Is it time to get a big target man?

  • Thread starter Thread starter GRB
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FCBarca said:
While Pep is the coach, there will be no stereotypical big man to lump & dump it into the box. A mobile big forward is a different story.

However I remarked on this last season, City under Pep are typically lethal from deep and out wide - they are weakest centrally, particularly in that final third. They need someone who can dribble into the box or time their runs in a low block like a David Villa. The height preoccupation is an exercise in futility, you lot should let go of that fantasy - not under Pep
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What are your views regarding Sterling in this City team and Villa in Pep's Barca team? Compare and contrast. I know they play different positions and yet I see similarities.
 
Pep is our manager, not Big Sam and he delivers almost perfection both results and performances wise with his brand of football and tactics.

We will never have perfection, its an impossibility in Sport and the odd game we dont win shouldn't have fans asking for a "Bigman" up front to lump it to.
 
We dont need one, target men are for the lumpers n hoofers (rags) et al, that bypass midfield, while Pep is here that wont happen, they way we play at the moment it would be a negative addition to the squad... When you have the talent we have and score as many goals as we do, a target man is not required..!
 
San Tropez said:
What are your views regarding Sterling in this City team and Villa in Pep's Barca team? Compare and contrast. I know they play different positions and yet I see similarities.
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Among the many players that have improved under Pep, Sterling is truly hard to ignore to the success of City thus far. For me, Sterling is a winger who can play centrally due to his terrific dribbling & passing abilities. Villa could play out wide but he is/was a goalscorer more so than Sterling has been. I'm not sure that that is what Sterling will be most effective at, playing as the principal goalscorer. Someone with Sterling's speed/acceleration is most valuable on the wing and is faster than Villa ever was too

What could work perhaps is leaving Bernardo out wide right and bring Sterling in as a false 9. Problem is that when him & Sane are healthy, they are devastating out wide - not sure there are better dribbling speed merchants like them to stretch defenses. Just need someone centrally like Gabriel Jesus
 
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A tall, strong striker would without a doubt make our front line more well rounded, but it would hinder our style of play if he can't press and is weak technically.
 
It's not true that we don't play the kind of football a traditional type cf would thrive on, we do, lots of times, then we all bitch about it on here 'why do we keep putting crosses into the box when we have a team of midgets' etc. We also hit long balls from the keeper to Aguero, Jesus & KDB puts in fucking 100s of diagonals etc.

Watch a video of Les Ferdinand on the end of such passes & compare it to our strikers: he was better by far in those aspects of the game. We are not very good at finishing those moves, full stop.

We would most definitely benefit from having such a player, it's a no brainer. BUT he would have to be able to do the other stuff, which Jesus, Aguero etc do & that's where the problems start. Such a player doesn't appear to exist. Pep had Ibrahimovic, fantastic footballer who at his peak would easily score 35 goals in this team, but also a lazy, immobile ****, who would ruin the team.

But if you could find a player like Ibrahimovic with pace, & workrate, he would be our main striker & Pep would have no problem 'upgrading' to bigger, as he has shown with Walker & Mendy.
 
Neville Kneville said:
It's not true that we don't play the kind of football a traditional type cf would thrive on, we do, lots of times, then we all bitch about it on here 'why do we keep putting crosses into the box when we have a team of midgets' etc. We also hit long balls from the keeper to Aguero, Jesus & KDB puts in fucking 100s of diagonals etc.

Watch a video of Les Ferdinand on the end of such passes & compare it to our strikers: he was better by far in those aspects of the game. We are not very good at finishing those moves, full stop.

We would most definitely benefit from having such a player, it's a no brainer. BUT he would have to be able to do the other stuff, which Jesus, Aguero etc do & that's where the problems start. Such a player doesn't appear to exist. Pep had Ibrahimovic, fantastic footballer who at his peak would easily score 35 goals in this team, but also a lazy, immobile ****, who would ruin the team.

But if you could find a player like Ibrahimovic with pace, & workrate, he would be our main striker & Pep would have no problem 'upgrading' to bigger, as he has shown with Walker & Mendy.
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Lewandowski or Harry Kane?
 
FCBarca said:
Among the many players that have improved under Pep, Sterling is truly hard to ignore to the success of City thus far. For me, Sterling is a winger who can play centrally due to his terrific dribbling & passing abilities. Villa could play out wide but he is/was a goalscorer more so than Sterling has been. I'm not sure that that is what Sterling will be most effective at, playing as the principal goalscorer. Someone with Sterling's speed/acceleration is most valuable on the wing and is faster than Villa ever was too

What could work perhaps is leaving Bernardo out wide right and bring Sterling in as a false 9. Problem is that when him & Sane are healthy, they are devastating out wide - not sure there are better dribbling speed merchants like them to stretch defenses. Just need someone centrally like Gabriel Jesus
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Thank you for your response.

It's impossible to exaggerate the importance of Sterling in team dynamics in and around the box this season. At the beginning of the season a lot of people wondered whether Sterling would become a casualty of Pep's playing style but they were far off the mark. What might have happened is that given we were pretty much toothless in front of goal last season (fact: we created more key chances than PL winners, Chelsea), Pep looked to Sterling this season to provide significant number of goals from any position whilst playing as a wide man. The thinking being that if Sterling provides up to 20 goals and the strikers each score more than Sterling + Sane's haul, then we would be well on our way to being PL title contenders.

Sterling has acquitted himself very well. Only 5 goals to go.

So now I am wondering whether for next season Sterling couldn't move through the gears again and become a prolific goal scorer (30+). Meaning he becomes Aguero's replacement when the time comes. And that might be why Pep is looking for a winger(s), or as you say Bernardo takes over that role (though I see Bernardo on the right side of CM 3).

Re Sane Jesus Sterling, I already see them as the most potent pressing force in world football and their development is far from complete. Watch this space, barring injuries.
 
OB1 said:
I doubt we would pay the money for Kane but I expect we could afford him.

I think Lewa would be attainable.
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Not sure he fits the category of buying younger players, but class act. But Sanchez is not young so you never know.
 
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