Centre back options

[Proy]

I think it's safe to say we will be buying a centre half this month but the worrying thing is the lack of links..

I'm not convinced by that at all. We have 3 senior centre backs, with Tosin an able deputy should the shit hit the fan. Danillo will play there if it's required, I'm pretty certain of that.

Unlike many I think we are well stocked here. There is enough quality in it as well.

Now they have a proper fucking keeper behind them, they can concentrate on defending rather than worry about Bravo's next mistake.

 

[BlueMoonz1977]

I'm not convinced by that at all. We have 3 senior centre backs, with Tosin an able deputy should the shit hot the fan. Danillo will play there if it's required, I'm pretty certain of that.

Unlike many I think we are well stocked here. There is enough quality in it as well.

Now they have a proper fucking keeper behind them, they can concentrate on defending rather than worry about Bravo's next mistake.

I have to agree, at the moment it seems that Pep will rely on Vinny staying fit for the season. The lack of rumours with us actually talking to or even looking at a CB is easily noticeable. We do have enough quality, but i just hope that if we do not bring in an experienced CB, that Vinny does play the whole season.

With him in the back line, it makes the world of difference. Any CB signing now fir us, will come out of the blue

 

[Proy]

I have to agree, at the moment it seems that Pep will rely on Vinny staying fit for the season. The lack of rumours with us actually talking to or even looking at a CB is easily noticeable. We do have enough quality, but i just hope that if we do not bring in an experienced CB, that Vinny does play the whole season.

With him in the back line, it makes the world of difference. Any CB signing now fir us, will come out of the blue

That is a risk worth taking, imo.

He's had his longest period of playing time for 18 months. Touch wood, that will continue.

 

[Dax777]

I have to agree, at the moment it seems that Pep will rely on Vinny staying fit for the season. The lack of rumours with us actually talking to or even looking at a CB is easily noticeable. We do have enough quality, but i just hope that if we do not bring in an experienced CB, that Vinny does play the whole season.

With him in the back line, it makes the world of difference. Any CB signing now fir us, will come out of the blue

1. Lack of info about a link says nothing about our interest or how far we have gone with it. I.e. No one saw Bernando coming until he was dancing on blue cones. Similar could be the case here.
2. I don't think Pep is banking on Kompany staying healthy. He has 8 players he can Comfortably use on defense: Kompany, Otamendi, Stones, Walker, Danilo, Mendy, Dihno and Adarabioyo. So, yes Kompany staying healthy will give us a better chance, coz he is a great player, but the key is the squad as a whole. Not any individual player.

Lest we forget, this is a man who lost all his CBs to injuries at Bayern and resulted to using a fullback and a youth midfielder as his CBs for a while. He made do. Hopefully our situation never gets that drastic. But injuries here and there will happen and he'll adapt.

The squad looks strong. Even on defense. Hysterics on here not withstanding :)

 

[ninjamonkey]

As I said, if we ruled out a lot of the complete shite individual defending & just had the usual level of crap, we'd probably win everything.

When we have the ball for 20 mins & want to press the opposition when we lose it to punt the ball out so we get it back, & they do, it shouldn't end up with our cb sat on his arse & the ball in our net.

Solve rubbish like that & we win the lot imo.

That will always happen in Peps system. He isn't very prudent, he'll have the fullbacks bomb on and won't necessarily have any cover for them, we gamble on not losing the ball and winning it back within seconds when we do, his centre backs are asked to basically play 1v1 for most of the match, something hardly any other team in the world have to do, and why Pep himself has said it's hard for centre backs in his system. you can be the best defender the world has ever seen but when asked to defend 1v1 all season you'll not win every duel, particularly with so many quality attackers in the league. The only way of solving that is to change his system, and Pep is not going to do that.

 

[Neville Kneville]

That will always happen in Peps system. He isn't very prudent, he'll have the fullbacks bomb on and won't necessarily have any cover for them, we gamble on not losing the ball and winning it back within seconds when we do, his centre backs are asked to basically play 1v1 for most of the match, something hardly any other team in the world have to do, and why Pep himself has said it's hard for centre backs in his system. you can be the best defender the world has ever seen but when asked to defend 1v1 all season you'll not win every duel, particularly with so many quality attackers in the league. The only way of solving that is to change his system, and Pep is not going to do that.

Surely the best thing then, is to have the best centre backs you can possibly find on earth, to deal with the high degree of difficulty involved in protecting that area ?

That is precisely my point.

 

[ninjamonkey]

Surely the best thing then, is to have the best centre backs you can possibly find on earth, to deal with the high degree of difficulty involved in protecting that area ?

That is precisely my point.

Yes in an ideal world, but they've also got to have the other qualities Pep desires in a centre back when in possession, and given we're in possession for the most part of a game, Pep seems to prioritise those qualities. That aside, you've then got to weigh up the cost/benefits of attempting to acquire whoever is deemed the best. We could have the 4 best centre backs in the world in our squad, we wouldn't be all that much better off though, certainly not to the extent their cost to sign would indicate. It's much easier for Pep to identify an area/player we can strengthen further forward that would improve the team more.

For example, if we set up 3-5-2 at the weekend, i think it's fair to say Otamendi is comfortably the weakest link in the side, it therefore would be natural to look to upgrade the weakest link. However, even signing the best player imaginable for that role, it's marginal gains compared to what a Sanchez or somebody of that quality would bring to the table and the improvement he would make to the team

 

[Blue1880]

We can only have 4 HG players. If we have 5 English players over the age of 21 in the squad one will take up 1 of the 17 foreign spots.

I have done by research on this and from what I can find we can have as many as 17 "Foreign" senior and however "Home Grown" senior players we want, so long as it is all within the 25 senior players quota. So I don't know where you are getting that information from.

City is not signing Dele Alli.

