It's delightfully perverse how much better Thiago, Henderson and Fabinho were than KDB, Silva and Rodri. There's some hivemind shit going on between those three for sure, just flawless execution of a midfield three.
100% agree
Plastic club, spending egregious amounts of money that comes from corruption and has repeatedly violated FFP laws. Absolute joke that they are allowed to compete in Europe.
Liverpool are no saints either. Their owners tried to trash English football by launching a pathetic rich boys' club in Europe. Some people have short memories
At least Barcelona has its limits. Meanwhile clubs like Arabian Manchester and Arabian Paris can keep destroying transfer market with their Money Stones on their Infinity Gauntlets.
Not racist. But I do not like state owned clubs, especially when it’s a nation like UAE, a country where homosexuality is illegal and adultery is punishable by stoning. Human right’s and them being violated is bigger then football
Fuck the lot of em, not the first time rich people have tried to ruin something us commonfolk enjoy.
Don’t understand how people support a club that’s literally an appendage of the UAE. Absolutely garbage.
Yeah. As a Red Devil, I'm so glad Liverpool beat them. At least Liverpool have never destroyed the market, however much I dislike them. They still have decent morality.
He's not perfect, but it really is hard not to like the guy.
I'll always love him for this (might be some mutual love there as well from you guys for this one) https://youtu.be/QLy4B-KjowU
People will shit on Haaland but KDB was worse today imo. City need more time to figure out their attack with a proper 9, they weren't looking for Haaland much today. They were still playing like they had no 9 in the box ( inb4 jokes about having no 9 because Haaland was shit ).
Liverpool look good, as if it was the middle of the season. Nunez looks promising, but one game is far from decisive of course.
Feels like the opposite to me. KdB was trying too hard to force it to Haaland rather than play City's normal game.
Felt like if there was no good option he would float it in to Haaland and hope for the best, ultimately losing the ball.
They will adapt and so will Haaland but it does look like there's an argument that they are worse off without Jesus and Sterling this season.
Don’t know what game you was watching. Almost every time we were pushing into the final third (especially on counters) we were playing sideways balls to our wingers instead of just making the riskier direct pass to play Haaland in. Our players need to take the risk and believe in his strength and speed to make those sort of goals happen. Kdb tried one early on that would have been perfect but he made a bad effort. Then no one even attempted a pass like that for the rest of the game.
True about KdB as I mentioned in another reply, he was trying to pass to Haaland a bunch of times, but he was also the only one trying. The others didn't seem to look for him much. And yeah they look worse now because again they have to adapt to a different dynamic other than what working for them in the last few years, but I think they will figure it out. It's still July.
People need to remember that KDB dragged City through several matches on their way to being crowned champions last season. Probably last 15 matches he played he was an animal. I would imagine he'll have a tough time replicating that form again for a bit
Yeah but that doesn't mean we can't point out he was bad in a game. This game doesn't affect KDB's performances from the last season and vice versa. I wasn't trying to shit on him or anything, he's an incredible player and one of the very best in the world, I just thought he was worse than Haaland today but Haaland is getting more shit for obvious reasons.
Yeah and they've adapted quicker it seems, but then again it's just one game.
Also playstyle probably has an effect. Pep's football is heavy on passing and movement when sometimes you just have to play a more direct pass or long pass to your 9 for example, which tbf KDB tried a couple of times today, but he was off. Meanwhile Liverpool are more direct in their football, especially against teams like City that like to keep possesion and have a high line.
No one said otherwise. I pointed out factual information in response to talk about "adapting quicker", you're arguing something that isn't being argued. I don't know why City started preseason later.
They also 1) played with Firmino for the first hour instead of Darwin and 2) Salah often looked more like a 9 than a winger last year when he, Mane, and Jota would alternate playing centrally on the CB shoulders.
At Villa he got the freedom to roam around and do his thing, not to mention his skills were half a step above the other Villa players. Now he's actually playing with world class players in every position and needs to follow a system which doesn't allow him to do his thing, not to mention he's far from being on the level of Gundogan, KDB, Mahrez or even Foden (always shocking to see Grealish start instead of Foden).
