Premier League 2018/19

Who will win the league?


  • Total voters
    106

KingLeo10

Senior Member
Classical Pep's 4th season.
Burnt players who can't run anymore and the opponents who are better and better at neutralizing his team.

So, a saying: if executed properly, Pep's system is unbeatable=can only be applied for 2-3 seasons.

Even Pep himself can't execute his own system successfully for more than 2-3 years.

Other great managers like Sacchi, Capello, Cruyff, Heynckes also had a 3-4 year cycle.

Only one to go against this in the modern era is SAF, but he only won 2 CL in 26 years.

I'm not sure what your point is with regards to Pep. You wouldn't want another 3-4 year successful cycle with a great manager like him? I'm not saying he would match 08-12 (you need prime messi, xavi, iniesta for that), but he'd surely be better than EV, lol. For starters, he doesn't bend over for seniors.

Klopp is getting burnt out too. The only reason Pool keep grinding wins in PL is because they haven't won it in 30 years. They're average in CL this season.
 
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Vilarrubi

New member
Classical Pep's 4th season.
Burnt players who can't run anymore and the opponents who are better and better at neutralizing his team.

So, a saying: if executed properly, Pep's system is unbeatable=can only be applied for 2-3 seasons.

Even Pep himself can't execute his own system successfully for more than 2-3 years.

Name a manager who can lol Pep’s won 2 PLs, 1 FA Cup, 2 EFL Cups and Community Shield in 3.5 years at City.

You’re saying it like he has to win everything, ALL THE TIME. Don’t think anyone here has ever said that, was evident in his time here at Barca that he can’t. If I was a City fan I’d be more than fine with that amount of trophies in 3.5 years even if this year he wins nothing, can’t say the same about other PL managers. Klopp won his first trophy after 4 years at Liverpool.
 

soul24rage

Senior Member
I think there's no point in discussing with BBZ about Pep. He admitted that he hates Pep and I doubt he will change his view on him.
 

Rory

Senior Member
Let's assume the table stays as it is in the prem. So pep's 4th year ends in finishing 2nd (not exactly awful). Still in the fa/league cup and will probably win one. Who knows what will happen in the champions league, crazier things than a very good man city side winning it have happened. But even then it's hardly failing. Hardly the end of a cycle. He's never stayed longer than 4 years, if he does I imagine financial powerhouse man city will address squad weaknesses in the transfer window and he'll be good to go again.
 

Andrew M

New member
Name a manager who can lol Pep’s won 2 PLs, 1 FA Cup, 2 EFL Cups and Community Shield in 3.5 years at City.

You’re saying it like he has to win everything, ALL THE TIME. Don’t think anyone here has ever said that, was evident in his time here at Barca that he can’t. If I was a City fan I’d be more than fine with that amount of trophies in 3.5 years even if this year he wins nothing, can’t say the same about other PL managers. Klopp won his first trophy after 4 years at Liverpool.

Only a fool would not regard Pep as a great manager. He gets results while playing aesthetic football.

However, he isn't as good as some make him out to be. Klopp is better because he can deliver results and entertainment with much less.
 

Tiny Kim

New member
Name a manager who can lol Pep’s won 2 PLs, 1 FA Cup, 2 EFL Cups and Community Shield in 3.5 years at City.

You’re saying it like he has to win everything, ALL THE TIME. Don’t think anyone here has ever said that, was evident in his time here at Barca that he can’t. If I was a City fan I’d be more than fine with that amount of trophies in 3.5 years even if this year he wins nothing, can’t say the same about other PL managers. Klopp won his first trophy after 4 years at Liverpool.

To be fair, Pep inherited a team that won the PL 2 seasons previous, and then had the privilege of a £400m+ net spend on top of that. I'm not trying to discredit Pep's achievements at City, but to subtly insinuate that he had the same challenges as Klopp did at Liverpool is totally absurd.
 

KingLeo10

Senior Member
To be fair, Pep inherited a team that won the PL 2 seasons previous, and then had the privilege of a £400m+ net spend on top of that. I'm not trying to discredit Pep's achievements at City, but to subtly insinuate that he had the same challenges as Klopp did at Liverpool is totally absurd.

Klopp is the more resourceful manager, and has a very entertaining, industrious style. But I feel he's tailor made for underdog/underachieving teams. I'd like to see how he handles success when there's now expectations for Liverpool to be a force in both CL and PL.

Pep's played creme de la creme football with Barcelona. Yes, he had an all time great squad at his disposal but I feel his understanding of the attacking phase of the game is second to none (possibly ever).

Different managers. Both greats.
 

Devils

Senior Member
Pep could fail catastrophically this season but every top club in the world would roll out a golden carpet to welcome him to their club.

Meanwhile EV will fuck off back to Greece where he belongs and to the only supporters that have any sort of admiration for his football.

Truth hurts, dawg.
 

The Observer

New member
2 out of 4 league titles and 0 CL semis would be what you expect minimum from any manager managing Man City with added billions.

