Angelito wrote:We can already see Man City not being as effective as they were in those two incredible seasons. That's despite spending £1b on players.
Man City would need 4-5 world class signings to get back at those levels because Pep's system is more about physicality and diligence than people like to believe. But he needs specific players.
Wenger was bang on when he talked about neuroscience being the next breakthrough in football. Fitness regimen and physical training have been exhausted. Football people wanted peak human specimens and we've reached the absolute limit there.
It's about decision-making now. How quick can you decide and how is your body able to coordinate your thought-process and dexterity.
To draw a parallel, Ronaldo is the final word on physical fitness and peak physical performances. Messi, in contrast, is about the speed of his thought and his well coordinated mind and body. Both obviously are supreme athletes but that's where they vary.
A decade ago, we had an array of flair players with their hallmark intelligence: Iniesta, Pirlo, Xavi, Cesc, Ozil, Kaka, Alonso, Cazorla, Rosicky, Silva, Riquelme if you go back bit. To a lesser extent, we had the likes of Nasri, Arshavin, van der Vaart, Mata, etc.
Today, how many players of such type do we have? Pogba? KdB? Thiago?
Football has reverted back to being a game of physicality these days. It's about athleticism more now. About intensity, running.
There's a distinct dearth of flair players, technicians. Most top managers spend big on these players and mould them into runners. Like Pep did with KdB who has even played as a B2B midfielder for City.
You see products of systems these days. You don't see raw inventiveness. Players who have dared challenge Ronaldo and Messi at a technical level are the likes of Neymar and Dybala. Mbappe is about raw speed, top physical performance, and world class ability. But he's definitely not a technical beast. He's not flair and elegance.
If you think about it, Mikel, so far, is a lot closer to Mourinho and/or Klopp than he is to Wenger or Pep. Simeone, a prototype manager for today's athletes, has ruined numerous flair players.
People love to blame Wenger for switching to a 4-3-3/4-2-3-1, but it was the need of the hour. How many top teams have used a 4-4-2 in the past decade? Atleti. ManU, at times under SAF. Even SAF reverted to a 4-5-1 in UCL games and big games in the Prem. Barca used 4-4-2 intermittently under Valverde, and they were destroyed in the UCL.
4-3-3 is the ideal system today. We "suffered" because we didn't have the resources of a Chelsea, ManU, or a City.
On Ozil, he was sublime under Wenger. He dropped off immediately after Wenger left and following Germany's World Cup fiasco in 2018. We hired Emery who was always a manager about shape and system. Simply not a world class one like Simeone, Conte, or even Klopp as his strategy is system-dependent.
SAF's strength lied in his robust wingers and clinical CFs. Wenger's strength was in his technical players. Make no mistake, Vieira, Pires, Ljungberg, Bergkamp, et al. were technicians foremost.
Unlike SAF, or Pep, or Zidane, Wenger didn't have an abundance of resources. Unlike Klopp, Wenger didn't enjoy a free run to express himself during the latter part of his career due to the stadium move.
That Real side that won 3x UCLs in a row had world class players in every position. Barca had the golden midfield. Those Milan sides under Ancelotti looked more like a World XI than a club side. SAF had prime Tevez, Ronaldo, Rooney, Scholes, and a formidable defense and GK when he won the UCL. Still, that 3-1 loss against Barca is probably the single most dominant display by a winning side in UCL final history. ManU were lucky, they only conceded 3 goals.
It's all about the players you have, the system, and the resources at your disposal.
Today, the game is system-oriented. It's about physicality, intensity, and about clubs that can afford intelligent players.
The players we have signed since Mikel has been here collude to that fact: Gabriel, Thomas, and Willian. All physical players. Thomas has a bit of flair in him, but he's no Santi Cazorla.
This deserves a bloody round of applause
The one thing I don't agree with was your comment that we needed to move to a 4-3-3. I don't agree with this at all and I do not agree that it is the best formation at the moment. There is no best formation in football. You can look at systems and forecast that one may topple another due to overloading or whatever else, but in reality its down to the players you have and the way you implement it.
I think Wenger went to 4-3-3 because we literally just lost to Barca in the CL final and that prompted him to begin the Barca Lite transformation, with the small technical players and passing the ball to death. You already conceded SAF played 4-4-2, he only played 4-5-1 in the big games, we could've done exactly the same. In fact, we did just that in our route to the CL final and never played it again under Wenger.