The Squad planning thread

The fact we’re in the shit if Nunes or Gonzalez get a long term injury should tell us all about where the weaknesses in the squad are. The back up options just aren’t good enough.

Lewis - tidy player but physical attributes will always hold him back
Kovacic - always injured and not a like for like with Gonzales
Rodri - I don’t think we’ll ever be able to rely on him 3 times a week again

Add to that we lose quite a bit without Doku in the front 3. That directness and ability to beat a man. His replacements don’t seem to stack up either

Bobb - the leg break seems to have done a number on his confidence
Savio - how long do we wait for potential? Some lovely touches but no end product

For me I’d let Lewis, Kovacic and Savio go. Bobb could do with a loan to play regular football and get his confidence back. Rodri has earned his space in the squad even with his issues.

Easy to see the squad needs a CM, RB and winger with goal threat
 
Sleeping_Easy said:
The fact we’re in the shit if Nunes or Gonzalez get a long term injury should tell us all about where the weaknesses in the squad are. The back up options just aren’t good enough.
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The back up options will just have to be good enough. All internationals, a luxury a lot of clubs don't have.
I doubt Pep or the medical staff thought Rodri would be out for so long. Gonzales was not meant to be playing as much and was supposedly Rodri’s back up.
With Nunes, we'll just have to use Khusanov/Lewis and suck it and see.
Kovacic, Stones and Ake on the medics conveyor belt has been the main problem.
Obviously not Peps favourites but sending generally fit players like Grealish and Akanji out on loan while keeping the more injury prone players may come back to bite us.
 
Xhavenjoe said:
The back up options will just have to be good enough. All internationals, a luxury a lot of clubs don't have.
I doubt Pep or the medical staff thought Rodri would be out for so long. Gonzales was not meant to be playing as much and was supposedly Rodri’s back up.
With Nunes, we'll just have to use Khusanov/Lewis and suck it and see.
Kovacic, Stones and Ake on the medics conveyor belt has been the main problem.
Obviously not Peps favourites but sending generally fit players like Grealish and Akanji out on loan while keeping the more injury prone players may come back to bite us.
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I think Gonzales was brought in to initially be back up to Rodri but with the skill set to play along side him and/or replace him long term. The backups to Gonzales at the min are either players coming to the end or players who’ve had chances and shown not to be good enough in the six position so I don’t think the two scenarios are comparable.

As for Khusanov at RB I’d agree it’s a decent short term option but long term it would be a weakness. I like Khusanov and think long term he’ll be a good CB option for us but he’s not good enough on the ball to play at RB for an extended period.

I disagree on your point around Grealish and Akanji. Neither player would’ve got a look in this season and are to high profile and on too much money to have extended periods on the bench.
 
Sleeping_Easy said:
I disagree on your point around Grealish and Akanji. Neither player would’ve got a look in this season and are to high profile and on too much money to have extended periods on the bench.
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If Akanji and Greakish were here instead of Stones and Ake , I'd feel a lot happier regarding cover.
They would have both have played more than Stones and Ake have this season.
 
Xhavenjoe said:
If Akanji and Greakish were here instead of Stones and Ake , I'd feel a lot happier regarding cover.
They would have both have played more than Stones and Ake have this season.
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But not the minutes they’d have wanted. Neither player would’ve been happy with bench and league cup minutes. Akanji is starting week in week out for inter and Grealish likewise for Everton. Fair play to both players for prioritising minutes over money.
 
Sleeping_Easy said:
But not the minutes they’d have wanted. Neither player would’ve been happy with bench and league cup minutes. Akanji is starting week in week out for inter and Grealish likewise for Everton. Fair play to both players for prioritising minutes over money.
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True enough.
Its a pity Ortega and Philipps didn't have the same ambition
 
Xhavenjoe said:
If Akanji and Greakish were here instead of Stones and Ake , I'd feel a lot happier regarding cover.
They would have both have played more than Stones and Ake have this season.
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Akanji returning from injury was awful for a season and a half and a liability who cost ys goals last season, grealish couldn't get in our team when we had no fucker else last season.

