.

I thought PSG looked really good in the first half some of the balls on their players to play under pressure deep in their own half was unreal and it paid off for them second half it looked like they decided to sit off and try to hold City. Apart from the Sterling/Bernardo chance City really struggled to create any chances lots of the ball not really going anywhere.
 
Lets not go down the Herrera rabbit hole again he was a decent player for us who wanted superstar wages and turned down a very good offer to take the money at PSG. Draw a line under it and move on if we matched the PSG offer he'd have been getting hounded

That's not quite the story. We let is contract run down to the point he could discuss with other teams. They offered him a bucket load, we couldn't match it.
If we had renewed his deal with 2 years left he'd still be here and we wouldn't have Fred.
 
That's not quite the story. We let is contract run down to the point he could discuss with other teams. They offered him a bucket load, we couldn't match it.
If we had renewed his deal with 2 years left he'd still be here and we wouldn't have Fred.

He was on a good contract when he signed was in and out of the team under every manager he had and always was making noises about going back to Spain.

He wanted more money Utd felt he was on the right money and when it came time to talk his demands were higher than we wanted to pay so he went off any got an offer from PSG.

His contract came up for renewal at a bad time for the club we were paying Sanchez a fortune and De Gea got a great deal off the back of it Herrera tried to do the same but the club didn't buy it.

I liked Herrera but I'll be honest I don't really miss him he wanted more than he was worth and he found someone willing to pay it as they were desperate for a midfielder on a free transfer good luck to him.

He'd start every week in our current team when fit but not sure how people would feel about him earning over £200k a week.
 
that's not true.

We waited too long, offered him less money than he was earning so he went elsewhere.

Hererra leaving on a free was the clubs bad management. Not him being greedy.

I liked him, and he'd be starting every week for us, just like he is for PSG.
 
Two sides to every story Mr C and the truth will be somewhere in the middle he was at the club in a period where our wage bill was out of control so I can see why the club decided to run his deal down.

Fact is Mourinho signed two players to try and replace him Matic and Fred and by the time Ole arrived it was probably to late. Think under Van Gaal we signed 3 centre mids along with Herrera.

He was at the club in a time of big turmoil in 5 seasons he had 3 managers and the first manager wasn't really responsible for his signing so he was instantly on the back foot and facing an uphill task.

The club will have known what his expectations were and in 2017 they might have felt he didn't deserve a pay rise as he wasn't part of the managers long term plans.

For me his story is him trying to save face with the fans fact is a new manager came in and a deal was offered but he wanted to take more money elsewhere end of story for me I don't hold it against him it's his career but he made the decision to leave not the club.
 
it's how I remember it, he mentioned in the press he wanted to stay, and we left it until 6 months is exactly how I remember it.

Imagine if we'd kept him, and the money spent on Fred, Matic and DVDB. Probably have a quite decent midfield. Which is back to the point. The state of the midfield has nothing to do with Ole.
 
For me his story is him trying to save face with the fans fact is a new manager came in and a deal was offered but he wanted to take more money elsewhere end of story for me I don't hold it against him it's his career but he made the decision to leave not the club.

That last night simply isn't true. We didn't offer him a contract until after he'd started negotiating with PSG. It was a complete failure on Woodward's part. We should have had him tied down in the summer to a deal that matched others in his role. He'd have happily stayed if we'd done so. But we didn't even begin contract talks with him. One of Woodward's weirder moments.

I get there are people that thought it was time for Ander to move on but he didn't really have an option to stay when the club didn't open negotiations with him. Too busy sorting out Phil Jones a new contract.
 
That last night simply isn't true. We didn't offer him a contract until after he'd started negotiating with PSG. It was a complete failure on Woodward's part. We should have had him tied down in the summer to a deal that matched others in his role. He'd have happily stayed if we'd done so. But we didn't even begin contract talks with him. One of Woodward's weirder moments.

I get there are people that thought it was time for Ander to move on but he didn't really have an option to stay when the club didn't open negotiations with him. Too busy sorting out Phil Jones a new contract.

The summer before that the club signed Fred the summer before that we signed Matic it was quite clear that someone at the club ie the manager at that time didn't believe in Herrera. To me it would seem that Mourinho was quite happy for Herrera to run down his contract and leave as he wasn't part of the Mourinho plan if Mourinho wanted him to stay I think that contract gets sorted pretty easily.

