MANoWAR

Questionable keeping by Cech there (not that I'm complaining)

smash it ffs

Lol they're really missing Aurier

Mikel giveth, Mikel taketh away

hazard has been fantastic

Do you post on the soccer thread over on bodybuilding.com?

Is it that time of year already? Norwich: 0-3 WIN Stoke: 2-1 WIN Liverpool: Eh, 1-1 DRAW West Ham: 1-1 DRAW Aston Villa: 0-3 WIN Swansea: 1-2 WIN Man City: 2-1 WIN Bournemouth: 1-3 WIN Tottenham: 1-2 LOSS (yes, really...) Sunderland: 1-1 DRAW Leicester City: 3-2 WIN

...arsenal have spurs, united and swansea for the next three games.

Guardiola's first season will be interesting. He got Barca playing tiki-taka immediately, but the spine of the team had either had exceptional technical ability, or already used to the high possession methods with Spain under Del Bosque. His biggest success was seamlessly integrating Pedro, Busquets, Pique (with little problems) into the team, and the various re-workings of the forward line. At Bayern he did well to get the players playing the way he wanted -- but after Barca, it was probably the second most technically and mentally suited set of players in the world to his philosophy. The likes of Lahm, Thiago and Alaba are have similar levels of ability to many of his previous players. It would have been a comparatively easy transition to a high possession game with many micro-tactical instructions. At City, he comes to a team with an weaker midfield and a leaky defence, and on top of that, a team which is nowhere near as technically talented and patient as the ones he's coached before. Let's not forget about the Euros; he'll have a shortened preseason with some pretty worn out players. At Barca and Bayern, Pep has previously tinkered for the sake of it. He won't be able to do that in England; his squad isn't physically and technically superior enough to do that here. The likes of Zabaleta, Kolarov, Fernandinho, Kompany, Sagna are not Pep players. Will Pep bend his ways to the league, will his signings adapt, can Pep put victory above his pretty-football desires, what happens when Pep sees that his backline pushing up is a really bad idea, how will Pep do without having a squad that's a level above the rest? They're all genuine risk factors for his first season. They make next year anyone's game. Pep's the best manager in the world and there's no doubt he will adapt at some stage. But maybe not in his first season, and that's where other teams have a chance. I'll have to disagree on Fernandinho. I don't think Fernandinho is suited to Pep since he's not really that intelligent of a player -- and he's too much of an all rounder. He can't dictate the game like Thiago did at Bayern and he can't defend like Busquets. He's a classic box to box midfielder (that's what he was best at over in Ukraine too), just shunted into a slightly more defensive role by City, which hasn't worked that efficiently (his best games come when he's allowed to move further forward, and his defensive liabilities were underlined by the need to sign a proper DM, in Fernando.. however he's sh*t). Pep will need to buy 2 midfielders minimum if he really wants to play his way. They're hiring him for a reason; they want to be the dominate superpower of the world. This means he'll have a lot of his own ideas that were unconventional to previous mangers like Pellers; hence, he'll probably spend 150m or so to totally re-work the team but the likes of Aguero, KDB will be fine.

lol only 3 months left of this

no worries, conte is better

heh, didn't suspect you were that old

Levane was probably just making assumptions ah man

Dan Levene reckons Terry heard via a phone call with his agent. ..........

Hmm. I mean, there were a few people saying that our style of play couldn't evolve without Terry leaving, however this was before we ended up looking like sh*t. Perhaps things will stabilise for next season though. Really depends on who we buy

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No way should we be this sh*t. My word what the heck...

for fuks sake

Never mind

For f**ks sake City. arsenal might actually win the league...

01 Begovic 06 Baba 07 Ramires 14 Traore 15 Djilobodji 16 Kenedy 36 Loftus-Cheek

sack the whole team

What a disappointment if we end up with Pellegrini. Kicker (pretty reliable) basically saying that Man City are the option for Pep (no surprises there). No rumours about Conte so far, unfortunately. Simeone seems to be the only hope for now

I envy you; sounds like you're always having a nice meal every time you make a post

Conte probably. Managed to get 102 points at Serie A, knows how to use youth, tactically versatile, generally likable character. Might not be as good as Pep at City but that's alright. Allegri would be a decent shout too