neither would be playing and it is rose tinted nostalgia for the treble seaon to think they would be near the squad, great servants but their time being first team picks had past for better or worse
 
I dont think we'll see a short term move for a midfielder in Jan

If we were, the only real one could be Quinten Timber whos contract is up in the summer (although naturally hes been linked to Arsenal to join his brother)
 
urban genie said:
neither would be playing and it is rose tinted nostalgia for the treble seaon to think they would be near the squad, great servants but their time being first team picks had past for better or worse
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Its more rose tinted to think that Stones and Akanji would be fit for the bulk of this season.
I know you can't just jettison off players but there is no way we can depend on these.
They aren't first picks either
 
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Sleeping_Easy said:
The fact we’re in the shit if Nunes or Gonzalez get a long term injury should tell us all about where the weaknesses in the squad are. The back up options just aren’t good enough.

Lewis - tidy player but physical attributes will always hold him back
Kovacic - always injured and not a like for like with Gonzales
Rodri - I don’t think we’ll ever be able to rely on him 3 times a week again

Add to that we lose quite a bit without Doku in the front 3. That directness and ability to beat a man. His replacements don’t seem to stack up either

Bobb - the leg break seems to have done a number on his confidence
Savio - how long do we wait for potential? Some lovely touches but no end product

For me I’d let Lewis, Kovacic and Savio go. Bobb could do with a loan to play regular football and get his confidence back. Rodri has earned his space in the squad even with his issues.

Easy to see the squad needs a CM, RB and winger with goal threat
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Rico is still only 21. I'd like to keep him around a little longer.

I agree on letting Kova go. Personally I'd rather see Bobb go instead of Savio. Pep clearly sees something in Savio and he's younger than Bobb.
 
Cigs&Alc said:
Rico is still only 21. I'd like to keep him around a little longer.

I agree on letting Kova go. Personally I'd rather see Bobb go instead of Savio. Pep clearly sees something in Savio and he's younger than Bobb.
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I get that Rico is still only 21 but I just don't see things changing form him physically. Maybe I'm just being overly harsh but there's been a lot of games where he's been 'bullied' and the league looks to be moving even more in that direction.

The Savio/Bobb one is interesting tbf. Bobb has the home grown factor in his favour but both have to really kick on in the seecond half of the season and show why they deserve to stay. They just have to look at Doku, he was firmly in the same camp last season and now he's really kicked on to the point where he's a big loss over the next 3/4 weeks
 
If we could switch out Ake for Guehi plus a few quid, then get Semenyo over the line, that’d be a great Jan.

As much as we’d love Anderson just can’t see that deal being capable of getting done in Jan as Forest would fuck us with a barge pole, better that gets sorted in the summer and we fumble through until then and hope we can a run out of Rodders.
 
Rammy Blue said:
If we could switch out Ake for Guehi plus a few quid, then get Semenyo over the line, that’d be a great Jan.

As much as we’d love Anderson just can’t see that deal being capable of getting done in Jan as Forest would fuck us with a barge pole, better that gets sorted in the summer and we fumble through until then and hope we can a run out of Rodders.
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Agreed, Anderson is a summer deal when Bernardo and Kova go. The other two though would be highly appreciated in January
 
Crikey I have read in this page about, amongst others, Lewis, Bernardo,Bobb, Savio, Stones and Ake being moved on. I was discussing our current squad taking out injured and afcon players with my lads last night and came up with -

Donarunna
Trafford
Nunes
Lewis
O’Reilly
Ake
Gvardiol
Dias
Khusanov
Nico G
Bernardo
Foden
Cherki
Savio
Haaland
Reijnders

That’s 16 experienced players and we are in 4 competitions, just not enough and we are a Haaland or Nico G away from a singleton disaster. Whatever we do this window, and whilst the likes of Guehi and Semenyo would be great, surely we need 2 or 3 short term signings with experience, just to help out with squad depth and rotation? As early as possible in the window. There’ll be a lot of players out there who would be delighted to play for Pep. Appreciate there are squad size limits that mean it’s 2 or 3 maximum
 
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