sosayusall wrote:
I have been watching for a month on peacock now. Some of my thoughts. 1)
man city has to be the best team of all time. They are awesome to watch. Except they make everyone else seem like a Jv team. 2) gungedom (man city number 8) has to be the best player of all time. 3) on top of man city I have been watching Leeds United. They seem like a fun team.
I'm sorry to be a bit harsh here (on second thought, I'm not), but you should hold your pronouncements until you've known more about football and understand a) how Man City stacks up against some real world beaters and b) how Man City can look so good right now. It's okay, I once made similarly nonsensical comments when I first followed soccer (calling Watford "very good" solely on the basis of its position on the table, without at all realizing how inane my statement was). You should look up some of the actual all time greats:
-Amsterdam Ajax of the early 1970's, coached by Rinus Michels and led by a certain Johan Cruijff (forever memorialized by the eponymously named skill move). The tactical planning of Michel (a style since known as "Total Football") and the technical dexterity of Cruijff (and his teammates) led that squad to three consecutive European Cup (now known as the Champion's League). That squad completely modernized the way football is played. Cruijff went on to coach Barcelona to its first European Cup in 1992, and the holding midfielder of that squad was none other than a certain Josep Guardiola. But Cruijff had a longer term effect on Barcelona as well, as he laid the foundation to Barça's academy (see below).
-Bayern München of the mid 1970's. Nothing era defining in terms of tactics, but this was an awfully good squad led by some all time greats. Players such as Beckenbauer, Hoeness, Rummenigge, and Müller. The second squad to three-peat.
-Arrigo Sacchi's AC Milan of the late 1980's. That squad may have won only two European Cups, but it played in a way that revolutionized Italian football (aka Calcio). Up til then, Italian football was known to be a very defensively-minded affair, with few goals. Sacchi changed that. It was led by the second golden Dutch generation of Gullit, Rijkaard, and van Basten.
-Barcelona of the late noughts, as epitomized by the squad that won the 2009 Champions League. Barcelona had a pretty decent first decade prior to that, winning a Champions League under the aforementioned Rijkaard in 2006, but it was to revolutionize football in a profound manner not seen since the Ajax squad of the early 1970's. Under the guidance of Guardiola (his first year at the helm), a few generational talents from Barça's academy (Xavi, Iniesta, and Messi), aided by other top talents from the same academy (Puyols, Pique, and Busquets), completely changed the way the game was played, eschewing physicality and playing with short, accurate passing that not only mesmerized but also led to goals. Though the team under Guardiola won only one Champions League, this was as untouchable as a modern squad got. Furthermore, five of the six players above also formed the core of the Spanish National team, which played a very similar style and managed to win two European Championships and one World Cup.
The present Man City squad, who will almost certainly win the league and will be a strong contender for the Champions League, pales in comparison when compared to any of the four above.
And then there's the dirty secret about Man City, which is that it is a PR project aided almost exclusively by oil money, aimed to improve the perception of Abu Dhabi. Man City is one of the few teams in Europe capable of having its second best 11 players also be world class, and much of that is down to the enormous spending enabled by money from Abu Dhabi. Especially in a season with a schedule more congested than usual, having bench players who are on par with starters on other teams keeps the team fresh. That said, credit where it's due for the development of some of those players (Garcia, Foden, and Sterling), as Guardiola has had a direct effect in coaching those players to their current lofty levels (though it has to be said that Man City paid 50 Mil pounds to sign Sterling), but that squad is mostly made of players for whose service Man City paid tens of millions in transfer fees. Over the long-run, stocking a squad with really good players (financed in a way not available to any other team except PSG) will lead to superior results, especially coached by someone as good as Guardiola.
Just look at the following list (from yesterday's Champions League match):
Substitutes
- 5 Stones
- 10 Aguero (s 80')
- 11 Zinchenko
- 13 Steffen
- 17 De Bruyne
- 21 Torres (s 80')
- 22 Mendy
- 25 Fernandinho
- 26 Mahrez (s 69')
- 33 Carson
- 50 Garcia
- 69 Doyle
Swap Zinchenko or Mendy for Cancello (b/c otherwise there isn't a right back amongst the subs), and you have the following for substitutes:
-defense: Cancello, Garcia, Stones, Mendy (177 mil. Euros in transfer fees)
De Bruyne, Fernandinho, (116 mil. Euros)
Mahrez, Aguero, Torres (131 mil. Euros)
40-Tude wrote:
sosayusall wrote:
I have been watching for a month on peacock now. Some of my thoughts. 1) man city has to be the best team of all time. They are awesome to watch. Except they make everyone else seem like a Jv team. 2) gungedom (man city number 8) has to be the best player of all time. 3) on top of man city I have been watching Leeds United. They seem like a fun team.
1) Just in recent years, and with Pep at the helm. There's a couple of documentaries on Man Cities championship run. I forget the year, but it was the season that came down to the final minutes and only when Aguero scored in the waning minutes to secure the title were things locked in. Prior to that year, ManCity always had the perception amongst their own fans that they always find a way to screw it up... and rivals Man Utd would end up higher or on top.
2). I think it's De Bruyn on that them for me. Gungedom did badly flub a penalty recently too. Forgot who they were playing, but he made up for it later by scoring twice.
Re: 1) that was with Mancini at the helm, but certainly after Sheikh Mansour took over. Before that takeover and during the Premier League era, City even briefly played on the third level on English football (as in, bad enough to get relegated from the second tier).
Re: 2) that was against Liverpool last month. Also, his name is rendered as Gundogan (or Gündoğan if you really want to be precise)