Centre back options

[Sunset]

If we put them there I think Fernandinho would easily be our best CB. The only one with world class positioning and ability to read the game.

Outside of Kompany of course.

 

[MCFC ISRAEL]

Davinson Sanchez has the potential to be one of the best CB in the world. Very young, can be a solution for our CB spot for a decade. The question is whether he is ready now or better for him to stay in Ajax for another year

 

[UncleCTID]

Davinson Sanchez has the potential to be one of the best CB in the world. Very young, can be a solution for our CB spot for a decade. The question is whether he is ready now or better for him to stay in Ajax for another year

Another year an he'll be Barcelona's?.. think it may be an 'act now, or forever hold your peace' affair with this one?

 

[BimboBob]

We don't need a CH. Sure we MAY be better with a very good one like Varane VVD or Chiellini. But there is no guarantee an injury to Komps still won't affect us.

Contrary to popular opinion, CH is not a problem. Frankly its a strength. In Komps, Ota, Stones and Kola we have 4 very good ones.

If we had Thibaut Courtios save ratio all season we'd have conceded 29 to 31 goals. Better than Chelsea's 33.

If we had De Gea's save ratio, we'd have conceded 26 to 28 goals... Sure still worse than the 25 the Rags conceded. But they were a particularly defensive team. While we always played.

The only team who would have been significantly better had we had their goalie was Tottenham. If we had their goalie, we'd d have still conceded 29 to 30 goals. 6 more than they did.

It is no surprise that we got a keeper out of the blocks. If we up our save ratio to around Mignolet's, the worst of the other 5 and we'd have conceded the same # as Chelsea.

Where else we failed on the other hand is in scoring. Both Chelsea and Spurs scored more goals than we did off of fewer chances.

Chelsea created 57 fewer clear chances than we did. And scored more. Yet folks are somehow convinced its our CBs that's the problem.
Bernado, Sanchez, Mbappe are all links and acquisitions that speak what are problems were. The focus on fullbacks, the choice to use Dihno and Navas even when the regular fullbacks were healthy, also speaks to our true weakness.

CB frankly isn't one of the

Madness. Save ratios? Because only goalies contribute to stopping goals going in?

Our central defence looks great if Kompany plays. He is world class. If he doesn't play, may be he picks up an injury, we look a bit dodgy. The rest are fillers. Otamendi is good but like Stones prone to lapses. Kolarov positionally is sometimes found wanting.

A world class player to play with Kompany and help bring on Stones would be great.

 

[Dax777]

I agree we struggled for goals for a large part of last season. I thought that largely fell at the feet of Agiero. Sane and Jesus were big pluses in the 2nd half of the season and with Bernardo Silva signing and possibly two attacking full backs arriving, I think the attacking potential of the team has gone up significantly

I am glad that you think we are strong in central defence. It's not an issue if Kompany is fit, but for the past two seasons he has not been and without him I don't trust any of the other central defenders. They seem to go to pieces without him. We had 70% possession on average last season, and yet a recurrent theme last season was City's inability to defend against occasional break aways. That wasn't entirely down to the two central defenders. Toure was terrible off the ball, the keeper was new and both full backs were poor so we should be better defensively this season. I think we'll strengthen the full backs and we've signed a keeper, but looks like we are going to play without a defensive midfielder so it's the central defence that to me is the weak area of our squad

It's possible to be successful with weak points. Chelsea I thought were extremely lucky with injuries last season eg if Costa had got injured they'd have struggled. But knowing our luck, Kompany will get injured once again. perhaps it is not luck. We should really expect it, or at the least plan for it. I suggest that if Kompany does get injured again, and City have not strengthened that area then Guardiola will get hammered but as I've been told already today it's June and not August and I should wait and see what happens!

These occasional breakaway happen to every top team. The only major difference was that there keepers made saves at a higher rate than ours. Put another way, as shitty as most thought our CBs and FBs were, they gave up chances at the same rate as Chelsea and United and slightly less than Tothenham. They were far superior to Liverpool and Arsenal. But Chelsea and United's keepers were just significantly better than ours.

For all intent and purpose if you exclude goalkeeper performance, only Tottenham played better defence in the league.

So its either the whole league barring Tothenham is shit, or (more rationally) our CBs are not as shit as advertised. I'm going to go with the latter.

Any position can be strengthened. I don't want to pretend CB can't. But nothing suggests its a particular problem. We have a great on Komps, a top 5 defender in Ota, a developing Stones and a quite capable Kolarov. We are spoilt for options at CH.

 

[ADegenerate]

I agree with Dax...it's clearly a bonus and no where near a top priority. New keeper, fullbacks, and another year in the system will iron out some of the issues. Winning and momentum will surely go a long way. I'm also of the belief that the natural variance of the game was slanted against us in defense but that's only speculation (for example bravo is nowhere near as terrible as he appears).

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

Alfie Mawson. Get the Barnsley lads back together

 

[Dax777]

I agree with Dax...it's clearly a bonus and no where near a top priority. New keeper, fullbacks, and another year in the system will iron out some of the issues. Winning and momentum will surely go a long way. I'm also of the belief that the natural variance of the game was slanted against us in defense but that's only speculation (for example bravo is nowhere near as terrible as he appears).

I believe this too. We were unfortunate overall. Got very few lucky bounces defensively.

Yup, Keeper and fullbacks are are only real needs. Everyone else is more of a want. And at a push, outside of Gal and FB a scoring AM is the next biggest need.

So Bernado and Sanchez pursuit are actually not that surprising.

 

[Marvin]

Thanks for the reply Dax. Don't agree but nothing to add. Mawson is a good shout.

BBC gossip reporting that Everton closing on Keane for £25m. That would be a good buy for them

Strike that about Mawson: Chambers looked better in the England U21s

 

[cadds92]

Agreed about Mawson.

Looks a good defender who can play a bit.