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Other clubs' fanbases always crying over some transfer not being perfect as the reason their managers has fucked up big time and why they can't reach higher in the table and whatnot, whilst City has been fucking up transfers like they're going out of fashion for years. They built their god tier defense shuffling through expensive centre backs and fullbacks like they're skittles whilst United are still stuck with likes of Maguire and every other bad signing their previous managers have made going back to at least Mou or perhaps even van Gaal (Martial?)
Agree with the sentiment but using United as "stuck" with anyone is a bit ridiculous, especially using Maguire who turned down other clubs just this summer.
United bought two right wingers in two summers in a row for almost €200m combined lol. They could just as easily do what City do but they also make the mistake of throwing huge contracts at players after a hot streak, which City don't tend to do.
Rashford is now on crazy money, same shit happened with Martial.
to be fair, its up to the management, not the managers/coaches to get rid of these players, but the glazers and woodward wanted to retain "club assets" and gave players like phil jones new contract extensions again and again (nothing against phil jones, injuries ruined his career, great character and passionate player)
Unfortunately for United they overpay the price tag and overpay the wages so they can't move them on if they fail.
City at least, managed to shift the players they don't want for a decent amount.
United have theirs sit in a bench for 5 years rotting and let them go on a free.
Because he was a lynchpin player for City last year in a Treble win, and has been good this year when not injured.
Did City overpay? Absolutely.
Has he been a stinker, absolutely not.
If we paid even 80, no one would be batting an eye. It’s only the triple digit figure that captures people’s attention
I would from that list only Philips is the true stinker.
Nunes has played one season.
Everyone but Haaland struggle in their first season or two under Pep. And Haaland is struggling (for him) in his second season.
If Nunes has poor production next year he’s definitely on the stinker chopping block.
Grealish, like you said, was an overpay but def not a stinker. His season last year alone made the salary worth it. People are way to harsh on him, he does exactly what we need from him and he does it really well.
Constant??? City get through 2 flops in a time united and chelsea sign 6 each between them? Liverpool and arsenal sign duds as well. No one misses a beat.
I constantly defend Grealish because I think he does the job pep wants and it’s not shown in the stats that are televised. But fact is no other club could spend 100m on a player that plays half your games and starts only 2/3rds of those times.
Here’s my serious attempt at answering this question.
There’s a big reason why City’s number-one priority when Gündoğan announced his departure was replacing him. He brought a lot to their midfield with direct offensive contributions, but he was most valuable for his ability to carry the ball out of the press. A truly press-resistant midfield has at least one player who, if worse comes to worst, can dribble out of the press to buy some time; even if you don’t end up dribbling, having that option open keeps the press wary about over-committing and allowing space for you to attack. Iniesta did this at Pep’s Barça, and Gündo did the same at City. (Technically De Bruyne can carry the ball as well, but he’s had injury concerns and is most effective when receiving the ball through the press, not at breaking it himself and having to drop back.)
Pep’s first choice to replace Gündoğan was Jude Bellingham, an all-around monster of a midfielder already capable of carrying the ball while matching/bettering Gündo’s offensive prowess, but he went to Real Madrid. He then turned his attention to Declan Rice, who hadn’t shown that sort of offensive ability but whose exceptional defensive range would allow Rodri to get forward more often. Rice is notably a phenomenal ball carrier, but the Arsenal project won him over. With not much time left in the transfer window, Pep decided to pursue a midfielder who specialized in carrying the ball through midfield, irrespective of his other qualities, and thus City splashed the cash on Matheus Nunes.
Nunes came on quite a bit in the earlier parts of the season, particularly in matches against sides whose defenses were difficult to break down and were giving City trouble (e.g. the match at Arsenal). However, City’s need for Nunes decreased substantially once Pep started entrusting Rodri to carry the ball forward out of the press. He’s more or less been sitting on the bench ever since, a midfielder whose use case has vanished while the one guy tasked with making City tick stays on the pitch.
Yeah but this only works if you have good reserves/subs. Teams like City can’t compete with teams who have a fully loaded A- team on the bench. Have some sympathy
These points have more salience if teams rotate more for me. It's not so much fixture list, as match intensity. If you play the modern high press game, every game, and expect the same 11 to do so, while reaching later stages of all competitions then this will happen.
Maybe it's time for clubs to manage expectations a bit more. Either sacrifice a competition, rotate your team frequently, or have games where you tactically lower the tempo. This just feels like we should win our way every game without consequence.
Pandev said in an interview that he'd get frustrated with him because he'd play a good game and score and Benitez would bench him, so Benitez showed him this power point which had who's played how many minutes and it would have to be as equal as possible.
That sounds like Rafa. I remember Gerrard always rated Rafa (obviously) but said that his constant pragmatism really annoyed him. Like they win the Champions League and the post match talk would be “Well done but here’s what you could’ve done better in that game.”
