Now THAT’S a Pep-like team performance!

We’re now on a ‘5 wins from 6’ run in all competitions, with some of those performances being half-decent / job done whilst others have been a game of two halves of mediocre followed by gutsy determination, spirit and vast improvement to turn the game and result to our favour. 

 

But last night was simply a pure joy to watch – the sort of football that used to leave me open-mouthed when watching Pep’s Barcelona & Bayern Munich teams (especially against us).

Such a difference…finally!

I’m just gonna repeat what I sent in a text to friends & fellow Blues last night, whilst enthusing over what I was witnessing on TV.

“Much better than what I-personally think we’ve seen from City too often of late, which, I think, has been [passing-wise], side-side-side-back, side-side-side-probe-forward with hope and a rather slow’ish pace”.

“This evening [v West Ham] has been attacking, creative midfielders controlling from ‘our 3^rd’…but with intend to-then build quickly going forward”.

I also added that I felt much safer with Willy in net, who looked self-assured and appeared to-also breath confidence into his defenders around him (and no silly walk-abouts...).

The shape – particularly the afore mentioned midfielders who dropped deep but played with energy & quickness-of-passing in-going forward – looked much, much better and although we’ve had the majority of possession against teams for most of the time this season; this was possession with real purpose.

The typical-Pep work rate was there in abundance too – The Hammers just didn’t know what to do in order to get and then retain the ball! David Silva & Pablo Zabaleta (in midfield for the 3^rd time this season) were both just brilliant!

After the match, Pep suggested that we don’t necessarily have all of the players needed to attack with real pace as much as he would like (finally some recognition of what a lot of us have been saying for weeks now) but that he ‘had a word’ with his players throughout the week and has conceded that [even more] possession was necessary!

Well for me, even if we only get 85% of what we saw last night for most-of-the-rest-of-the-season then we won’t go far wrong at all!

Patch-up job

When speaking about City lately, I’ve used the words ‘patch-up’ to describe what Pep might have to do to us, in an historically difficult transfer window, and that he might try to go back to one of his previous clubs in an attempt to pluck a player with whom he's worked with before / knows well.

We’re desperate for central defensive cover and a left-back in my opinion (Gabriel Jesus should give us the boost we need ‘up front’) and so I wasn’t at all surprised to see that our manager might be going back to Bayern Munich, in an attempt to get-in-on-loan a central defender…and one who can cover at left-back too, by all acounts.

Doubt

There has to be some concern about a player who, according to Sky Sports News this morning, has only played 18 times in 4 seasons and who has had a dreadful time of it injury-wise – in Holger Badstuber it sounds like we might be getting another Vincent Kompany. 20-months out with a double cruciate ligament injury was then followed by ruptured tendon in his thigh, which kept him out for another half-season.

I’m not sure whether, since then, he’s simply lost his place whilst in the treatment room and has found himself behind other very good defenders / can’t get his place back but he certainly seems available for a move away from a club where he’s spent most of his footballing life (and all of his adult professional career). In fact, the German international is out of contract in the summer too…

Quality

But when asked about the possibility of bringing in the 6’ 3” defender, Pep, who suggested it was indeed a possibility, was full of high praise for a player who had also established himself as a regular for the German national side (with 31 caps) and who is only 28-years of age in March of this year.

If he’s over the worst of his injuries and fancies making a possible January loan move permanent, then this could be a very good free transfer for us in the summer too.

Up next...

8-full days of rest now before we resume our Premier League campaign at Goodison Park on Sunday 15^th January (1:30pm KO GMT). Fabian Delph is back and Fernando (knock), Leroy Sane (muscle injury) and even Vinny (knee ligaments) have all been given an estimated return date in time for the Everton clash.

Could that 'available squad-list' also include both Holger Badstuber & Gabriel Jesus next weekend I wonder?

Blog annoucement - just no time...

Just no time for a blog-posting pre-West Ham. Needless to say, it would be great for us to wrack-up 5 wins from 6 in all comps; progressing through to the 4th round of the F.A. Cup.

Dream on...

I do, however and for a bit of quirkiness & fun, have time to share a mad dream I had about City last night.

We'd moved back to Maine Road and were playing Liverpool. We went 2-0 up only for Liverpool to pull it back to 2-2. However, we went on to win 5-2; the 5th being a great curler into the top right-hand-corner with 10 minutes to go from a player who looked remarkably like Michael Owen.

To see-out the 'final 10', we then changed the entire 11 and replaced them with the woman's team; with officials also allowing a small selection of children from the stands to play football in the corner areas of the pitch; providing they didn't interfer with play. I did say this was a dream...

No cheese-eating before bedtime was involved in the making of this crazy dream - work that one out!

Despite a spirited 2nd half performance…

…it’s just a “Meh” from me.

Underwhelming (again) and so completely joyless.

Yesterday a lot of the crowd was - and continues to be in general - frustrated with a City team packed with talent and who yet rarely living up to their potential. It’s been like that for weeks now, as that glorious, 10-game start to the campaign seems like a very, very distant memory.

Then…’right back at you’, as TV footage showed Pep venting his frustration at the largely-subdued home fans who he clearly thought weren't doing their part either!

It’s just not a happy camp and feeling at the moment…

Claudio Bravo - Actually produced one good save yesterday (credit where due).

-       Bravo continues to look less like a goalkeeper and more like a small, lost child who has never even seen a pair of keeper gloves before whenever called into action.

-       Kolarov continues to be just…flippin’…awful.

-       Otamendi continues to be…average at best.

-       Fernandinho’s old habits (that I highlighted way, way back on 25.05.2015) have come back to haunt us with a vengeance! Just what is it with this fella’s head?!

