The Midfield

bellsouth said:
It’s not a case of Physicality or Mentality, it’s Physicality AND Mentality.
Every team we struggle against has fitter, faster, stronger midfielders.
Not only that but is there anything more inevitable after we concede one that we collapse, no backbone at all in this squad, it’s shocking.
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We concede 1 then another because we double down on trying to keep the ball play it out or panic hoof it! What we needed to do is get back into shape for 10/15mins when we went 2 up, because when we went 2 up it seemed that psg went into another pressing gear all over the park if we at least had everyone back it would of made it harder!
 
If we don't sign any midfielders in this window then we have to either play wingbacks or go false 9 (latter is never going to happen unless Haaland is injured). That's the only way to manage this midfield - by having more bodies in the middle and not leaving them overrun & exposed by attackers who offer nothing out of possession.
 
Remember BITD Pep saying he would happily have a team of midfielders? Not sure how that sits with the current side.
 
if we sign another wide man ahead of a central player i'll.....sigh loudly and have a cup of tea.
 
Marvin. said:
I don't think Gundogan and KDB will be retained. Long term, our midfield is fine imo. Rodri, Kovacic, Bernardo, Foden, Grealish and you could possibly add Marmoush as a no. 10 in the role KDB used to play if we play Savinho and Bobb on the wings. O'Reilly and Macatee look like they could make it too. It's the defence that is an issue as only Gvardiol seems to be fit to play every week.
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Our midfield structure is broken !!

If, and it is an if ,Rodri returns 'a la Balon d Or', 2/3 elite midfielders will still be needed.

We will NOT succeed with Rodri and what we've got !!

We need a player who can play with Rodri, a player who can replace Rodri, a player who can replace KDB, and a player to replace Bernardo.

Anything less,imo, and we're too light.
Stiff Little Wingers said:
Yes fair enough. But given what we have right now why can’t we go with a Kova, Nunes , Grealish midfield? Maybe not top class individually but as a unit cant be worse than what we saw yesterday?
Really not sure what Pep is doing right now
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Kovacic is a top class player. So is Foden, so is Bernardo. This topic is bonkers. The issue is that we have Nunes or Rico playing at right back, and Stones and Ake are never on the pitch and DIas plays every other game.

Managing the defence is the issue. Pep and City have addressed this but the solution is long term. I'd be amazed is Reis and Khusanov reach their peak at 19 and 20. A big call now for Pep if he wants to play them. After all he has played de Bruyne and Gundogan in front of Macatee and O'Reilly all season. Now he may have no choice.
 
Stelea said:
Manage it by realising the glaring problem in midfield a few months in advance of a transfer window and do something about it rather than signing 60 million worth of untried centre backs, who are probably no better than Taylor HB or Callum Doyle
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Except that all their coaches and many commentators reckon they are worldies. I don’t know, I have seen them.
 
Gone for a Burton said:
Our midfield structure is broken !!

If, and it is an if ,Rodri returns 'a la Balon d Or', 2/3 elite midfielders will still be needed.

We will NOT succeed with Rodri and what we've got !!

We need a player who can play with Rodri, a player who can replace Rodri, a player who can replace KDB, and a player to replace Bernardo.

Anything less,imo, and we're too light.
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Gone for a Burton said:
Our midfield structure is broken !!

If, and it is an if ,Rodri returns 'a la Balon d Or', 2/3 elite midfielders will still be needed.

We will NOT succeed with Rodri and what we've got !!

We need a player who can play with Rodri, a player who can replace Rodri, a player who can replace KDB, and a player to replace Bernardo.

Anything less,imo, and we're too light.
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Stiff Little Wingers said:
Yes fair enough. But given what we have right now why can’t we go with a Kova, Nunes , Grealish midfield? Maybe not top class individually but as a unit cant be worse than what we saw yesterday?
Really not sure what Pep is doing right now
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100%....particularly the final sentence, last night was utterly horrible.

Has Jack blotted his copybook to the extent that the team is being made to suffer by his absence ?

Does Kova,Jack & Nico not have enough balance in it ??

Keegan fell out with Berkovich and hung him and the team out to dry to try and force a point.

The rinse and repeat selections, performances and capitulations of the last 3 months are frankly a poor reflection on the coach.
 
We need to commit more fouls in midfield. Khusanov is a master at it. Put him at DM with a licence to kill.
 
Obviously the midfied has no legs but the worrying thing is when we play against teams like Brentford and their touch and passing is better than ours. How has it happened that technically we've gone from the best by a mile to shit. Our players can barely trap a ball at the moment.
 
hcblue95 said:
Obviously the midfied has no legs but the worrying thing is when we play against teams like Brentford and their touch and passing is better than ours. How has it happened that technically we've gone from the best by a mile to shit. Our players can barely trap a ball at the moment.
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Fitness. There’s a reason we keep going 2-0 up and losing.
 
Pep has two options for midfield cover now. Two players who have both played there and done pretty well, John Stones and Jack Grealish
 
Bluearmy said:
Why not buy, just for laughs. A midfielder...??
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Stop your silliness:-)

Being serious I'm hoping it's just a case of no-one of a.very high level being available. Some midfielders will have to come and I'm hoping we move away from playing CBs as fullbacks.
We shall see.
 
Axel Freed said:
We all know we’re crying out for a midfielder but if we can’t get the right guy for whatever reason then what can we do ?

Having been burnt twice to the tune of £100m with Nunes and Phillips it’s surely better to wait for the right man to become available than to splurge money on a guy who isn’t fit for purpose
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Then pay whatever it takes to get a guy who is fit for purpose. Whether the club think that’s Guimaraes, Ederson, Zubimendi or someone else, ask their agent/club what the fee is then fucking pay it.

That’s how you get the best players, that stop you being shit. It’ll cost us a lot more if we fail to get CL football, not to mention sponsorship deals etc, from not being perceived as the best anymore.

Just pay whatever it takes to get back to being the City of the previous few seasons.
 
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