My thought is 2018/19 when KDB missed most of the season and was arguably our most important player comparable to Rodri at that time. IIRC he played no part in our staggering 14 wins on the bounce to take the title.Vibes of 19/20 when both Laporte and Sane got injured and several players, the likes of David, Sergio and Ferna were getting oldish.
The difference now is we have a great group of young attacking players, plus Gvardiol and Rico. We'll need to add to the squad 1-2 quality players in January, though. Also, none of the contenders could go on the run Liverpool had back then.
Would be an amazing achievement to win the league without Rodri while also competing for the CL. Hopefully Rodri is back for end of the season, we'll need him for the club WC.
My thought is 2018/19 when KDB missed most of the season and was arguably our most important player comparable to Rodri at that time. IIRC he played no part in our staggering 14 wins on the bounce to take the title.
I'd say its more important to buy an 8 and a haaland back up.KDB missed about 18 league games but Bernardo replaced him successfully and was absolutely fantastic. We don't have now a player who can be close to Rodri's quality at DM. Maybe Bernardo is the closest thing in terms of press resistance, running, passing etc, with the obvious deficits in physicality, though. Stones and Akanji have the physical attributes but lack other things. We need to buy a DM in January.
If there is a player we were planning to bring in next summer that we can bring forward then yes (Wharton ?). We won’t buy stop gap for half a season in January if we can’t though, we’ll come up with a different plan.KDB missed about 18 league games but Bernardo replaced him successfully and was absolutely fantastic. We don't have now a player who can be close to Rodri's quality at DM. Maybe Bernardo is the closest thing in terms of press resistance, running, passing etc, with the obvious deficits in physicality, though. Stones and Akanji have the physical attributes but lack other things. We need to buy a DM in January.
Buying a dm In Jan just won't happen imo. To buy a dm in Jan would be pointless unless they could come straight in a know the way we play and the role we want them to play straight away. That ain't going to happen we have 2 players at the club that know exactly the way we play how we want them to play and where they have to be in certain phases of play. Anyone coming in would be for the season after.KDB missed about 18 league games but Bernardo replaced him successfully and was absolutely fantastic. We don't have now a player who can be close to Rodri's quality at DM. Maybe Bernardo is the closest thing in terms of press resistance, running, passing etc, with the obvious deficits in physicality, though. Stones and Akanji have the physical attributes but lack other things. We need to buy a DM in January.
I'd say its more important to buy an 8 and a haaland back up.
If there is a player we were planning to bring in next summer that we can bring forward then yes (Wharton ?). We won’t buy stop gap for half a season in January if we can’t though, we’ll come up with a different plan.
How long would it take for a 6 to be trained the way we want our 6 to play? more than 6 months imo.Gundo, KDB, Foden, Nunes, Kovacic, Lewis can play at 8. A 6 is more pressing as Kova is not the most injury free player and Gundo is 34.
My thought is 2018/19 when KDB missed most of the season and was arguably our most important player comparable to Rodri at that time. IIRC he played no part in our staggering 14 wins on the bounce to take the title.
How long would it take for a 6 to be trained the way we want our 6 to play? more than 6 months imo.
Only 1 player could come in and fit straight in and that would be kimmich. Getting him would be virtually impossible tho.This I agree with, the idea is to have a good replacement if/when Kova and Gundo aren't available.
13 points after 5 games, extrapolated over the course of a season would see us hit 99 points.Very early days yet of course but just as a general rule one clean sheet in five games, if extrapolated over the course of a season, will make winning the league very very hard.
We need to tighten things up quickly.
Only 1 player could come in and fit straight in and that would be kimmich. Getting him would be virtually impossible tho.