How many players short of the perfect squad

We will only find the perfect team/squad in the future, as we look back on our past!
With our commitment to play football in a way that dominates games, good results will become the norm (as we’re seeing now). With results comes trophies. Only when we’ve been through a sustained period of success, will we be able to look back and see if we had the perfect squad, and when it was that the perfect squad played for us.
 
Tolmie are you able to tell us what really happened with Mahrez as you seemed to say that £70 m would get him just before it went wrong. And we were £10 m short. The papers are all over the place as to who offered what.

It would have been a good signing at this point in time but there will be more options in the Summer and we might go elsewhere. Feel sorry for the player though who looks like he has been left high and dry.

From your assessment above we still need to plug that gap. The way the deal ended I expect it will be impossible to agree anything we will pay here though - given Leicester's valuation of his worth v ours.

Teams seem to have bought into the moneybags city so we will pay anything concept and are viewing us as like United in that respect.

They are wrong as we clearly have valuations we will not pay too much over to close deals.

This is admirable and I think right. But it will limit us more in the Summer when there is more competition than there was this Winter. Possibly why we tried to close things out for two of these positions - Fred and Mahrez. Both are likely to have more suitors in June that might take us out of the equation.
 
Cobwebcat said:
Why is Danilo not good enough for people suddenly? Useful cover in a few positions.
Click to expand...

Not sure about suddenly, a lot have been sceptical of him from the start.

Disagree with the useful in numerous positions comment too. When Mendy got injured the thought process was oh well Danilo can play there. Nobody would have put Delph ahead of him yet he is undeniably ahead of him now and when Delph got injured in stepped Zinchenko who Pep himself has said is a number 10 yet he's being prefered to Danilo too. That suggests to me Pep doesn't see him as a left back option at all other than in an emergency.

Similarly in a DM role, where everybody was claiming he can play based on very little. we've not seen him there all season despite Yaya clearly not being upto it anymore as the understudy in that position and Fernandinho crying out for a rest.

If he's not digging his heels in to stay I fully expect he will be shipped out in the summer with a premier league medal around his neck and our best wishes. His stock will still be quite high as he's been involved enough to not have been forgotten about but not enough for his deficiencies to become glaringly obvious.
 
Cobwebcat said:
Why is Danilo not good enough for people suddenly? Useful cover in a few positions.
Click to expand...

He's evidently not useful in a few positions considering Pep has turned to Delph and Zinchenko sooner than using him at LB and we've never seen him as a DM, despite suggestions that he can play there and the fact we have next to no depth in this position. We won't see him as a CB in a back three either following the signing of Laporte.

He's fine as a backup RB, but we might as well have Maffeo doing that, who has the potential to be much better (I'd argue he's already have far more stand out performances) and our RB for many years to come.

I think Pep just doesn't really rate him to be honest, despite spending a fairly large amount on him. Some transfers work, some don't - we'll do well to get £20m and shift him on.
 
- Maffeo
- Another LB with qualities similar to Mendy
- A versatile, pacey attacker to rotate/compete with Sterling & Sané. Can then hopefully start incorporating Bernardo into Silva’s role gradually
- Young DM to rest/rotate with Dinho
- Another CB, can’t rely on Kompany as fourth choice, & we’ll need to rotate with two pairings if we want to win all 4 comps. Plus, it makes the 3atb a more viable option.

With 2 pairs of pacey, dynamic FB’s to cover each flank, plus the 4 CB’s, it’ll give us the wiggle room clubs like Juve, Bayern, & RM have. We could play the 352 again with ease & as amazing as Delph has been, I think resting Mendy often & covering with a another attacking LB let’s us keep that same dynamic on the left when he’s out. In turn, that 3atb formation means we could rest an extra attacker.

- Maybe a long-term Aguero replacement
- Long term GK to replace Bravo on the bench

Think it’ll take 3 windows imo, with the latter two happening in the 19/20 summer window.
 
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Our squad is still behind Barca, Real Madrid, and possibly Bayern. The next 12 months will be critical. We will need to replace Sergio as our first choice striker in the summer and it will be hard to fill his shoes. Can't think of anyone out there as good as Sergio at his peak. We will need a left back to rotate with Mendy, perhaps Bernard. Fred can cover for Ferdy. Diaz and Foden should play a major part next year and hopefully Zinchenko. We are not far away from having the best squad in Europe.
 
Fred
an attacker (Mahrez,Griezmann)
Maffeo in for Danilo

that’s it for me
 
I'd want a better back up keeper, back up LB/RB (offering more than Danilo), a backup DM, a wide man that can play on either flank and a new striker. Minimum 5 players for me as I'm hoping to see more of Foden and Diaz as well in the next couple of years.
 
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