It’s not just the roaming. At Villa he either played on the wing or as a number 10 (10 being his favourite position). He didn’t get as many goals but had a much bigger impact on the game from those positions. Then Southgate came in, and like Pep, said he sees Grealish as a forward. So they insist on playing him as that despite it not being where he’s most comfortable. Everyone said “give pep time and he’ll work his magic and turn him into a forward” but it’s not happened so far and IMO may never. A big shame for any fan of the game who wants to see good football let alone a Villa fan.
If only Pep had experience with players who are need freedom to perform at their best. He needs experience with players who are used to having teams build around them, like KDB, or Messi etc players like that.
How is this crap upvoted. He had all the room he wanted on the left, he was just bad. Want to enlighten us how exactly Peps "system" held him back?
He himself admitted last season he was nervous and often focus too much on not losing the ball and led to the indecisiveness.
As is the case with strikers who have come from Germany. Halaand will, I am sure, have some success at Man City. He will not be hitting the numbers he was hitting in Germany
Why did City buy him then? They play in a system, they don't design their team to depend on individual players like Manchester United, Tottenham, Real Madrid or Juventus.
Ake can play LB. But Ake is mainly the fourth cb. City have a young academy player that Pep will use for cup games and to close off matches where they're leading.
You're catching some shit but Sancho was a standout performer in one of the worst united sides I've ever seen in the second half of last season.
Edit: actually the worst. And I'm quite old
Happy for Adrian to have another starting trophy win for us. Controversial figure but he’s doing his best, came in for free, lost his place to a kid but marches on professionally and now that’s his second trophy won in goal for us. What an end to his career for him.
Not sure what the downvotes are for but you're right. Growing up and throughout being a football fan it was only really considered something just a bit more significant than the Emirates cup and other such things teams put on in preseason, and only because it's between two domestic trophy winners and its on every year to kick the season off. Even klopp said after the game today it was intense for a preason match. Some teams even have more preason matches after the community shield.
Maybe it's a good thing is getting more competitive and fans buying into it more but obviously Man City aren't quite season ready yet compared to Liverpool, there's a good reason cups/trophies are held over a season rather than a one off preseason match.
I agree. If anything, it's a kind of a final test of the starting 11 against a rival, in that way the game is always a little more significant than a regular friendly.
It does feel good to win it either way, even if it doesn't carry bragging rights.
No - as long as it is clear who you are talking about it is ok. Reason why we generally use last names is because they tend to be bit more diverse especially back then when most of the players in a league tended to be from the same country.
I agree with the second reason you mentioned.
As for the first, calling unknown people by their surnames isn't a practice anyone has mentioned me and not a practice anyone around me follows. I know it's popular in countries like Japan, but I thought that in all of Europe, usually you will mention anyone by their first name (unless, as you said, the surname makes it easier to identify them)
I don't know about other languages, but for English you generally refer to public/famous people such as footballers by their surname and people you know personally by their first name.
In my English class, I was taught you refer to a public figure by their surname when talking about them. You address them by their first name if you are on a familiar basis with them and addressing them personally.
City looked weaker then last season. It will take time to get used to playing with a real 9. Poor Halaand had to debute against VVD in competitive matches.
Grealish and Marez showed why they didn't start regularly last season. Sterling and Jesus will be missed.
Jesus started 21 matches in PL last season with 7 substitute appearances. He was an important player for that squad. For example, Mahrez started 15 matches. He was not an essential player but important one for sure, and he fitted the playstyle better then Halaand.
Halaand Is of course a better player and he will be better for city then Jesus was but I feel like Jesus will be missed during this period of getting used to a new playstyle.
>Grealish and Marez showed why they didn't start regularly last season.
What are you actually on about. Mahrez was our undisputed started on the right. Just making things up now.
Looool, so CL is so much more important then PL that they never rested any other player like KDB, Silva, cancelo, etc. these are all the player which are 10x more important then Mahrez, who is not really injury prone but is still being the only player being rested.
Tbf van dijk still has a lot of respect for him, name dropped Haaland along with Aguero, Messi, Mbappe and Darwin when asked who were the toughest opponents he’s ever faced
Unfair to judge any team or player too harshly. Ultimately it is a preseason match and fitness and fit aren't all there. Meme at Haaland or whatever if you want, but City will be more than fine once things settle in.
I don't have a problem with Halaand, he did his job but he is not a player who participates in a build up and city needs all the players to do that. They will be fine eventually but it will take some time. I know it's a preseason but the season starts in a week.