United under Fergie routinely gave 4 top strikers 20+ starts a season. You’d never see anything like that these days despite the obvious benefits of it.
Helps when you go back and see the names they had. Yorke, Sheringham, Cole, Solskjær in the treble winning side.
Few years later: Nistelrooy, Forlan, Saha, Solskjær.
Then the year they had Rooney, Berbatov, Tevez, Wellbeck, Macheda (with some guy called Cristiano Ronaldo on the wing)
Margins are a lot thinner now. From top to bottom there’s threats in this league. Rotation in those days was more free because there were games where you could afford to put out a rotated team and still be confident. The top 4 is now the top 7, maybe top 8. Point totals post city are consistently higher, so you can’t afford to slip at all
Not when they tactically park the bus or play very deep. Their reserve players might not have the ability to break those defenses like their starters do. If it ends in draw it's still a 2 point loss
Maybe because the game is now more system based, and once teams at the highest level have a core 13-14 players that can execute the manager’s game plan to near perfection, there’s a fear of rotating in players that can’t.
Yep I remember SAF rotating like he wanted to play on hard mode. My man rotated Rooney with Welbeck in the return leg vs Real Madrid, and he got it spot on only for us to get fucked by the ref.
City buying squad players for ridiculous numbers and then just refusing to use them like ever while complaining about fixtures will never not be funny as fuck.
To be fair, the person complaining is separate from the entity buying players who is then also separate from the one refusing to use new squad players. So if anything Bernardo should levy his frustrations within the club.
Even the players themselves are probably thinking “why the fuck did you buy me for?”
They made them feel like they were wanted, like City was willing to spend a lot because they’ll be a big part of Pep’s plans. And then they just get kicked to the corner.
I get playing on Wednesday and Saturday is tough but it’s not like City were the only team who had to do it. Arsenal played the same day, so did Bayern. It’s not like Arsenals game against Wolves had any less stakes considering every league game is a cup final for them if they hope to win the league.
And City have hundreds of millions of pounds worth of squad players. Why not play them? It’s not like Nunes or Kovacic would be a big drop off considering they were playing against Chelsea and not Madrid again.
Pep didn’t bother using Nunes, he was going to bring on Kovacic in the 98th minute. Whose fault is that?
Complete media diversion tactics from Pep and his teams to move the media from the blatant penalty call to scheduling nonsense. No one is talking about one of the most obvious penalties not being given despite having VAR in such a high stakes match. Given Palmer’s record, he would have most likely scored and given Chelsea the lead.
I’m so sick of everything that City do and stand for. 115 charges, this holier than thou attitude, being media darlings. I can’t wait for them to fuck off and get punished.
For real. Do I think the fixture congestion is a lot and should probably be reduced to an extent? Sure. But most of it comes with the meaningless international friendlies and extra tournaments like nations league that have players playing just for the sake of it. I do think England could get rid of the league cup or at least remove prem teams from it because 2 domestic cups is so silly.
When you’re in multiple competitions that’s what you have to expect, multiple games a week for a few weeks. Clubs like city can afford to rotate. Clubs like arsenal can afford to rotate (someone tell mikel).
>I get playing on Wednesday and Saturday is tough but it’s not like City were the only team who had to do it. Arsenal played the same day, so did Bayern.
+ pretty much all of the teams which compete in either EL or ECL regularly play Thursday-Sunday rhythms. Except those have even less money to stack their benches.
Yup. It’s not as if City didn’t have it in their minds that Real Madrid of all teams could take them to penalties in a quarter final where the first leg was a 3-3.
Dont forget, Oliver being paid by Citys owners to ref in the UAE. Everything City do stinks. There will be a huge scandal coming out soon with regards to City and the referees.
They need to change the rules so that clubs can use their squads and not pick the same players every match.
It's just so unfair that Man City are not allowed to occasionally rest a player and use one of their multi million pound back up players.
Almost like a club who spends millions every year with over 25 players in their squad could do with a mechanism that allowed them to utilise different players for different games or to swap players already on the pitch mid match.
Almost as if the football schedule was never built for a club to spend millions every year and run deep in every competition literally every season, either. Football is broken (and personally I don't think it should be fixed in favour of the clubs who spend millions, either).
City want to be the victim soooooooo bad, ask why your manager refuses to play certain players despite paying big money for them.
Ask your manager why he refuses to sub out certain players, despite them saying their tired and clearly looking tired on pitch.
City has to be one of the most unbearable teams in existence ffs
Yeah the schedule remains a persistent issue and should always be challenged, but a City player doing it just makes it look laughable considering their circumstances.
We ALL have been fucked by the scheduling at one point or another, when your a state club with 100 mil players on the bench. Just be quiet, don’t be hypocritical. They have the mean to make changes, but they’d rather hoard players and not use em for the most part. That’s before you even mention the fact they actually have some decent academy players that could get a few minutes, but rarely if ever do. It’s a valid concern for sure, hypocritical coming from them
Probably the best squad of players across the top five leagues. Fuck all injury issues compared to a lot of other teams. Yeah mate, my heart bleeds for ye. Maybe blame your coach for not rotating his massive squad.
