It's Quiet 17 - Glory Thread

Blue_Lightsaber said:
And then you have an unhappy squad because people don't get to play.

Pep is managing squad size, playtime, egos and trying to keep them all happy.

And if you really think we have no depth at left back, go look at Joshua Wilson-Esbrand vs Bayern.
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And there's another way at looking at things... How many times last season when under the cosh injury-wise, did we go through a match without making a substitution?

Some say they felt it was because Pep had given instructions, & trusted the starting 11 to come good & see the job through.

Personally, I saw it as a lack of trust in those on the bench to be able to make an appreciable difference if brought on, so he stuck with a stronger starting 11.

Only Pep really knows why, but we had players clearly in need of a rest being flogged to death, whilst we had fit senior players on the bench as unused substitutes.

Two players (Jesus & Sterling) expressed disquiet about their lack of playing time, & Zinchenko knew the writing was on the wall when we pursued Cucurella & would have been our 3rd choice LB behind Cucu & Cancelo.

Gundog had a year left on his contract & at 31 has options to leave on a free next summer anyway.

My hope is that this season's squad is closer to what Pep wants, so he'll be more comfortable making substitutions & rotating the squad more than he has done in the past.

When we soon hit 3 games per week, that'll be game time worries & squad rotation issues sorted imo.
 
JewelZee said:
Sterling nor Gabby are left footed either and while I loved Zinny I wouldn't call him a top class LB. So we haven't lost much in terms of structure. Having watched Ortega, he is miles above Steffen in terms of playing with his feet out of the back. Phillips is a huge upgrade over the elder Dinho. Alvarez is class. And Akanji and Gomez combined far outweigh the loss of Zinchenko and then some. Add in the goal scoring monster and we are miles above last year's team and that is saying something. Of course I know we play with Haaland + 10. I was being somewhat facetious, however, I'll stick to a 9.5 easily. JMO.
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I've evidently got tougher standards to meet & would still have opted for a top class senior Left Back & left footed Left Winger.

Yes, agreed both Sterling & Jesus are right footed, but we've effectively played without a striker since Aguero's final injury-ridden season with us.

Crossing the ball into the box was futile & Jesus whilst busy with a high workrate, wasn't banging in the goals as we'd hoped from our main striker.

Now we have the Viking & Alvaréz who many reckon is cross between Tevez & Aguero. We now need to make to most of our transitions, & that means being able to cross early & accurately into the box, without a weak cross from our current wingers' weaker foot, or the need to lose vital seconds as they check back onto their stronger foot. We will still have our inverted wingers as options too.

This is just my personal take on matters & why I gave 8/10 & what would have prompted me to give 10/10.
 
Dribble said:
And there's another way at looking at things... How many times last season when under the cosh injury-wise, did we go through a match without making a substitution?

Some say they felt it was because Pep had given instructions, & trusted the starting 11 to come good & see the job through.

Personally, I saw it as a lack of trust in those on the bench to be able to make an appreciable difference if brought on, so he stuck with a stronger starting 11.

Only Pep really knows why, but we had players clearly in need of a rest being flogged to death, whilst we had fit senior players on the bench as unused substitutes.

Two players (Jesus & Sterling) expressed disquiet about their lack of playing time, & Zinchenko knew the writing was on the wall when we pursued Cucurella & would have been our 3rd choice LB behind Cucu & Cancelo.

Gundog had a year left on his contract & at 31 has options to leave on a free next summer anyway.

My hope is that this season's squad is closer to what Pep wants, so he'll be more comfortable making substitutions & rotating the squad more than he has done in the past.

When we soon hit 3 games per week, that'll be game time worries & squad rotation issues sorted imo.
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I think Pep only thinks about fatigue when the game is won, which does have its flaws.
 
Alan Harper's Tash said:
I think Pep only thinks about fatigue when the game is won, which does have its flaws.
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The game was far from won on Saturday, but 8 minutes into the second half, he was about to make a double substitution.

That to me signifies that Pep felt he had fresh game-changers on the bench, as opposed to last season where many times he stuck by a clearly knackered starting 11.

Again for me that was more about Pep not having faith outside of his starting 11, that those on the bench could make an appreciable difference.

To illustrate the point, Jesus must have known what Haaland's signing would have meant for him, just as Zinchenko would have known Cucurella's signing would have relegated him to 3rd choice LB.

With £100m Grealish at the club, Foden preferred to Sterling & with the arrival of Alvaréz, Sterling must also have woken up & sniffed the coffee about his City future.

One thing I picked up from Sterling's recent interview is when he was talking about being furious that he wasn't getting the starts he felt he deserved.

Crucially he also slipped in about his contract being allowed to be run down. We all assumed it was Raheen stalling on fresh contract talks, with him looking to do a Milner, but if he was trying to do a Milner, why mention it as another one of his gripes?

When I stand back & survey the global picture, City have more or less got exactly what they wanted. A similar sized squad, but one of better quality across the forward line, at LB & a replacement for Fernandinho.

I'd argue that we've achieved all this without having to force players out, whilst being left with a sizeable amount of spare change in our pockets.

That's a successful window in my mind, & would have been the perfect dream window with a senior top class Left Back & Left footed Left Winger added to what we already have.
 
Dribble said:
The game was far from won on Saturday, but 8 minutes into the second half, he was about to make a double substitution.

