Kyle Walker

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Tugay One Cup said:
But we don't need another player who can play a hybrid CB/RB role. We've literally just won a treble with Stones and Akanji doing it and neither of them is leaving.
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But we do need another defender if Kyle leaves. We'll have 5 senior defenders for 4 starting spots if we don't.

Pavard would be the most natural RB of the three - him signing might push one of the Akanji/Stones into a different role. Stones may well continue to get more game time further up the field.

If we're genuinely in for Pavard, Pep and the club will have a plan.
 
Bit worried we’d be using a foreign spot on Pavard if Walker leaves. Already taking up one with Gvardiol coming in. Assuming Stones is a permanent DM, that’s still too many defenders.
 
Tugay One Cup said:
But we don't need another player who can play a hybrid CB/RB role. We've literally just won a treble with Stones and Akanji doing it and neither of them is leaving.
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Plus isn't Gvardiol able to play this way too?

Arse & the Dippers are copying Pep's homework, so you can sure bet others will follow suit soon enough. Like all problems, someone will find a solution to our inverted defender tactic, so then what? We go from no left back, to no full backs at all?

I'm uncomfortable with the prospect of us getting rid of our RB/LB/WB's, because it leaves us looking one dimensional in defence, facing the prospect of using CB's as stand in FB's.
 
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we need to make Bayern feel not so safe coming to City for players. Sane, Walker, Alvarez etc.
put in some bid for Kimmich, A Davies ec. just to create a back off feeling so to say.

Pavard aint that good, we can do without him. I think we will play hell of a lot with 3 CBs rather than standard back 4.
and when we played with back 4 Pep used Stones or Akanji at RB and Walker was benched despite being a real right back.
 
Sir Joe Aguero said:
Bit worried we’d be using a foreign spot on Pavard if Walker leaves. Already taking up one with Gvardiol coming in. Assuming Stones is a permanent DM, that’s still too many defenders.
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How is it too many defenders?

Assume Laporte leaves and is replaced by Gvardiol and Walker leaves and is replaced by Pavard.

Ake - Gvardiol - Dias - Stones - Akanji - Pavard.

We seemingly won't play with fullbacks if we have the above in place. 6 senior defenders for 4 starting roles.

With Ake, Stones and Dias' injury history, i'd argue it's playing with fire if anything.

Add Lewis and Gomez into the equation if necessary and you have 8 players for 4 positions - very standard for any top club.
 
tolmie's hairdoo said:
It's worked so far!

Sterling, Jesus, Zin.

I remember the meltdown on here last summer.

We brought in a £14m kid from Argentina and a bargain bucket from Dortmund.

Haaland is great, but he's not Messi.

The one thing Pep fears is stagnation. If these players are looking elsewhere, he already has his answer they aren't in the right mindset to go again.

The dressing room needs three or four new faces and we will get them.
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Changes are needed. The club will respond in a professional manner. Don’t see why we should be crapping our pants. New players, new hunger and we go again. A 33 year old player leaving no matter how good he is common sense. If Walker didn’t want to go he would not be speaking to Bayern.

Happy to see how the chips fall.

You can be respectful to the players that want to leave and be excited about the future. As I say, sad to see such a wonderful player leave.

We all move on, let’s hope the incoming players can step up.
 
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Dribble said:
Plus isn't Gvardiol able to play this way too?

Arse & the Dippers are copying Pep's homework, so you can sure others will follow suit soon enough. Like all problems, someone will find a solution to our inverted defenders, so then what? We go from no left back, to no right back too?

I'm uncomfortable if we get rid of our RB/LB/WB's, because it leaves us looking one dimensional in defence, using CB's as stand in FB's.
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That's my issue. People always seem to talk about each new system like it's going to be a permanent fixture, without realising that each new iteration has come about because other teams have found a way to make the old one less effective.

Pep hasn't solved football. We will need to change again at some point and I'd rather we have a bit of variety in our options.
 
Tugay One Cup said:
I'm pretty sure his desire to play centre back rather than right back is a big reason why there have been rumours that he's not entirely happy at Bayern for the last couple of seasons.

I might have that the wrong way around though.
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Yes I read that too, but RB at City is very different from any other club.

May also like the idea of tucking in centrally ahead of the backline like our wide defenders do - he's got the ability on the ball and intelligence to play in that role.

I don't think Pep Guardiola would struggle to convince him if we actually want him.
 
Will miss him. He's been great. But he's 33 y/o and was already on the way out. Makes sense for all parties. If we can replace him with Gvardiol and make Akanji a full-time right-back that should be a way to keep Laporte happy.

Akanji, Dias, Stones, Ake
Lewis, Gvardiol, Laporte, Cancelo

Not bad options at all really.
 
I think many are underestimating our future acquisition strategy pivoting more heavily to promoting talent from the academy, now replete with the top players in England (and arguably Europe), which requires older, stop gap players to facilitate shorter term, direct paths in to the first team for youth players (the best ones, once they turn 20—barring the odd hometown phenom like Foden or Doyle—aren’t going to wait around for 4-5 years to get their chance).

We’ve built a world class youth system for a reason: to ensure we have best talent pool and reduce our reliance on spending big to acquire the best young players.

And that strategy requires a different transfer strategy in the interim, like getting new, hungry players in their prime (like Kovacic) to keep the team motivated whilst we blood in the younger players (allowing them to play the odd game, or more in the case of injury, like Rico).
 
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