Terry Out

He didn't spend the sort of money which would be needed to buy City and get them into the PL.
In any case MK Dons are a poor example. We are talking about someone looking to buy an established club not moving one. Someone with the money needed in City's case would have more, to them, attractive options.

 

It's a shame they don't, would be nice to have got a few more of those deserved penalties.

 

I'm glad they don't and I hope we're never in a league that does.

 

They’ll not be there lol

 

You basically answered your own question

 

And the best team have gone... Norwich

 

If we were using VAR in our last few games, we may still be waiting for promotion!

 

And the best away trip...

 

Far superior to Ipswich

 

I bit from a BBC article by Noel Gallagher on Pep.


When he came he had this reputation of this tiki-taka thing and having the belief that style was the most important thing - there was Plan A, and if Plan A doesn't work you've got to get an even better Plan A, not have a Plan B.

Where have we heard that before?

 

Not from our managers?

 

I do think it was very true with Terry. He seemed to only have one plan, and other teams were very wise to it and would change tactics. Terry inevitably had no reponse. That included a large part of this season. First half of the season barring injury, we knew the first two subs would be swapping the two wide players up front, same plan though. I guess due to Scott's loss of form and the Brizzie loanee going back, he had to change that policy. Something appeared to change during the season, and he appeared far less rigid in his thinking. There was a spell when he was determined to get both George and the Birmingham loanee (I've developed dementia overnight) into the midfield., which didn't work but he adapted. Maybe he didn't have the confidence in some of the squad members to change? White and the Birmingham loanee gave him more flexibility to try different plans.

 

It's a wonder the other managers didn't cotton onto 'Terry's' one plan earlier and maybe they might have won the league instead of Terry's One Plan Tigers.

 

Even if that were true, which it isn't, it's a little bit different when Plan A isn't working so you bring on say a Sterling, Aguero, Jesus, or Silva to replace the couple of players that are not quite at it that day!!

 

I think what he is referring to, and what is usually the case, is that Pep does play one system, yes players can interchange and can be exchanged by substitutes, but
the system he plays doesn't change. Of cause you are right, when one player is not playing well on any given day, then they have a wealth of riches on the bench to change things.

 

This is certainly one of the things that worries me about him, he just doesn't seem able to change a system mid-game when plan "A" is not working. If, like "Lone for a walk" mentions, you have a wealth of talent on the bench, then playing the same system but changing the player can work, but in our situation, usually change a player or two does always work.

I just hope he has learnt from his experiences in the Championship the last time and adapts accordingly.

 

As far as I could see, the only thing he tinkered with was whether to have 1 holding midfielder or 2.
He tried to play Honeyman and Birmingham loanee (ha ha, yep, happens increasingly to me too) but didn't change the system. It didn't work, surprise surprise, as he put square pegs in round holes, and Honeyman wanted to be were Birmingham loanee was all the time. Whyte (I can remember how to spell his name at least!) didn't bring more flexibility, he just brought another option to replace another wide attacker (and did it very well imo).
McCann will have to be way smarter next season, not least as we simply won't have the quality of player to say '**** you, we'll play our way whatever you do'.
I'm not at all convinced he's learnt that much in terms of tactical nous and I'm not at all confident he'll do anything different. It worked last season as players like Ingram, Coyle, Elder, Doc, Honeyman, Wilks, Magennis (after xmas), Jones, etc really stepped up and were too good for L1, and there was a real togetherness. It will be quite a different challenge next season at a level higher against the better teams.
Enob has to give McCann a fighting chance, and McCann has to wise up. Jury is massively out still.

 

You have to think how successful he could have been if only he'd had a Plan B like other managers.

 

The difference being of course that Pep Guardiola has nearly a billion pounds worth of world class talent at his disposal, so him sticking to Plan A is probably a safer option than a League One manager doing it.

Of course, McCann did actually change things towards the back end of last season, we swapped between 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1 and between a high press and a counter attacking style. 2019/20 we just did the same thing 46 times.

 

I do wonder why he didn’t change 19/20 season as you say. It was really bizarre.