-       Navas continues to have no ‘end product’ in him whatsoever – how DOES he keep getting ‘game time’?!

-       And, similarly, why does Sterling get himself into so many dangerous positions only to then get 'stage fright' more often than not? I thought 6 months with Pep would have improved him at least a little bit by now.

-       De Bruyne looks…okay but he can be far, far better than “okay”. Kevin is yet another puzzle - trying to work out why he has so many quiet, underwhelming games when he has all the potential of a 'world class player'. When he’s on fire…he’s on FIRE! However, he needs to stop engaging his cloaking device…

-       Iheanacho continues to waste chances handed to him whenever he covers for Aguero – the clock is already ticking on this lad with the imminent arrival of Gabriel Jesus and a summer transfer window just 6 months away.

Thank God we have David Silva; glad also, for the most part, that we have Yaya Toure 'back in the fold' and when Sergio is in ‘that mood’, we have a finisher who strikes fear into the oppo.

Yeah we won yesterday and, up against it as we were with 10 for so long, it was a spirited second half for us to be proud of (and I was); hampered by another poor refereeing performance and a visiting side that turned dirty in the last 20 minutes or so.

But…huffffffff…we should be killing teams like this (and better) early on! Instead we CONTINUE to over-pass and not just sideways but backwards also (Bravo sees FAR too much of the ball for me)!

I’m not naïve; I fully understand that a lot of our passing is intended to draw teams out so that we can expose and get behind them.

But here’s the thing…we just don’t attack 'with pace' and cause the damage we should be doing! Dare I suggest that under our new manager – one deemed by so many as one of the world’s best – that we actually look a little ‘plodding’? That’s just how it feels at the moment in general and did so for the most part yesterday.

Hope.

Please don’t think I’m being overly impatient - of course I understand that Pep is still learning in his first 5 months of his first ever job in English football. I think what frustrates me and many City fans is that he doesn’t APPEAR to be learning from his mistakes (huh…proof of that is in his biggest mistake, which is the purchase and continued use of one, Claudio Bravo).

There has also been some criticism of late that Guardiola didn’t make use of the 2016 summer transfer window to great effect and I think some of that analysis is justified. I suppose he can’t be blamed for everything, but…

·         Claudio Bravo (and the exiling of Joe Hart) has been – and continues to be – a unmitigated disaster!

·         John Stone has been okay…even really quite good on occasions. And I do also think that some of his errors have been over-highlighted and over-blown. However, there have BEEN errors from the young English defender and Pep has acknowledged those mistakes by dropping the 22-year old from time to time.

·         Eyebrows were raised when we signed German international Ilkay Gundogan whilst he was recovering from a dislocated knee cap. But after his recovery and a couple of settling-in games, he started to ‘look the part’ – not exactly ‘ripping up tress’ but certainly a steady 7 or 7.5 / 10 player who chipped in with a few goals & assists. Not a bad start at all. But then…ouch! I’m not sure if it’s the same knee nor whether the previous injury could have contributed to it…but he’s now out for the season with cruciate ligament damage. Not Pep’s fault at all of course.

·         But then we have Nolito and all I’ll say of the Spanish left-sided attacker is that he’s just slightly better than Jesus Navas. A 30-year old who is barely better than Navas? Doesn’t sound like a good purchase to me for the moment at least…

·         Okay…so a young, soon-to-be 21-year old who, like Gundogan, was signed whilst injured and who has never lived or played football in this country before might need some ‘settling in time’. And, indeed, once recovered it was clear that he needed that time. Then, a few weeks ago, Leroy Sane started to show small glimpses of the talent we were all repeatedly told he had…and then he got injured again. We need to give this youngster far more time before passing judgement, of course, but this is yet another signing who has yet to improve us and, for that, Pep has to be accountable to some degree; seeing as he was brought in to do just that…improve us.

·         Then we have Gabriel Jesus who is now eligible to play for us - after we signed him in the summer but then allowed him to see-out the Brazilian season - before being given some ‘rest time’; having also competed in the 2016 summer Olympics. Again, we have been repeatedly told what an exciting talent we’re getting but for now at least, that’s all we can go off and hope for.

And that’s it…no other signings.

No decent keeper for which our football club has a proud history of; no desperately-needed left-back, no additional [to John Stones] central defender to solidify a 'soft centre' caused by an erratic Nicholas Otamendi and absent Vincent Kompany and no right-back to compete with the ever-aging Pablo Zabaleta and Bacary Sagna.

A lot of our midfielders and wingers and 30+ and we CONTINUE [from our time under Manuel Pellegrini] to run with an under-strength striker department which, for a supposed top team, is borderline criminal!

But Pep now has a little [transfer] window of opportunity to 'patch us up' at the back before a full, summer shopping spree opportunity and, in that sense, I still have high hopes and some considerable confidence that once he truly gets his own personnel in, we’ll start to see a Pep-like machine shifting through into the higher gears.

It’s not quite the season, so far at least, I thought we’d be experiencing; perhaps “hampered”, if that’s the right word to use, by having our expectations catapulted high into the sky after such a wonderful start. But a measured view of all of the above facts does put it all into perspective a little.

We’re through to the next stage of the Champions League; we’re 3^rd in the Premier League (for now at least) and we have the F.A. Cup to start on Friday.

Just do us a favour, Pep…try, in this difficult transfer window I know, to improve our defence a little and keeper situation a lot (can’t see the latter happening folks) and for God’s sake do something about the so-obvious lack of confidence so many of our talented players are suffering with at the moment, especially in the attacking / finishing department.

We await your ‘magic touch’, Pep…

Hyperlinks to be completed later…