Everton had 2 kids in today - both played well - Liverpool have a youngster playing in a big game today - Spuds seem comfortable working young players into the first team - this should have been started at City 2 or 3 years ago - along with Joe Hart spending time with one of our many coaches working on his distribution - but all we do is send our young players out on loan - hope Pep recognises that average age of the team needs to come down in next transfer window
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
Six players in the starting XI were in their 30's today
- Thread starter HelloCity
- Start date
Millwallawayveteran1988
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 23 Sep 2010
- Messages
- 37,109
I keep saying this but our squad has too many old players and too many young.
We have hugely fucked up in the squad building area.
We have hugely fucked up in the squad building area.
That's frightening and that's the major problem.
Bravo, Sagna, Clichy, Yaya, Zabaleta and Silva.
There isn't a team in the world that would look great with 6 30+ year olds in it.
Think Juventus had a older side and won the league but Italian football is slightly different.
But we really didn't improve the areas we needed to. No full-backs and only one (injury-prone) CM signed is poor work.
Guardiola obviously disagreed on which areas needed strengthening. He wanted a GK, CB, CM, 2 wingers and a striker more than he wanted a fullback.
Guardiola obviously disagreed on which areas needed strengthening. He wanted a GK, CB, CM, 2 wingers and a striker more than he wanted a fullback.
All of which makes complete sense if you expect to play a 3-4-3. This is way out there speculation but I suspect he doesn't feel there are any real quality FBs out there who are attainable. I think the plan this summer was to bring in 2 CBs, hope Kompany got better and if not Otamendi, then unleash the hounds forward with two pacy wingers rotating outside Aguero. As it has played out, pretty much none of that has worked, although in this moment I'd be up for him picking what formation he wants to play and starting to pull in youth and others to try to get them used to playing it, results be damned.
leighton
Well-Known Member
They all need replacing sooner or later. I think the more creative players might be ok we can carry 1 or 2 tops. The others maybe not. Being honest I dont get why we started Zaba in midfield when Delph could of been more suited in there to move Yaya on a bit up the pitch. He has his work cut out. Will he be here next season if we miss out on champions league football?? I know its early days and he will be given as much time he needs to do it. But Pep is a perfectionist will he want a break to reflex on what happen here or will he stay on. I think thats the more important question. We need to get rid of the deadwood we got some talent about time to get them in and around the team more. So the more experienced players see these kids playing a bit better for competition in long term.
City Raider
Well-Known Member
It's not just about legs, as big a problem is motivation. These players have been there done that in terms of the prem. We were such a hungry team under Mancini, angry and a bunch of fighters. If it ain't coming easy we ain't winning and it's been like that for years.
abu13
Well-Known Member
Next year, if we tried to utilise some youth.
--------------------------------??????????????-------------------------------
???????????-------------???????????-------Stones-------------?????????????
--------------------Garcia----------------------?????????------------------
--------Sane-----------------------KDB-----------------Sterling--------
-----------------------------------Aguero---------------------------------
--------------------------------??????????????-------------------------------
???????????-------------???????????-------Stones-------------?????????????
--------------------Garcia----------------------?????????------------------
--------Sane-----------------------KDB-----------------Sterling--------
-----------------------------------Aguero---------------------------------
We could have been bringing in understudies to develop or could have been replacing players with new first team quality players rather than signing backups to fill in, this has just passed the problem onto future seasons and its catching up with us.
We are now in a position where we now rely on a bunch of older players who are in general past their peak performance levels with backups who are not good enough to start for us and untested youth players. Our attack does look like it is sorted for years to come but midfield and defence still needs work.
Poor succession planning.
We are now in a position where we now rely on a bunch of older players who are in general past their peak performance levels with backups who are not good enough to start for us and untested youth players. Our attack does look like it is sorted for years to come but midfield and defence still needs work.
Poor succession planning.