Pep's rebuilding job. Pep's City Mk II

The elephant in the room with the 'Project' has always been that City are completely at the mercy of the Barca Boys. If they prove to be not quite as good as it says on the tin, what next? At the moment we're seeing the last days of the players who were bought before they came along. The squad should be looking bullet-proof for the next 5 years or so by now. It isn't. We've got the 5th highest revenue in world football, just been estimated part of the 2nd most valuable sports entity in the world and the manager says that we can't compete with the big clubs. Still poor little City to some it seems.
 
Not really. We spent a lot of money on Mendy, but other than him, we've had Angelino (£5m), Zinchenko (£1.7m), Delph (£8m) and Clichy (£7m). Before Mendy, Kolarov was the last LB we brought in that wasn't a cut price option or a utility player converted to play there.
Yeah when I looked at the prices, it's not that bad. But the point being, LB has been one area where we have failed imo. None of them have worked out as we hoped they should.
 
The elephant in the room with the 'Project' has always been that City are completely at the mercy of the Barca Boys. If they prove to be not quite as good as it says on the tin, what next? At the moment we're seeing the last days of the players who were bought before they came along. The squad should be looking bullet-proof for the next 5 years or so by now. It isn't. We've got the 5th highest revenue in world football, just been estimated part of the 2nd most valuable sports entity in the world and the manager says that we can't compete with the big clubs. Still poor little City to some it seems.

Pep’s ‘we can’t compete’ comments could well be a precursor to a spending spree in the summer. We clearly need to bring 4 or even 5 in and ship a few out. Last summer we opted For minimal changes and gambled on our CBS remaining fit. We gambled and it’s backfired. In hindsight we should have let Otamendi go and probably cashed in on Sane but hindsight is a wonderful thing.
 
I'm not so sure that our defensive frailties are purely down to personnel. Clearly we need to make a couple of buys there but any defence will struggle without protection. The problem is we aren't playing such a high line and we aren't really pressing like we used to. This is making it much easier for the opposition to play right through us.

Laporte and Zinchenko coming back will strengthen us at the back, but unless we start defending as a team again, our defence is always going to struggle.
 
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I know what you mean, but I think it should be stones who should be the most worried. He really has been treading water for 18 months, I fear he is now sinking!
Which leaves us with one CB assuming Laporte comes back fit and well. Otto is surely out, Stones looking more and more that he is not up to it and the kids deemed not ready is it any wonder Pep appears to be getting ready to throw in the towel.
 
The elephant in the room with the 'Project' has always been that City are completely at the mercy of the Barca Boys. If they prove to be not quite as good as it says on the tin, what next? At the moment we're seeing the last days of the players who were bought before they came along. The squad should be looking bullet-proof for the next 5 years or so by now. It isn't. We've got the 5th highest revenue in world football, just been estimated part of the 2nd most valuable sports entity in the world and the manager says that we can't compete with the big clubs. Still poor little City to some it seems.
We have grown exponentially over the last decade, and all with the anchor of FFP around our necks, so I think it is amazing that we have been able to spend a quarter billion quid on a back four...and unbelievable it is the weakest part of the team!

We have tried to bring in world class players who can fit into Pep’s System, which takes the most technically proficient players in the world, but injuries combined with some potentially less than world class talent that hasn’t quite fit in has made that more difficult than assumed.

In addition, on its day, the way we play is unmanageable to other teams. However, it is wholly one-dimensional against the 11 man defence and comes under enormous pressure against the quality teams that aggressively shut us down.

As I said in another post, it is starting to feel like Pep’s System is not only being copied by many, many teams now, but a newer, more aggressive and much quicker system of playing is taking over.

The balance of this season and next season...supposedly Pep’s last...will be very interesting to see. With the Euros this summer creating a short break and off season, the personnel and style changes (should they occur) will be very, very interesting. As Pep has repeatedly said, some clubs have history and that history has required multiple rebuilding phases around a core philosophy and bringing through (and in) the players needed to keep the success flowing.

Can City achieve this? One would hope so given the financial clout, facilities and recent history, but it remains to be seen.

Here’s hoping that this doesn’t all unravel in a Typical City fashion that some of us have seen too many times over the last 50 years.
 
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First and foremost we need a world class CB. This playing out from the back is a nice to have, but shouldn’t come at the cost of actually being able to defend.

Next, a pacy winger or striker. If Leroy signs, great.

As I see it, it seems Pep is looking to change the style of player in that Fernandinho role with Rodri, with that though we've lost a hell of a lot of defensive quality, so it's important that our back line are top quality defensively, as it stands, I would only put Walker in that bracket, LaPorte when he returns, so that's still half our back line not up to it (in some cases nowhere near).

I think once we address that, the rest of the team will slip into top gear apart from an Aguero replacement.
 
Txiki dropped a bollock when we didn't get a centre back. I remember someone on the Maguire thread saying, "yes he's overpriced, but does he improve them (utd)? And the answer is a massive yes!"
The truth is we should have had a centre back lined up as we clearly wanted Otamendi to move on. Instead it was Kompany. Poor planning!
Pep has changed us this season but we don't know what he's trying to do because the back four is so vulnerable to the counter attack, so I feel it's holding us back.
A world class centre back would help the full backs and Rodri. We also need a leader. Now there's a challenge!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Txiki dropped a bollock when we didn't get a centre back. I remember someone on the Maguire thread saying, "yes he's overpriced, but does he improve them (utd)? And the answer is a massive yes!"
The truth is we should have had a centre back lined up as we clearly wanted Otamendi to move on. Instead it was Kompany. Poor planning!
Pep has changed us this season but we don't know what he's trying to do because the back four is so vulnerable to the counter attack, so I feel it's holding us back.
A world class centre back would help the full backs and Rodri. We also need a leader. Now there's a challenge!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Koulibaly. Leader and top centre back, problems solved, just like van dick would have. If 70m is the going rate you pay it.
 
Pep’s ‘we can’t compete’ comments could well be a precursor to a spending spree in the summer. We clearly need to bring 4 or even 5 in and ship a few out. Last summer we opted For minimal changes and gambled on our CBS remaining fit. We gambled and it’s backfired. In hindsight we should have let Otamendi go and probably cashed in on Sane but hindsight is a wonderful thing.
We were too nice to some of our players at the end of last season, probably with good reason after their achievements, but I was surprised we did not make more changes to the squad, in order to seriously freshen things up and create new competition for 1st team places.
The lack of CB recruitment was a complete joke and was always going to hit us hard at some point, the Sane situation needed sorting quickly once and for all, and personally think we are weak up front, if Sergio got any sort of long term injury we were going to be in trouble.
 
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