Premier League 2024/25

City are just reaching the end of their cycle and Pep handles stress poorly hence his erratic behaviour during such times and him aging at the speed of sound.

but they will find their way through this as such periods are needed for reinvention and i predict it'll begin with haaland.


side note: Kelleher is the second best GK in the league. the first one being obvious.

Firenze wrote:happy to be proven wrong about Gundo's return, I expected him to be a huge boon for them...he looks finished completely. Not gonna get hyped cuz Spurs always bottle but looking 5 losses in a row for Pep? SAF could never @barcalearning

Yeah, it's a bit strange how his form just fell off a cliff. I imagine some of it is related to how frequently he's been playing, now that they've got so many injuries, but it still looks like he's aged a decade in only two seasons.

I did suspect that Man City would struggle this season, largely based on several of their players looking like they were gradually losing their competitive drive, but for a short period of time, it looked like fortune was smiling at the club once again, with Gundogan returning when they needed squad depth, Savinho briefly looking like one of the best deals of the transfer window, and even Matheus Nunez starting to look like he was finding his feet.

I'd be interested to know what Casciavit thinks about their current situation, as I know he's a huge fan of Foden, and I feel like the return of Foden made the rest of the team play worse than they did while he was out.

farfan wrote:So we're just making up quotes now I said let's see if Man City cruises to another title without him. Definitely not a prediction, I always hedge my bets

farfan wrote:This will look really silly when City cruises to another EPL title without this supposedly indispensable player

You kept making fun of him being indispensable, and laughed when I and some others claimed he's the most pivotal City player and the glue of the team.

I meant if not when, we all know this.

Let's keep it moving, nothing to see here

The season is long, I can still win this

Salah > Man C... what an assist that was for the first goal, n great pen... 9 points clear of Chelsea n Arsenal. Watching Palmer scoring for fun n then not long ago Man C were too stacked so Pep let him go... who woulda thought Pep be flopping so hard now with no reliable wingers?

Seems like it is Arne Slot's year

Liverpool is on fire at the moment, if they will keep this up they could potentially win the league

farfan wrote:The season is long, I can still win this

No you won't win because you have very little ball knowledge

Myesyats wrote:

farfan wrote:The season is long, I can still win this

No you won't win because you have very little ball knowledge

I'd assess your football knowledge but I genuinely can't think of anything from you beyond moronic conspiracies and constant whining about referees.

And all your activity comes largely from responding to said referee corruption and making fun of people dying in a flood

we're going to win the league.

Arsenal fans can STFU about how they are the most effective against City. New coach slut BTFO Pep's City.

Seems like most clubs are effective against City, these days. I'm not completely on board with the "Rodri being out is the reason"- claim.

I think a lot of people tend to jump to conclusions like that for the sake of simplicity, rather than it actually explaining or justifying something that I believe is more complex. Kroos gets the same treatment at Real Madrid, now that he's out of the equation and we're struggling.

Several of their players look low on morale or are showing signs of age decline, and I don't know if that's related to Rodri's absence, but it would've undoubtedly been an Achilles Heel for them, regardless of whether or not he'd been present in the team.

They're not the only team that's been struggling with multiple injuries this season, but most teams don't have a tendency to boil their issues down to a single player, like people much more frequently do with RM and Man City. Some Arsenal fans might do so as well, but the world is always against them, right?

It really is surprising still given how comfortable Man C were just not that long ago... but the longer time goes the more likely things start to go wrong n Pep got some things wrong... letting some performers go like Alvarez, Palmer, even back with likes of Mahrez I thought was really strange decisions... n then trusted new signing which didnt pan out.

Players age n lose hunger but everyone knows including Pep himself so its just surprising he didnt anticipate n do more to avoid such scenario perhaps? Haaland being the only striker means no other choice, but the problems are here even with him in decent form so

I think atm things seem really bad, but also had some back luck in some games, so I dunno the fixtures going forward, but im sure Man C will start winning again n this should be the biggest slump in the season..

Yeah, they opened the season up in uncharacteristically strong form, winning their first 5-6 games convincingly while Rodri hardly even played. They drew against Inter in Rodri's first game of the season as a starter, adding to the popular claim that they don't lose whenever Rodri starts, which I personally think is an opportunistic assessment. They haven't typically been losing when everyone's been fit and healthy, including their bench options for rotational purposes.

It was when they played against Southampton back in october that some of their players started playing in second gear, like they also did for periods of time during the past two seasons, but no one's carrying the team right now. Bernardo and Haaland did it two seasons ago, Foden and Rodri did it last season. Now there's no one who's standing out in a positive way or excelling in their role, in order to compensate for the poor form of their team mates.

They're shit defensively, they're struggling to create chances while also being relatively poor in possession, and Haaland and others have occasionally been quite wasteful with the few chances they do create. It seems to me that their biggest issue is the veteran players, like Kyle Walker and Gundogan, who aren't being rotated due to injuries, are either unmotivated or physically unfit/declining athletically.