I can think of several reasons why we should sign him; firstly that we need a 4th AM if Pep is going to stick with having 2 AM's in a Starting XI, secondly we need another HG player to allow Delph to be sold/loaned and thirdly if we are going to be forced (though the squad rules set by the EPL/UEFA) to buy "Home Grown" players then we might as well get the best there is, players such as Alli.

Likewise from the perspective of Alli himself, where would you rather be, a club which potentially faces tough times ahead (and trophyless ones at that) or do you want to be in a club which has lots of ambition (and the potential/resources to achieve), is able to take on the likes Real Madrid, which would help you win every trophy there is and in turn make you a legend of the game?

In other words, it makes sense for both City and Alli for him to join our club.

The fact you think they would sell to us is bizarre.

If there is one thing you can say about Levy's Spurs team, it is that no player can be considered to be "unsellable", even if he demands a high price at the end of the day. Otherwise they would not have sold Walker to us, Bale and Modric to Real Madrid and both Carrick and Bebertov to United. Not that I have too much against Spurs (especially when compared to the Arsenal) but that is the reality of the situation, a situation City need to be very willing to exploit.

Pep likes small squads. Pep has typically had small squads. Pep has won the treble with small squads. I don't see an issue.

Pep had over 30 players on within his Treble winning 2008-2009 FCB Squad and his European Double winning 2010-2011 squad while at Bayen (Who won the Treble in 2012-2013 with around 27 players) he also had around 25-31 players in the 3 seasons he was at there (Where he won 2 Domestic Doubles as well as an additional League Title, a Club World Club and 3 UCL SF apperences to boot).

Considering how much tougher it is for a EPL club to win a European Treble (let alone a Quadruple) for any manager (even some of the best ones*), one would say that trying to doing it with 23-25 players (in fact you need at least 33-35 players, which the rules do not permit as things stand) is going to be very tough, trying to doing it with less players then that would be all but impossible since it is virtually impossible for a the same starting XI (as Chelsea showed in recent years) to play 50-60 games to the same high standard, no matter how good they are as players.

*For example Fergie won the Treble for United with over 30 players within his squad.

 

[Neville Kneville]

Yes in an ideal world, but they've also got to have the other qualities Pep desires in a centre back when in possession, and given we're in possession for the most part of a game, Pep seems to prioritise those qualities. That aside, you've then got to weigh up the cost/benefits of attempting to acquire whoever is deemed the best. We could have the 4 best centre backs in the world in our squad, we wouldn't be all that much better off though, certainly not to the extent their cost to sign would indicate. It's much easier for Pep to identify an area/player we can strengthen further forward that would improve the team more.

For example, if we set up 3-5-2 at the weekend, i think it's fair to say Otamendi is comfortably the weakest link in the side, it therefore would be natural to look to upgrade the weakest link. However, even signing the best player imaginable for that role, it's marginal gains compared to what a Sanchez or somebody of that quality would bring to the table and the improvement he would make to the team

Sanchez will only be a huge benefit, if the other players don't play up to scratch/improve.

If they are all playing to their capabilities, we don't need him.

He is insurance, same as a top cb would be insurance at the other end. Except we have far more quality in attacking positions than central defence.

 

[BlueDeadHead]

I have done by research on this and from what I can find we can have as many as 17 "Foreign" senior and however "Home Grown" senior players we want, so long as it is all within the 25 senior players quota. So I don't know where you are getting that information from.



I can think of several reasons why we should sign him; firstly that we need a 4th AM if Pep is going to stick with having 2 AM's in a Starting XI, secondly we need another HG player to allow Delph to be sold/loaned and thirdly if we are going to be forced (though the squad rules set by the EPL/UEFA) to buy "Home Grown" players then we might as well get the best there is, players such as Alli.

Likewise from the perspective of Alli himself, where would you rather be, a club which potentially faces tough times ahead (and trophyless ones at that) or do you want to be in a club which has lots of ambition (and the potential/resources to achieve), is able to take on the likes Real Madrid, which would help you win every trophy there is and in turn make you a legend of the game?

In other words, it makes sense for both City and Alli for him to join our club.



If there is one thing you can say about Levy's Spurs team, it is that no player can be considered to be "unsellable", even if he demands a high price at the end of the day. Otherwise they would not have sold Walker to us, Bale and Modric to Real Madrid and both Carrick and Bebertov to United. Not that I have too much against Spurs (especially when compared to the Arsenal) but that is the reality of the situation, a situation City need to be very willing to exploit.



Pep had over 30 players on within his Treble winning 2008-2009 FCB Squad and his European Double winning 2010-2011 squad while at Bayen (Who won the Treble in 2012-2013 with around 27 players) he also had around 25-31 players in the 3 seasons he was at there (Where he won 2 Domestic Doubles as well as an additional League Title, a Club World Club and 3 UCL SF apperences to boot).

Considering how much tougher it is for a EPL club to win a European Treble (let alone a Quadruple) for any manager (even some of the best ones*), one would say that trying to doing it with 23-25 players (in fact you need at least 33-35 players, which the rules do not permit as things stand) is going to be very tough, trying to doing it with less players then that would be all but impossible since it is virtually impossible for a the same starting XI (as Chelsea showed in recent years) to play 50-60 games to the same high standard, no matter how good they are as players.

*For example Fergie won the Treble for United with over 30 players within his squad.

There is so much wrong with this post. I will deal with just the first part because I really don't have the time to explain all of this to you. In short the PL rules for squad size is different from the CL rules. The CL rules are all that matter. We can have 17 foreign players; 4 Homegrown players; and 4 Academy trained players. We have exactly zero of the latter so our squad size is limited to 21. In addition we can add unlimited U21 players as long as they have been at the club for two years. So Sane, Jesus etc...count as foreign.