Marc Cucurella

[Txiki Txiki Bang Bang]

Why not?

Overrated.

 

[Keeper!]

£100m fee is why people can’t appreciate his performances. If it was £50m then the lack of support would not exist. I have no doubts he will start to deliver higher performances but he still might never be able to do enough to justify the fee in some people eyes.

I hope you right and indeed the fee paid does add pressure and expectation and that is a reason I was against the deal.

I can remember signing Steve Daley a very talented footballer, a very good footballer but Daley was never a 1.5 Million pound British record transfer player and the pressure and expectation got to him, he simply could not handle it.

Grealish is clearly a talented player but nowhere near the value we paid.

 

[Gumzy97]

I admire your optimism and hope you are correct. However, if we have to go with Zin again we would be fine. It’s not a problem position.

it is in the big games. It’s our Achilles heel. More attacks come down that side some don’t result in an opposition goal but it’s a weakness. Top teams know it. Cancelo is good but can have lapses of defensive liability. Zin the same hasn’t got the pace to catch some of the more explosive wingers in top teams. One ball in behind Zin and their through. Zin is good against teams that park the bus where he can use his passing and midfield qualities. But against pacy direct wingers it becomes a problem Bowen against West Ham an example.

need a left back that is good in overall attacking play and defensive play. Not just good at one and then bad/average in the other. Won’t win a champions league with this glaring weakness. Might be fine to continue to win the league as it doesn’t show against the the mid table / bottom half but against the top teams it does.

 

[BedsBlue68]

Anyone would think reading this that we have no plans to sign a left back :-D

 

[Cobwebcat]

it is in the big games. It’s our Achilles heel. More attacks come down that side some don’t result in an opposition goal but it’s a weakness. Top teams know it. Cancelo is good but can have lapses of defensive liability. Zin the same hasn’t got the pace to catch some of the more explosive wingers in top teams. One ball in behind Zin and their through. Zin is good against teams that park the bus where he can use his passing and midfield qualities. But against pacy direct wingers it becomes a problem Bowen against West Ham an example.

need a left back that is good in overall attacking play and defensive play. Not just good at one and then bad/average in the other. Won’t win a champions league with this glaring weakness. Might be fine to continue to win the league as it doesn’t show against the the mid table / bottom half but against the top teams it does.

I can’t remember where I read the interview but Pep said that at the top level the opposition teams could stop Cancelo playing on the left as he is primarily left footed and they close him down quickly when he comes inside.

 

[Dribble]

Yeah, it's unbelievable not to sign an LB, but people would criticize all of us because we have won back-to-back Premier League's.

Injury crisis, Vini Jr. against Fernandinho 1 vs 1 in CL, but we still do not need a full-back. It's only about drawing conclusions.

It's been our achilles heel since Pep said during his first season that he couldn't play the football he wanted with 4 ageing FB's in their 30's. We made major changes then, but still only had Mendy as an LB, as Kolarov wanted to leave for Italy unexpectedly & was never replaced.

We shoehorned Zin into that position, but in reality he's never really made it his own & has generally always been the backup option, even after the Mendy situation. That alone should be ringing alarm bells.

Don't get me wrong, I love the kid & his belief in his ability & willingness to stay & fight for his place, but twice City have indicated they'd accept offers between £18m - £32m for Zin which is telling.

I can't ever see him being anything other than our solid, Mr Reliable backup option, but what a backup option he is! BUT is this enough for City? When Walker went off in Madrid, it shifted the control of the game we had.

Not solely blaming Zin for our late collapse, but as we saw that evening, crucial high end matches like this can be decided by very small margins, hence why I think we need two dedicated, specialist LB's & to stop trying to squash square pegs into round holes.

 

[Dribble]

Overrated.

For a possible net £38m spend & to replace an ageing Gundog with a year left on his contract?

Is it his mooted price or just that you don't rate FDJ at any price?

 

[Charliegull]

Fine post - impressed you remember our Gillingham playoff. Most fans seem to think we were founded 14 year ago

Season ticket at Goldstone 1978 first game.

