Quote (Loiter @ 11 Jun 2023 10:29)
not really. when he took over city they were an ageing team and had atleast 5 squad members all in their 30's. they just finished 4th on the final day of the previous season, he completely ripped it apart starting with the goalkeeper and built his own team
even though he's had money to do it, he's still built that city team. only de bruyne was there already when he signed in 2016.
say what you like about money, it guarantees nothing, otherwise chelsea would have won the treble this season.. you still have to coach them into a certain system, instil discipline into them, and manage their ego's, all that stuff isnt easy.
not to mention the fact that pep has completely changed the way the PL is played. almost every single team now plays the ''pep way'' playing out from the back, even jurgen klopp copied peps idea to play stones in midfield, by playing trent in midfield. pep is the benchmark.
Quote (Loiter @ 11 Jun 2023 11:18)
could say the same for pep, in regards to basic players doing amazing things.
the only world class player pep has ever signed at city is haaland, before that, most of the players id never heard of.. laporte, ruben dias, gundogan, bernardo silva, alvarez, and probably some more. id never heard of those players personally before he signed them.
he signs normal players, and fits them into his style of coaching.
lots of facepalms in there:
- while it's true that money alone does not GUARANTEE success, it sure makes it much easier and more likely. no one suggested pep is a bad coach, people just pointed out that as a manager he always had teams that were full of talent / money already, while other coaches have built successful teams under significantly more difficult circumstances.
- playing players out of position was not invented by guardiola, lol. to suggest the taa situation is klopp just copying what pep did with stones is absurd. both managers, and more importantly, many managers before them, have done that - famous examples include the likes of beckenbauer or matthäus for example, but there are quite literally hundreds.
i am not saying pep himself is just blindly "copying" others, but neither are other managers (except löw). it has to fit the player's skillset and tactical understanding, it's not a magic spell to improve your team.
guardiola is a creative coach with a strong conviction of what football should look like, and he always had the talent and means to make that work, but that philosophy has its own limitations. he definitely influences other managers, but he himself is also inspired by what others found success with - like every good manager.
- just because YOU personally didn't know any of those players, doesn't mean they were cheap no-names that no one knew. i guarantee you that every actual football fan heard of their names when they were signed, and more importantly, all of them had competing offers from other big clubs.
i'm not trying to shame you here, maybe you're still very young and / or only started watching football lately, but to suggest that haaland was the only superstar pep signed at city is outright absurd...