True, but on Tuesday, right at the end, he stepped out into the defensive line, to catch the oppo attacker offside, in contrast to being asleep again v Palace, two yards deeper than the line, playing Benteke onside just before half time.
Pep went fucking apeshit at that & then on Tuesday, in the last minute, Otamendi catches an oppo offside.
So maybe he is actually able to improve.
Well that is encouraging. I have nighmares about him going to ground on saturday and being spun by Morata/Hazard/Pedro etc. It is so like groundhog day with him.
The rest of his game is more than fine. Just those bouts of concentration and subsequent decision-making.
If you start to look at all his individual actions (such as going for headers v Benteke with no hope of connecting) you start to spot more stuff & it makes no sense that we haven't let goals in.
But then on the other hand he & City, did some good stuff v Shakhtar, when they did get in behind us, preventing crosses getting through etc, so perhaps it's best to do what some on here do, & just not notice all the potentially disasterous mistakes, unless they actually cause disasters.
Utd are doing it with Phil Jones every week. They seem to feel confident enough, & are content ignoring it.
I still think we are vulnerable at the back even though the stats show otherwise.
Against Palace they only ventured into our half sporadically in the first 20 minutes but still it resulted in 4/5 half chances.
The defence is looking good due to our domination of the ball and winning the ball back so quickly higher up the field. I do worry against better sides or when the press is less effective we might still be exposed.
Yes mate, this was what I tried to explain to you all summer... That we've strengthened our greatest weaknesses on defense... Keeper and the fullbacks. But even more importantly, the other point I kept banging on and you often ridiculed ... Those pesky stats. I kept telling you and anyone who would listen that we were grossly unlucky last season. We conceded so few chances, but almost all of the ones we conceded were goal bound. That was an anomaly. Sure Bravo wasn't the best shotstopper, but even if you factored that in, the league's % of shots to shots on goal ratio against us was unusually high. And that too was going to regress. Currently teams ate missing more chances (I.e failing to get them on target) against us than most other teams on the league... A luck regression has occurred.No doubt Walker and Ederson are helping a lot but I still think we should have gone all out for a top CB in summer. We haven't been hugely tested yet at the back so let's wait and see. Looked reasonable at the back on Tuesday I thought, particularly in the second half but until Liverpool went down to 10 men I thought Otamendi got torn to fucking pieces and even the mighty Palace made us look vulnerable at the back for 30+ mins. So let's see how we go. Oh, and plenty on here were saying trust the club, if they aren't getting a replacement then they must be confident Kompany is over his problems.
We will be.
But hopefully, the 'last ditch' defending which failed us last season, has improved, as it appears to have done, this season.
But it is probably true. This has gone on far too long for gods sake. The chap is a walking sick note for at least 2 and a half years now. To make matters worseComplete speculation and not at all helpful
I hope you are right. We may find out on Saturday if they are a worthwhile partnership.To be fair, you didn't tell us this...
Or more accurately no one argued Kompany might not get injured. That would be silly.
What you said was that "once Kompany got injured, we'd start shipping in goals coz we had an brain fart in Otamendi and a softie in Stones."
On the evidence so far, you've been wrong...
And let me just clear my throat before going
I told you Stones AND Ota supported by athletic Full backs and a shotstopping keeper would be just fine... And so far, lo and behold... They've been.
I said when he arrived that it would take him three summer windows to have a team capable of challenging for the big honours. I hope I am wrong and we can win something big this year but I believe we will come up short. Next season is the acid test and hopefully the following 3 or 4 seasons if he stays on.^^This^^
We've seen in recent times where square pegs in round holes has got us...... Nearly relegated from the CL.
True, but on Tuesday, right at the end, he stepped out into the defensive line, to catch the oppo attacker offside, in contrast to being asleep again v Palace, two yards deeper than the line, playing Benteke onside just before half time.
Pep went fucking apeshit at that & then on Tuesday, in the last minute, Otamendi catches an oppo offside.
So maybe he is actually able to improve.
I think every blue would agree on the last bit,next bit of business needs to be a CBBut it is probably true. This has gone on far too long for gods sake. The chap is a walking sick note for at least 2 and a half years now. To make matters worse
he persists with additional work for his country. The thing is it is unlikely he would make it through the tournament in Russia without breaking down, I know how much he has done for us over the years but it is time to say goodbye. We need a replacement of quality URGENTLY!!!
We certainly strengthened weaknesses, I never once said that full-backs and keeper weren't weaknesses but I still think Otamendi is a huge weakness unless he has Kompany next to him. I would love to be proven wrong and him be wonderful all season but I think over the season, if Kompany is back to having significant injury problems this is something that will probably come back to bite us, especially against top teams in the Prem and CL. I don't think it is a replacement for Kolarov we need, we need a replacement for Kompany and Otamendi needs to drop down one in the pecking order. We need a Van Dyke not a JFE. Although if it turns out that Kompany is fucked, we might need both in the non too distant. Just my opinion as always, I suspect you won't agree.Yes mate, this was what I tried to explain to you all summer... That we've strengthened our greatest weaknesses on defense... Keeper and the fullbacks. But even more importantly, the other point I kept banging on and you often ridiculed ... Those pesky stats. I kept telling you and anyone who would listen that we were grossly unlucky last season. We conceded so few chances, but almost all of the ones we conceded were goal bound. That was an anomaly. Sure Bravo wasn't the best shotstopper, but even if you factored that in, the league's % of shots to shots on goal ratio against us was unusually high. And that too was going to regress. Currently teams ate missing more chances (I.e failing to get them on target) against us than most other teams on the league... A luck regression has occurred.
Some of these things have little to do with the performance of our players. Others do.
Just from how few we conceded last year on terms of goal scoring chances, it was easy to extrapolate that we'd be one of the top defensive teams this year if expected regression to the norm occurred.
And that's even before we added Fearless, English Boss, and Shark attack...
Sit back relax mate, Ota and John have this covered...
That said, lets go get a Kolarov replacement in January. As I can't vouch for anyone other than those 3 :-)
So it must just be me & Mr Guardiola who have ambitions to be the best we can, & are concerned and about our strength in depth?What do you mean FFP or no FFP? We live in the real world and we have FFP to contend with. Fantasy football, Football Manager FIFA is not the real world.
We have the following midfielders, they can all play left side, right side or centre and do from time to time but not all at the same time because we can only play 4 or a maximum of 5 at anyone time.
Sane
Sterling
B Silva
D Silva
KDB
Gundogan
Fernandinho
Delph
And that doesn't include the 3 kids and Yaya who are named in the squad. How many midfielders do you want?
Exactly as I thought mate. It took three years to destroy what Mancini built, & even with our resources & Pep at the helm I reckon it'll be three years minimum to get us back to where we need to be.I said when he arrived that it would take him three summer windows to have a team capable of challenging for the big honours. I hope I am wrong and we can win something big this year but I believe we will come up short. Next season is the acid test and hopefully the following 3 or 4 seasons if he stays on.
Who thinks Kompany is bigger than the club?Kompany is a legend but he's not bigger than the club.
The way to handle his situation is to pretend he's not here. When he's fit great, wonderful asset when he injured, no problem, not an issue at all for us. In order for this to be the case we need to buy a top, top CB not fucking Evans.
Relying on Kompany to be fit is a huge mistake.
Who thinks Kompany is bigger than the club?
Haven't seen anything,pep does his presser tomorrow lunchtime so we'll know thenSo does anyone know if he's actually had a setback ?