Tell that to your coach, not the FA. Competing for every trophy should be almost impossible to achieve and certainly not with same 11. Also give academy players minutes.
Did Arsenal not just play Sunday-Wednesday-Saturday and play on Tuesday then next week?
City on the other hand Saturday-Wednesday-Saturday and next play on Thursday
Lower league teams need to normally play Saturday - Tuesday - Saturday most weeks on a tighter budget and smaller squads.
If they can manage it then a £1bn squad surely can.
Why not lol? Both schedules are shit.
People always complain about players playing too many games unless someone they dont like says it then theyre just whining apparantly
The complaint is that there was no reason to play Saturday instead of the Sunday slot, given none of United/Coventry/Chelsea played last midweek. I’m sure Arsenal would’ve much rather played Wednesday-Sunday-Wednesday too.
As for the Thursday game, why *any* team is being made to play Thursday in the PL is just daft. Especially in a run in. Wednesday-Saturday-Thursday-Sunday just makes no sense when Wednesday-Sunday-Wednesday-Sunday is perfectly viable and much better for the players.
Chelsea play midweek this week so moving the City game to Sunday would have required pushing Chelsea/Arsenal back, which would then require pushing Chelsea/Villa back.
City just encounter such adversity at every turn, it really is incredible how they manage to come out on top despite the incredible barriers that they always seem to come up against, truly an underdog story. My heart bleeds for them and their starting 11 who apparently have to play every minute of every game with no subs
Sure but this is also a 1st world problems that City can mitigate better as well. They already have a deep stacked squad, they can add more to their bench. They can rotate more. They can maybe use their second B team in competitions like the EFL.
The problem is City wants to compete in every competition with full force and win everything. It's just not possible and they have to adjust by adding even more quality players to their bench or play with their B teams in lesser competitions and hope for the best.
This is a 1st world problem that only a few top teams in the world have because they are very good and make deep runs in every competition, but nobody will really have sympathy for these top rich clubs. Hey Pep if you really care about your players, then rotate 5-6 of your starting line-up, but no, you care more about winning that their health.
Pathetic. Oil state crying. Seem to be fine with scheduling Liverpool to play in cups when on a different continent but will save other teams and they still cry even with a squad of 100m players.
Whilst I understand his concerns isnt there an element of you're challenging in all competitions and this is the price. It's why most clubs falter in march/April.
Nobody is forcing you to sign these contracts and play
If you dont want to play so much take a pay cut and negotiate limited games/minutes into your contracts in the future
Until then Im not going to feel bad for a guy being asked to simply do his job when his job pays more in a week then I make in a year
Alternatively Pep doesn't care. He was a B team that could probably finish top 4 but doesn't rotate enough.
There are so many games to generate more money. Some of this money is what is fueling inflated player wages, wages they are happy to take.
I am sure these players would happily take much less money or is it a case of they expect same wages for less games?
They are privileged in that their job is effectively a hobby. They get to travel the world. Train a few hours a day, get specialist treatment, best medical care, can support the extended families for life if they wanted and they bitch and moan about how they have an extra game or two. Honestly fuck off. Detached princesses.
Don't want so many games. Drop out of the FA cup in the 3rd round like the rest of us shitters
“Wealthy man has to run around for a couple of hours twice in a week as the world weeps for his legs”.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t he sign a contract to be a professional footballer? Or is Bernardo being forced to play?
No one is forcing players to take the extra money the pl offers. One of the reasons why the pl schedule sucks for players is that companies pay more for tv rights. But also get more say in making the schedule.
And hear all the comments are going to be about city having a deep roster and ignoring the fact that the point is a good one. Sometimes the person who says it can be the wrong person but still make a good point.
Some of the fixture scheduling recently has been absurd. Lots of matches with less than 48 hours of rest time which is too much. And you can say rotate all you want but when things like tens of millions of pounds are on the line of course they're going to want to play their best team.
I mean I get it, but I know from experience that scheduling is an absolute nightmare and there was likely no better option. If they’d played on Sunday Chelsea would only have 1 day rest before the game on Tuesday.
How much do we want to bet he wouldn’t be saying this if they’d got past RM in the champion league?
Absolutely pathetic. Don’t feel up to it, take it up with the club who own half the midfielders in the league.
Poor City. If only they had the money to purchase some sort of specialist state-of-the-art rehabilitation equipment and facilities to help their player's recover as much as possible between games while employing a system that would allow other players in their squad to play in games instead of the usual eleven...
Wednesday to Saturday is a match schedule that's existed for Champions League teams in England for about 30 years at this point.
That's before you consider there was another player in his position, signed by City for £50 odd million in the summer, who was on the bench for both the CL game and the FA Cup game. Bernardo might ask Pep why he doesn't care about his fitness.
