It won't be long before they are shipped by Pep. They are too flawed technically for his kind of football.

The formation is really weird. Clichy and Sagna don't bomb up, they stay back at all times and both CBs are the one bringing the ball up the field with the fullbacks moving centrally to cover.

The Sagna and Clichy 'midfield partnership' makes one long for two creative geniuses like Flamini and Coquelin to distribute the ball.
Problem is that neither of them hardly do anything other than pass the ball back to Fernandinho/Stones/Kolarov, or play five meter sideways passes. Absolutely nothing happens from an offensive standpoint. Alaba and Lahm they are not.

This is a really, really short Man City side btw. Fancy Sunderland to get something from a set piece.

I see no advantage in this Pep's formation compared to a normal one, other than having 8 players centrally to dominate pointless possession.

Hope Moyes get something out of this.

Well, in defensive transition this formation means he had his DM (Fernandinho) tucked in between the CBs, and he has both his FBs in defensive positions. In theory, I quite like having those 5 players back as the last line of defense. It hampers them more offensively though so far than it compromises them defensively IMO.

...and there it is!

Can I also please point out that Stones was acting like a full blown retard for that goal. 50m!

City are going to take a long time to be the finished product. They definitely need Gundogan to get healthy. Watching Sagna tucked-in in midfield is not very inspiring.

Moving to possibly a 3 5 2, with Iheanacho replacing Clichy.
OMIT formation fetishists are going to build a shrine for Guardiola. Heaven-sent

Honestly, with this way of using your FBs, it wouldn't matter too much if they had Gundogan or not in there I reckon; I can't for the life of me figure out why you would willingly want Clichy and Sagna to distribute the ball from central midfield to any degree at all, and they have done so a LOT today. Main problem this game is that they have big problems getting the ball to to the players who are actually good in the final third; as a consequence Aguero has hardly touched the ball, Silva was very anonymous, De Bruyne has had to drop too deep to get on the ball.

Do you know why Toure didn't make the matchday squad? Is he to Guardiola what Mata is to Mourinho?

Own goal?

Yup.

Fuck. Lucky goal. 2-1. Useless Sunderland.

Pep Guardiola is a radical who will perfect his genius in the Premier League!!!!!

Nice edit, Burnsy!

The pep hate has started.

Sunderland has been woeful offensively too. The haven't tried to force the Man City players into errors for toffee. If Man City face a bit of pressure, like they did when we played them last week, then I reckon they will give the ball away time and again, like they did against us. There is just no way that Clichy, Sagna, Kolarov and Fernandinho will NOT lose possession a lot if they are under pressure in central positions.