Nathan Ake

BigOscar said:
He's 4th choice CB, we don't need a £40m fully established international to do that role, its massive overkill. He was bought at a time when Stones looked done and before Ruben came and nailed a spot down. Now we have 3 words class CB ahead of him, it's a waste if his talent and our resources.
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I disagree. We play about 60 games, and it only takes one injury to mean one of those three centre backs has to play too many games without a rest. Add in a potential suspension at some point and we’d be stuck. It’s such a vital position and a specialised one, not for midfielders filling in, or an inexperienced kid trying to mark Salah, Son, Kane, etc.

We absolutely do need four top centre backs.
 
Of all the 4 CB’s Ake has made most progress last season. Still think he’s just behind the other 3. If progress continues like last season Ake won’t be our number 4 CB.

It’s another player that I don’t want to go. However I do understand if he does when a good opportunity arises. And he’s much liked within the squad, by Pep himself and by the fans.

It will be difficult to replace him as there aren’t many left footed CB’s around these days. He could be a really good CB lost and -if Chelsea are serious- favour a rival.
 
Semper aggressus said:
I disagree. We play about 60 games, and it only takes one injury to mean one of those three centre backs has to play too many games without a rest. Add in a potential suspension at some point and we’d be stuck. It’s such a vital position and a specialised one, not for midfielders filling in, or an inexperienced kid trying to mark Salah, Son, Kane, etc.

We absolutely do need four top centre backs.
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So by the same thinking, we need 3 top internationals at every ither position, because one injury or suspension means the other one has to play every game.

Meanwhile, zero actual leftbacks
 
BigOscar said:
So by the same thinking, we need 3 top internationals at every ither position, because one injury or suspension means the other one has to play every game.

Meanwhile, zero actual leftbacks
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We have had zero LBs for 3 seasons not seemed to do us much harm.
 
Semper aggressus said:
I disagree. We play about 60 games, and it only takes one injury to mean one of those three centre backs has to play too many games without a rest. Add in a potential suspension at some point and we’d be stuck. It’s such a vital position and a specialised one, not for midfielders filling in, or an inexperienced kid trying to mark Salah, Son, Kane, etc.

We absolutely do need four top centre backs.
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I keep seeing this type of post. We don’t need a 4th choice CB. The club has plenty of cover if needed. Walker/Rodri & Phillips can fill in if the worst case happens. Ake was not available when we needed him at the end of the season and it nearly contributed to us losing the league. Ake was brought in when stones looked to be a lost cause. It would not be right to keep him just in case we get an injury.

He would not be considering Chelsea if he was happy to play a handful of games. So unless stones, Laporte or Dias are leaving them he can go and put the money back in they pot for a LB/RB or a new winger.
 
We do need a 4th choice centre-back but Aké is a ridiculous option to fill that position in the squad because he's one of the most injury-prone players we have. if two of Stones, Dias and Laporte are injured, chances are Aké has been injured for weeks. It's like signing Thiago to cover your midfield.

From that angle I understand selling him.
 
DeBlueLou said:
Hopefully. Ake is much more useful for City than Kimpembe ever would be.
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I get club sentiment and all that, but you can't honestly think Ake is better than Kimpembe. I really don't know how we come up with these comparisons sometimes. You can do the maths yourself, divide Kimpembe's stats in half and do a little subtraction and you get the same game time as Ake, then compare the stats. Kimpembe is light years ahead of Ake and a world cup winner as well. I hate it when we have to talk other top players down just to big up one of our own. If we didn't have Ake here and we had the chance to go for either Ake or Kimpembe, which would you go for? I love Ake, he is one of our own but I am not about to deny the facts all because of that.

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Some people have incredibly short memories. Plenty thought we didn't need to replace Kompany, 3 defenders and Fernandinho is enough was a popular thought on here, ended up being a disaster, we bring in the bare minimum 4 defenders to rectify it with dias and Ake, dias and stones have an out of this world season and have no injuries which meant laporte and Ake was under used and the cries of "why have we spent £40 million on somebody we don't need" come out, back end of last season showed exactly why every single club has a minimum of 4 senior central defenders and yet there's still after all that people suggesting our 4th choice can be anybody. Ake is a great option for us, quality and versatile, that doesn't get replaced for cheaper than the £40 million we paid.