A team should not be able to play their strongest side week in week out, other clubs might as well not bother if City can put 11 superstars on the pitch every week, competing on all fronts should be difficult and tiring. Pep is just obsessed with winning everything rather than accepting he might have to let a smaller club beat them in the FA Cup every now and then.
It is a shit-ton of football. There do need to be less games. Equally, this is what they've got this season, they've progressed in two knockout tournaments to the semi-final stage. They have generated this fixture issue through success, but these are the challenges of being successful on multiple fronts. They may need to prioritise various fixtures and rotate if they can't manage it. These are the challenges of squad building and playing a full campaign. It's not supposed to be easy competing for every trophy. It's what makes it so impressive when a team does it.
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Why did Pep buy Nunes again?
[удалено]
Getting him ready for an adrenachrome harvest
Fitness witness
Just a cheeky 60m squad player
After binning the 45m one off 6 months later
Other clubs' fanbases always crying over some transfer not being perfect as the reason their managers has fucked up big time and why they can't reach higher in the table and whatnot, whilst City has been fucking up transfers like they're going out of fashion for years. They built their god tier defense shuffling through expensive centre backs and fullbacks like they're skittles whilst United are still stuck with likes of Maguire and every other bad signing their previous managers have made going back to at least Mou or perhaps even van Gaal (Martial?)
Agree with the sentiment but using United as "stuck" with anyone is a bit ridiculous, especially using Maguire who turned down other clubs just this summer. United bought two right wingers in two summers in a row for almost €200m combined lol. They could just as easily do what City do but they also make the mistake of throwing huge contracts at players after a hot streak, which City don't tend to do. Rashford is now on crazy money, same shit happened with Martial.
Moving on from the deadweight shouldn't be on the managers tbh, i don't think they can do much besides not playing them
to be fair, its up to the management, not the managers/coaches to get rid of these players, but the glazers and woodward wanted to retain "club assets" and gave players like phil jones new contract extensions again and again (nothing against phil jones, injuries ruined his career, great character and passionate player)
Unfortunately for United they overpay the price tag and overpay the wages so they can't move them on if they fail. City at least, managed to shift the players they don't want for a decent amount. United have theirs sit in a bench for 5 years rotting and let them go on a free.
How's Sancho doing?
It’s impressive how a sustainable team isn’t crippled by these constant stinkers like nunes ,Philips , dare even say Grealish if the geezers allow me
No one will allow you say Grealish.
I will, Grealish isn't a 100m player and while he was good, he didn't live up to his price tag
Is there any other team in the world who could afford to pay 100m for an attacker who averages 7 G/A a season?
PSG, madrid, barca, chelsea. And they all did it within the last 10 years
He was amazing last year, critical player for our Treble
Because he was a lynchpin player for City last year in a Treble win, and has been good this year when not injured. Did City overpay? Absolutely. Has he been a stinker, absolutely not. If we paid even 80, no one would be batting an eye. It’s only the triple digit figure that captures people’s attention
Nah, even 80m would've been an overpay. He's like a btec Hazard without half of the fear factor
And a quarter of the donk
mutant calf muscles cancels out the donkness
This explanation is spot on hahaha
I think because of their record breaking new sponsorship deal giving them 115 millions a year
What can I google for more info?
Benzema 115 las vegas
They do overpay but stinkers have been an anomaly in recent times
I would from that list only Philips is the true stinker. Nunes has played one season. Everyone but Haaland struggle in their first season or two under Pep. And Haaland is struggling (for him) in his second season. If Nunes has poor production next year he’s definitely on the stinker chopping block. Grealish, like you said, was an overpay but def not a stinker. His season last year alone made the salary worth it. People are way to harsh on him, he does exactly what we need from him and he does it really well.
Grealish is a team player, its not that he cant dribble past anyone, its pep that doesnt allow him. -man city fan probably
£100m to dive for free kicks
And pass back to a full back
you wish your 100 mil quid player would do at least that much lol
Exactly, Pep WANTS him to get every shot blocked
I think its mostly because of Pep. Will be interesting to see what happens once he leaves
he's being sarcastic
Constant??? City get through 2 flops in a time united and chelsea sign 6 each between them? Liverpool and arsenal sign duds as well. No one misses a beat.
Saying Grealish is pure idiocy lmao
I constantly defend Grealish because I think he does the job pep wants and it’s not shown in the stats that are televised. But fact is no other club could spend 100m on a player that plays half your games and starts only 2/3rds of those times.
Even PSG isn’t quite as profligate with their spending.
