Craig Burley, Steve Nicol and Gab Marcotti answer your latest questions on ESPN FC Extra Time:
0:00 Did Stevie have a particular referee he disliked playing or coaching against?
2:30 Should the Premier League just start over with new referees and a new VAR system?
6:30 Is Manchester City better without a striker?
11:00 Would Stevie rather play attractive football under Bielsa and concede 11 goals or play under ‘boring’ Simeone and win 1-0?
14:15 Gab rates the top 5 cities in Italy.
16:10 Will Stevie buy his wife anything for Christmas?
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I also don't understand why people say City always buys top 5 players in the world? Jesus, Laporte, Dias, Rodrigo, etc who knew that much about those guys?
They really love golf
Would to see this team face jose mourinhios intermilan team.
Guardiola want's more fluidity he wants everyone to score if possible ederson too can ?.
For example as the role cancelo is playing nobody expect him to shoot bcauz he is a defender they are looking for the person who is possibly recieve that pass on that way they left some space in the mid and they covered the front 3 player's.
So he got a good space to cause Chaos …
As a Team it's a Nightmare to take a Clean Sheet againt CiTY?
Liverpool play without a CF or natural 9 tbf so they good
False 9 is the way to go. With talented players you really can't mark anyone. The mind set is: if you have three ball, your a striker. If you don't have the ball, your a defender.
So ESPN are shy to make a video about Barcelona game
Assuming we lost last night all of them by now would have made two or three videos criticizing Xavi, dembele and Barcelona
They have 5 or 6 " strikers".The only significant person that have not scored for City is Ederson
Love the sweatys banter……
The ponce needs to do one
astonishing how the media piles pressure on the refs as soon as a call goes against the eternal victims, victimpool. If this was city or chelsea they wouldn't spend a single second on it.
That question about rather losing 11-0 or winning 1-0 might be the stupidest thing I've seen on Extra Time. An infinitely better question would be whether a manager would feel better winning 4-3 or 1-0, the one being more entertaining but risky, whereas the other would demonstrate defensive mastery.
And in terms of a striker or non-striker, the real question is whether those "false nines" know what to do when they get chances in the box. If Grealish, Jesus, De Bruyne, Foden or Sterling can finish better than the embattled Chris Wood then you don't know a pure striker. The problems occur when NO ONE is good in the box. At times Sterling has failed when he overthinks, but he has gotten better in terms of his decisiveness under Guardiola.
City get expensive players because selling clubs know it is City and they have loads of money. Great counter by Gab.
Stevie is on the ball, ‘Why would I get her anything……she has everything she wants’!???
Gab comes out with a detailed analysis of how CF play in the city and other pundits are like they wanted to buy Harry Kane.
Steve jealous old man your Liverpool can't compete with city Pep makes them all world class players because he is the best manager ever ?????????????????????????????????????
Nx week, can Manchester city compete without a proper striker ?..
Wonder who gives harder headbutts, Craig or Nicol
Maybe Pep Guardiola has created a new position a false false nine. It's a false nine that is multiple players during the same game who switch up based on who has the best position/possession. DUN DUN DUUUUUUUN
Wow never seen Craig happier. Won a lottery or something?
Man City won Liverpool dropped points espn fc is boring now
Where can I sign up for the 5 towns in Scotland tour?
"Best places in Scotland to get your nose broken" Classic.
ESPN FC Extra Time is the best sport show of the night, every night. Always funny.
Stevie is my hero lol ???
Pep is a genius, yes he has spent a lot of money but he has brought new gameplays to the premier league, ball playing goalkeeper who plays like a sweeper, full backs that can play inside as an extra midfielder, no recognised striker which allows the front 3 to rotate across the front, and all the players he has bought have become better players. Wow amazing
Possession attacking football hits different
City's players are blessed with Transformational cube, they take any position and play like the best fit player in that position..
Newcastle got robbed this weekend on that penalty no-call. They were already getting wrecked by Man-City anyway but then you have a ref helping them keep a clean sheet. Like, what's the point of that. And about that forward thing. Man City blew their money they had to spend last summer on Grealish who totally was not worth the money. how would it look if Man City spend 100 mill + on 2 players in the same summer? It would make it look unfair so they are trying to not bring unwanted attention to themselves.
