The Squad planning thread

David Silva said:
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).
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This is bang on the money.
 
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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Doku?
 
Blue Bogey said:
I think we should have been in for João Neves. Was brilliant at Sporting CP, 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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He was even better for Benfica.
;-)
 
We need a Debruyne-esque passer. Either that or Haaland will struggle long-term.
I thought that was going to be Cherki... But Cherki might be a Supercharged Bernardo/David hybrid. We need someone who's first instinct is to get it into Haaland early. And who has fantastic range of delivery plus the industry and intent to do so often.
 
Outgoings in the summer could be interesting. Bobb( if not this window), Stones, Ake, Phillip's, Bernardo?, Savinho?, Kovacic. Maybe a totally leftfield departure as well
 
The only player that looks to get on the ball in the middle of the park and create is Cherki. The only player on the books that just might be able to deputise is Bobb, but we’re shipping him out to get money to balance for the shambles that is our central defence. An injury to Cherki and we’re right back to the situation we were in when de Bruyne was out.
 
Dax777 said:
We need a Debruyne-esque passer. Either that or Haaland will struggle long-term.
I thought that was going to be Cherki... But Cherki might be a Supercharged Bernardo/David hybrid. We need someone who's first instinct is to get it into Haaland early. And who has fantastic range of delivery plus the industry and intent to do so often.
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Get that smit kid from germany hes closest ive seen.
 
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Stelea said:
Wouldn’t be trusting Viana with another penny. Hopeless to date
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Pep’s fault btw. The Viana signings that played tonight were all played in a weird system in weird positions except Donna.
 
issue is connection between Viana - Pep will be very different than Txiki-Pep. if you look at the Viana transfers, are those profiles fitting Pep style slow build up, control, lack of space to attack, high technician control type players?

but we tried to change the style with getting new backroom staff and having Lijnders with very different ideas come in vs the comfortable Lillo.

but this aint happening, not yet. caught between older style and new style and now we dont do any of them properly but bits and pieces from both but there is no conviction yet tactically.
 
Damanino said:
issue is connection between Viana - Pep will be very different than Txiki-Pep. if you look at the Viana transfers, are those profiles fitting Pep style slow build up, control, lack of space to attack, high technician control type players?

but we tried to change the style with getting new backroom staff and having Lijnders with very different ideas come in vs the comfortable Lillo.

but this aint happening, not yet. caught between older style and new style and now we dont do any of them properly but bits and pieces from both but there is no conviction yet tactically.
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The change in players had already started before Viana arrived. We decided to abandon the style that delivered the treble and instead signed players that thrived in more space, presumably the ideas was to play more to Haaland’s strengths. The signings subsequently have only accelerated in that direction. It’s also worth noting that technical players who had come through the academy under the possession team (Lewis and Bobb) now look small and less compatible. The overhaul will be finalised this summer, but I’ve never been convinced that the new version sits squarely with Guardiola’s philosophy; time will tell.
 
Gabriel said:
The change in players had already started before Viana arrived. We decided to abandon the style that delivered the treble and instead signed players that thrived in more space, presumably the ideas was to play more to Haaland’s strengths. The signings subsequently have only accelerated in that direction. It’s also worth noting that technical players who had come through the academy under the possession team (Lewis and Bobb) now look small and less compatible. The overhaul will be finalised this summer, but I’ve never been convinced that the new version sits squarely with Guardiola’s philosophy; time will tell.
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I think you're both right. Pep himself has commented that the game is changing. Rico Lewis has never really been good enough, but he's being made to look worse in a game now dominated by big fast men who are physical. City have realised that the game is shifting from small, technical players but Pep has inexplicably returned to the previous style with players less capable than Grealish, Gundogan, D Silva and De Bruyne. We looked like we were adapting and Pep looked like he was changing. But now we're back playing a style not suited to us.
 
I feel like we need to go back to sign players who actually suit our team? I feel like the past couple of windows were signing players who are currently in good form. Marmoush is a prime example. Scoring for fun at Frankfurt so we’ve gone and bought him but doesn’t really suit us does he? Bought a shit tonne of centre backs and left us with one make shift right back. We’ve signed a box to box midfielder in Reijnders and we don’t even play in a way that suits that type of midfielder. Again did we sign him because he was doing well at Milan scoring a lot of goals?. I hope I’m wrong but I had a fear that Semenyo will go down the same route. Signed him cause he’s bang in form and had a good release clause rather than signing him cause it’s exactly what we need.
 
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