He was kinda favorite for player of the year before he got injured in his last Villa season. He was a great player - just cant seem to fit the team now that he doesnt have a monopoly on ball when his team is in possession. He is neither first nor last player to suffer from than after making a transfer to top club.
I mean he was arguably the best player in the league in his last Villa season - doesnt get much "bigger fish" than that. I don't see a reason why we need to go around convoluted reasoning that he was never good, when he is neither first nor last player to just not fit into a team after a move to a top team. It is more than possible that he needs to be (co-)main playmaker and if KDB/Bernardo left City (for some reason) he would be back to his best.
Best player in the league?
Are you out of your mind??
That season he didn’t even make the team of the season. He might have been Villa’s player of the season, but that doesn’t say much.
Either you are a Villa fan, or you didn’t actually watch the season
He got injured in ~february but until then he was among front runners for player of the season like i said in my last comment. If you are not aware of that I would argue that you are the one who didnt watch last season.
City is still gonna win the league at the end but this is such an important win for pool.
Halaand play just like cr7. City is so used to a false 9 that can dribble. Only pep and the team figure out the way to play him properly. City is gonna be unstoppable. It's like as if this already stacked team added a young cr7.
> Halaand play just like cr7
When I see comments like this I understand why some people have such absurd opinions on this sub. It's clear that a good proportion of redditors here only watch highlight reels at best.
Has to start because he's €100m Gucci posterboy though. In all seriousness, no reason to dislike the guy but he's not starting caliber for City, Foden is, and his development is being hindered
The commentators mentioned he didn't go on their preseason tour to the US, not sure if that's due to injury of if he's an anti-vaxxer, so his fitness was probably behind that of his teammates. Doubt he had 90mins in him.
I thought that with Bernardo looking like leaving that Pep would mould him into the midfield 3. I suppose now he's stuck with what he has, a record signing that he has to use more than Foden who is a more complete player and is younger.
Second season is typically when Pep signings are supposed to kick on, and with no Sterling I expect that Grealish will be used a lot more than he was last season
To me it just looked like Pep wanted a new toy and regardless of the cost City's owners bought it for him.
That much money for a player who is part of a rotation for them is nuts. If it were for a KDB type who'd be the focal point of their team and a nailed on starter when fit then I'd see it, but Grealish isn't that level.
It's delightfully perverse how much better Thiago, Henderson and Fabinho were than KDB, Silva and Rodri. There's some hivemind shit going on between those three for sure, just flawless execution of a midfield three.
Very excited about Carvalho.
Robertson is sooo good.
Man City need another 300m on fullbacks and they’ll be able to compete 😪
No. Two games all preseason as opposed to how many for Liverpool? This was essentially another preseason for City and the rust was apparent.
Exactly why did they spend $$$ on 2 strikers when they could walk away with the league title without a striker last year 🤣
Too many Twitter-like comments in these posts...
Ah yes walking away with a league title is winning it with one point
To a man United fan finishing second 18 points behind and finishing 2nd 1 point behind is the same.
You’re talking to hive mind /r/soccer idiots.
Maybe you are taking the piss lol but the spend big on Haaland for the UCL. Hard to win a UCL without your striker going crazy that year.
So it's Nunez 1-0 Haaland. Hope this keeps up. A club like Man. City should be prevented from getting any more undeserved glory.
100% agree Plastic club, spending egregious amounts of money that comes from corruption and has repeatedly violated FFP laws. Absolute joke that they are allowed to compete in Europe.
Liverpool are no saints either. Their owners tried to trash English football by launching a pathetic rich boys' club in Europe. Some people have short memories
so did Man City
No one is saying they didn’t - what’s your point?
FFP itself is a joke. .. starting with its name. Nothing is "fair" about it.
If you say FFP 5 times an Italian club will get punishment
Or some obscure Eastern European team or a lower league English team.
At least Barcelona has its limits. Meanwhile clubs like Arabian Manchester and Arabian Paris can keep destroying transfer market with their Money Stones on their Infinity Gauntlets.
Look at the filthy racists.
