Pep Out. Again! But Now Back In.

[PrezIke]

If Mancini is so great still why has not one Prem club signed him??

Enough with the nostalgia sheesh

[ENIAM NAM]

Is it just Bravo that the team don't trust? Yet again he tries to play it out when we're under serious pressure, and tries to force the play when we should be taking a minute and regrouping.

It's more Fernando. He is simply not good enough! Wasn't he responsible for the goal away at PSG last year?

Picking out Fernando is in my view an easy scapegoat and suggests you've either gone for the 'soft' option or haven't really comprehended what has happened tonight. We were totally fucking inept as a team tactically we were inept, clueless. It was embarrassing to watch. Gündogan was far worse than Fernando but much more than that the manager has got it horribly wrong we were a fucking shambles from 1 to 11 they had no idea what each other was meant to be doing. At half time I'm thinking pep will show us why he's regarded as the best manager in the world. Then he takes off his only striker after an hour and replaces him with no recognized striker. I did feel we needed yaya's physical presence and height but not for Kelechi the player with the best goals per mins in the league. Wft pep lost the plot tonight and it was a fucking joke end of. If it was pellers we'd have called for his head but peps a fucking genius still. Well he probably is but wasn't tonight and must learn from this and very quickly I don't want to see us play like this again. Shambolic in the extreme

My comment was in relation to one specific moment in the game that was being referred to. Otherwise, crack on.

That wasn't clear reads more as a generalisation than a reference to a specific incident within the game. Thanks for allowing me to 'crack on' ill do that by asking you your overall opinion as to what went wrong tonight.

It looked as though we hadn't prepared for the opposition at all. More that, it feels like we are just concentrating on how Pep wants us to play, and not trying to adapt to what the the next team will throw at us. We made a shit Leicester team look like world beaters and in reality they did exactly what they did last year, but not as well.

I think that will work in the long run when he gets the quality of players to play his style.

For now, we need to go to 4 at the back. 3 isn't anywhere near working especially with Kolorov in there! We also need to play De Bruyne and Silva more centrally and Sterling on the right. I agree, taking our only striker off today was tactical madness. Play players in their best positions and graft through the next few weeks.

On the positive side, I thought we looked good for the last 10 mins today. .

Cos we've got......Guardiola..!

[nottsblue]

I am a massive Pep fan and it is clear he is struggling to work out how best to send his teams out to play whilst bearing in mind it has to be based on having control and possession.He wants us to play good football, look after the ball, create chances and score goals and when we don't have the ball to be organised well enough so that when teams break against us we are not easy to score against.

We are playing some good football but sadly that's where it ends. The goals are not really coming but if that was the only problem we would be fine and i expect we can sort that. The chances are there and we keep missing them and that was the case against Chelsea and even worse it was our best two players missing them that day. To a degree teams know how to defend against us but I really don't see that as the key issue.

Defending is the real issue and the performance of individuals within the team who have any sort of defensive roles. Ideally what you want in defence are individuals who can hold there own in one on one situations. Whether it's to win tackles or headers or read situations to avoid dangerous situations or whatever. And obviously you also want those individuals to work well as a team so that we don't let goals in.Simples

Sadly our individuals are not good at all in the one to one scenario. We have 4 full backs and I would say only Sagna comes close to being good enough. The two on the left are simply poor defenders and whilst I might be being a bit harsh on Zaba I feel his legs are gone and anyone with any pace at all can almost ignore him. We have a keeper who isn't a bad keeper ( his record shows that) but he needs to make big saves from time to time and he simply isn't doing that when we need him to. For all his faults, and we know Joe had some, Joe did make great saves and plenty of them.

So onto midfield and the shield we need at times in front of the back 4. I quite like the 2 Ferns but without Dinho today we looked crazily wide open. The system didn't help but I felt throwing in Zaba in there was beyond crazy.If he was supposed to be sitting more than attacking why didn't somebody tell him!

Pep I am certain is learning loads and part of it is how poor some of the defenders are. He won't come out and please the press by openly criticising players as that's not his style and I believe rightly so but he has to show he recognises this by a) picking a more consistent defensive unit if he can b) getting rid of the real weak links in that area (surely surely Kolarov is one of them) and c) using a tactical approach that allows for the poor defenders he has to choose from. 4 at the back would seem to be that approach.

We will see from now if he changes and how he changes things. He will know that if we defend poorly against Arse and Dippers we will be slaughtered so lets hope improvements are on the way.

I started saying I was a massive Pep fan and I still am a massive Pep fan. He needs to learn fast, as do the players but along the way he needs massive support from everyone. We will be fine.