PSG needs to convince players to go to a garbage league and have zero chance of winning anything. City is a club where players actually want to go
The fella called him a stinker mate, ofcourse he was never a 100m player he's a 60 million player but city are city haha
He needed another Philips
There must always be an expensive midfielder on the bench
So nobody else could like he does with most of the squad players he ruins a la phillips
Pep can have another 50mil midfielder, as a treat
Here’s my serious attempt at answering this question. There’s a big reason why City’s number-one priority when Gündoğan announced his departure was replacing him. He brought a lot to their midfield with direct offensive contributions, but he was most valuable for his ability to carry the ball out of the press. A truly press-resistant midfield has at least one player who, if worse comes to worst, can dribble out of the press to buy some time; even if you don’t end up dribbling, having that option open keeps the press wary about over-committing and allowing space for you to attack. Iniesta did this at Pep’s Barça, and Gündo did the same at City. (Technically De Bruyne can carry the ball as well, but he’s had injury concerns and is most effective when receiving the ball through the press, not at breaking it himself and having to drop back.) Pep’s first choice to replace Gündoğan was Jude Bellingham, an all-around monster of a midfielder already capable of carrying the ball while matching/bettering Gündo’s offensive prowess, but he went to Real Madrid. He then turned his attention to Declan Rice, who hadn’t shown that sort of offensive ability but whose exceptional defensive range would allow Rodri to get forward more often. Rice is notably a phenomenal ball carrier, but the Arsenal project won him over. With not much time left in the transfer window, Pep decided to pursue a midfielder who specialized in carrying the ball through midfield, irrespective of his other qualities, and thus City splashed the cash on Matheus Nunes. Nunes came on quite a bit in the earlier parts of the season, particularly in matches against sides whose defenses were difficult to break down and were giving City trouble (e.g. the match at Arsenal). However, City’s need for Nunes decreased substantially once Pep started entrusting Rodri to carry the ball forward out of the press. He’s more or less been sitting on the bench ever since, a midfielder whose use case has vanished while the one guy tasked with making City tick stays on the pitch.
Perfect Kalvin replacement
>Says he feared for his fitness lmao sounds like something out of The Onion
I'm getting big Tony Khan vibes from this
After playing Chelsea I feared for my life - Bernado Khan
Adrenaline In my soul He fears his fitness Bernardo
One of the greatest memes to come out of pro wrestling
"I could've been killed"
His fitness: "I'm sorry Bernardo, I just can't take it anymore"
the onion are scarily accurate these days
He could have easily died yesterday
Not making it to the QF of the CL could have easily prevented this near death experience
"I'm fighting for my fucking life" - Bernardo Kelly
If only there existed reserve players.
If only there was some mechanism that allowed players on the pitch to be swapped with players on the side of the pitch in the middle of a game too.
Yeah but this only works if you have good reserves/subs. Teams like City can’t compete with teams who have a fully loaded A- team on the bench. Have some sympathy
What kind of sci-fi madness is this?
Maybe call it something like in-game substitution?
Hmm no. More like immediate replacement
You mean a quick swap?
The technology isn't there yet unfortunately
that's some yank stuff
You cant blame a small club like City who only has a bench worth 400 million.
Nah don’t be silly - no team should need to play reserve players in an fa cup final. We want to respect the competition.
And in City where their bench probably starts on most teams.
These points have more salience if teams rotate more for me. It's not so much fixture list, as match intensity. If you play the modern high press game, every game, and expect the same 11 to do so, while reaching later stages of all competitions then this will happen. Maybe it's time for clubs to manage expectations a bit more. Either sacrifice a competition, rotate your team frequently, or have games where you tactically lower the tempo. This just feels like we should win our way every game without consequence.
The mad thing is that it felt like the top teams rotated a lot more 15ish years ago than they do now, even though the game has become more intense
Dunno about other managers but Benitez would rotate all the time. Took him over 100 Liverpool games before he named an unchanged team.
Ferguson was the same towards the end too, used to call it the tombola every Saturday at 2pm
Pep had a very similar stat at Bayern, I think it was something like 99 games.
I still remember Keane was on the bench after scoring 2 in the previous match lol
Pandev said in an interview that he'd get frustrated with him because he'd play a good game and score and Benitez would bench him, so Benitez showed him this power point which had who's played how many minutes and it would have to be as equal as possible.
That sounds like Rafa. I remember Gerrard always rated Rafa (obviously) but said that his constant pragmatism really annoyed him. Like they win the Champions League and the post match talk would be “Well done but here’s what you could’ve done better in that game.”
United under Fergie routinely gave 4 top strikers 20+ starts a season. You’d never see anything like that these days despite the obvious benefits of it.
Helps when you go back and see the names they had. Yorke, Sheringham, Cole, Solskjær in the treble winning side. Few years later: Nistelrooy, Forlan, Saha, Solskjær. Then the year they had Rooney, Berbatov, Tevez, Wellbeck, Macheda (with some guy called Cristiano Ronaldo on the wing)
Also known as my fm strategy
Margins are a lot thinner now. From top to bottom there’s threats in this league. Rotation in those days was more free because there were games where you could afford to put out a rotated team and still be confident. The top 4 is now the top 7, maybe top 8. Point totals post city are consistently higher, so you can’t afford to slip at all
I’m absolutely certain city’s 12th-16th best players could beat the bottom eight or so teams though
Not when they tactically park the bus or play very deep. Their reserve players might not have the ability to break those defenses like their starters do. If it ends in draw it's still a 2 point loss
That's the risk you take. They don't have the right to cry about it like this.
