Has anyone changed their minds regarding Guardiola recently - especially following the City and Liverpool QF tie?

I know this has been discussed here over and over again, and we all know where everyone mostly is with regards to their views of Guardiola, but the more time goes by, the more people like myself and those who think he's overrated are proven right.

Has anyone jumped fences?

Perhaps lets put it this way.

First argument: Guardiolas City had the most favorable fixtures starting in FA CUP, League Cup, EPL fixtures and CL fixtures. This is important for any club campaigning. On top, even if you think he was overcharged in transfer window, he still had all the talents to field two teams and rotate them week in and week out! Tell me another team in EPL with same luxury?

Second Argument: How can money argument not good? I wouldn't have used money argument if it wasn't for the fact that he spend immense amount of money. How come do we apply money argument on other managers but yet Guardiola is excused from this cricism? I get it. The guy brings nice style in football, fantasy football style and people like it but has it brought results? I bet Guardiola is still cursing VAR because if VAR wasn't in play during Spurs match, then City would have been through and it would have been another great injustice. Just like this man had injustices in his previous CL winning campaigns.

Third Argument: Guardiola isn't bad manager. In fact, lately I have grown to like him more, but I still don't like the status of media and fans "darling". He is absolutely immune to criticism because he has beautiful football going on for him. Yet, Spurs also played beautiful football. So how come no one is praising Spurs and Pochetinho? Everyone says Guardiola bottle it, and they are right but probably because he just sucks in CL. He said it himself. He hates to play against same team in short period of time, because they are extra motivated and perhaps because his tactics become too predictable. Napoleon once said avoid fighting same enemy more than once or do your best to change your tactics. I don't it seems like Guardiola keeps loosing to same counter attacking tactics..

At last, I don't understand why media still debating whether it was handball or offside. Both decisions were amazingly called right. Thank God, referee has a sense and understanding of the laws.

@joze

Exactly, not to mention how many dodgy decisions went in favor of City this season in the league?? LIKE HOLLY Sht might as well just hand them the title.

dodgey decisions have been flying around like the flu this year in the PL - refs are getting shittier, most teams are benefiting and suffering from them more or less equally, there's always one big team every week that gets something.

I wonder if his team is gonna collapse now? That would be interesting if they went from a potential quadruple to just the one (least meaningful) trophy, with all that cash they splashed and the swagger with which they play, the investors expect a lot - and rightly so..

If there is a reason why Guardiola wont get sacked at city any time soon its because their director's decision making is normally really good, they know hes a good manager even if he's not what he has been hyped up to be

I bet Guardiola is still cursing VAR because if VAR wasn't in play during Spurs match, then City would have been through and it would have been another great injustice.

Funny enough, I actually thought the same at first but apparently, he is still backing the VAR and saying he is for a just football. Not really the reaction I expected from him but thats actually pretty class from him. Check out what he said after the Spurs game if you doubt me, can't find his quote in English for some reason.

@emo

I call him hypocrite. I bet he is cursing it day in day out. Like Samuel Eto'o said he just talks like that for the cameras.

@marcus

Imagine him playing against us the year they openly cheated against us and did not called at least 4 CLEAR PENS for us. Woooh, we would demolish them with 3-4 goals easily and nobody can change my mind about this.

@JozeV2 Lol, he might very well be for all we know. Wouldn't put it past him. Still think its a bit better than manager who talk against VAR as soon as it goes against them. Especially if they were all for it before. ;P But back on topic, I agree we have no idea how he really feel about VAR in his mind. Think you might very much be right though and that whenever there isn't any camera around, he isn't saying too many good thing about VAR.

you can't blame Guardiola for this can you? Laporte literally gifted Spurs two goals. VAR has been on point. I'm not huge fan of Pep, but this certainly wasn't his mistake.

No penalty called on Walker. Yet again the bald fraud somehow gets all this favoritism and wins the game. Just fucking gift it to City already.

how about that penalty on Bernardo in first half?

Lol still can't call him fraud, he is almost there. A lot of managers inspire themselves from cruyffs philosophy. So in that sense even ten haag ajax side is also copying their style to cruyff. But what mourinho said is valid you have a philosophy but some minor details makes you more strategic than others to adapt. Laporte 2 blunders, but i wished he would have taken it instead of talking about var all the time.

Why would he feel dejected after the CL loss? He's still in the title race, after all. He is happy, despite the circumstances. Happy new year.

Cruyff philosophy works in two situations:

1. Players are talented and most core players know each other very well
2. Players are world class and there is a full team of them

Where ever Pep went he had both 1 and 2. Simple, but even then it wouldn't work out as it expected. Is Pep flexible manager with his tactics? He was asked during the interview about the pattern of having his teams who are favorite to win CL, handled every year since 2011..

Currently, City has lost 4 games, and this team is still topping the league because their depth is incredible and they suffocate small teams. He is obviously expected to win this league title, but main objective were CL. He can say whatever he wishes to the press, but you can read so much frustration in his face especially when interviewer mentioned about his missed opportunity on quadruple. He would love that idea, but ofcourse who wouldn't? Yet, i think he would have lost FA cup, league cup and EPL but won CL.. he would have been much happier man by having secured himself a fat check from owner and write his name into history books of City.

