The Squad planning thread

sh249 said:
For me, it feels like the balance just isn’t right across the squad. More that than pointing at individuals and saying they aren’t good enough.
If you look at who we’ve signed since winning the treble - Gvardiol, Doku, Kovacic, Nunes, Savinho, Nico G, Marmoush, Khusanov, Reis, Reijnders , Cherki, Trafford, Ait-Nouri, Donnarumma, Semenyo, Guehi - I’d say they could all very easily have a place in a title-winning squad, individually. But there are too few standouts - too few very top-drawer players who can come in, deliver performances straight away, elevate the team, and lead those other players to major trophies.
Out of that list, I would say only Donnarumma came in immediately as a ‘key’ player that improved what we had. Maybe Gvardiol, but he was still young when signed. Cherki has outrageous quality, but he’s nothing like a leader (yet).
At our best under Pep, we had maybe a handful of lesser/potential-type players. Now it’s the greater part of the squad.
Feels like we just need an injection of real, top-level quality. If we want to revamp the midfield, target the very best midfielders in the world. Don’t aim for players who might be there in 2-3 years.
Easier said than done, of course. But it surely must be the ambition, if we’re serious about keeping the position we’ve worked so hard to get ourselves into.
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Hugo Viana knows we need an injection in ready made quality. The problem is the fact that those players are at other elite teams with longer contracts or overrated/just not the right age/profile for the salary they would demand. City have never really gone and purchased an elite player from another elite team bar Donnarumma. We’ve always gone for good players at good teams.
 
this month i'd expect from VIana and Pep thinning out the squad - Ortega, Ake and Bobb are mentioned a lot this month
Kovacic to West ham also are getting steam
 
ALDN_Ko said:
Hugo Viana knows we need an injection in ready made quality. The problem is the fact that those players are at other elite teams with longer contracts or overrated/just not the right age/profile for the salary they would demand. City have never really gone and purchased an elite player from another elite team bar Donnarumma. We’ve always gone for good players at good teams.
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Perhaps. And I did say it wasn’t easy. But there have been opportunities over the past 5/6 windows to bring in players of higher calibre than those we ended up with, I’m sure of that. For example, I don’t think anyone seriously believes that Kovacic and Nunes were the very best options to replace treble-winning Gundogan.
Re. the last point. You can argue around what constitutes an ‘elite’ player. But our recent past is littered with signings who were obviously much more than ‘good’ players. Bernardo had been a standout in a side that performed brilliantly in the Champions League, Mahrez was established as one of the best attackers in the Premier League. Gundogan was a key part of Dortmund’s success and pretty much universally recognized as an excellent player. Etc, etc. None of our post-treble signings (except Donnarumma) have been playing at anything like that level before joining us.
 
Skrastins said:
this month i'd expect from VIana and Pep thinning out the squad - Ortega, Ake and Bobb are mentioned a lot this month
Kovacic to West ham also are getting steam
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I can only envisage movement from academy players. Ortega is less than 6 months away from walking for free, Ake is under contract to 2027 and may yet play more in the coming months, and given their respective injuries, Kovacic and Bobb will be hard to relocate. They might all be away come August, but probably not by February 3rd.
 
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sh249 said:
Perhaps. And I did say it wasn’t easy. But there have been opportunities over the past 5/6 windows to bring in players of higher calibre than those we ended up with, I’m sure of that. For example, I don’t think anyone seriously believes that Kovacic and Nunes were the very best options to replace treble-winning Gundogan.
Re. the last point. You can argue around what constitutes an ‘elite’ player. But our recent past is littered with signings who were obviously much more than ‘good’ players. Bernardo had been a standout in a side that performed brilliantly in the Champions League, Mahrez was established as one of the best attackers in the Premier League. Gundogan was a key part of Dortmund’s success and pretty much universally recognized as an excellent player. Etc, etc. None of our post-treble signings (except Donnarumma) have been playing at anything like that level before joining us.
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there was opportunities, just Kovacic and Nunes was 3rd choice players, main ones were Bellingham and Rice
 
Skrastins said:
there was opportunities, just Kovacic and Nunes was 3rd choice players, main ones were Bellingham and Rice
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I can’t believe that the options were Rice or Bellingham, and if not Kovacic/Nunes. There must have been others in the gulf between. There certainly should have been.
 
Squad 25/26

Donnarumma
Nunes Dias Guehi Gvardiol
Rodri [Anderson]
Foden Cherki Semenyo
Haaland

Trafford
[new RB] Khusanov Reis Ait-Nouri
Gonzalez O'Reilly
Savinho Reijnders Doku
Marmoush

We'll be reet.

