What's the problem(s)?

[Keeper!]

Our squad is on a very good level. It's not perfect. It's difficult to replace huge legends instantly. And it's natural to make mistakes in the transfer market. A combination of aging legends and bad injuries to key players makes the transition less smooth than initially hoped.

Ferguson had bad periods at Manure. They weren't even close to competing from 2003 and 2006. Many of their fans thought he was past it.

I disagree about our squad, very overrated in my opinion and very unbalanced.

The ageing issue is again down to poor planning by Tixki, you strengthen when your at your strongest, not wait until your weakening.

Twice we have won the title and twice the club failed to build on that, once ok, twice poor.

 

[r.soleofsalford]

Two seasons ago the spirit on that pitch and in the stands was magnificent.

The players would have run through a brick wall for the manager and club.

Do you seriously feel the same way today?

Pep looks a shadow of himself, and so does his team.

Absolutely bang on.

Now the question is how do we try to repair this team. We cant keep on using the same broken system and expect to get back to the top.

Will Pep want to try and build this team back and find a new system

Can Pep change his system.

We`ve all seen Mourinhos fall are we now seeing Peps fall.

How happy is he here, where`s his wife and kids.

 

[Eric Hitchmough]

'Same'. Van Dijk has played in all of their last 45 games or so, they started the season with their best forwards available. The circumstances are not being even remotely the same.

I was referring to the fact they and all clubs have been affected by Covid, had no pre-season and most of their players are pushing 30.
Agreed they have key players who always avoid injury (thanks in no small part to their 'magic asthma potion'!) but they still have issues and always find a way to win. We need to rediscover that habit.

 

[malg]

We're quite boring to watch a lot of the time, with short periods of absolute brilliance. The short periods of absolute brilliance are getting shorter.

 

[alexmcity]

I disagree about our squad, very overrated in my opinion and very unbalanced.

The ageing issue is again down to poor planning by Tixki, you strengthen when your at your strongest, not wait until your weakening.

Twice we have won the title and twice the club failed to build on that, once ok, twice poor.

Nah, you don't replace players like Kompany, Ferna, Silva and Aguero just like that. Who is at Silva's level and might have been signed? Who is guaranteed to successfuly replace Aguero?

If it was that easy, they wouldn't be legends in the first place.

Second, you are making a prediction about our season which I think is wrong. You are criticising the quality of the team on the basis of a dubious prediction.

 

[vasan]

Agree with most of that but "Pep is still the best bet for us and as for evolving, he himself says that he changed after going to germany and had to adapt.Still too early to make rash judgments."

Rash, these issues are 12 months in.

The contract issue is just that, a major, major issue.

IF he wants to rebuild this team, sign a contract, let the players know I am here, I am staying, either stick with me or see you later.

Lets not underestimate what pep has achieved and his influence, after his first season every talking head and loser like gary gary neville said you can't play this way and win the league.Pep proved them wrong we won and dominated the english league for 2 whole years while playing a technical midfield trio of silva, de bruyne and fernandinho.
Even klopp took and used of pep's methods like focus on build up play and has used to adapt his own game.
Without the success of this city team and vindication of pep's methods, do you think the liverpool board would have sanctioned that kind of money of a GK and CB.van dijk would probably gone to barca
and allison to juve or real.

 

[alexmcity]

I was referring to the fact they and all clubs have been affected by Covid, had no pre-season and most of their players are pushing 30.
Agreed they have key players who always avoid injury (thanks in no small part to their 'magic asthma potion'!) but they still have issues and always find a way to win. We need to rediscover that habit.

Actually, Liverpool had a (short) pre-season, played friendlies and the CS game. We started our preparation after their CS game. Besides, they didn't miss players due to covid in the first 2 games, we missed at least 3. Not the same at all.

 

[Blu1]

Did Arteta take anybody else with him ?

we look slow, disjointed & Disorganised all over the pitch. It’s like a different team the minute he left

 

[Semper aggressus]

Nah, you don't replace players like Kompany, Ferna, Silva and Aguero just like that. Who is at Silva's level and might have been signed? Who is guaranteed to successfuly replace Aguero?

If it was that easy, they wouldn't be legends in the first place.

Second, you are making a prediction about our season which I think is wrong. You are criticising the quality of the team on the basis of a dubious prediction.

Aouar, Sancho and Haaland? Havertz? Plenty out there if we'd shown enough ambition and desire to buy players as close to our legends as possible.

 

[SleepingBlueTiger]

Combination of multiple factors, therefore making it very difficult to fix quickly.

• Losing world class players and having only good players replacing them.
• Mental fatigue of Pep's system.
• Overpaying for players, therefore not able to improve in other needed positions.
• Injuries
• There is a clear antidote to our style of play, something the manager has not been able to counter whatever formation he has used (Lyon, Leicester etc games)
• Players who dont step up in tight games and would rather a 6-0 game against opposition 4 levels below them

Couple of more detailed squad planning issues:

• Lack of clinical finishers catching up to us - team is unbalanced towards more creative attackers. We've been able to get away with this by creating 3x more than opposition but we are creating equal amount these days. That leaves us always facing worse odds.
• Very little attacking threat from fullbacks makes us too easy to play against when sitting deep.

