25 | Manuel Akanji - 2025/26

Status
Not open for further replies.
Our best hope is Viana can find a deal and take it out of Pep’s hands and fuck him off. Does my head in with his lazy attitude and demeanour on the pitch.

His comments about the CWC before a ball was kicked were just embarrassing. Shouldn’t have gone if he cared so much about his rest.
 
Akanji, ake, stones, 100% need moving on. I reigned myself in a bit there too as I was going to include Diaz and ederson in that list.
 
I said early into last season that my biggest concern with Akanji was that all of a sudden, he looked like he didn’t give a toss. It persisted throughout the season and then he made his pre CWC comments. The guy looks and sounds like he has lost whatever passion he had for the game.

He has been a decent signing overall, especially for the money but he needs binning off. The problem we have, is that there is a serious case to be made for every experienced CB we have, going the same way…

Dias - Not the player he was.
Stones - A crock.
Ake - No idea how he is being signed off as fit by the medical team. He moves like a hyena that’s just been attacked by a lion. He is done.

We can’t get rid of them all. Especially when Pep is clearly reluctant to play Khusanov and Reis. We have an abundance of CBs that on paper looks great. The reality is, unless Dias returns to form, only Gvardiol is fit for purpose.
 
He was mustard in the 22/23 treble season - he wasn't told to do anything dramatic, just defend. That was Pep's ethos that season, 4 centre backs in defence being told to just defend while they had a prime Gundo and Rodri protecting them. Kev and Haaland did the rest.

Now he's being told to do things that aren't just be solid, he's gone downhill massively.

It's a shame because he has all the attributes to be a brilliant player for us - strong, fast, good on the ball - but he misses one key thing IMO, and that's aggression. He's too laboured in everything he does and it shows. That 'header' he contested for and backed out of against Juventus was ridiculous and should've been enough for Pep to leave him out against Al Hilal. A centre half should be coming and cleaning out every fucker there to win that, not ducking away.

He has all those attributes but very rarely uses them.

Having said that, Pep's tactics of having he and Dias as the ones who see the ball the most are absolutely baffling and even more so when you see how often they're persisted with. They're both good on the ball - comfortable - but not good enough to be the ones tasked with unlocking deep blocks. No centre half is apart from the beautiful Jonny Boulders and arguably Gvardiol.

That game against Arsenal at home last season gives me PTSD every time I see Dias and Akanji camped outside an opposition box. I'm adamant it was a catalyst for other teams to camp deep against us because they realised how blunt our centre halves are when they're high up.
 
skillman said:
That was Pep's ethos that season, 4 centre backs in defence being told to just defend while they had a prime Gundo and Rodri protecting them. Kev and Haaland did the rest.
Click to expand...

This is utter bollocks

4 Centre Backs were not told “just defend”

Honestly this place.

Depressing.
 
Macca77macca said:
This is utter bollocks

4 Centre Backs were not told “just defend”

Honestly this place.

Depressing.
Click to expand...

If a post on a City forum is what’s depressing to you, then I envy you.

At risk of seeming like I have to explain myself, my point was that if Akanji was RB, he was staying there. Citing the Munich games for reference when he was a traditional full back and told to simply defend against Coman/Gnabry/Sane.

That 22/23 season was one of the first times Pep went from all out attack to sitting back and inviting pressure if we got ahead in a game. Because we had 4 out and out defenders on at all times between Akanji, Walker (rarely because of the change in tactic), Stones, Dias, Ake. Stones was the only one who’d venture out into midfield but even that was to create an extra body in there to shield the defence and allow those in front to work their magic (as I said originally).

The four CBs was such a thing that Arteta then tried copying it hence seeing Ben White at right back. Or Timber at left back.

Once Cancelo left midway through the season, we went more rigid defensively and it helped us across the line because we were so strong that season.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top