Yes they are! Sometimes having a striker makes the whole team focus on that person for goals. But with their system every player can score even the goal keeper if given the chance
The drunken scouser could not answer a simple question way above his football knowledge
Why does he get paid for???
Doesn't need anyone to school irish scouser his pissed most of the time
Got the drunken Irish scouser telling us if man City need a striker I wounder if he knows that City scored 11 goals in 2 matches
Nicol is hilarious hardly any of the City team were considered to be in the top five in the world when they were bought. The argument about how much the City, lpool, utd, chelsea etc squads cost and what they are worth now are two different things. City buy the best keeper in the world Ederson for £33m while lpool pay £70m for gaffe prone Alisson and chelsea pay £72m for Kepa, enough said. Vvd was so much in demand the mighty Southampton were the only team that came in for him and as lpool`s transfer policy mainly consisted of hoovering up Southampton`s best players it was inevitable he`d end up at anfield. He went from being above average to the best in the world (red media) overnight in his prime at an eyewatering £75m. Rubin Dias who nobody had heard of in England rocks up to City for £48m (otamendi went the other way for £15m) aged 23 a shelf life of at least 10yrs. Cancello maybe one of the best in the world but he only cost the club £28m (Danilo went the other way for £34m). The idea that all our squad cost £60-£70m apiece is just not true that maybe is what they`re worth but the likes of Gundagon £20m and Jesus cost £22m and Foden cost nothing at all. Even the players that came in for £40m+ are worth more than we paid for them. Like everybody else they can only spend what they earn they just do it better than everyone else.
Stevie's anti City, pro Liverpool bias is unbelievable. He is trying to make out that City have just bought success by buying 'top five' players. Even DeBruyne was bought from Wolfsburg and had been rejected by Chelsea. City have no doubt bought quality players but many have been developed by Pep. We have done nothing like Real Madrid or Barcelona or United or Bayern Munich have done in the past by hoovering up all the best markee players available. City have just bought exceptionally well. No one had heard of Sane, Diaz, Rodri or Torres until we bought them. Even now many players like Kyle Walker, Zinchenko or Sterling and Jesus would be not in anyone's top five. It is just an exceedingly well coached team with good quality players across the board. Yes we have spent a lot to get 22 top quality players but when they were bought not one of them in the current squad is a marker signing. That is the truth of it.
Not all the time, but sometimes when I see Stevie and they discuss his managerial past, it makes me think of and miss Paul Mariner.
all referees hold the same head..
Gab tight slap on Steive face.
Burley got a cheek am embarrassed 2 b Scottish cause bullets antics
City fans defensive in these comments ?
These players r big names pep signs, hes not signing £200,000 players & making them better, it's only in ENGLAND they go over the top on players, dias was highly rated across Europe, pep only winning things at city & bayern that they were winning b4 he came & will win things after he leaves, never won champions league at Bayern yet hansi flick came in behind pep & won it & flick not a top top manager at the time
Can we drop the city with or without a striker, pep has chose not 2 play 1, it's not as if he hasn't got any, jesus there, even when Sergio there he never played with 1, this is peps choice
I cant think of a single Guardiola era signing of a top 5 player. Id say even Grealish wasn't top 5 left wingers
Craig is getting so boring.
Klopp had no problem with Tierney when he didn't send Milner off at Anfield for a clear 2nd yellow did he – hypocrite!
Loserfools drop 2 points and can't stop crying about refs. Loserfools will be loserfools.
I hate these stupid "woukd you rather play great football and lose 7-0 or play boring and win 1-0" when the reality would be play great and lose or play boring and lose.
pRoPeR sTriKeR
Gab made some great points except for 2. Pep 100% wanted a striker. They tried desperately to sign Harry Kane. So you can't argue he doesn't want a striker. Thats nonsense. He wants one, he doesn't have one and he's adjusted for that fact.
Second false 9 is very different than a traditional 9.