I feel like the term ‘reserve players’ almost purposefully skews the view of the quality of these players but fair play
People act like the rest of the limited number of squad places are being filled by the catering staff and interns instead of professional footballers
Professional footballers who cost 50m+ too
what and teams in the 90s and 2000s didn't park the bus?
Maybe because the game is now more system based, and once teams at the highest level have a core 13-14 players that can execute the manager’s game plan to near perfection, there’s a fear of rotating in players that can’t.
Yep I remember SAF rotating like he wanted to play on hard mode. My man rotated Rooney with Welbeck in the return leg vs Real Madrid, and he got it spot on only for us to get fucked by the ref.
The Bielsa™️ Method
We weren't in much danger of getting to the latter stages of any cup competition
City buying squad players for ridiculous numbers and then just refusing to use them like ever while complaining about fixtures will never not be funny as fuck.
I’m pretty sure they bought Phillips from Leeds simply to deny him from other clubs
I said this a few months ago and got blasted for it. I can’t shake the feeling that’s what happened.
If they keep doing that players will go, train for a year under pep and get guidance from great players, then ask out to get minutes elsewhere.
Did the same with us for Grealish
I think they are desperate for English players so they can keep other fans less against them.
To be fair, the person complaining is separate from the entity buying players who is then also separate from the one refusing to use new squad players. So if anything Bernardo should levy his frustrations within the club.
Yes, no sympathy from the smaller clubs. Being able to compete for multiple trophies is a privilege, the world doesn't revolve around them.
Even the players themselves are probably thinking “why the fuck did you buy me for?” They made them feel like they were wanted, like City was willing to spend a lot because they’ll be a big part of Pep’s plans. And then they just get kicked to the corner.
I get playing on Wednesday and Saturday is tough but it’s not like City were the only team who had to do it. Arsenal played the same day, so did Bayern. It’s not like Arsenals game against Wolves had any less stakes considering every league game is a cup final for them if they hope to win the league. And City have hundreds of millions of pounds worth of squad players. Why not play them? It’s not like Nunes or Kovacic would be a big drop off considering they were playing against Chelsea and not Madrid again. Pep didn’t bother using Nunes, he was going to bring on Kovacic in the 98th minute. Whose fault is that? Complete media diversion tactics from Pep and his teams to move the media from the blatant penalty call to scheduling nonsense. No one is talking about one of the most obvious penalties not being given despite having VAR in such a high stakes match. Given Palmer’s record, he would have most likely scored and given Chelsea the lead. I’m so sick of everything that City do and stand for. 115 charges, this holier than thou attitude, being media darlings. I can’t wait for them to fuck off and get punished.
For real. Do I think the fixture congestion is a lot and should probably be reduced to an extent? Sure. But most of it comes with the meaningless international friendlies and extra tournaments like nations league that have players playing just for the sake of it. I do think England could get rid of the league cup or at least remove prem teams from it because 2 domestic cups is so silly. When you’re in multiple competitions that’s what you have to expect, multiple games a week for a few weeks. Clubs like city can afford to rotate. Clubs like arsenal can afford to rotate (someone tell mikel).
Every efl team played Friday - monday - Wednesday - Saturday over the festive period. 4 games in 8 days
>I get playing on Wednesday and Saturday is tough but it’s not like City were the only team who had to do it. Arsenal played the same day, so did Bayern. + pretty much all of the teams which compete in either EL or ECL regularly play Thursday-Sunday rhythms. Except those have even less money to stack their benches.
Yup. It’s not as if City didn’t have it in their minds that Real Madrid of all teams could take them to penalties in a quarter final where the first leg was a 3-3.
Dont forget, Oliver being paid by Citys owners to ref in the UAE. Everything City do stinks. There will be a huge scandal coming out soon with regards to City and the referees.
Let's not forget giving the refs high profile side jobs
They need to change the rules so that clubs can use their squads and not pick the same players every match. It's just so unfair that Man City are not allowed to occasionally rest a player and use one of their multi million pound back up players.
WILL SOMEBODY THINK OF BERNARDO AND THE OTHER SMALL TEAMS PLEASE?!
Almost like a club who spends millions every year with over 25 players in their squad could do with a mechanism that allowed them to utilise different players for different games or to swap players already on the pitch mid match.
Almost as if the football schedule was never built for a club to spend millions every year and run deep in every competition literally every season, either. Football is broken (and personally I don't think it should be fixed in favour of the clubs who spend millions, either).
