Frenkie de Jong

[Gaudi]

Shooting now and then from distance is not only a numbers game, it also forces defense up a bit, to cover. Leaves more space, then having defenders knowing Barca will never shoot.

 

[gasgas]

I know that about a low efficiency.
But Pep, why I dislike him, went into extremes.

One thing is to say to your team: take a longshot once in 10 actions because it rarely goes in.
But what Pep is doing is closer to: never take shots outside of a box.
Then you get this: you don't lose actions due to low-efficiency long shots, but you get sterile and predictable attack.
For example: someone like Iniesta/Pedri has the ball 20 meters from the goal.
And everyone knows that they won't shot, so they don't have to make a defensive move to block the shot.
All they have to do is wait for his sideway or forward pass.

The same is with Pep's corners.
For a long time, his teams didn't cross from corners but played those insanely retarded short corners which are basically again dwelling the ball around the box for 100 passes.
So: on one hand, Pep don't lose possession to low-efficiency corners, but on the other hand, everyone knows what they will do and after some time it is easy to neutralize and mark him.
To me, Pep's teams (City) are the most predictable teams in attack from top European teams.
It works in EPL against smaller teams because Pep has a formula for weak teams: he is just repeating the same fkng thing for 100 times and eventually 1 goal goes in this or that way.
But it doesn't work against big teams in a CL because he won't be able to repeat his shit 100 times but only 3-4 times (shots) per match.

So, I am not a longshots merchant, but I hate Pep's style because it is too logical and stats driven and he lost a huge part of magic/unpredictablity in his football.
On top of that, he dislikes individual players (bar Messi) who will ruin his team/flow, so he just fills the team with 6 random David Silvas in midfield/attack who will move the ball, pass and repeat the same shit for 100 times over 90 minutes.
No magic, no surprises, just 5 patterns repeated for 100 times over and over.

For example, check the Real's team who won 4 CLs in 5 years:
Kroos = shooting from long range like crazy
Modric = shooting often
Casemiro = shooting from time to time

Now, check our current midfielders:
Pedri = what does it mean to shoot from outside of a box?
Frenkie = what does it mean?
Busquets = lol

That's the burden of Pep's football/success.
It worked once with the golden generation 10 years ago and now we have 100s of his shit ideas that will be in our DNA for 50 years.

Don't shoot, rather pass.
Don't cross, rather pass.
Don't take corners, rather pass.

Look at some of shots/goals from RM's golden CL generation: Kroos and Modric:

Now look at this clown-show, video of Busquets' career goals for Barca, and dude scored one long range shot in his whole career, lol.
I am going to kill myself, lol.
A perfect example of La Masia, Barca DNA. Pep's heritage and why our team is shit in the last few years and why it will be shit until we move away from Pep.

Our midfielders can't shoot, can't score, can't defend and are meh at possession.
Our attackers aren't fast, aren't tall, can't dribble and struggle with scoring.
Our defenders aren't strong or fast. But they can play passes (Garcia, lol).
Our whole team is built around weak physique, IQ, smart actions, not risking, playing safe, possession.
No wonder that we are where we are.

RM in a CL.
When Kroos/Modric had the ball:
1. they could play possession
2. they could play forward passes for counters
3. they could cross/play long passes
4. they could shoot

Barca's midfield in the last few years:
1. we could play possession
That's more or less it, there are no other options, lol.
Then we meet anyone in a CL and look without ideas.
How come?
How come that it is possible that our one-dimensional football is easily neutralized by bigger teams?
I am shocked.

But Pep's current team consists of Kelvin debruyne, gundogan, bernardo silva who shoot a lot from outside the box

 

[Birdy]

@ΒΒΖ

I will give you that La Masia graduates haven't practiced shooting at all, as it's not in the basics that a md learns here.
And that other WC mids like Kroos and Modric can

I will give you also that faking a shot disturbs the organization of the opposition's defense and opens up more spaces.

