It’s Quiet 20 - What is the Wirtz that could happen?

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Mancini’s Pastilles said:
Probably try Reis in midfield which is going to be a disaster. 125 million on 2 unheard of prodigy's and a centre foward. When our midfield is in piece's. Is insanity
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Get what you're both saying and agree the midfield is a serious problem, but that doesn't mean we don't have big issues in the defence and in the forward positions too. The squad was always going to need a minimum of 6 players to turn this around. We've signed 3 so far and hopefully they will all improve us.

We do need a midfielder big time though, but let's hope we get the right one. The last thing we need is another Nunes or Phillips f*ck up on a 4 or 5 year deal and we're in the same position again in 12 months time. Hopefully the scouts have found some incredible South American talent for about £30m that is as good as Baleba.
 
Coatigan said:
People are expecting the Luiz of last year's Villa. But they played a completely different game, he was surrounded by a different type of player, and the lot of them had real pace, freedom to just bomb forward whenever they got the ball, and hunger from defying expectations.

He would be coming to a much slower team that keeps(and loses) the ball a lot, and builds up play, and I think we would likely see more the Luiz at Juventus (the one they want rid of) than the Villa one people saw on MoTD.

I'd still take him, given where we are. But only on a loan, not with a permanent deal thereafter which by all accounts is the only way he would arrive.
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If we do take him then it’s an admission that City have failed to get their primary target(s) and are just making do until the end of the season.
 
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SWPISHOME said:
I'm looking forward to Marmoush, It makes sense bringing a guy in to replace De Bruyne (Massive ask by the way)...Even KDB is playing too many games.

I don't get the two centre back signings when we are an absolute shambles in midfield, That's not to mention we don't have a right back either...Walker is gone and Rico is nowhere near good enough.

I can't believe we aren't going all out for at least two midfielders, It's OK though we'll sign another mediocre midfielder on loan like Douglas Luiz! We'll do that whilst we continue to leave O'Reilly sat on his arse, The one midfielder we have that can actually get around a football pitch.
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don’t get how people just don’t seem to be able to understand,we obviously can’t get our midfield targets in this window and it would be madness to miss out on those players to bring in panic buys now. Just repeating mistakes we made with Phillips and to a lesser degree Nunes. It isn’t perfect but missing whoever we want long term for short term gain would be a bigger mistake.
 
Bluemoon has risen said:
Get what you're both saying and agree the midfield is a serious problem, but that doesn't mean we don't have big issues in the defence and in the forward positions too. The squad was always going to need a minimum of 6 players to turn this around. We've signed 3 so far and hopefully they will all improve us.

We do need a midfielder big time though, but let's hope we get the right one. The last thing we need is another Nunes or Phillips f*ck up on a 4 or 5 year deal and we're in the same position again in 12 months time. Hopefully the scouts have found some incredible South American talent for about £30m that is as good as Baleba.
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Hopefully mate. We need a ball winning animal in there to toughen us up. So easy to play against and don't have a single player who is capable of winning a tackle. Our players bottled every fifty fifty going last night.

Rodri is the equivalent to playing with an extra man, and his impeccable timing means he's a master at cutting off the danger. Very clear reason he won the Ballon D'or. In his absence we need someone who actually isn't a soft touch for the opposition and that doesn't exist in our current team.
 
Bellamy's Caddy said:
The midfield issues are well documented and its frustrating that our players have been incapable of adapting their game or Pep finding a solution. The warning signs were evident last season in the three games Rodri missed. Nothing was done about it...

However, our defensive issues are just as significant. The back four that started the CL final was Akanji Stones Dias and Ake. Have they started a single game together this season? It can't be may if so. That's our strongest back four. Allows Stones to move into midfield. Injuries have absolutely decimated the back four and probably brought about some home truths that sadly, Stones and Ake (in particular) cannot be relied on to be fit when they are needed. Both have been fantastic servants and without injury concerns would be integral.

So, a glaringly obviously midfield issue that I sincerely hope will be addressed in January. If it means paying over the odds, well, needs must for the right player (I trust the club on that one, clearly).

The addition of two, very highly rated young centre backs is exciting. How much impact they can make this season remains to be seen, but if they offer rotation options in certain games, that at least might take the pressure of some players who are clearly playing when not fully fit.
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Watching our midfield collectively atrophy is an indictment of the club leadership. The last few days of this window better be good but we shouldn't be witnessing fiascos like last night time after time. Dreadful management.
 