I agree. I too am a huge Pep fan. We were gash today and haven't been at our best for a little while now. But there's still a lot of football to be played and I also believe Pep will be learning very fast on the job. We haven't the personnel in defence to play how he wants so he is either trying to coach them or he doesn't have alternative players. Altering his style is something I think he will be very reluctant to do so I don't see the situation improving any time soon.

We are probably not as good as we thought we were at the beginning of October but we are equally not as bad as we are being made out to be. I'd be stunned if we didn't finish top 4 and will probably be second or third. Next season we will be in a better position to judge

[City64]

Fuck off Pep clueless bald cunt , fucking embarrassment !!!

[Peter Doherty (AGAIG)]

Can we please have Bobby back.

Yes please.

In a heartbeat.

We could do with some new fans, too.

remember where we've come from?!
fuck off
we've gone backwards under the spafia
every fucking right to vent our frustrations
you keep living in your superior world
dickhead

I may well be a dickhead but I'm not a fucking spineless cunt. Throw away the possibility of a glorious future under Guardiola because of a few short-time difficulties? And replace him with Mancini? Has everyone forgotten that Cup-final against Wigan? What a bunch of fucking mardarses we've turned into.

[Hazy2]

Can we please have Bobby back.

Yes please.

In a heartbeat.

We could do with some new fans, too.

remember where we've come from?!
fuck off
we've gone backwards under the spafia
every fucking right to vent our frustrations
you keep living in your superior world
dickhead

I may well be a dickhead but I'm not a fucking spineless cunt. Throw away the possibility of a glorious future under Guardiola because of a few short-time difficulties? And replace him with Mancini? Has everyone forgotten that Cup-final against Wigan? What a bunch of fucking mardarses we've turned into.

Wigan was down to the players, blaming a manger who called out a clique and lost his job was music to,the likes of the mard arses like hart,and the spoilt twats that spewed a cup final to nail a manager and get him gone the spafia were spineless.

[dazby]

Pep will sort this. No fear.

[Socrates]

remember where we've come from?!
fuck off
we've gone backwards under the spafia
every fucking right to vent our frustrations
you keep living in your superior world
dickhead

I may well be a dickhead but I'm not a fucking spineless cunt. Throw away the possibility of a glorious future under Guardiola because of a few short-time difficulties? And replace him with Mancini? Has everyone forgotten that Cup-final against Wigan? What a bunch of fucking mardarses we've turned into.

Wigan was down to the players, blaming a manger who called out a clique and lost his job was music to,the likes of the mard arses like hart,and the spoilt twats that spewed a cup final to nail a manager and get him gone the spafia were spineless.[/quote]

Well said Hazy, they should have backed the manager. The situation caused the Wigan game to happen. They threw the cup final to get rid of the manager. They should have been brought into line instead. Is hisssstory now though. Yes I'd like home back but the reality is we need to give Pep plenty of time and just adjust our short term expectations. We have seen what is possible in the Barca game, most exciting performance since the 6-1! We have to hang in there.

[Original Dub]

Can we please have Bobby back.

Yes please.

In a heartbeat.

We could do with some new fans, too.

remember where we've come from?!
fuck off
we've gone backwards under the spafia
every fucking right to vent our frustrations
you keep living in your superior world
dickhead

I may well be a dickhead but I'm not a fucking spineless cunt. Throw away the possibility of a glorious future under Guardiola because of a few short-time difficulties? And replace him with Mancini? Has everyone forgotten that Cup-final against Wigan? What a bunch of fucking mardarses we've turned into.

Well said.

[freshie]

We have a shite squad with a couple of decent players.

Two strikers compared with Balo, Tevez, Dzeko, and Serg.

Absolutely shocking defence that we'll struggle to move anywhere.

Goalkeeper that's not a goalkeeper.

Spot on

[freshie]

Can we please have Bobby back.

Yeh cos he's been so successful since he left us

[Slim]

If Mancini is so great still why has not one Prem club signed him??

Enough with the nostalgia sheesh

He's Italian and managing in Italy.

The Premier League isn't the entire world you know....or do you.

[freshie]

Can we please have Bobby back.

Yes please.

In a heartbeat.

We could do with some new fans, too.

remember where we've come from?!
fuck off
we've gone backwards under the spafia
every fucking right to vent our frustrations
you keep living in your superior world
dickhead

I may well be a dickhead but I'm not a fucking spineless cunt. Throw away the possibility of a glorious future under Guardiola because of a few short-time difficulties? And replace him with Mancini? Has everyone forgotten that Cup-final against Wigan? What a bunch of fucking mardarses we've turned into.

People have such short memories and there is none so fickle as a football fan. Most of these twats were wetting the bed at the prospect of Pep's arrival

[Niall Quinns Discopants]

I am a massive Pep fan and it is clear he is struggling to work out how best to send his teams out to play whilst bearing in mind it has to be based on having control and possession.He wants us to play good football, look after the ball, create chances and score goals and when we don't have the ball to be organised well enough so that when teams break against us we are not easy to score against.