@quikzyyy I can't get everything right when I am just watching an app with comments about the game. Excuse my poor attack to clean and not corrupted Pep.

He lost because of Aguero being offside by 1cm, if he wasn't offside, this thread wouldn't have been a thing again. Opinion still stands, Pep is an amazing manager.

You can be an amazing manager and still have glaring flaws. I don't think the argument Marcus and Joze are trying to make is that he's a poor manager. They're saying he's overrated and seemingly immune to criticism because of a deification of his play-style and "philosophy", which isn't his in the first place. He took Cruyff's formula and applied it to present players with minor tweaks.

You wanna know a problem I see in Bayern and City for Pep? He tries to mimic his Barca team without having the same players. That Barca team worked because specific players were outstanding at specific skill sets. That's why he suffered so much in his first City season. He didn't have any resemblance of the skills that Barcelona had from 2008-12. Once he purchased players like Laporte, Walker, Mendy (even though he's hardly played), Ederson, and Bernardo, he's been playing a lot better. Because those players have the skill sets of players Guardiola used at Barca (Pique, Alves, Abidal, Pedro/Messi/Villa, and Valdes).

Pep is trying to re-create Barcelona at every place, seemingly. He lacks three critical elements for me. You can mimic almost all the players except for three: Messi's dribbling, Xavi's manipulation of space, and Busquets' control over the pace of the game. Those are three things you can't buy, and that's what's stopping Guardiola from reaching the same heights as before.

He can sort of imitate those players via guys like Fernandinho/Schweinsteiger, Thiago/De Bruyne, and Bernardo/James/Robben, but ultimately you'll fall short. Didn't Guardiola say it himself? I swear I remember him saying at Bayern that he's missing Messi, which is stupid as fu-ck because, as a top class manager, you can't win a CL title without Messi? Someone correct me if I'm wrong about this quote.

Right now, his City team have almost the exact same weaknesses as his Bayern and Barca teams - high-pressure on CBs, a defensive line between CBs and midfield, pressure on the DM (Fernandinho/Busquets/Lahm), set pieces, counter-attacks... I mean the guy literally hasn't tweaked his philosophy to adjust to his squad's strengths and weaknesses. He seeks to use money to buy players to fit a specific style of play he keeps trying to recreate over and over again. The style is incredibly good, so he wins league titles by smashing average teams to pieces, but he struggles in facing the same team several times because the opposition players become adjusted to Guardiola's style of play.

I'm willing to overlook his 2011 CL title because the Alves-Pepe incident was singular and not the referee's fault... but the Stamford Bridge game had SEVERAL instances of obvious referee manipulation of the game.

@amir

Good you noticed that he lost by "1cm" offside. History would have remembered how triumphant City were to overcome Spurs, just like people remember about Barcelonas comeback against PSG or to round this back to Pep , how he won titles in 2009 and 2011. Question should be then are you for the fair game or do you want to watch matches or perhaps remember matches that were washed up by "marginal" referee decisions which had significant impact on the outcome of the match?

These small decision can turn entire history of the club and manager's career history around. Pep's history of success in CL is build on these marginal yet very crucial decisions. If Spurs had been robbed last week, then these pathetic excuse of football fans would have been praising Pep and City for being the one of the greatest of all time. Thankfully, VAR said " F*CK NO". I am grateful for it. and I wish we had VAR back in 09 and 11, because probably you have a short memory but in 2011 Arsenal was muscling out Barcelona at their own ground until Van Persie got most ridiculous red card ever!

This how overhyped reputation of Pep has been build as this genius manager yet his victories have a lot of dirt that people willing to overlook. If you love football and fair game, you should never overlook such calls because even small decisions flip entire game upside down and the ones against Spurs were big decisions that thankfully were called correctly!

Also, I would remind everyone first time VAR was used illegally against Zidane in 2006 final. They went and replayed the moment to give him the red card. Yes, it was red card worthy moment, but motivation behind to give him red and break the rules by using replay technology is what mothering me. Because we saw italy lift the trophy and Zidane wasn't selected for FIFA player of the year.

Here is another one in 2008 Terry spit on Tevez in Final of CL but Drogba was the one who sent off. Then you know who missed the penalty. These decisions turn entire history upside down.

VAR is a game changer and even if it is "1cm"- it is still a foul that can influence entire outcome of the match!

Chelsea would have never won in 2012 because they robbed Napoli. If you want to rewrite history do it for all teams and not only those you hate.
Barça and Pep got robbed in 2010 vs inter with offside goals in first leg and denied a valid bojan goal in second leg... but it doesn’t interest you just focus on Barça every single 50-50 favorable call... who cares 2009 ? 2011 ? We won CL. End of it.

For Pep, is dominating PL with 2 consecutive season over 90 pts, while same people here saying oh it’s impossible because stoke in a cold night, or becau Any team fights... if you are good enough, you win any game home or away... doesn’t matter which team you face, the context or even ref decisions. If you got the job done in the league where there is 38 games, luck is not part of the equation. Or it’s very minimal comparing to a two legged confrontations...

Not the best team of the season wins CL, but the best team of a league wins the league...

@tiki

I understand your pain. So you burst out but you are low glory hunting fan who will take any win no matter how it was won. You don’t need to re-establish that to us. ;)

Honorable victory and honor are foreign words in your life