That to me signifies that Pep felt he had fresh game-changers on the bench, as opposed to last season where many times he stuck by a clearly knackered starting 11.

Again for me that was more about Pep not having faith outside of his starting 11, that those on the bench could make an appreciable difference.

To illustrate the point, Jesus must have known what Haaland's signing would have meant for him, just as Zinchenko would have known Cucurella's signing would have relegated him to 3rd choice LB.

With £100m Grealish at the club, Foden preferred to Sterling & with the arrival of Alvaréz, Sterling must also have woken up & sniffed the coffee about his City future.

One thing I picked up from Sterling's recent interview is when he was talking about being furious that he wasn't getting the starts he felt he deserved.

Crucially he also slipped in about his contract being allowed to be run down. We all assumed it was Raheen stalling on fresh contract talks, with him looking to do a Milner, but if he was trying to do a Milner, why mention it as another one of his gripes?

When I stand back & survey the global picture, City have more or less got exactly what they wanted. A similar sized squad, but one of better quality across the forward line, at LB & a replacement for Fernandinho.

I'd argue that we've achieved all this without having to force players out, whilst being left with a sizeable amount of spare change in our pockets.

That's a successful window in my mind, & would have been the perfect dream window with a senior top class Left Back & Left footed Left Winger added to what we already have.
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It definitely was Sterling playing silly buggers, he kept bringing up "issues" why he couldn't sign the contract that City put on the table, starting with sacking off his previous agent.
 
Centurions said:
It definitely was Sterling playing silly buggers, he kept bringing up "issues" why he couldn't sign the contract that City put on the table, starting with sacking off his previous agent.
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I heard all kind of reports, & found it difficult to make sense out of all the nonsense.

I dunno, I just found it odd that Sterling mentioned his contract being allowed to run down as something which pissed him off.

Let's assume he was running down his contract & got the move he wanted, why mention it two weeks ago as something which pissed him off?
 
Dribble said:
The game was far from won on Saturday, but 8 minutes into the second half, he was about to make a double substitution.

That to me signifies that Pep felt he had fresh game-changers on the bench, as opposed to last season where many times he stuck by a clearly knackered starting 11.

Again for me that was more about Pep not having faith outside of his starting 11, that those on the bench could make an appreciable difference.

To illustrate the point, Jesus must have known what Haaland's signing would have meant for him, just as Zinchenko would have known Cucurella's signing would have relegated him to 3rd choice LB.

With £100m Grealish at the club, Foden preferred to Sterling & with the arrival of Alvaréz, Sterling must also have woken up & sniffed the coffee about his City future.

One thing I picked up from Sterling's recent interview is when he was talking about being furious that he wasn't getting the starts he felt he deserved.

Crucially he also slipped in about his contract being allowed to be run down. We all assumed it was Raheen stalling on fresh contract talks, with him looking to do a Milner, but if he was trying to do a Milner, why mention it as another one of his gripes?

When I stand back & survey the global picture, City have more or less got exactly what they wanted. A similar sized squad, but one of better quality across the forward line, at LB & a replacement for Fernandinho.

I'd argue that we've achieved all this without having to force players out, whilst being left with a sizeable amount of spare change in our pockets.

That's a successful window in my mind, & would have been the perfect dream window with a senior top class Left Back & Left footed Left Winger added to what we already have.
Click to expand...
Pep does change personal when it isn’t working, like he was about to on Saturday. However, when Bernardo scored, he gave them another 10 minutes to see if his words at half time had totally transformed the game in our favour or whether he needed to change personnel.

Sterling at Southampton springs to my mind where he was subbed after 55 mins as he was having a stinker. (Others will have done too, not digging out Raheem here)

We've added two far more clinical forwards than we’ve lost. That can only be a benefit in the long run. We have to adapt our press to accommodate them and that will be perfected with time.

As you elude, a left footed more defensive left back may have been a perfect end to the window, but we shall see how Gomez adapts. He may well be good enough. Just wish he was 5 inches taller.
 
On the face of it, pretty much perfect window for what we needed. Early signs are promising with Haaland and Alvarez shining so far and Gomez looking useful in the minutes he's had. Hopefully Phillips (when fit) and Akanji settle in as quickly.
 
Dribble said:
I've evidently got tougher standards to meet & would still have opted for a top class senior Left Back & left footed Left Winger.

Yes, agreed both Sterling & Jesus are right footed, but we've effectively played without a striker since Aguero's final injury-ridden season with us.

Crossing the ball into the box was futile & Jesus whilst busy with a high workrate, wasn't banging in the goals as we'd hoped from our main striker.

Now we have the Viking & Alvaréz who many reckon is cross between Tevez & Aguero. We now need to make to most of our transitions, & that means being able to cross early & accurately into the box, without a weak cross from our current wingers' weaker foot, or the need to lose vital seconds as they check back onto their stronger foot. We will still have our inverted wingers as options too.

This is just my personal take on matters & why I gave 8/10 & what would have prompted me to give 10/10.
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Don't get uppity on me now Dribble, lol. I do agree having a pure lefty wide left would be a great option. I would also say Little Phil has provided a couple sweet balls into Haaland off his left foot in each of the past 2 matches. With Foden it was a matter of adjusting to playing with Haaland. Otherwise he can put balls in with his left as well as almost any lefty I've seen. I'm not being belligerent, who would fit the profile that was actually available and a realistic option? Not righties who play on the left though, like Foden...
 
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