I know we don't stand in players way if they want to leave but it has to suit us too. Fee has to be a profit on what we paid to start with as a bare minimum and it has to cover whoever the replacement is too. Think it would be a mistake to sell him this summer, there's a lot of change happening and a lot of players who are unproven at city, we don't need another new face who needs 12 months to get upto scratch here, too many of them puts our season at risk
 
BigOscar said:
So by the same thinking, we need 3 top internationals at every ither position, because one injury or suspension means the other one has to play every game.

Meanwhile, zero actual leftbacks
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No, because we play centre backs as a pair, so we need four. For the other positions two players for each is enough.
 
wolviedinho said:
I keep seeing this type of post. We don’t need a 4th choice CB. The club has plenty of cover if needed. Walker/Rodri & Phillips can fill in if the worst case happens. Ake was not available when we needed him at the end of the season and it nearly contributed to us losing the league. Ake was brought in when stones looked to be a lost cause. It would not be right to keep him just in case we get an injury.

He would not be considering Chelsea if he was happy to play a handful of games. So unless stones, Laporte or Dias are leaving them he can go and put the money back in they pot for a LB/RB or a new winger.
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But then we lose Walker in his best position if he has to play centre back, plus he’s not great at CB anyway. Phillips is far too short to play there. Rodri may manage it, but we’d miss him in midfield, he’s certainly not a centre back.

We‘ve already got Aké, why let him go? Why make our squad so thin we risk having to play people out of position? We looked very dodgy at the back in the games Fern had to play there, why invite that again? We should be trying to win everything every season, for that we need a decent size squad, no weak links. Particularly we shouldn’t even consider letting a rival strengthen at our expense.
 
Semper aggressus said:
But then we lose Walker in his best position if he has to play centre back, plus he’s not great at CB anyway. Phillips is far too short to play there. Rodri may manage it, but we’d miss him in midfield, he’s certainly not a centre back.

We‘ve already got Aké, why let him go? Why make our squad so thin we risk having to play people out of position? We looked very dodgy at the back in the games Fern had to play there, why invite that again? We should be trying to win everything every season, for that we need a decent size squad, no weak links. Particularly we shouldn’t even consider letting a rival strengthen at our expense.
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Cucurella's coming in also and from what I've heard, he can be a 5ft5 dynamite CB, That kind of provides cover for the CB positions or what do you think?
 
i♥city said:
Cucurella's coming in also and from what I've heard, he can be a 5ft5 dynamite CB, That kind of provides cover for the CB positions or what do you think?
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Not for me if he’s 5ft 5! He can be a great full back, that’s fine, he may even get away with centre back on the continent in some games, but no way can anyone play centre back at that height in this league.
 
BigOscar said:
He's 4th choice CB, we don't need a £40m fully established international to do that role, its massive overkill. He was bought at a time when Stones looked done and before Ruben came and nailed a spot down. Now we have 3 words class CB ahead of him, it's a waste if his talent and our resources.
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We don't really need Haaland either, or 6 top attacking midfielders, but here we are. Looking to keep winning things and win more if we can.
 
BigOscar said:
So by the same thinking, we need 3 top internationals at every ither position, because one injury or suspension means the other one has to play every game.

Meanwhile, zero actual leftbacks
Click to expand...

CB isn't 3 for one position though is it, there are 2, sometines even 3 positions.
 
wolviedinho said:
I keep seeing this type of post. We don’t need a 4th choice CB. The club has plenty of cover if needed. Walker/Rodri & Phillips can fill in if the worst case happens. Ake was not available when we needed him at the end of the season and it nearly contributed to us losing the league. Ake was brought in when stones looked to be a lost cause. It would not be right to keep him just in case we get an injury.

He would not be considering Chelsea if he was happy to play a handful of games. So unless stones, Laporte or Dias are leaving them he can go and put the money back in they pot for a LB/RB or a new winger.
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If having Ake and his being unavailable nearly cost us the league, then clearly it is a case of we DO need him (or someone good), rather than the other way round.

'Don't need 4 CBs' FFS!
 
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