Defensive midfielder

DMA's said:
City are one of the wealthiest clubs in the world, have scouts spread all across the globe and access to a huge scouting database.

And I’m supposed to believe they can’t find one suitable midfield player to help the team? They have signed Phillips, nunes, kovacic and gundogan to fill the role. That is pathetic tbh.
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Agreed! The fact they cant seem to do anything is genuinely staggering
 
Keeper! said:
"Rabiot" one of footballers greatest mercenaries.
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Yep but they are happy with their free transfer, and for what i have seen he is doing a capable job. Are we happy with our free transfer?. Have to say this is not the reason we are struggling this season, that is numbers, we simply did not maintain the balances, so for me this window is about structure, something to build on. Rovella is young, fairly quick, good skill level, a captain on the pitch, and knows the position very well. Will cost Lazio £15 million, so a treble your money offer would, still see him cheaper that others with no ability to improve.
 
salfordbluetrue said:
Yep but they are happy with their free transfer, and for what i have seen he is doing a capable job. Are we happy with our free transfer?. Have to say this is not the reason we are struggling this season, that is numbers, we simply did not maintain the balances, so for me this window is about structure, something to build on. Rovella is young, fairly quick, good skill level, a captain on the pitch, and knows the position very well. Will cost Lazio £15 million, so a treble your money offer would, still see him cheaper that others with no ability to improve.
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Sorry decent player but not a man I would have anywhere near our club and his mother/agent is poison.
 
Craig said:
It wasn’t ACL’s that did for Shearer and Owen. Owen completely snapped his hamstring and was never the same again. Shearer was still just as good, he did his ACL at 22/23 whilst at Blackburn and was still amazing after. It was a different injury whilst 26/27 after just a season at Newcastle that meant he could no longer run in behind or down the channels.

Not disagreeing some players don’t come back the same from it though and we need to sign another midfielder sharpish!
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Some players may come back physically the same. However, they don't trust their knee anymore. Mentally they are concerned, "If I make a cut is my knee going to give again?"

If they can't get over the mental aspect of it, and some can't, it does not matter how they have healed physically.
 
salfordbluetrue said:
Understandable, Zakaria would have been my choice, instead of Phillips, Thuram instead of Kovacic, and Rabiot instead of Gundogan. Juve made a mistake buying Thuram, they say he is playing well, but they lost quality youth bringing him in, not least the lad at Lazio, who is captain material, and if Rovella was our only signing left, i would think it a fantastic window.
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The juice isn't worth the squeeze with that one, in my opinion. His mother/handler comes across as completely mental.
 
Why not give Perrone the chance?

He's at least got 1.5 seasons under his belt in La Liga and Serie A.

When our need is most dire at DM, why can't we just depend on a DM rather than trying a square peg in a round hole?
 
Blue_Lightsaber said:
Why not give Perrone the chance?

He's at least got 1.5 seasons under his belt in La Liga and Serie A.

When our need is most dire at DM, why can't we just depend on a DM rather than trying a square peg in a round hole?
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just been out injured for 3 months, barely back fit, even if we could recall him
 
Blue_Lightsaber said:
Why not give Perrone the chance?

He's at least got 1.5 seasons under his belt in La Liga and Serie A.

When our need is most dire at DM, why can't we just depend on a DM rather than trying a square peg in a round hole?
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Generally, you cannot recall players from long-term loans
 
Blue_Lightsaber said:
Why not give Perrone the chance?

He's at least got 1.5 seasons under his belt in La Liga and Serie A.

When our need is most dire at DM, why can't we just depend on a DM rather than trying a square peg in a round hole?
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Yep or the usual suspects in Wright or O'Reilly. Perrone has been injured though, so you could give the benefit of doubt towards us bringing him back if he were taking further steps this season, he was decent in Spain last term.

I am sure the midfield and what we have of youth has been carefully considered over the last few months but it does seem a bit questionable to avoid trying to inject some youthfull energy into it with the likes of O'Reilly or Wright assumedly because they are deemed not quite developed enough or potentally damaging for their development to go into a team that doesn't function, yet we are happy to see club legends like Gündogan and Bernardo completely being run into the ground when it is much more realistic that a young player will make huge strides in a short time rather than a player in their twillight years suddenly gaining back the physicality the years have robbed them of. Also even more questionable when we are currently seeing Lewis almost getting sent out to be a sacrificial lamb at the moment getting asked to play positions or fix issues he has no realistic possibility to succeed in due to his skill-set, for no other reason than the fact he was one of those lucky enough to get bed-in to the senior-squad when our squad were functioning and gain Pep's confidence due to actually having experience with senior football already. I like Lewis a lot, but there is no doubt that he has his talents in other areas of the pitch than those he is asked to operate in at the moment, and his current involvement I am afraid will be more detrimental to his own career than the functionality of the team which we already knows doesn't really gel whether he is picked or not.

After the last few games I am not even sure the holding midfielder is our biggest issue. A fit Rodri obviously would make a difference due to him being the best on the planet at what he does and his control and passing helping us to choke teams better while also being physical and positionally sound enough to snuff out more danger, but I do also suspect he and any other 6 we put in there would be overrun now. I think we cluld survive with both Kovacic and Gundogan playing the 6 if the press were working. Right now we don't have legs in the front to suffocate teams which leads them quickly to be able to quickly pass around players that are never where they should be positionally, and also in posession has become so slow and insecure on the ball for probably various reasons that the amount of turnovers we give away puts immense pressure on any holding midfielder.

If we really can't reinforce midfield with any signings this winter we really do have to change the system a bit. We need 2 holding midfielders instructed to be positionally disciplined to guard the defence, and we need to fill the front positions with the players best suited for a press rather than hoping the likes of De Bruyne, Foden or Doku in their current condition can conjure up enough magic to balance the fact that we currently can't retain possesion anywhere good enough to have a semblance of control when they are included. Hopefully Marmoush has the ability to help with this, but it might be time to try the likes of Lewis higher while also playing McAtee more while sitting deeper
 
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