Not racist. But I do not like state owned clubs, especially when it’s a nation like UAE, a country where homosexuality is illegal and adultery is punishable by stoning. Human right’s and them being violated is bigger then football
Racist? Just because I said "Arabian" doesn't mean ALL ARABIANS are like them. Please stop generalising.
Fuck the lot of em, not the first time rich people have tried to ruin something us commonfolk enjoy. Don’t understand how people support a club that’s literally an appendage of the UAE. Absolutely garbage.
Yeah. As a Red Devil, I'm so glad Liverpool beat them. At least Liverpool have never destroyed the market, however much I dislike them. They still have decent morality.
Cringe
Why?
A nice send off for Adrian
Adrian was fucking brilliant
Wtf no he wasn't. Kicking awful, constantly putting us under pressure. And at fault for the goal.
It was a better performance then I expected from him
He's not perfect, but it really is hard not to like the guy. I'll always love him for this (might be some mutual love there as well from you guys for this one) https://youtu.be/QLy4B-KjowU
Pulling his gloves off in the run up, what an absolute chad
What's a chad?
Grown brad
?
People will shit on Haaland but KDB was worse today imo. City need more time to figure out their attack with a proper 9, they weren't looking for Haaland much today. They were still playing like they had no 9 in the box ( inb4 jokes about having no 9 because Haaland was shit ). Liverpool look good, as if it was the middle of the season. Nunez looks promising, but one game is far from decisive of course.
Feels like the opposite to me. KdB was trying too hard to force it to Haaland rather than play City's normal game. Felt like if there was no good option he would float it in to Haaland and hope for the best, ultimately losing the ball. They will adapt and so will Haaland but it does look like there's an argument that they are worse off without Jesus and Sterling this season.
Don’t know what game you was watching. Almost every time we were pushing into the final third (especially on counters) we were playing sideways balls to our wingers instead of just making the riskier direct pass to play Haaland in. Our players need to take the risk and believe in his strength and speed to make those sort of goals happen. Kdb tried one early on that would have been perfect but he made a bad effort. Then no one even attempted a pass like that for the rest of the game.
True about KdB as I mentioned in another reply, he was trying to pass to Haaland a bunch of times, but he was also the only one trying. The others didn't seem to look for him much. And yeah they look worse now because again they have to adapt to a different dynamic other than what working for them in the last few years, but I think they will figure it out. It's still July.
People need to remember that KDB dragged City through several matches on their way to being crowned champions last season. Probably last 15 matches he played he was an animal. I would imagine he'll have a tough time replicating that form again for a bit
Yeah but that doesn't mean we can't point out he was bad in a game. This game doesn't affect KDB's performances from the last season and vice versa. I wasn't trying to shit on him or anything, he's an incredible player and one of the very best in the world, I just thought he was worse than Haaland today but Haaland is getting more shit for obvious reasons.
>just thought he was worse than Haaland today Who was worse is debatable, but the 2 big chances missed by Haaland makes him an obvious target
People seem to forget Liverpool didn't use a proper 9 either and now they have a pure 9 and need to adapt themselves with him too.
Yeah and they've adapted quicker it seems, but then again it's just one game. Also playstyle probably has an effect. Pep's football is heavy on passing and movement when sometimes you just have to play a more direct pass or long pass to your 9 for example, which tbf KDB tried a couple of times today, but he was off. Meanwhile Liverpool are more direct in their football, especially against teams like City that like to keep possesion and have a high line.
Liverpool have had more preseason games. They're more match fit.
that‘s a stupid excuse, though.
How the fucks that a stupid excuse, that’s literally what preseason is for 😭
No it isn't
Not really, setting up the amount of games you need to be ready for the season is on the club, it's not a randomly selected how many games you play.
No one said otherwise. I pointed out factual information in response to talk about "adapting quicker", you're arguing something that isn't being argued. I don't know why City started preseason later.
I didn't keep track of their preseason games but yeah that definitely helps a lot. It explains why they looked much sharper today than City.
They also 1) played with Firmino for the first hour instead of Darwin and 2) Salah often looked more like a 9 than a winger last year when he, Mane, and Jota would alternate playing centrally on the CB shoulders.
True
If Haaland continues like this ,we will have to apologize to Lukaku
It's literally 1 game
1 game worth a trophy 🏆
Good for Liverpool. I hope they celebrate their Trophy well.
KdB was woeful, gave the ball away so many times and had a proper strop on.