 

[Gaz (FMwkdsoul)]

For a possible net £38m spend & to replace an ageing Gundog with a year left on his contract?

Is it his mooted price or just that you don't rate FDJ at any price?

and 3 or 4 times the wage

 

[Dribble]

and 3 or 4 times the wage

If he signed within our wage structure?

 

[TB369]

Another tweet says they are demanding in excess of the £50 million arsenal paid for White

 

[Txiki Txiki Bang Bang]

I hope you right and indeed the fee paid does add pressure and expectation and that is a reason I was against the deal.

I can remember signing Steve Daley a very talented footballer, a very good footballer but Daley was never a 1.5 Million pound British record transfer player and the pressure and expectation got to him, he simply could not handle it.

Grealish is clearly a talented player but nowhere near the value we paid.

This post is a breath of fresh air here on bluemoon! I am not sure why most posters just wouldn't admit that we pay waaaay over his actual value.

 

[Uncle Wally One Ball]

This post is a breath of fresh air here on bluemoon! I am not sure why most posters just wouldn't admit that we pay waaaay over his actual value.

Things cost what they cost mate. Gas, electric and petrol are all at mental prices. If you want it you pay it, nothing that can be done. No need to admit anything, its a cest la vie type thing

 

[Calv_from_the_frog]

Season ticket at Goldstone 1978 first game.

Hey CG, not spoken to you yet but - honest opinion - do you reckon that Cucurella is, regardless of cost, capable of maintaining / improving our status as PL & CL contenders ?

I've seen barely any of him (as much as I like you team's style of play, and you're one of the teams who I'll switch on to see if I have nowt else to do), so genuinely wondering what your opinion is ?

 

[taconinja]

Overrated.

More that he doesn't fit our system, just as he doesn't fit Barca's.

 

[Dribble]

More that he doesn't fit our system, just as he doesn't fit Barca's.

So as you see it he couldn't replace Gundog?

 

[blue61]

Bro, tell me, what is that argument about winning the league IN COMMON with signing a left-back? IMO zero in common, because that position is a weakness and we have to upgrade it. It has zero in common if we have won the league or not. It's not an argument in terms of signing a left-back or not. That position is a weakness for ages for us and every club apart from City would like to solve that problem ;)

We have an excellent left back in Cancelo and our backups are comparable with our rivals as it stands.

 

[taconinja]

So as you see it he couldn't replace Gundog?

Pep can work wonders with players, so I'd never say no absolutely not. Everything I've seen of him makes me believe de Jong would be superb in a double pivot, which we could play and might benefit us in certain games, but I don't see us modifying our system to fit him when we've got Phillips to play a more advanced midfield role like Gundogan.

That's only my opinion, though. I've not watched a lot of him at Ajax and Barca has been all over the map tactically since he's been there.

 

[Coatigan]

We shoehorned Zin into that position, but in reality he's never really made it his own & has generally always been the backup option, even after the Mendy situation. That alone should be ringing alarm bells.

Again, one that is more a question of extent than the point, but that is a bit of an embelishment.

After the 17-18 season, when he was first tried at LB to get us to the end of the season, Zinchenko has played more games at LB than any other of our LBs in each of the following 3 seasons, up until the last season when Cancelo had a worldy on both sides of the pitch.

In 2 of those seasons he played as many and/or more games than the next 2 put together.

He is no doubt a squad player, I use that term myself, he shares that role with with others and is often not first choice. But he also often is, and has been more than just a back-up, for at least 3 of his 4 seasons as a LB.

 

[David Silva]

It's been our achilles heel since Pep said during his first season that he couldn't play the football he wanted with 4 ageing FB's in their 30's. We made major changes then, but still only had Mendy as an LB, as Kolarov wanted to leave for Italy unexpectedly & was never replaced.

We’ve still never recovered from the Dani Alves snub. We’d have bought Ryan Bertrand that summer otherwise, but ended up with Danilo.

On second thoughts maybe that was for the best.