Ole comes in Herrera is in talks with PSG, he's in the team under Ole and an offer to stay is made but the decision has been made to go once that decision was made Ole dropped him. If Herrera really wanted to stay he could have easily ended talks with PSG and stayed but he didn't we move on.

As I said he was here at a time where the club went through plenty of turmoil and he probably got lost in the mix of that had Ole had a bit more time with him maybe things do go a different way.

He was a handy player but he's not a superstar and Utd were probably right to leave rather than panic and try to match what PSG were offering.
 
it's how I remember it, he mentioned in the press he wanted to stay, and we left it until 6 months is exactly how I remember it.

Imagine if we'd kept him, and the money spent on Fred, Matic and DVDB. Probably have a quite decent midfield. Which is back to the point. The state of the midfield has nothing to do with Ole.

This is pure speculation from me but I bet Utd had made some initial contact with his agent to see what Herrera would be looking for in terms of renewal well before that 6 months we know the tactic at Utd isn't to allow players to leave for free. There might not have been an offer but I bet the club knew the expectations of the player through his agent and they maybe misread the situation and felt he'd stay once the offer was made.

Not sure Herrera makes a massive upgrade to this midfield the midfield was a problem when he was here it's remained a problem since he left for me in a good side he's a squad player not a starter which is how I feel about the current lot.

He had a good game vs City last night but the game suited him as it would suit some of our players.
 
Not surprising really think it was reported that one of the offences took place while he was already out on bail.
 
Sterling makes noises about a move saying he'd love to play abroad apart from PSG not really sure if the big boys could afford his transfer fee and wages but he's not really looked anywhere near his best for a while now. He was excellant for England at the Euro's but his City form has been pretty poor.

Quite strange as during the summer it looked like Laporte and Bernardo Silva would be off but both have come back in and nailed down starting spots and suddenly John Stones and Raheem Sterling can't get in the team.
 
Sterling makes noises about a move saying he'd love to play abroad apart from PSG not really sure if the big boys could afford his transfer fee and wages but he's not really looked anywhere near his best for a while now. He was excellant for England at the Euro's but his City form has been pretty poor.

Quite strange as during the summer it looked like Laporte and Bernardo Silva would be off but both have come back in and nailed down starting spots and suddenly John Stones and Raheem Sterling can't get in the team.
 
I think in any top side in world football would be lucky to have him.

he seems underated in the UK.
 
I think he's starting to dip a little bit not sure he's got the accelleration he had before that allowed him to beat players one vs one now he's starting to rely on his movement to get into space.

Always found him a really odd player to watch as his movement is great and he obviously was scoring goals for fun in previous seasons but he misses some absolute sitters and sometimes the way the ball bounces off him is comical.

Think the way he's rated has a a lot to do with him being a City player lets be honest they have a small fan base who don't make a lot of noise it's why players like Aguero, Silva, Yaya aren't really talked about when it comes to the PL greatest ever.
 
De Bruyne tested positive for covid has to isolate for 10 days misses the Everton and PSG games but should be back for the following weekend.

He is vaccinated.
 
Looks like they're just starting to build up that head of steam to go on one of their relentless winning runs the bit of the season where it takes an unreal run of results just to stick with them.

5 wins in a row in the league which Liverpool have matched but you feel like City are just cruising whereas Liverpool have had to be at their very best to match that run.
 
He's started the last 2 league games playing as a false 9 where he's shown a few moment but generally he is struggling and he's been making the headlines more for his antics off the pitch than on it. There's suggestions he was seeing two fairly famous celebrities behind his girlfriends back at the same time I imagine this off field stuff doesn't go well with a manager like Pep but what you going to do. Wasn't like they weren't aware of these potential issues prior to signing him but when you play for Villa it tends to make the local news and the national news for a short while when you do it at City after signing for £100m it's a different story.

In the league 12 games 1 goal 2 assists 2 big chances created, 5 big chances missed. Not exactly the stats you'd want from your £100m creative midfield player.

Tends to happen at City though the big signings don't always hit the ground running but they come good in the second season. They're such a well oiled machine that it doesn't seem to matter that much.

Bernardo Silva and Cancelo are the stand out players for them this season neither of them were up to much last year but this year they've been on fire. Bernardo Silva looked like he was out the door in the summer and the club were prepared to sell but no offers came and he's been an absolute star for them looks back to the form he showed a few seasons back which is annoying.
 

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