Foden, Kovacic and Gvardiol have also been performing sub-par to their own standards since they started this slump in form. It seemed like the entire team started playing worse once Foden returned to the starting lineup, for whatever reason. I've been curious as to how Casciavit would assess this situation since he's a huge fan of Foden, but he doesn't seem to be posting much these days.

I agree Thimmy. But I’m surprised. It did look in the summer that their bench wouldn’t be as strong, but starters were same.

This is the same Pep, while Barca was on a high insisted on making changes so that they wouldn’t go stale! Why did he not do same here?

futbol_bill wrote:I agree Thimmy. But I’m surprised. It did look in the summer that their bench wouldn’t be as strong, but starters were same.

This is the same Pep, while Barca was on a high insisted on making changes so that they wouldn’t go stale! Why did he not do same here?

I don’t know, but I suspect it may be related to the 115 charges raised against them.

They may not have been able to predict that they would have so many injuries to both starters and substitutes at the same time, but they did know that they were going to have less depth in the team this season.

And yet, they only brought in Savinho after selling both Julián Alvarez and Sergio Gómez, and offloading several players who had been out of loan and could’ve provided some much needed cover.

Kevin De Bruyne claimed that the situation was so bad that they’re fielding players who are pushing through injuries that haven’t fully healed. I assume the lack of transfer activity is related to caution regarding the ongoing trial against the club.

Gundogan’s return wasn’t planned, but they’ve had to rely on him as a starter. He seemed like a blessing in disguise, initially, but he’s largely looked like a shadow of his former self, and having to play from the start so frequently seems to have brutally exposed how much he’s slowed down physically.

You donkeys overrate the hipster and his tinpot club. They are playing exactly as I expected.

The only real surprise is the hipster so dedicated to being a pretentious hipster that he changed no nut November to no win November just because.

Thimmy wrote:

futbol_bill wrote:I agree Thimmy. But I’m surprised. It did look in the summer that their bench wouldn’t be as strong, but starters were same.

This is the same Pep, while Barca was on a high insisted on making changes so that they wouldn’t go stale! Why did he not do same here?

I don’t know, but I suspect it may be related to the 115 charges raised against them.

They may not have been able to predict that they would have so many injuries to both starters and substitutes at the same time, but they did know that they were going to have less depth in the team this season.

And yet, they only brought in Savinho after selling both Julián Alvarez and Sergio Gómez, and offloading several players who had been out of loan and could’ve provided some much needed cover.

Kevin De Bruyne claimed that the situation was so bad that they’re fielding players who are pushing through injuries that haven’t fully healed. I assume the lack of transfer activity is related to caution regarding the ongoing trial against the club.

Gundogan’s return wasn’t planned, but they’ve had to rely on him as a starter. He seemed like a blessing in disguise, initially, but he’s largely looked like a shadow of his former self, and having to play from the start so frequently seems to have brutally exposed how much he’s slowed down physically.

It certainly is 100%. That's why I am interested to see how they go about in January window because unless they buy, they will struggle to even finish in top 4/top 6 going by their form and the quality of the some of their players. Rico Lewis, Matheus Nunes and all are utter crap.

Their fans are sure they WILL revamp their whole squad by buying 6-7 players in the next 2 windows and come roaring back again, but I dont think it will be as straightforward for them as they think this time. This whole 115 thing has created an invisible veil of uncertainty around them which is holding them back from spending big again. And the fact that they have sold lot of their promising academy players so quickly probably was to raise their standing in FFP and soften the blow by the time the punishment will be passed.
So yea unless they do some more shady deals like Savinho from their sister clubs (which I expect them to do actually), they are kind of fkd. And with this current Pep who looks totally drained and depressed and is inflicting self-harm, City suddenly looks like a dark place.

Helmer wrote:Seems like it is Arne Slot's year

Best team in the world at the moment. Favorites for both the CL and PL.

Who would have guessed a 9 point lead in early december.

Oh boy seems like another LGBT armband shitstorm is brewing.

Turok_TTZ wrote:You donkeys overrate the hipster and his tinpot club. They are playing exactly as I expected.

The only real surprise is the hipster so dedicated to being a pretentious hipster that he changed no nut November to no win November just because.

Finally pephaters can gloat a little after 8 years of suffering from success era

Myesyats wrote:

Turok_TTZ wrote:You donkeys overrate the hipster and his tinpot club. They are playing exactly as I expected.

The only real surprise is the hipster so dedicated to being a pretentious hipster that he changed no nut November to no win November just because.

Finally pephaters can gloat a little after 8 years of suffering from success era

He not only against Pep, he’s just an overly zealous RMad supporter. We have a few of them, Turok, DoC and MTO. Not much difference from them to you and the naive one!