But, that's about it...\
And as people above mentioned, even Pep allows it every now and then if the shooter is good (like KdB)

And if you consider that Barca had a player taking all the shots outside of the box (Messi) the last 13 years, or if not all at least the lion share of them with the only regular exceptions being Neymar and Pedro,
we are at a new situation now, where the team needs to figure who will be taking those..
We have good candidates in Depay, Ansu, and Dembouz -> all of them have already shown they can take shots outside the box
I am less worried about Pedri or Frenkie not shooting, when there are others who can.
You don't have to have everyone capable of that. Problem is only when no one able to...

 

[Mateka]

Pep 3 PL titles out of 4, against Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United plus Everton, Arsenal, Aston Villa, Spurs, Leicester - none of which would be deemed smaller teams, and include 4 CL winners and 2 finalists. Also, City made the final of the CL and who did they lose to? Oh yes, Chelsea- hardly a PL smaller team.

 

[KingLeo10]

Pep 3 PL titles out of 4, against Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United plus Everton, Arsenal, Aston Villa, Spurs, Leicester - none of which would be deemed smaller teams, and include 4 CL winners and 2 finalists. Also, City made the final of the CL and who did they lose to? Oh yes, Chelsea- hardly a PL smaller team.

It's 3 titles in 5 years. Still great, I give you that, but that other one was inaccurate.

Also, Pep has lost to Pool, Spurs, and Chelsea in CL KO stages, which we all have to admit it is a big flaw in his City resume. Not to mention losses to Monaco and Lyon, who are definitely small teams in Europe.

 

[Mateka]

It's 3 titles in 5 years. Still great, I give you that, but that other one was inaccurate.

Also, Pep has lost to Pool, Spurs, and Chelsea in CL KO stages, which we all have to admit it is a big flaw in his City resume. Not to mention losses to Monaco and Lyon, who are definitely small teams in Europe.

3 PL titles in the last 4 years. Pool, Spurs and Chelsea are not small clubs. In KO stages some results have not been good, but that’s Pep. However, I am loving it. The reality of following City is nothing like some derogatory posts here.

 

[KingLeo10]

3 PL titles in the last 4 years. Pool, Spurs and Chelsea are not small clubs. In KO stages some results have not been good, but that’s Pep. However, I am loving it. The reality of following City is nothing like some derogatory posts here.

Why are we not counting the 5th year he's been at City in evaluation of his league results?

 

[Mateka]

In the last 4 years City have won the PL three times.
Position in 5 years: 3, 1, 1, 2, 1. Excellent results in the toughest league in the world. Have a good evening.

 

[serghei]

Performance in EPL makes Guardiola's stint at City a success so far, no doubt, but the performances in CL have been underwhelming.

 

[Fati_Future_BallonDor]

Yeah in PL he has been incredible, even though he spent a lot of money this winning rate is not self-evident. CL has been bad so far, loosing against monaco and lyon is unacceptable.

 

[KingLeo10]

Yeah in PL he has been incredible, even though he spent a lot of money this winning rate is not self-evident. CL has been bad so far, loosing against monaco and lyon is unacceptable.

also losing against Spurs is unacceptable considering he had like a 98 point team in the league?

Liverpool and Chelsea I can understand/excuse him for.

 

[Fati_Future_BallonDor]

also losing against Spurs is unacceptable considering he had like a 98 point team in the league?

Liverpool and Chelsea I can understand/excuse him for.

Right, forgot spurs. Honestly, even liverpool was unexpected. They had beaten them 5-0 at home that season and only lost 3-4 in anfield. Loosing in UCL final can happen but city has played completely crap, had rarely created a chance so all in all UCL has been under Pep's level expectations.

 

[M3ls]

BBZ8800
If you're comparing Kroos and Busquets, you're just an idiot.

 

[Rassvet]

had a good game

 

[Horatio]

Had a so so first half but picked it up in 2nd half and was good. Carried out his role well.