Ortega, Akanji, Ake, Stones, Lewis, Bobb, Grealish, Kovacic, and Phillips all out. Echeverri on another loan somewhere.
 
salfordbluetrue said:
Leicester trying to create a bidding war, basically sell him and keep him on loan, as he is years away from any PL team.
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Yea exactly what my brother said, when he’s watched Leicester live he’s said that Monga just looks like a talent that will explode with more experience and if he bulks up.

Does everything right, he said watching Leicester has been uninspiring this season but Monga is bright spark gets you out of your seat, he hopes they don’t sell him.
 
fil w said:
I tend to agree with you. The five most influential players for me have been David Silva, Vincent Kompany, Kevin DeBruyne. Sergio Aguero and Fernandinho. Not only were the exceptional players, they ran through brick walls and genuinely loved the club. Replacing that quality with that type of mindset extremely difficult..
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I think there is something to be said of the availability of that level of player currently too.

Europe has become flooded with goalscoring 10s like Foden and Wirtz, or alternatively physical and quick central midfielders. But those truly world class ball playing creators have become really scarce (the Silvas, KDBs, Modric, Iniestas of this world).
 
At the moment we have a few obvious vulnerabilities in the squad. The obvious one is no right back, Nunes has exceeded expectations this season but in his absence we have Lewis. Rico is a very good footballer but he is very lightweight and is a poor defender. He was awful on Saturday and was caught out badly for their second goal.

The other big issue is midfield. We should have plenty of options for 2 slots but Kovacic is perpetually injured, Rodri is still returning to fitness so Nico is run ragged, both Bernardo and Reijnders can play there but are both very lightweight. If we can bring in Anderson to replace Bernardo we lose Bernardo’s ability to control tempo but should gain a little physicality. Don’t know if we would replace Kovacic.

Longer term our attacking options are Haaland, Marmoush, Semenyo, Cherki, Foden and Savinho. Has to be some doubt about Savinho’s future though.
 
pavelsrnicek said:
At the moment we have a few obvious vulnerabilities in the squad. The obvious one is no right back, Nunes has exceeded expectations this season but in his absence we have Lewis. Rico is a very good footballer but he is very lightweight and is a poor defender. He was awful on Saturday and was caught out badly for their second goal.

The other big issue is midfield. We should have plenty of options for 2 slots but Kovacic is perpetually injured, Rodri is still returning to fitness so Nico is run ragged, both Bernardo and Reijnders can play there but are both very lightweight. If we can bring in Anderson to replace Bernardo we lose Bernardo’s ability to control tempo but should gain a little physicality. Don’t know if we would replace Kovacic.

Longer term our attacking options are Haaland, Marmoush, Semenyo, Cherki, Foden and Savinho. Has to be some doubt about Savinho’s future though.
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I think Hugo is going to sort a RB this window mate personally. Bobb is the start of a few players going out to get the cash.
 
pavelsrnicek said:
At the moment we have a few obvious vulnerabilities in the squad. The obvious one is no right back, Nunes has exceeded expectations this season but in his absence we have Lewis. Rico is a very good footballer but he is very lightweight and is a poor defender. He was awful on Saturday and was caught out badly for their second goal.

The other big issue is midfield. We should have plenty of options for 2 slots but Kovacic is perpetually injured, Rodri is still returning to fitness so Nico is run ragged, both Bernardo and Reijnders can play there but are both very lightweight. If we can bring in Anderson to replace Bernardo we lose Bernardo’s ability to control tempo but should gain a little physicality. Don’t know if we would replace Kovacic.

Longer term our attacking options are Haaland, Marmoush, Semenyo, Cherki, Foden and Savinho. Has to be some doubt about Savinho’s future though.
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we have Khusanov, who can play there if needed

of course, he will not add anything attacking wise

i don't know how the UCL registration looks like as of now, but i think the squad needs thinning before we buy another player
 
we have been linked to Arthur Atta since November

reminds me little of Pogba
 
sh249 said:
I can’t believe that the options were Rice or Bellingham, and if not Kovacic/Nunes. There must have been others in the gulf between. There certainly should have been.
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Skrastins said:
there was opportunities, just Kovacic and Nunes was 3rd choice players, main ones were Bellingham and Rice
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I think we should have been in for João Neves. Was brilliant at Benfica but we didn’t seem to show any intention with him. Fans on the other hand were crying out for him here on Bluemoon.

£55m was a bargain and I think he had a £80m buy out clause at time.
 
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