We don't need any defenders yet

[bugsyblue]

There's some valid points made here about out and out goal scorers but our defence does need strengthening.

I'm hoping Jesus can be banging in the goals. If we can make a system work for him I can see the following players get the following in the league:

Jesus (20+) Aguero (20+) Sane (15+)
KDB (10+) silva (5+)
Dinho (2-3)

With a solid defence that should be enough to win the league as long as we have strong back ups. I think both nacho and Sterling could be 10 plus players even playing second fiddle, well nacho certainly can.

All hypothetical of course.

 

[Bluster]

There's some valid points made here about out and out goal scorers but our defence does need strengthening.

I'm hoping Jesus can be banging in the goals. If we can make a system work for him I can see the following players get the following in the league:

Jesus (20+) Aguero (20+) Sane (15+)
KDB (10+) silva (5+)
Dinho (2-3)

With a solid defence that should be enough to win the league as long as we have strong back ups. I think both nacho and Sterling could be 10 plus players even playing second fiddle, well nacho certainly can.

All hypothetical of course.

I'd love you to be right but this is massively optimistic. Sterling's goal against arsenal was out of character from r the rest of his season so far, sane has scored one to date and gives no indication of becoming prolific any time soon and Jesus is a young man coming to a new country.

 

[Armaan]

I agree with the original poster. I'm sure he doesn't really mean that we wouldn't do better with improved defenders but he's right that we have too many players who do not score enough goals for the role they play in the team. Pep wants to play a more expansive game than Chelsea do but to do this we have to score far more goals than we do.

If Aguero doesn't score 30 goals this season, then who will score the goals? Silva, Sterling, Navas and Gundagan (when fit) all avoid shooting when they can and are probably good for about 20 goals a season between them. It's not enough when you think about their positions and their relatively weak defensive contributions. Nolito would get more goals but I'm not sure he is good enough for a slot in the team. Sane is not yet ready.

Barca may or may not have better defenders but they have a front 3 who can score 100 goals between them. That's why they win games. Real's front three likewise.

Can't disagree with any of this.

I disagree, because winning games wins you titles. You can have the best defence in the world but a 0-0 will only get you one point, realistically it's the whole team who wins you titles. I completely disagree with the statement as your basically saying the defence is the most important thing above all. If that was the case then goalkeepers and defenders would cost more than strikers, or do you have the strategic secret that the whole world doesn't know.

I agree we probably need 5-6 new defenders and a goal keeper, completely, 100%. But we also need another goal scoring forward and goal scoring Attacking midfielder, in my opinion.

What I was saying originally was, I believe are main efforts should be to bring goals into the team. I think it's ridiculous playing Aguero upfront by himself, there's too much pressure for him to get all the goals, and I'm sorry to say he won't score 50 a season. Our so called shocking defence conceded 1 goal away at Liverpool yesterday, if we had a better/more attackers, we might have drawn or won that game. I understand it might have been a different game had we not conceded, but we could've played all night and not scored agains them. For me, it doesn't sit comfortably knowing that Aguero is the only out and out goal scorer in that side.

In January I would bring in a defender because no big time striker is likely to leave mid season, but next year we have to throw all efforts to bring in a Griezman or Aubemenyang, along with an Alexis Sanchez or Coutinho type player. Then I'd think about some potential new defenders.

Nor this.

 

[urban genie]

All the best teams are built on a strong defensive unit from GK to the DM, We have a very good attacking, goal scoring forward line which is under perfoming, partly due to our weak back line and us not controlling the game as a result.

As said KDB has 10+ goals in him, Nolito and Sane have the capacity to bag a fair few also and we have two strikers with the best goal to minutes ratio in prem history. Buy all that's well and good but if they are isolated because the support of an effective back line is non existent then the goals ain't getting created.

Yes we have fluffed too many chances at time to kill a game, but the games we have impressed in have been when we have looked solidish at the back and held a strong higher defensive line pressuring the opposition, sadly a pacey opposition can easily exploit our slow full backs and so we are more deep at times when pressed which isolates the forward 3 aand makes them inefective.

