How good are Man City ?

[Mickemo]

After watching Man City school the current European champions at the Etihad a few days ago, what are peoples thoughts on how good they are ?

I can’t see anyone stopping them win the treble and they will deservedly win their place in history as one of the best ever club teams.

Would they beat Barca from 2008 to 2011 not sure as they peak Messi - it’d be a great game though!

[RubiconCSL]

I wonder if, as AI gets more and more powerful, we'll be able to get closer to answering such questions. Gather all the stats available and pit Schumacher against Jim Clark, Ali against Tyson, Citeh against the galacticos and so on.

[New Forester]

I have been watching football since the late 40s. I don't recall seeing better football than that first half performance from any team I have ever watched. The energy, speed of thought and individual skills on display was a joy to watch.

[Weybridge]

I think it just goes to show all you need for pan-European success is about £2billion pounds, the world's best manager, a Nordic goal machine and a dream.

[Kingo]

And they're brilliant at taking the ball into the corner flag for the last 15 minutes. And at committing lots of players forward in the knowledge that if you lose the ball, you can trip an opponent in his own half to stop a breakaway, and probably not get booked. Tactical genius.

[Mickemo]

I think it just goes to show all you need for pan-European success is about £2billion pounds, the world's best manager, a Nordic goal machine and a dream.

I’d add ‘top to bottom football identity’ to the above list.

Chelsea & Utd are proof that money alone doesn’t guarantee success.

[Mickemo]

And they're brilliant at taking the ball into the corner flag for the last 15 minutes. And at committing lots of players forward in the knowledge that if you lose the ball, you can trip an opponent in his own half to stop a breakaway, and probably not get booked. Tactical genius.

Attack the best form of defence!

Their high pressing game is how they suffocated Real Madrid the other night

I’d welcome Pompey trying to emulate City’s approach

[Pompey55]

And they're brilliant at taking the ball into the corner flag for the last 15 minutes. And at committing lots of players forward in the knowledge that if you lose the ball, you can trip an opponent in his own half to stop a breakaway, and probably not get booked. Tactical genius.

Attack the best form of defence!

Their high pressing game is how they suffocated Real Madrid the other night

I’d welcome Pompey trying to emulate City’s approach

I thought that’s what Cowley said we would be doing but then we haven’t spend 2 billion on players

[Blue Walter]

And they're brilliant at taking the ball into the corner flag for the last 15 minutes. And at committing lots of players forward in the knowledge that if you lose the ball, you can trip an opponent in his own half to stop a breakaway, and probably not get booked. Tactical genius.

Attack the best form of defence!

Their high pressing game is how they suffocated Real Madrid the other night

I’d welcome Pompey trying to emulate City’s approach

Other teams will copy City as teams do when they see the success in the way City have achieved it. We saw teams copying Alf Ramsey's 'wingless wonders' after England's World Cup teams, which resulted in seeing teams with their 'midfield generals' or 'dynamos'. When Don Revie had success with his Leeds team we saw that being copied, which was a style of football I hated with the emphasis on not losing or protecting a one goal lead. The problem is that City have got the players to do what they do but teams like Portsmouth haven't. This playing out from the back invites problems as we have seen, not only with Pompey but other teams as well.

[Blue Walter]

How much do City deserve their success and just how good is their manager? The club can buy just about any player they want and the knock on effect is that they price many clubs out of buying players and this ability inflates transfer fees. Would Pep Guardiola be a good manager with little money to spend as, to my knowledge, he has never managed at a club that has been strapped for funds?

Actually I think he is a good manager because it must take a very strong character to manage all of City's world class players. Of course it can't be as easy as it would appear to be having a bottomless pit of money to spend on whatever players you want as they have still to be moulded into a functioning team. However, it must help enormously to be able to bring in the world's best players. It is a shame that there is only a couple of English players in the starting line up, which is much the same for most top Premiership sides.

[Sam_Brown]

Look at the money teams like United and Chelsea have spent over recent years and the big name managers they bought in. Proof that money isn’t the only key to success but it certainly helps!

With Pep I think you have to look at his career as a whole and his consistency with success over the years. Barca. Bayern and now City. All clubs that obviously have a fair amount of fish and success over the years but Pep has had success at all of them.

I remember early on in his career he was touted as manager for a prem team. Maybe Bolton I can’t remember. How things could have turned out differently had he took that job and not Barca!

I do echo BWs point about needing to manage the egos of so many high profile players. That’s a skill in itself and bringing in the best players isn’t always a recipe for success. United have spent more than city in recent years and yet they are well behind in terms of competing in the league.

The money definitely helps though!

[Mickemo]

Pep is IMHO one of the top 3 best (club) managers of all time.

He is a perfectionist and never settles for 2nd best, always wants more (hang on that sounds like my wife)

I’m 100% confident we wouldn’t still be in L1 if he had been appointed instead of KJ (same net spend)

[Pompey1984+1]

Bang Average.

[almondsbury]

After watching Man City school the current European champions at the Etihad a few days ago, what are peoples thoughts on how good they are ?

I can’t see anyone stopping them win the treble and they will deservedly win their place in history as one of the best ever club teams.

Would they beat Barca from 2008 to 2011 not sure as they peak Messi - it’d be a great game though!

They're the best two club sides I've ever seen, and speaks volumes Pep head coach of both. That'd be a tough game for him, running from dugout to dugout.

[Pompey55]

I’ve been reading this thread and quite honestly I don’t give a toss how good they are as we are not likely to play them in the foreseeable future unless it’s in the cup guess it’s a case of nothing better to post about