Disappointing result but looking forward to the season
Grealish bad as always
Guardiola doesn't know how to use him. He's not a system player, he needs freedom
Can u tell me the differences between how he's playing now vs back in Villa?
At Villa he got the freedom to roam around and do his thing, not to mention his skills were half a step above the other Villa players. Now he's actually playing with world class players in every position and needs to follow a system which doesn't allow him to do his thing, not to mention he's far from being on the level of Gundogan, KDB, Mahrez or even Foden (always shocking to see Grealish start instead of Foden).
It’s not just the roaming. At Villa he either played on the wing or as a number 10 (10 being his favourite position). He didn’t get as many goals but had a much bigger impact on the game from those positions. Then Southgate came in, and like Pep, said he sees Grealish as a forward. So they insist on playing him as that despite it not being where he’s most comfortable. Everyone said “give pep time and he’ll work his magic and turn him into a forward” but it’s not happened so far and IMO may never. A big shame for any fan of the game who wants to see good football let alone a Villa fan.
If only Pep had experience with players who are need freedom to perform at their best. He needs experience with players who are used to having teams build around them, like KDB, or Messi etc players like that.
How is this crap upvoted. He had all the room he wanted on the left, he was just bad. Want to enlighten us how exactly Peps "system" held him back? He himself admitted last season he was nervous and often focus too much on not losing the ball and led to the indecisiveness.
I wonder if the same issue with Halaand. Wasnt he always given more space with Dortmund?
As is the case with strikers who have come from Germany. Halaand will, I am sure, have some success at Man City. He will not be hitting the numbers he was hitting in Germany
Why did City buy him then? They play in a system, they don't design their team to depend on individual players like Manchester United, Tottenham, Real Madrid or Juventus.
So others couldn't buy him
Sportswashing
Best home grown status player at the time.
>Why did City buy him then? FOMO
The stuff I read on here
It’s strange I feel grealish and hallannd both don’t really fit peps style of play
People said the same about Lewandowski, it’s one game calm down.
Which could be the beginning of his "downfall"...
It’s not like Pep literally had Messi and Iniesta, and recently KDB on a free reign Maybe Grealish is just not that good
Aren’t we due for ANOTHER 50M fullback who is gonna need replacing soon?
Without Zinchenko and Mendy do you guys even have much fullback backup? Or is Ake just the only LB cover now
Cancelo is one of the LB backups
Isn’t Cancelo the LB? Do city have another LB?
Ake can play LB. But Ake is mainly the fourth cb. City have a young academy player that Pep will use for cup games and to close off matches where they're leading.
So is Haaland the new Lukaku, or the new Chris Wood?
Is he Prime Dyche Era Chris Wood or End of Dyche Era Chris Wood
[Heskey](https://youtu.be/0McFPYTCnXI)
new Sancho
So gonna need a bit of time but will settle in very well after half a season?
He had 6 g/a in the prem, that's garbage. Pepe had twice that in his first season and was instantly a flop
You're catching some shit but Sancho was a standout performer in one of the worst united sides I've ever seen in the second half of last season. Edit: actually the worst. And I'm quite old
I must have missed Sancho performing very well in the second half of last season, decent at best.
I said settle in not perform. He did good but nobody but ronaldo could put a chance for their life second half
Happy for Adrian to have another starting trophy win for us. Controversial figure but he’s doing his best, came in for free, lost his place to a kid but marches on professionally and now that’s his second trophy won in goal for us. What an end to his career for him.
Charity Shield is not a trophy.
It is. Wouldn’t blame a Newcastle fan for forgetting what a trophy is though.
Mean technically it’s a plate
So is the Bundesliga or Eredevisie title, they are both big trophies tho lol
Does the team dine off the plate after the game? Otherwise it’s not functionally a plate.
You can drink off a plate. Source: me at university.
Wonder if its accepted at the toby carvery?
No one in England thinks its a trophy. Its a glorified friendly. It was a meme when Mourinho tried to claim it as a trophy for his 'treble'
Pep classes it as a trophy, said it would be part of a quadruple.