Individually each of these issues would not be a big deal but combine them together and there is quite a difficult situation.

 

[alexmcity]

Aouar, Sancho and Haaland? Havertz? Plenty out there if we'd shown enough ambition and desire to buy players as close to our legends as possible.

Aouar is still a work in progress. If he was at the level of prime Silva, that's an excepional level, clubs would start wars to sign him. Neither is Havertz there. Are they both better than Bernardo and Foden?

Haaland was just another promising talent before going to Dortmund. Even there I wouldn't compare him to prime Aguero.

Young players can and will reach the level of prime Silva and Aguero but that's the key: they can't do it immediately and no matter who we sign, bumps on the road are inevitable, especially with many injuries.

 

[flook]

short term, fitness and lack of a striker

long term, left back, though between them Cancelo and Ake can fill that void, failure to replace Fernandinho with a like for like player, though I'm struggling to think who that might be and who can put in a 5 year shift, Mahrez, excellent player but doesn't suit our style and finally lack of a plan B against park the bus teams

going forward, replacing Aguero must be next seasons priority. It wasn't the right time this season unless he was binned off as no top quality long term replacement would have come in to play 3rd choice behind him and Jesus. (assuming keeping Jesus is a given)

 

[Semper aggressus]

Aouar is still a work in progress. If he was at the level of prime Silva, that's an excepional level, clubs would start wars to sign him. Neither is Havertz there. Are they both better than Bernardo and Foden?

Haaland was just another promising talent before going to Dortmund. Even there I wouldn't compare him to prime Aguero.

Young players can and will reach the level of prime Silva and Aguero but that's the key: they can't do it immediately and no matter who we sign, bumps on the road are inevitable, especially with many injuries.

I agree, none of the players I named are at Silva or Aguero's level, but they are in my opinion a lot closer to it and potentially achieving close to that standard than Torres and Mahrez are.

 

[Keeper!]

Lets not underestimate what pep has achieved and his influence, after his first season every talking head and loser like gary gary neville said you can't play this way and win the league.Pep proved them wrong we won and dominated the english league for 2 whole years while playing a technical midfield trio of silva, de bruyne and fernandinho.
Even klopp took and used of pep's methods like focus on build up play and has used to adapt his own game.
Without the success of this city team and vindication of pep's methods, do you think the liverpool board would have sanctioned that kind of money of a GK and CB.van dijk would probably gone to barca
and allison to juve or real.

Completely agree, Pep has come to England and revolutionised how we play and more importantly how we think about the game.

He is the teacher of total football.

But unfortunately for us the teacher has taught the students too well and they have pushed his principles on to another level, can the teacher respond?

 

[urban genie]

After this international break our team could line up

Eddy
Walker/cancelo
Dias
Laporte
Ake/cancelo
Ferdy/rodri/gundo
Kev
Bernardo
Sterling/mahrez
Jesus/segio
Torres/foden

Compare that to last year

Eddy
Walker
Ferdy
Otter
Mendy
Gundo/Rodri (settling in)
Kev
Silva/foden(bedding in)
Mahrez/bernardo(affected by twitter storm)
Jesus/aguero
Sterling.

If people think we have gone backwards because 3 games in without 3-4 of them options available we have been slighlty off then you are ovelry flapping imho.

We have improved on last year squad wise with the exception of losing silva and thinking torres and foden will automatically replace him

Lack of finishing off our chances has cost us yesterday and early on yesterday and V leicester, having no striker isn't helpful and a failing from both pep and above to not plan for sergio injury issues.

Jesus going down while sergio is also out is akin to losing laporte last year with Vinny gone and not replaced it left us with weaker replacements to cover that position and we suffered for it.

In the 5 games we've played this season Wolves, Bmouth, liec, Burnley, Leeds

Mcfc Shots 87.
On target 28 (32%)
Goals 11 (12.6% conversion to shots, 39% conv to on target)
Them 5 Shots 41
On target 17 (41%)
Goals 8 (19.5% conv to shots, 47% conv to on target)

Not taking chances is costing us and our main weakness, we fix the scoring of goals and we will destroy anyone.

The missed chances early in games amd keeping it at 0-0, 1-0 allows our opposition to grow in confidence, two season ago opponents were defeated within the first 30 mins with a few goals and then gave up then for us to bang a few extra in late on.

Until we address the shot conversion rate we will fall short some games, defensively we are not as bad as made out

 

[Keeper!]

Nah, you don't replace players like Kompany, Ferna, Silva and Aguero just like that. Who is at Silva's level and might have been signed? Who is guaranteed to successfuly replace Aguero?