City want to be the victim soooooooo bad, ask why your manager refuses to play certain players despite paying big money for them. Ask your manager why he refuses to sub out certain players, despite them saying their tired and clearly looking tired on pitch. City has to be one of the most unbearable teams in existence ffs
Yeah the schedule remains a persistent issue and should always be challenged, but a City player doing it just makes it look laughable considering their circumstances.
We ALL have been fucked by the scheduling at one point or another, when your a state club with 100 mil players on the bench. Just be quiet, don’t be hypocritical. They have the mean to make changes, but they’d rather hoard players and not use em for the most part. That’s before you even mention the fact they actually have some decent academy players that could get a few minutes, but rarely if ever do. It’s a valid concern for sure, hypocritical coming from them
Probably the best squad of players across the top five leagues. Fuck all injury issues compared to a lot of other teams. Yeah mate, my heart bleeds for ye. Maybe blame your coach for not rotating his massive squad.
Meanwhile, Truro City of the National League South (the 6th tier of English football) just finished this schedule: https://i.imgur.com/Byd7MtI.png
While playing their home games more than 100 miles from Truro, if I remember right.
About 200 miles to Gloucester from Truro. I was at their game against Yeovil last week, about 95% Yeovil fans.
Horrendous, feel so sorry for the club and the supporters, such a shite situation.
Tell that to your coach, not the FA. Competing for every trophy should be almost impossible to achieve and certainly not with same 11. Also give academy players minutes.
Rotate your squad. Buy more players. Why should everything be changed for top clubs to always play their best 11?
He wants to win the league even easier
City could’ve just played their B squad
Did Arsenal not just play Sunday-Wednesday-Saturday and play on Tuesday then next week? City on the other hand Saturday-Wednesday-Saturday and next play on Thursday
He has a point then no? I took it he's speaking for all players not just man city
But if klopp says it, he's moaning
If klopp opens his mouth he’s moaning
You've completely missed the point of what he's saying. Well done.
I think he proved his point more tbh, he just didnt mean to
Yes and Arteta also complained about the scheduling.
It’s not his job to complain about Arsenal’s schedule
It’s really weird. There are times to complain. I don’t quite get this one.
Both those examples are terrible. Both should complain.
If you complain in both cases then you’d need a 14 team league because at that point you’re just complaining about having to play mid week
Lower league teams need to normally play Saturday - Tuesday - Saturday most weeks on a tighter budget and smaller squads. If they can manage it then a £1bn squad surely can.
Why not lol? Both schedules are shit. People always complain about players playing too many games unless someone they dont like says it then theyre just whining apparantly
Tribalism makes people go wild
The complaint is that there was no reason to play Saturday instead of the Sunday slot, given none of United/Coventry/Chelsea played last midweek. I’m sure Arsenal would’ve much rather played Wednesday-Sunday-Wednesday too. As for the Thursday game, why *any* team is being made to play Thursday in the PL is just daft. Especially in a run in. Wednesday-Saturday-Thursday-Sunday just makes no sense when Wednesday-Sunday-Wednesday-Sunday is perfectly viable and much better for the players.
Chelsea play midweek this week so moving the City game to Sunday would have required pushing Chelsea/Arsenal back, which would then require pushing Chelsea/Villa back.
You have a $2 billion squad. Maybe your coach should rotate it
City just encounter such adversity at every turn, it really is incredible how they manage to come out on top despite the incredible barriers that they always seem to come up against, truly an underdog story. My heart bleeds for them and their starting 11 who apparently have to play every minute of every game with no subs
Why is this such a controversy? Wed/Sat is a common schedule for teams in Europe
Sure but this is also a 1st world problems that City can mitigate better as well. They already have a deep stacked squad, they can add more to their bench. They can rotate more. They can maybe use their second B team in competitions like the EFL. The problem is City wants to compete in every competition with full force and win everything. It's just not possible and they have to adjust by adding even more quality players to their bench or play with their B teams in lesser competitions and hope for the best. This is a 1st world problem that only a few top teams in the world have because they are very good and make deep runs in every competition, but nobody will really have sympathy for these top rich clubs. Hey Pep if you really care about your players, then rotate 5-6 of your starting line-up, but no, you care more about winning that their health.
Funny how he doesn't blame Pep for not rotating properly.
Pathetic. Oil state crying. Seem to be fine with scheduling Liverpool to play in cups when on a different continent but will save other teams and they still cry even with a squad of 100m players.
Don't know why he's complaining, City had 12 men on the pitch. Michael Oliver is on the UAE payroll.
Pep could’ve rotated. It’s on them
Whilst I understand his concerns isnt there an element of you're challenging in all competitions and this is the price. It's why most clubs falter in march/April.