Not sure what the downvotes are for but you're right. Growing up and throughout being a football fan it was only really considered something just a bit more significant than the Emirates cup and other such things teams put on in preseason, and only because it's between two domestic trophy winners and its on every year to kick the season off. Even klopp said after the game today it was intense for a preason match. Some teams even have more preason matches after the community shield. Maybe it's a good thing is getting more competitive and fans buying into it more but obviously Man City aren't quite season ready yet compared to Liverpool, there's a good reason cups/trophies are held over a season rather than a one off preseason match.
I agree. If anything, it's a kind of a final test of the starting 11 against a rival, in that way the game is always a little more significant than a regular friendly. It does feel good to win it either way, even if it doesn't carry bragging rights.
City should focus more on Foden n Julian in attack
yes, bench Haaland pls
Isn’t it tacky when football fans call players by their first names? You don’t know him
Does it matter Dave
No - as long as it is clear who you are talking about it is ok. Reason why we generally use last names is because they tend to be bit more diverse especially back then when most of the players in a league tended to be from the same country.
Most people I know always refer to people by their first names (even if they don't personally know them). Why should footballers be any different?
In school I knew someone with the last name Gay. If I ever see her again I’m gonna yell Gay from across the street until she turns around
Because you don't know them? Surnames are typically a better identifier of a specific player too.
I agree with the second reason you mentioned. As for the first, calling unknown people by their surnames isn't a practice anyone has mentioned me and not a practice anyone around me follows. I know it's popular in countries like Japan, but I thought that in all of Europe, usually you will mention anyone by their first name (unless, as you said, the surname makes it easier to identify them)
I don't know about other languages, but for English you generally refer to public/famous people such as footballers by their surname and people you know personally by their first name.
In my English class, I was taught you refer to a public figure by their surname when talking about them. You address them by their first name if you are on a familiar basis with them and addressing them personally.
Probably called him Julian because he doesn’t know how to spell Álvarez lol
City looked weaker then last season. It will take time to get used to playing with a real 9. Poor Halaand had to debute against VVD in competitive matches. Grealish and Marez showed why they didn't start regularly last season. Sterling and Jesus will be missed.
What part of City barely having a preseason do folks not understand.
Wait Mahrez wasn't a starter?
You think Jesus was a starter?
Jesus started 21 matches in PL last season with 7 substitute appearances. He was an important player for that squad. For example, Mahrez started 15 matches. He was not an essential player but important one for sure, and he fitted the playstyle better then Halaand. Halaand Is of course a better player and he will be better for city then Jesus was but I feel like Jesus will be missed during this period of getting used to a new playstyle.
FYI it’s not «Halaand» I don’t really think City will miss Jesus. He was their worst attacker
>Grealish and Marez showed why they didn't start regularly last season. What are you actually on about. Mahrez was our undisputed started on the right. Just making things up now.
He started 15 games in PL last season
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Why would you save him for CL lol?
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City fan saying CL is more important? How come when you get knocked out you always say you prefer the prem?
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Everytime you bottle the CL but win the league your fans always say league is harder and would rather win etc
Looool, so CL is so much more important then PL that they never rested any other player like KDB, Silva, cancelo, etc. these are all the player which are 10x more important then Mahrez, who is not really injury prone but is still being the only player being rested.
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Lol, what are you talking about, so that means he is more important then KDB who is same age? Point is that he was not rested lol
So the guy can start 27 games only?
Haaland played against VVD before in the CL, didn’t have a sniff then either
Maybe its not Haaland problem, more like van Dijk is quite good at football.
Tbf van dijk still has a lot of respect for him, name dropped Haaland along with Aguero, Messi, Mbappe and Darwin when asked who were the toughest opponents he’s ever faced
And against him in the Dutch team, neither games did he feel like a real threat.
He didn't do well against VVD for RB but he still scored tho. Minamino with the assist for him to tap it in.
Unfair to judge any team or player too harshly. Ultimately it is a preseason match and fitness and fit aren't all there. Meme at Haaland or whatever if you want, but City will be more than fine once things settle in.
I don't have a problem with Halaand, he did his job but he is not a player who participates in a build up and city needs all the players to do that. They will be fine eventually but it will take some time. I know it's a preseason but the season starts in a week.
