Was wondering how they do it so well and sure it’s been that way since Sheikh Mansour bought the club. At other big clubs there’s a first XI that’s going to play most weeks with some squad players on the fringes when fit whereas at City I’ve noticed that they could probably field 2 good starting XIs from one week to the next and wouldn’t struggle. Like sometimes you’ll see Stones and Ake in defence then another game it’s Dias and Gvardiol, sometimes Akanji plays there. Been like that for quite a while remembering when it was 4-4-2 under Mancini and Pellegrini having Aguero and Tevez up front with Dzeko and Balotelli before Negredo and Jovetic as back up. Whenever someone gets injured it’s barely even a problem and they seem to know how to manage big players really well, bit jealous as a United fan as whenever one player is dropped, it’s such a big deal.
Noticed that the formation also changes as well quite often, for example
3-2-4-1 vs Chelsea
3-4-2-1 vs Bournemouth
4-2-3-1 vs United
It also helps to pay apart from Manchester Shity (United), sorry guys, but the guys doing finances are just Shity. And then… Manchester OilCity.
Who have ±40mil wage bill bigger than any other team in the league (Arsenal, apart from United, who are even with them)… below Arsenal is another 16mil drop to Chelsea. They essentially spend 25% more on wages. If you have the luxury to do that, the bench may be very competitive place to be and those guys might even be happy to be there.
Just to put it into perspective. Their wage bill - 202mil. Arsenal 166 mil., Odegaard, Saka, Jesus, those 3 are 35mil, imagine you can have this caliber on top of the current squad and still fit within their budget. Lets say bench consisting of Vlahovič, Maddison, Rodrygo. And even with those 3 they would still be under the wage bill of City.
Its not that hard to manage as it is hard to fit within your FFP 200+mil wage bill.
Pep is basically me on football manager. Also winning helps
they’ve got a core or really strong players which means they can manage a few missing but even so this season has shown they have issues when key players are out, stones missing has left the defence looking vulnerable.
KDB being out has meant they’ve struggled at times to break down teams with low blocks.
The promise of at least twenty plus games,an amazing wage and multiple winners medals and league titles would be very tempting to most footballers.
And by breaching ffp 👀
Real answer here
How is breaching ffp a draw beyond giving amazing wages which was mentioned
Let’s not forget the allure of “playing for pep”. Pep is a brand at this point and honors aside most footballers would love to be a part of his genius
Winning cures all ills.
If they were just finishing top 4 every year they would see more players wanting out. But they win, and that keeps people happy.
They have the money to buy elite players, they play in enough competitions (and usually go far in each of them) to where those elite players will still play a load of games, they win trophies, and they have a manager who knows how to rotate players correctly
Excellent squad management. Constantly refreshing the squad before its needed rather than desperately looking for a fix after the fact like most teams do.
Almost guaranteed trophies and massive wages also helps keep players happy even though they are rotated more often than they might be in other teams
They don’t. They have the smallest squad and smallest number of players used. They have a core squad of 16 exceptionally gifted and tactically smart players who can play in multiple positions.
Their playstyle also limits the probability of injury and related crises, despite the small squad.
City are the best in the world at keeping possession. In the dog days of the season, they will happily shut the game down at 1-0.
They won’t commit men forward, but will also limiting the amount of “intense” running they have to do.
Pep also implements a training regime that runs through 2 cycles across the season, with each cycle peaking (in terms of player fitness) in winter and the end of season, when there are the most games.
This here, it makes it seem like they have more players than they do. Pep only like players who he can coach into multiple role
Pep masterclass
The two M’s baby! Money & Medals
The two players per position thing hasn’t been true for a while , they just have a lot of players who can play multiple roles and are so flexible , for example Bernardo is probably seen as both a midfielder and attacker but if Bernardo is on the pitch playing as a winger he obviously can’t then be subbed on as a midfielder.
Their key seems to have been to have a solid playmaking midfielder and then the pieces around him. KDB/Rodri/Kovacic can have good skill set to play through
Exactly this. Look at the players mentioned in OPs post.
Gvardiol. Ake. Akanji. Stones. Dias.
They play CB and LB. That’s 5 players for 3 positions, and stones plays in midfield a lot.
In the game against Chelsea, pep had 2 keepers on the bench and didn’t even name a full bench. That’s how lean their squad is. It’s just players being v positional flexible.
For reference, United have 8 CBs/LBs - lisandro, varane, lindelof, maguire, Evans, shaw, malacia, reguillon - (8 players for 3 positions).
Chelsea have 9 lbs/cbs - silva, colwill, fofana, badiashile, disasi, chalobah, cucu, chilwell, maatsen.
Pep has played him in defense before too lol.
That is technically true, but let’s be honest… it wasn’t great.
Pep is an incredible manager and has crafted an exquisite squad of versatile and talented players.
It’s more that they have a core group of 16-18 or so players who don’t lower the quality of the XI which ever combination play + a few talented young players to supplement that group. Those core players still play a lot of football and because they’re so integral and so good they’re happy being rested for a game or two or worked hard.
For example last year 15 players played 30+ games. The senior players who didn’t were Laporte who played 24 times affected by injuries, Cancelo played 26 times before being shipped out and Phillips played 21 times because Pep hates Leeds scum. The squad has just been managed so well and when you have a great squad you can keep doing fine changes each year whereas a lot of clubs are doing massive changes year on year to try catch them.
Philips played 21 times? Wow I barely saw him
he is more of a cameo type of player :)
Well 115 charges for breaking financial rules is a good explanation to your question. Players are happy because their wallet is happy. The quality in the second string is so high because they have unlimited cash. Plus all the cash we never see.
Who ever downvoted this -feel free to explain why ? Because he’s right -and you know it
Oh sorry, I didn’t know “charged” meant “guilty”
Do you think the etihad stadium deal was market value ? Do you think Mancini wasn’t paid under the table ? Do you think Man City have refused to co operate with investigations because they’re innocent? Ok
Yeah that’s totally the entire reason. Please enlighten us then, how can united have spent the same amount of money and are so much worse if it’s just down to money. Fucking idiot
They are managed by the best manager ever.
You know they cheat, right? At least 144 times.