We are playing some good football but sadly that's where it ends. The goals are not really coming but if that was the only problem we would be fine and i expect we can sort that. The chances are there and we keep missing them and that was the case against Chelsea and even worse it was our best two players missing them that day. To a degree teams know how to defend against us but I really don't see that as the key issue.

Defending is the real issue and the performance of individuals within the team who have any sort of defensive roles. Ideally what you want in defence are individuals who can hold there own in one on one situations. Whether it's to win tackles or headers or read situations to avoid dangerous situations or whatever. And obviously you also want those individuals to work well as a team so that we don't let goals in.Simples

Sadly our individuals are not good at all in the one to one scenario. We have 4 full backs and I would say only Sagna comes close to being good enough. The two on the left are simply poor defenders and whilst I might be being a bit harsh on Zaba I feel his legs are gone and anyone with any pace at all can almost ignore him. We have a keeper who isn't a bad keeper ( his record shows that) but he needs to make big saves from time to time and he simply isn't doing that when we need him to. For all his faults, and we know Joe had some, Joe did make great saves and plenty of them.

So onto midfield and the shield we need at times in front of the back 4. I quite like the 2 Ferns but without Dinho today we looked crazily wide open. The system didn't help but I felt throwing in Zaba in there was beyond crazy.If he was supposed to be sitting more than attacking why didn't somebody tell him!

Pep I am certain is learning loads and part of it is how poor some of the defenders are. He won't come out and please the press by openly criticising players as that's not his style and I believe rightly so but he has to show he recognises this by a) picking a more consistent defensive unit if he can b) getting rid of the real weak links in that area (surely surely Kolarov is one of them) and c) using a tactical approach that allows for the poor defenders he has to choose from. 4 at the back would seem to be that approach.

We will see from now if he changes and how he changes things. He will know that if we defend poorly against Arse and Dippers we will be slaughtered so lets hope improvements are on the way.

I started saying I was a massive Pep fan and I still am a massive Pep fan. He needs to learn fast, as do the players but along the way he needs massive support from everyone. We will be fine.

That is a sound post. Agree with all of that.
I don't know about Zabaleta though. He is being played out of position all the time. He has always been back four fullback and we can only judge his current situation if he is played there.

Main issue, among many many many issues, really is goalkeeper and centerbacks. My views on goalkeeper situation are well documented so I'm not going to go there but we REALLY need centerbacks who are capable of playing at this level. Furthermore, why would we play back three when even back four would struggle to defend at this league with the players we got.

[South Stand Balti]

I get that shouting for the manager's head is premature but I would like to ask him:
1. Why would you think KDB is a wing back?
2. John Stones has been giving goals away for the last two years so why play him?
3. Bravo is either shite or out of form. Willy played well against Celtic so why woulfd you keep making Bravo suffer?
4. Who bought Bravo, Sane, Gundo and Stones. Did that £117m improve us in any way at all?
5 Why keep playing a system that leaves fucking big holes everywhere?
I would love to understand his thinking and find out if he is really responsible for the summer recruitment.

[sheblue]

We're in transition and he needs players. Must start with defence.
Kola
Clichy
Zabba
All need to go. Immediately.
Then bring in a centre back.
This all can't be done in January.
Its going to be a long haul.

[nottsblue]

We're in transition and he needs players. Must start with defence.
Kola
Clichy
Zabba
All need to go. Immediately.
Then bring in a centre back.
This all can't be done in January.
Its going to be a long haul.

Immediately? Leaving us with Sagna as the only senior fullback? I agree all three are not at level we require but we cant get rid until replacements have been found. I sincerely hope none of the above are here come 1/9/17

[london blue 2]

We're in transition and he needs players. Must start with defence.
Kola
Clichy
Zabba
All need to go. Immediately.
Then bring in a centre back.
This all can't be done in January.
Its going to be a long haul.

he had a full preseason. And instead he chose to get rid of the leagues most consistant goalkeeper and keep those guys...

[Niall Quinns Discopants]

We're in transition and he needs players. Must start with defence.
Kola
Clichy
Zabba
All need to go. Immediately.
Then bring in a centre back.
This all can't be done in January.
Its going to be a long haul.

They are all fullbacks playing as centerbacks. No wonder they struggle. Except Kolarov who has always been shite.

[Nigels Tackle]

We're in transition and he needs players. Must start with defence.
Kola
Clichy
Zabba
All need to go. Immediately.
Then bring in a centre back.
This all can't be done in January.
Its going to be a long haul.

we've been in transition for about 3 years