Bellamy's Caddy said:
Hopefully mate. We need a ball winning animal in there to toughen us up. So easy to play against and don't have a single player who is capable of winning a tackle. Our players bottled every fifty fifty going last night.

Rodri is the equivalent to playing with an extra man, and his impeccable timing means he's a master at cutting off the danger. Very clear reason he won the Ballon D'or. In his absence we need someone who actually isn't a soft touch for the opposition and that doesn't exist in our current team
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There are many examples, but there was a passage of play last night where we were attacking, they pressed/we lost it at the edge of their box and I think every single one of our midfielders lost a challenge to win it back. They were in our box in seconds, didn't even have to charm us first
 
Mancini’s Pastilles said:
Probably try Reis in midfield which is going to be a disaster. 125 million on 2 unheard of prodigy's and a centre foward. When our midfield is in piece's. Is insanity
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I get the point but realistically they're signings we needed as well as. Its not a case of we have signed those guys over a midfielder (or I'd like to think not anyway). Signing those guys is better than signing nobody until we sign a midfielder.
 
blueparrot said:
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don’t get how people just don’t seem to be able to understand,we obviously can’t get our midfield targets in this window and it would be madness to miss out on those players to bring in panic buys now. Just repeating mistakes we made with Phillips and to a lesser degree Nunes. It isn’t perfect but missing whoever we want long term for short term gain would be a bigger mistake.
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Thats true. But it is also quite possible those targets don’t move to us in the summer either. So what then?
 
Cobwebcat said:
Beating what we have at the moment is not difficult but it’s not the answer.

Douglas Luiz is not a massive upgrade he is average at best..a panic buy just because Juve want rid so we can get him.

Energy would be nice but keeping the ball is much more important to me.
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Hard disagree, he's a quality footballer as proven in the PL. We are absolutely woeful with zero legs at the moment.
 
It’s a strange one. Definitely an exciting window in that we have brought in 3 new players I knew nothing about before this window, but none of them address our current main problems. We have a defence that lacks a natural leader when Dias is out, but we have bought two defenders for the future (3 with Bah) one of whom I believe speaks no English so can’t easily fit straight in or learn from Pep; also no Walker replacement , yet.

We have a pressing need to strengthen the midfield and as yet haven’t done anything - still time of course but without it top 4/5 looks unlikely and that’s £100m down the swanny and also impedes our ability to recruit the best in the summer. What we have at least done is address what WAS our biggest perceived issue in the summer, which was support for Haaland, Omar, but that’s no longer our biggest problem. I know fuck all about football management (unless you count coaching my sons Under 9 team) but if I can see the midfield deficiencies, as I know we all can, then surely the club must be addressing it but given the tough games coming up it needs sorting very quickly, would have been nice for Saturday against major top 4 rivals.

So an exciting January window but for me not the right January window…….yet

Edit - the double signing of Cambiasso and Luiz makes an exciting window an excellent window, for me
 
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I understand the need not to panic buy and end up with someone who isn't at the right level, but the hit to our income in lost CL appearance/ tv money/ prize money and finishing outside the top four PL with no CL next year has got to be close to 200m.

Worth a mistake or two.

If not. I'm ok with midtable and no CL. It will bring a few back down to earth and give the new manager a slightly easier route to perceived success.
 
Eoiyflem said:
Hard disagree, he's a quality footballer as proven in the PL. We are absolutely woeful with zero legs at the moment.
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We don’t need legs as much if we have the ball….Pep is correct. We need much better than to settle for a Juve mistake on loan.

Luiz is a sticking plaster that will soon be washed away. Give me the next David Silva.

Luiz suited Villa he doesn’t solve anything for us unless it’s just a numbers game.
 
johnny crossan said:
Watching our midfield collectively atrophy is an indictment of the club leadership. The last few days of this window better be good but we shouldn't be witnessing fiascos like last night time after time. Dreadful management.
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It often seems forgotten that there is a bit more to winnign football games (or even not losing them from winning positions) than just which players a director of football assembles.

We could still lose games if Luiz or another comes, it is not entirely simply victory by formula.

Teams with better midfielders than ours lose games and some with worse players win them. It happens.

By all means I want us to address it, don't get me wrong. But we still have to find ways to win or hang onto leads, and this group should have it in them to do that.
 
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