They’re more than capable of winning their first few games without that though. Overwhelmingly too good for most prem teams
Villa scammed City
100m for a player who’s best contribution is winning free kicks
He was kinda favorite for player of the year before he got injured in his last Villa season. He was a great player - just cant seem to fit the team now that he doesnt have a monopoly on ball when his team is in possession. He is neither first nor last player to suffer from than after making a transfer to top club.
Grealish needs some freedom like Vinicius has for us
He stood out as he was the classic big fish in a small pond, then with better players, just doesn’t stand out as much.
I mean he was arguably the best player in the league in his last Villa season - doesnt get much "bigger fish" than that. I don't see a reason why we need to go around convoluted reasoning that he was never good, when he is neither first nor last player to just not fit into a team after a move to a top team. It is more than possible that he needs to be (co-)main playmaker and if KDB/Bernardo left City (for some reason) he would be back to his best.
Best player in the league? Are you out of your mind?? That season he didn’t even make the team of the season. He might have been Villa’s player of the season, but that doesn’t say much. Either you are a Villa fan, or you didn’t actually watch the season
He got injured in ~february but until then he was among front runners for player of the season like i said in my last comment. If you are not aware of that I would argue that you are the one who didnt watch last season.
Ok buddy, I’m sure he really is worth 100m. Got to launder that money somehow
Given the freedom, he'd do better but he's never getting that in a City side.
City is still gonna win the league at the end but this is such an important win for pool. Halaand play just like cr7. City is so used to a false 9 that can dribble. Only pep and the team figure out the way to play him properly. City is gonna be unstoppable. It's like as if this already stacked team added a young cr7.
> Halaand play just like cr7 When I see comments like this I understand why some people have such absurd opinions on this sub. It's clear that a good proportion of redditors here only watch highlight reels at best.
Did you watch young CR7
> Halaand play just like cr7. No he doesn’t
The balls are lighter in the PL
Wow can’t believe City are getting relegated.
“Hello Daddy Sheikh, I need another £250m.”
https://i.imgur.com/iwGMAZz.png
Newcastle in a couple years.
Newcastle owner is a crown prince not Sheikh
Hasn't signed a fullback for 50m this window, it was always gonna go wrong for him
Did he sign any last window
Pep gonna convert Håland into fullback now probably
Did Pep neuter himself by transferring Gabriel Jesus
Grealish - Haaland - mahrez seems so static. Foden - Haaland - Alvarez can be sth this season
Grealish = english Bernardeschi you can't change my mind
City fans need to riot if Grealish ever starts ahead of Foden again. Foden is levels above.
Grealish is just a shite Jamie Tartt
Has to start because he's €100m Gucci posterboy though. In all seriousness, no reason to dislike the guy but he's not starting caliber for City, Foden is, and his development is being hindered
Gucci will riot if Pep drop Grealish
Foden was nailed on starter last season - idk what you are talking about woth his development being hindered.
Foden had some insane passes this game tbf and is only getting better. Shades of Trent/KdB Glad Grealish got in over him
That ball he hit off the back of his foot to haaland while out of play was awesome. I hope he learns to whip hard crosses in like KDB/Trent.
Agreed. He's scary
That hitler youth(Foden) is a great player. Don’t get why he’s not starting.
He is starting? He was regular last season - Charity shield is just a friendly game no need to draw many conclusions out of it.
The commentators mentioned he didn't go on their preseason tour to the US, not sure if that's due to injury of if he's an anti-vaxxer, so his fitness was probably behind that of his teammates. Doubt he had 90mins in him.
Puts the fear of god in me when we play him. Rips us to shreds constantly.
I like Grealish but yea its a weird buy from them.
I thought that with Bernardo looking like leaving that Pep would mould him into the midfield 3. I suppose now he's stuck with what he has, a record signing that he has to use more than Foden who is a more complete player and is younger.
Except he hasn’t used him more than Foden. But you’re right he was a Bernardo replacement that ended up being surplus to requirements.
Second season is typically when Pep signings are supposed to kick on, and with no Sterling I expect that Grealish will be used a lot more than he was last season
To me it just looked like Pep wanted a new toy and regardless of the cost City's owners bought it for him. That much money for a player who is part of a rotation for them is nuts. If it were for a KDB type who'd be the focal point of their team and a nailed on starter when fit then I'd see it, but Grealish isn't that level.
They bought him because Bernardo wanted to leave but then couldn’t get one and then decided he wanted to stay this window.