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Agree with most of it. I'd argue that "Guardiola is tactically inflexible" is a little unfair. He has some key principals but there are some obvious differences between how Barca and Bayern play. In terms of tactical changes within the games, you only have to look at the two legs with Atletico. 1 up front to 2 up front, inverted wingers to traditional wingers. He made changes and it had an impact. It still wasn't enough, but he did it.

 

The argument that he hasn't been able to fully replicate what he had at Barca is also a little off... if you look at any team that has a very strongly defined system, eventually it gets cracked, teams learn how to play against it, and you NEED to tweak it here and there to keep getting results. A number of managers have figured out how to play against the tactics he used at Barca. Stay compact, defend the middle of the park, pressure the play maker. A change was necessary so at Bayern he's making greater use of wide players.

 

Things need to evolve and they're going to continue to evolve.

 

I think he will have a tough time at City, but I think the main reasons will be that:

 

1) City doesn't have the same draw for players. Very few would choose to sign for City over Barca, Real, Juve, or even PSG at this point.

2) At Barca and Bayern there were systems in place leftover from managers with a similar style. Most notably, he's kind of following van Gaal up until now. Man City doesn't have that same base to build on.

3) The article is right in that forcing his style on the existing City players is going to be tough. Where I think it gets it wrong is by dismissing the existing defenders. I think they're pretty well suited to a Pep team. He might bring in one more, but I think he'll fancy his chances of working with Demichelis and Otamendi.

4) Pep is a motivational coach. At Barca you have the "more than a club" nonsense. At Bayern, there's a history of dominating. At City, that doesn't exist and a lot of the players seem to be more mercenary than the average Barca or Bayern player. He needs the players to buy into the idea or it's just not going to work. I don't know if he'll be able to achieve that.

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It doesn't really seem comparable to the Pardew situation IMO. I don't see him criticising his own fans or constantly lowering expectations. He said he'd deliver Champions League, most people would call that ambition, not really a lie.

 

Criticising a foreign manager for using the same word often as well? Seems like clutching at straws when looking for things to criticise.

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It doesn't really seem comparable to the Pardew situation IMO. I don't see him criticising his own fans or constantly lowering expectations. He said he'd deliver Champions League, most people would call that ambition, not really a lie.

 

Criticising a foreign manager for using the same word often as well? Seems like clutching at straws when looking for things to criticise.

 

You're not looking very hard then. He's spent the last 18 months (since everything turned to shit) lowering expectations and bullshitting the fans with a constant stream of excuses.

 

He's also had several digs at our support this season as an excuse for posting the worst home record since 1878.

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There doesn't seem to be any in the article posted, which is what I was commenting on.

 

Ok, I thought you were talking generally :thup:

 

That article is just his laughable quotes. They could get a whole other article out of his sly digs :lol:

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How do you rate him, Groo?

 

I think he's going to be a good thing for us, some of our fans think its bad because of our recent games against you guys and Leicester, but overall he's been very good as the results since he arrived. We were 18th when he was appointed, 21 games and 19 points. We are now 11th with 46 points, that's 27 points from 16 games.

 

He took over a poor team with no confidence and openly stated he would not change things too quickly, which he didn't.

 

He has a reputation of coaching players to get the best out of them, he wouldn't pick Montero as he said he needed to work on his defensive duties, when he did eventually pick him you could see the difference.

 

I'm looking forward to next season now.

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Rory Smith ‏@RorySmithTimes  3m3 minutes ago

Frank de Boer has left Ajax [about two years too late]. Suspect that's not going to make Roberto Martinez's evening any better.

:(

Rafa to Ajax ?

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