Manchester City ‘overrated’? Harry Redknapp needs to shut up
Just like before the season started, media pundits like Harry Redknapp are getting ahead of themselves in their evaluation of Manchester City. Nobody knows if the Blues are ‘overrated’ or not.
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After Manchester City‘s 1-1 draw to Everton Saturday, voices in the football punditry — ahem, Harry Redknapp — were jumping to conclusions about actually how good are manager Pep Guardiola‘s men.
The Manchester Evening News reports Redknapp asserting, “I think we have overrated Man City this year.
“I think everybody thought Man City were going to walk away with the league after three or four games.”
Ok, Harold — may I call you that? — you and anyone else who is paying attention to you just need to slow your rolls. In the words of Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, “R-E-L-A-X,” though he might not be the best person to quote right now.
It’s true if Liverpool defeats Manchester United today, Jurgen Klopp’s men would be on top of the table. But until such an event occurs, it’s City that dwells on top of the table. Guardiola’s side is in pretty good shape despite this bumpy run of form and some key injuries.
Guardiola himself stated he wouldn’t know how good his team until he sees how the group rebounds in these type of circumstances. With a high profile date with Barcelona around the corner, he and everyone else will get a decent measuring stick to make such a judgment.
From the beginning, I’ve been withholding mine given a handful of facts. One, due to injuries and suspension, various players are in and out of the team selection. For the last several matches, City’s lacked continuity in Guardiola’s team selection. Plus, Vincent Kompany looks to be in the first team mix again. Given his tinkering with the tactics against Everton — he deployed a back three over a back four — Guardiola is still tweaking things to figure his side out. I think he still wants to overhaul the squad. It will be a little while until he does.
Related Story: Everton draw shows Pep’s team still a work in progress
Secondly, there is still more than three quarters’ worth of games to play. As it’s still early in this season, most of the so-called contenders have not played most of the other so-called contenders. Until they do — and it will be a few more months before that happens — people can’t know who is correctly rated and whose side is a real threat to win it all. That includes you too, Harold.
To his credit, however, Redknapp does acknowledge the parity in the British top flight: “It’s wide open this year and they are no certainties by any means” and “there are another five teams there that all have a chance at winning the league.” After all, City and Guardiola dropped points to both Tottenham Hotspur and Everton — two sides who look European-bound next year. Their managers, Mauricio Pochettino and Ronald Koeman, also possess intimate knowledge of Pep for their tactical game plans. Truly, City has yet to put in an absolute dismal showing against a far inferior side to cause major concern.
So, just like in the beginning of the season when everyone insisted City was going to be dominant, people like Redknapp are looking for things to talk about because that’s what they’re paid to do. City could still “walk away with the league,” but not enough time has elapsed for anyone to determine if City is “overrated,” as opposed to say like Redknapp’s Spurs’ sides when compared to Pochettino’s.
There simply isn’t the evidence to make such a claim, except, perhaps for Jose Mourinho, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Paul Pogba and company. If any team can be described as “overrated” it’s on the other side of Manchester, languishing in 7th place with Wayne Rooney, the perfect mascot for the word, residing on the sidelines.