If it was that easy, they wouldn't be legends in the first place.

Second, you are making a prediction about our season which I think is wrong. You are criticising the quality of the team on the basis of a dubious prediction.

You have to replace them if you want continued success or build the squad to compensate for their loss, we have done neither.

Why did the club wait 12 months to replace Kompany? Why wait so long to replace Aguero?

Did we really expect a great young player to come in and replace the finest player in our history?

 

[GoatersLeftShin]

If I look back to the two title winning teams the first difference is our pressing game has vanished. We saw a glimpse of it yesterday with Bernardo at times but it's dropped in intensity right across the team.

We also look like a slow team. Only Sterling and Walker have genuine pace and the others are just meh. We also look like we've played a full game beforehand at times!

I know it's intensely difficult to replace legends but I think the club have made very little effort to get this part right. Kompany wasn't replaced until Dias came in which is at least 18 months too late. Torres and Foden can't be expected to match the brilliance of Silva for a few years yet and whilst both players look top class it's still 50/50 if they can do it. We've made no effort to replace Aguero or Fernandinho. We've not replaced the raw pace of Same either.

When I look at the squad it's insane to think that our defence has cost around 400m. It's mind blowing and whilst Laporte and Walker have been good buys so far (can't judge Dias yet) we need to be planning for Walker to leave soon. Cancelo doesn't look like he's a replacement.

In midfield we only have KdB and Bernardo who look good enough for us now.

I genuinely think the recruitment has been poor for a few years now but we've also made that worse by not adapting our tactics. Pep looks broken and like he's not enjoying it. In Spain and Germany the teams at the bottom roll over for Barca and Bayern but here they just pack the defence and make the game harder. Sometimes they'll concerns early and get a pasting but we're seeing that a lot of teams have us found out and we look short of ideas.

I can't hi early see how we live in from where we are without the contract issue being sorted. I can't see much point in backing Pep is he's not committed but I'm not sure now if the players back him. Whoever is our manager need to be in place for the next 5 years and we need to back them with top class players.

 

[Keeper!]

After this international break our team could line up

Eddy
Walker/cancelo
Dias
Laporte
Ake/cancelo
Ferdy/rodri/gundo
Kev
Bernardo
Sterling/mahrez
Jesus/segio
Torres/foden

Compare that to last year

Eddy
Walker
Ferdy
Otter
Mendy
Gundo/Rodri (settling in)
Kev
Silva/foden(bedding in)
Mahrez/bernardo(affected by twitter storm)
Jesus/aguero
Sterling.

If people think we have gone backwards because 3 games in without 3-4 of them options available we have been slighlty off then you are ovelry flapping imho.

We have improved on last year squad wise with the exception of losing silva and thinking torres and foden will automatically replace him

Lack of finishing off our chances has cost us yesterday and early on yesterday and V leicester, having no striker isn't helpful and a failing from both pep and above to not plan for sergio injury issues.

Jesus going down while sergio is also out is akin to losing laporte last year with Vinny gone and not replaced it left us with weaker replacements to cover that position and we suffered for it.

In the 5 games we've played this season Wolves, Bmouth, liec, Burnley, Leeds

Mcfc Shots 87.
On target 28 (32%)
Goals 11 (12.6% conversion to shots, 39% conv to on target)
Them 5 Shots 41
On target 17 (41%)
Goals 8 (19.5% conv to shots, 47% conv to on target)

Not taking chances is costing us and our main weakness, we fix the scoring of goals and we will destroy anyone.

The missed chances early in games amd keeping it at 0-0, 1-0 allows our opposition to grow in confidence, two season ago opponents were defeated within the first 30 mins with a few goals and then gave up then for us to bang a few extra in late on.

Until we address the shot conversion rate we will fall short some games, defensively we are not as bad as made out

Statistics are an obsession of american sports and cricketers, they don't tell the full story.

The opposition allow us to have the ball for long periods, it's what we do when we have the ball that counts but at this moment it is what we don't do with the ball that is the worry.

We are nowhere near the attacking threat we once were under Pep, we used to absolutely batter teams , they were beaten in the tunnel, never mind the pitch

 

[GaudinoMotors]

You have to replace them if you want continued success or build the squad to compensate for their loss, we have done neither.

Why did the club wait 12 months to replace Kompany? Why wait so long to replace Aguero?

Did we really expect a great young player to come in and replace the finest player in our history?

As brilliant as Aquero had been, he's now and to our detriment,here as Messi bait. You could make a case to say that's the least we owe him, but it hinders our progress.

 

[Keeper!]

As brilliant as Aquero had been, he's now and to our detriment,here as Messi bait. You could make a case to say that's the least we owe him, but it hinders our progress.

Exactly this, IF Messi comes next year, Kum would probably stay and get another deal, same with Pep, as things stand is that right for the long term future of this club?

If Messi does not come, neither probably will be here next season, that's not acceptable.