I'm afraid whilst Jesus may well be capable he is no where near consistent enough and i do not think he has shown enough over the last few years to be considered a replacement for Aguero if such a thing even exists. Good backup striker but far too hit and miss.Nonsense,while another quality striker is needed,Jesus is plenty capable.
The problem lies elsewhere,as ive mentioned above.
It took 4 pages for a Bluemooner to note the biggest hindrance that we have been missing our main two strikers.Two injured strikers, Sterling off the boil completely, KdB as the player supposedly creating 'million' chances hit rock bottom of his form, Merlin doesn't live here anymore, Riyad and Bernardo turned into pure luxury players playing futsal in their own world (what does Bernardo actually do in our team, anybody's guess?), Foden is like an atom, he is here/he is not here, Gundogan is not able to stay near the box where he is able to do something, because he's been constantly dragged back to sort out things when we are pressed, counter attack became a far fetched idea like universal basic income, we all know it would sort out a few things, but we are unable to execute it, Pep and his system being incompatible with any possibility we actually shoot on goal from further than 8 yards and so on....
Our defence was a shambles meaning we had to score 3 to win so we bought Dias and changed to a more cautious approach which means we create far less chances but play less expressive football. I preferred the previous way but you can’t have it both ways I suppose. I just think we could still use the current tactic with only one of Rodri/gunda playing and still be tight. Maybe that’ll happen when pep gets over his gundog and Rodri playing together obsession. Anyway we’ll score for fun in January when Lionel comes ;))This is being debated in various different threads and I thought it deserves its own one. We've been known as one of the best, if not THE best, attacking side in the premier over the last few seasons. However last year we saw our attack stutter at certain times and it seems that trend has continued into this season. We are still more than capable of beating a poor side by 4 or 5 goals on our day but against the more organised and better teams we seem to falter. Arguably Liverpool and Chelsea now seem more clinical in attack than us.
So why is that? Why do we seem devoid of ideas going forward? Why have we lost our fluidity and dynamism? Is it fitness? Player injuries disrupting our forward three? Have teams become accustomed in how to defend against us? Or is it something else?
Thoughts blues.
Simple answer. Fernandinho.
He used to whip the front five left and right, like Messala driving his horses onward in Ben Hur, and if anyone did manage to beat the initial press he'd be on hand himself to shove a serrated hub cap through their spokes and ride his chariot over their broken bodies for good measure. That dynamism is completely absent from both Gunders and Plodri, who play everything sideways and backwards, who never feature in the opposition penalty area, and who don't have the legs to get back and cover if we lose possession (I lost count of the times that Salah dropped 10 yards off Dias and Laporte yesterday and was able to receive the ball and turn without any City midfielder being within 5 light years of him. It was bloody painful to watch. The fact that there are 2 of them as well (Rodri & Gundog) means we are always short-handed going forward and that our attacking players find themselves isolated. How Pep doesn't see it is beyond me. 2nd half once the tempo slowed down they were fine, but that first 30 minutes was an absolute shambles and we were lucky not to be 2 or 3 goals adrift
Foden is either the David Silva replacement or he's not?
Pep must start him every week if he is and drop one of Rodri or Gundo, or the team will continue to get fewer looks at goal because the entire onus is on KDB to unpick the lock.
Sterling has no triangle to link inside with on the edge of the 18-yard-box, so he drives inside and tries to get a shot off.
Silva would always make sure there could be a join up.
Our defence was a shambles meaning we had to score 3 to win so we bought Dias and changed to a more cautious approach which means we create far less chances but play less expressive football. I preferred the previous way but you can’t have it both ways I suppose. I just think we could still use the current tactic with only one of Rodri/gunda playing and still be tight. Maybe that’ll happen when pep gets over his gundog and Rodri playing together obsession. Anyway we’ll score for fun in January when Lionel comes ;))
I've only read a few pages but I've noted Sterling is clearly not good enough and Jesus cant be relied upon???? Am i missing something?
Well that's put them up for sale and see which teams deem them not good enough or reliable.
For me the problem lies at the double pivot, I'm far from a tactical genius but i find the double pivot encourages a lot more sideways passing between CB's and holding mid, then Gundogan sits just floating waiting to play it simple or chip an attempted ball forward (think Gundogan is an excellent footballer btw but doenst effect the game enough)
We need more running (Foden), drive (Foden), creativity (Foden), movement (Foden) & goal threat who goes beyond the striker (Foden). Remove Gundo and find someone to do the above. And get sterling on the right.
Oh and our two main strikers have been injured, doesnt help.
We will be fine and be there or thereabouts at the end of season. We will score goals again i do believe and its great to see us have a backline that looks as though can be relied upon for the majority of the time.
Spot on fella, Kev popped up on the left right & central trying to link up midfield to attack, as we’ve seen in other games this season, it was crying out for him to stay in the middle or just off the right (as the goal showed) there was space in front of Henderson & Wijnaldum and in behind for him to exploit, but he’s off doing other people’s jobs, would like to see more of the Phil/Ferran link up on the left, Joao showed yesterday he can defend when called upon, Kyle then has an out ball to Raz on the right and can come inside to Kev, both flanks have pace guile & penetrationThe midfield cloggers and no natural width from our full backs or the wingers
If it’s not coming through De Bruyne we struggle to create anything
Absolute nonsense.
How many times have we played Liverpool and been battered for the opening 20 minutes with Fernandinho in the side? The answer is certainly not zero.
Making out that Fernandinho in his prime would magically fix all our problems is hopefully at best and to think 36 year old Fernandinho would do it is just delusional.
I've only read a few pages but I've noted Sterling is clearly not good enough and Jesus cant be relied upon???? Am i missing something?
Well that's put them up for sale and see which teams deem them not good enough or reliable.
For me the problem lies at the double pivot, I'm far from a tactical genius but i find the double pivot encourages a lot more sideways passing between CB's and holding mid, then Gundogan sits just floating waiting to play it simple or chip an attempted ball forward (think Gundogan is an excellent footballer btw but doenst effect the game enough)
We need more running (Foden), drive (Foden), creativity (Foden), movement (Foden) & goal threat who goes beyond the striker (Foden). Remove Gundo and find someone to do the above. And get sterling on the right.
Oh and our two main strikers have been injured, doesnt help.
We will be fine and be there or thereabouts at the end of season. We will score goals again i do believe and its great to see us have a backline that looks as though can be relied upon for the majority of the time.