Next season sabbatical then PSG or Juventus followed by retirement is my guess.
 

Tackle

Senior Member
Lol. Dude broke the PL records for most points won. What other manager has performances and results similar to that and is not recognized as a great manager today?

I'm not trying to diminish what's he has accomplished. Simply stating the obvious, which is he has expired at City. What he has achieved in previous seasons has no bearing on what is happening this season.

It's not just defender's individual mistakes leaking goals. That is a disingenuous excuse. All facets of City's game are falling apart at the seam and it's an indication of Pep's cycle coming to an end.
 

mc_lovin

Senior Member
Yeah, people will always look for rather simplistic explanations. There are a ton of reasons why City doesnt work the same this season, not just Pep. Looking at the number of league titles as well. We won 2/4 with Neymar for example and 2/2 without him, but theres little correlation I would imagine.
 

DonAK

President of FC Barcelona
Klopp and Pep are 1A and 1B.

The two best managers in World Football.

Valverde isn't even worth talking about. There seem to be a small minority in this forum that like to talk Pep down because people rightly rate him above the man they keep defending every day.

Even if you believe Klopp is better than so what? It makes Pep the second best manager in the World. What a horrific thing.
 
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Tiny Kim

New member
Klopp is the more resourceful manager, and has a very entertaining, industrious style. But I feel he's tailor made for underdog/underachieving teams. I'd like to see how he handles success when there's now expectations for Liverpool to be a force in both CL and PL.

Pep's played creme de la creme football with Barcelona. Yes, he had an all time great squad at his disposal but I feel his understanding of the attacking phase of the game is second to none (possibly ever).

Different managers. Both greats.

I actually don't believe in that at all. Neither Klopp nor Pep are magicians who can conjure gold out of thin air. Both are fantastic managers, but they need resources to back them up too, just like any top manager. You can see how much consistently losing his top players to other clubs affected Klopp at Dortmund. I firmly believe the same will be for Pep as well, if and when it happens. There is no "top manager" who is specifically suited to underdogs. If you give any top manager enough resources, they'll start getting the right results before long.

Pep has done fantastically well with City, but he also spent a lot more than any other top manager, with a squad that was already stacked beforehand. Klopp on the other hand, has had a relatively slower start. But he also inherited a disillusioned team that was struggling to even make it into an Europa spot. In his first transfer window(Jan), he was given almost nothing to get new players. Liverpool have mostly been operating on a "sell to buy" policy. In fact, the only top 6 team to have less net spend during the last 5 years than Liverpool(£100m) is Tottenham(£95m). That's only a £5m difference. And people always say that Tottenham are doing well for a club that don't have any money. It really puts things into perspective.
 

BBZ8800

Senior Member
Other great managers like Sacchi, Capello, Cruyff, Heynckes also had a 3-4 year cycle.

Only one to go against this in the modern era is SAF, but he only won 2 CL in 26 years.

I'm not sure what your point is with regards to Pep. You wouldn't want another 3-4 year successful cycle with a great manager like him? I'm not saying he would match 08-12 (you need prime messi, xavi, iniesta for that), but he'd surely be better than EV, lol. For starters, he doesn't bend over for seniors.

Klopp is getting burnt out too. The only reason Pool keep grinding wins in PL is because they haven't won it in 30 years. They're average in CL this season.

I am not against Pep returning here.
Pep is probably the best coach in the last 20 years.

The point of my post is to wake up, get off from Barcaforum's cloud and to live in reality.

For years, I am saying that EVERY SINGLE coach, formation and system will get figured out over time, or it will be less and less efficient.

It happened with every coach, system and team in a history.
But on our forum, we could have read that nonsense for 1000s: "If executed properly, nothing can beat Pep's system".
Basically people said=Pep's system is so godlike that it could never be figured out or neutralized. Lol to that idea.

And now my point is=it is not true. Because even Pep can't execute it properly after some time.

Also, people here often say=we don't run and press anymore as we did during Pep.
WHAT IF Pep's football is so demanding that your team is physically and mentally dead after 2-3 years of applying that football?
We always thought that our coaches after Pep are dumb and that our players stopped running.
What if he killed them in those 3-4 years?

Look at City today. His players already can't follow him anymore.
And he will probably run away.
But the question is: what will happen with his team?
It seems that he pushes his teams to 120% for 3 years, then his teams get overburnt, then he runs away and his teams are walking zombies for the next 5 years until they retire or recover from that exaustion.

So, I don't like our black and white world where only Pep is great, his style is awesome, other coaches are dumb.
So, my questions about Pep's style is:
1. Are you sure that his style can't be figured out over time?
2. Can his teams win for more than 3 years?
3. And what to do with his teams after his coaching? To buy a new team because a current team is dead and finished due to playing and pressing for 120% under Pep?

That's all.
Nobody is perfect.
And everyone gets figured out over time since the opponents are always learning and adapting.
 
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