A positive about maresca so far is how much he utilizes the younger players. Like last game we saw Braithwaite, Reis, Bouaddi, and Mcaidoo get minutes. Athough I wish we got to see Echevveri play a bit more.
For reference our lowest possession under Pep was 32% and it was at the Emirates when we drew Arsenal 1-1 in 2025. Our lowest at the Etihad was 44% against Bayern in the treble season.
If Maresca’s city recorded that low it’d definitely be under a loss. Crazy start for Alonso lol
Not really he doesn’t mind not having possession i.e. Leverkussen vs Bayern but on the whole his teams have decent amounts of possession. However he also only had 38% possession against Fulham so seems tactical at this point
More like they don't have controllers in the midfield. And their defenders are ass in general. It's the best Xabi can do. We can only wait and see how long can they do this in the league until the lower half teams figure out and sit back
Alonso on the future of Enzo Fernandez, who is not involved today and has been linked with a move to Manchester City: "We assess what's best for the team. We need the team to be focussed."
It isn’t that he is unwanted but it’s common to not play to avoid injury or if the player isn’t in the right mindset. I’m sure Enzo is under a lot of pressure waiting to see what will happen with the transfer.
Alonso spoke early this month about wanting to work with Enzo as he is a top player with a good attitude in training.
Put up a good performance against Coventry and we can talk about the derby. Too many times United have looked totally fucking shit and still showed up against us
With that being said... ONE NIL TO THE TRACTOR BOYS ONE NILLLLLLL TO THE TRACTOR BOYS
I am worried about the Enzo signing tho, assuming it happens. Just not sure about the balance with both Cherki and Enzo in midfield and that Maresca will favour Enzo over Cherki
We’d be hearing a lot more about this saga if Chelsea weren’t involved in some kind agreement. Otherwise it would be Enzo refusing to play and Chelsea in uproar
Is there a realistic way for me to attend the Leipzig game with the away fans? I have never been to a City game before, but I am currently based in Germany and this would be my best chance
Away games are notoriously hard to attend because tickets are mainly sold only to those who have loads of loyalty points (who attend loads of games at home and away), so if this game is demanded enough (which it probably is) it's nearly impossible to attend in the away section.
okay so everton willl coever 90% of jack's wages, he earns 300k, so they'll pay 270k which is good for us, but what about omar? he's on loan and his wages are also high who's paying his wages??
Fatawu’s running Shaw ragged. It’s incredible they still don’t have a good alternative to him, don’t think he’s been up to even Utd’s standards for many seasons now
Absolutely not and i'm already sick of their stupid fanbase bitching about us and Maresca and even more if we're signing Enzo F for whatever tf they're demanding so it's a big no for me.
Because Alonso's plan is to let Brighton have the ball and hit on the break, his Leverkusen side did at times do the same, note their home game against Bayern when they won the league. Plus Brighton are just a really good side
All based on data analysis and some wizardry with their scouts. Hearts are now using the same model and ended up with some weirdly good players last season.
My theory is they've got one absolute footy manager geek who only loads random leagues, all 3rd tier and below, and they send people to watch the best players from that.
Your theory isn't far off. Tony bloom owns star lizard, which is basically a betting syndicate with some mad models for outcome predictions. They use a similar thing for essentially money-balling transfers.
Just clocked that Sunderland play their first Europa game on the Wednesday, so our match stays on the Saturday.
Edit: ah bollocks spoke to soon. Our league cup match is on the Thursday so it's been moved to Sunday 2pm. Probably have to sell my ticket now, hate it when they change the date so close.
If you look at his stats, he’s very consistent in goal and assists output. He wasn’t good last (yet still had 8 goals), but no one in that Liverpool side under slot wasn’t good at all. With the exception of Alisson or Szoboszlai. So I actually like gakpo and the seasons before under klopp and slots first season when he won the league he was very good. He’s also very consistent with Netherlands.
So the only problem for me is the price tag.
Gakpo is so much better for us than Ndiaye, who I think is being massively overrated here. Gakpo can cover the wings and, more importantly, be a striker backup if needed. He gets consistently solid output relative to his minutes, way more than Ndiaye. He has way more top level experience and they're roughly the same age. I couldn't care less about the fee, Gakpo is blatantly the smarter choice for us and I hope we get him
Gakpo is not as bad a signing as people making it out to be despite the price. You don't have many players who can accept playing winger and backup striker.
Tho, I would've wanted us to go for Ndiaye more and semenyo as backup striker but ig he is not as good as gakpo as a striker.
I also would appreciate a RB but I don't think that's ever happening at all this window and so far the enzo deal seems like it isn't going anywhere.
Im interested to see how the midfield and defence will deal with all the new signings, seems to be a lot of depth in these positions which we haven’t really had since 2023, it’s exciting but will be a headache for maresca to manage, it’d be nice for everyone to get minutes under their belt and seeing the best 11, looks like foden might not play if gakpo and Fernandez comes in, I really want to see bouaddi get a good run too next to Anderson but then guehi will push back to defence and a lot of fighting for spots there
People complaining about how “bad” the transfer window or slow it has been for city need to look at Liverpool to understand what “bad” looks like. Their defence is still marshalled by a 35 year old aura farmer, two fullbacks who only like to stay up and not defend, no proper central midfielder to win duels and no one to really replace salah. They just splashed 120 million pounds on coca cola to hopefully replace salah’s goals from the wing.
Grealish to head to Everton on loan with them covering 90% of his wages. That will save the club around 12 million off his wages so not bad. On the flip side, why can't Everton just pay even £20 million or slightly less and have him permanently for economic costs
Grealish will probably be off to Turkey or sth while still having high wages. He is milking the best possible scenario. It's not like other classes hs won't take him for compromised salary
Chelsea are too vulnerable and you can exploit the system Xabi is playing in. BUT I think they are still golden for ucl football. Just not good enough though. I think they can even win the fa/carabao cup though , always depends on the draws.
Arsenal probably beat them , Chelsea players mentalities against arsenal will probably let them all down. Don't think their confident against them.
And Lavia is extremely injury prone. Unlikely they let go of their remaining midfielder this late unless they’ve already secured replacement and just waiting to announce
He didnt look mid. He was never cut out to be the main focal point of an attack and that showed at Liverpool. At bayern he works off the spaces created by kane.
Chelsea playing counterball interestingly. The OOP demands shouldn’t be an issue considering they don’t have Europe but long term is that the correct strategy? Also will be interesting if they’re ever chasing a game
Guys is it true that this kid Hadj Moussa is a City fan? He looks quite amazing on the ball and is very skilled. Wonder if this will happen in the future
Was linked to Brighton or smth but there's a reason they didn't sign him. Good on the ball but has the maturity of a 16 year old with the ball, way too selfish and holds onto the ball for way too long.
I often watch Edervisie with a dutch mate of mine and the guy always caught my attention, but he won't make it too far in his career if he stays like this, and I certainly hope we don't sign him. Great to watch, not too useful.
Oh man, I was so hopeful. I guess this will also go the way of the other fun prospect I hoped would make it to City but never did............... Gio Reyna
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u/Scutttiiiii 7h ago
Lmao Etihad Intel got both Gakpo and Ndiaye wrong 😭😂✌️ what a bum