SLSFO

Stats, analytics, econ, finance, cycling, soccer

[SLSFO @SLSFO]

@u_Thato Unlike the other returning legends, KDB is going to the WC and is surely catching some much needed family time before that.

Sterling, well...

[SLSFO @SLSFO]

@City_Xtra Please @KevinDeBruyne I'm begging you, come on Sunday

[SLSFO @SLSFO]

@SamLee Thanks. Am I the only person who thinks it's crazy that the club told sponsors before the players? And didn't think the news would leak, or had any contingency plans once it did other than to play dumb?

[SLSFO @SLSFO]

@SamLee Sam, can you report on whether it's true the players didn't know about Guardiola, and their reactions in general?

[SLSFO @SLSFO]

@SamLee Is it really true the players didn't know? I find it unfathomable that the club would tell the sponsors before the players, or that it didn't anticipate the news would leak. And there seems to be no contingency plans at all - we're just going to play dumb for another week???

[SLSFO @SLSFO]

@sthsthburner @dullrecipe Hyper rabid partisans who refuse to recognize their own biases and instead demand that everyone else be objective 😭

[SLSFO @SLSFO]

@__TheNearPost_ Pep obviously could see that Marmoush in the first half didn't work at all, and made the sub at half time. And he clearly hasn't trusted him all season long.

Question is why did he suddenly decide to start him in a cup final? What did he expect to happen exactly?

[SLSFO @SLSFO]

@__TheNearPost_ 3 "moments" attackers that offer no control, and Doku tasked with being a one man creation machine again. What could go wrong?

[SLSFO @SLSFO]

@u_Thato Or goal kicks 🫣

[SLSFO @SLSFO]

@isaac1k__ How can his hands be so far horizontally *and* vertically from where everyone else was jumping? Just a complete inability to read the flight of the ball

[SLSFO @SLSFO]

@Mxolisi_Gwala_ @u_Thato Once I noticed how often he causes turnovers I couldn't unsee it. If he wasn't hoofing the ball he's passing to a FB under pressure who hoofs it.

It got so bad Pep had to station Bernardo in the backline to babysit him, which doesn't work if Rodri is absent, as we saw today

[SLSFO @SLSFO]

@HoobenDiarse I'd make that the GK-CB-DM sub block.

What's gonna happen once Bernardo's gone and there's literally no one else in world football who can drop into the backline to babysit <that> goalkeeper in first phase buildup and then also run up the field as play progresses?

[SLSFO @SLSFO]

@__TheNearPost_ @aar0n_nt Phillips -> Nunes -> Kovacic -> Gundogan II -> Nico G -> Reijnders... That is one impressive series of failed recruitment in central midfield. Rodri was signed 7(!) years ago. City fans still drunk on the 2010s peak recruitment

[SLSFO @SLSFO]

@Mxolisi_Gwala_ @u_Thato I could make a compilation video of Donnarumma shanking all sorts of routine back passes to him, but it's not good for my mental health

[SLSFO @SLSFO]

@Mxolisi_Gwala_ @u_Thato Even on that first goal... Obviously Guehi is primarily at fault, but the reason he had to so gingerly pass the ball back is because Donnarumma is uncomfortable with a back pass that has any kind of pace. So the CB has to carefully direct the ball to him, even under pressure

[SLSFO @SLSFO]

@markrstats "teammates" = Donnarumma

[SLSFO @SLSFO]

@aziztactics Pep has a major headache next season without Bernardo to babysit Donnarumma. Ofc there's an extremely easy solution that he refuses to take

[SLSFO @SLSFO]

@scottjwillis @AC__90 There's a huge difference between 51% confident and 99% confident...

[SLSFO @SLSFO]

@__TheNearPost_ When City chooses that GK their fate is very much determined by how and how much the opposition presses. Still waiting for Pep to solve the first phase build up problem

[SLSFO @SLSFO]

@joellikesthis @__TheNearPost_ Yeah forget about internet dimwits, Pep (and Hugo) are who I'm concerned about...