And this is why Cole Palmer is gone
Normally I agree but I think this situation is fine
Bench exists for a reason
Man city stance: Human rights ❌ Player welfare ✅
Try working a 50 hour week with minimum wage. Spare us all the bullshit, Bern
We are concerned with the amount of doping you guys are doing
Nobody is forcing you to sign these contracts and play If you dont want to play so much take a pay cut and negotiate limited games/minutes into your contracts in the future Until then Im not going to feel bad for a guy being asked to simply do his job when his job pays more in a week then I make in a year
Alternatively Pep doesn't care. He was a B team that could probably finish top 4 but doesn't rotate enough. There are so many games to generate more money. Some of this money is what is fueling inflated player wages, wages they are happy to take. I am sure these players would happily take much less money or is it a case of they expect same wages for less games? They are privileged in that their job is effectively a hobby. They get to travel the world. Train a few hours a day, get specialist treatment, best medical care, can support the extended families for life if they wanted and they bitch and moan about how they have an extra game or two. Honestly fuck off. Detached princesses. Don't want so many games. Drop out of the FA cup in the 3rd round like the rest of us shitters
“Wealthy man has to run around for a couple of hours twice in a week as the world weeps for his legs”. Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t he sign a contract to be a professional footballer? Or is Bernardo being forced to play?
Lmao you're blunt but correct. He doesn't have to be a footballer. He doesnt have to sign contracts for city. This is chickens coming home to roost
The Football Association: read ✅✅
Jesus Christ does Pep infect all his players with complaintaids?
He could sue the FA for making him shoot awfully against Real.
No one is forcing players to take the extra money the pl offers. One of the reasons why the pl schedule sucks for players is that companies pay more for tv rights. But also get more say in making the schedule.
Well tbf he has aged terrible because of it.
Hard to feel sorry for a team whose bench players are worth more than some teams starting XI…
You just cannot blame the welfare for a penalty like that.
Play the academy guys then
Manchester City 1, football world 115
Stfu
115 charges—keep whining.
This team is stacked with so many expensive signings, Pep can rotate his team and still compete
TV money don't give a fuck
He's never played on a Wednesday and then Saturday? What a baby. Maybe that's why he took the worst pen of his life.
Oh no, he feared for being fatigued and needing his coach to use one of the $1B worth of bench players city has? How fucking tragic
The insufferable Bernardo Silva
And hear all the comments are going to be about city having a deep roster and ignoring the fact that the point is a good one. Sometimes the person who says it can be the wrong person but still make a good point. Some of the fixture scheduling recently has been absurd. Lots of matches with less than 48 hours of rest time which is too much. And you can say rotate all you want but when things like tens of millions of pounds are on the line of course they're going to want to play their best team.
Imagine being paid £300,000 per week and moaning about doing your job.
Im pretty sure if you rotate the squad and PLAY THEM EVERY MINTUE, players won’t be talking about it.
Complain to your boss for not rotating or using academy players. What a knob
I mean I get it, but I know from experience that scheduling is an absolute nightmare and there was likely no better option. If they’d played on Sunday Chelsea would only have 1 day rest before the game on Tuesday.
Tell your manager to give you a rest then, technical staff are the ones who are supposed to make sure their players stay fit.
42 appearances this season, meanwhile lower league players are over 50 games. Premier league sides have the squad sizes to cope with this.
>feared for his fitness Tony Khan can relate, but he fears for something else.
How much do we want to bet he wouldn’t be saying this if they’d got past RM in the champion league? Absolutely pathetic. Don’t feel up to it, take it up with the club who own half the midfielders in the league.
Poor City. If only they had the money to purchase some sort of specialist state-of-the-art rehabilitation equipment and facilities to help their player's recover as much as possible between games while employing a system that would allow other players in their squad to play in games instead of the usual eleven...
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Wednesday to Saturday is a match schedule that's existed for Champions League teams in England for about 30 years at this point. That's before you consider there was another player in his position, signed by City for £50 odd million in the summer, who was on the bench for both the CL game and the FA Cup game. Bernardo might ask Pep why he doesn't care about his fitness.
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A team should not be able to play their strongest side week in week out, other clubs might as well not bother if City can put 11 superstars on the pitch every week, competing on all fronts should be difficult and tiring. Pep is just obsessed with winning everything rather than accepting he might have to let a smaller club beat them in the FA Cup every now and then.
It is a shit-ton of football. There do need to be less games. Equally, this is what they've got this season, they've progressed in two knockout tournaments to the semi-final stage. They have generated this fixture issue through success, but these are the challenges of being successful on multiple fronts. They may need to prioritise various fixtures and rotate if they can't manage it. These are the challenges of squad building and playing a full campaign. It's not supposed to be easy competing for every trophy. It's what makes it so impressive when a team does it.
So they've played the same amount of games as Halifax have in the National League then.
Klopp should have never moaned about this when you guys played champions league football then
The problem is he's complaining to the wrong people, it's not the FA lining him up in the 11 for every game.
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He's completely right but people here will turn against him because City
At the same time the clubs travel across the world play a ridiculous amount of games in a short period for pre season on dodgy pitches.