This year is all trial and error in my opinion, but our forward line has the capacity to be effective and become better than it is performing along with Gabriel arriving, the defence however is only going to regress as it is sadly past it's peak at full back level, and lacking a VK standard centre back to lead it.

Stone is a step in the right direction, the otter can be ok but the rest, sadly is priority in my mind.

 

[TRUE BLUE NO1]

I disagree, because winning games wins you titles. You can have the best defence in the world but a 0-0 will only get you one point, realistically it's the whole team who wins you titles. I completely disagree with the statement as your basically saying the defence is the most important thing above all. If that was the case then goalkeepers and defenders would cost more than strikers, or do you have the strategic secret that the whole world doesn't know.

I agree we probably need 5-6 new defenders and a goal keeper, completely, 100%. But we also need another goal scoring forward and goal scoring Attacking midfielder, in my opinion.

What I was saying originally was, I believe are main efforts should be to bring goals into the team. I think it's ridiculous playing Aguero upfront by himself, there's too much pressure for him to get all the goals, and I'm sorry to say he won't score 50 a season. Our so called shocking defence conceded 1 goal away at Liverpool yesterday, if we had a better/more attackers, we might have drawn or won that game. I understand it might have been a different game had we not conceded, but we could've played all night and not scored agains them. For me, it doesn't sit comfortably knowing that Aguero is the only out and out goal scorer in that side.

In January I would bring in a defender because no big time striker is likely to leave mid season, but next year we have to throw all efforts to bring in a Griezman or Aubemenyang, along with an Alexis Sanchez or Coutinho type player. Then I'd think about some potential new defenders.

You make some excellent points mate....but would say for this squad, at this point in our development, yes....defenders are the most important. We cant carry on being so unbalanced. I agree, our strikers are not taking their chances and need to improve greatly but all I would say is that, in Pep's system the defenders are alot more involved in the build up play.....getting fullbacks that are capable of playing his system, will make our forwards better and give them more space to play. Our current fullbacks lack, pace and ability to play Pep's style and limit our build up play, while leaving us open at the back. I still think, adding the right defenders to our squad will have a bigger impact than buying another striker. We are unbalanced at the moment and another 10 strikers would not sort this out. I'm confident that if we had signed 2 new fullbacks and a defensive CM player over the summer, we'd be alot closer to Chelsea now and all the forwards, wingers in the world will not fix the problems we are currently seeing....I agree, at the end of the day...you need a complete team (strikers and defenders) to win things but at this present moment our squad is unbalanced in a big way and that needs fixing.

I do agree on Aubemenyang tho......I think he'd make a wonderful signing for us! Will also be exciting to see what Gabriel can bring to the team....

 

[mcs]

In terms of defenders, we clearly do need a massive refit at the back. I'd argue only Stones should be confident of being part of the squad in 17-18 (excluding the younger guys like Tosin, Maffeo etc) - outside of that you could argue no one else is safe. Kompany has been a warrior but his body is shot, Otamendi in my opinion continues to fail to impress, Kolarov/Zab/Sagna/Clichy are all old and past it.

But I just don't think we are going to get anywhere near the quality of player, in particular younger players that we need in January. Just have to battle on with what we have, and maybe if we are lucky we can bring in 1 player, 2 at a stretch in January that will help improve things defensively.

 

[Invisible_Goat]

You make some excellent points mate....but would say for this squad, at this point in our development, yes....defenders are the most important. We cant carry on being so unbalanced. I agree, our strikers are not taking their chances and need to improve greatly but all I would say is that, in Pep's system the defenders are alot more involved in the build up play.....getting fullbacks that are capable of playing his system, will make our forwards better and give them more space to play. Our current fullbacks lack, pace and ability to play Pep's style and limit our build up play, while leaving us open at the back. I still think, adding the right defenders to our squad will have a bigger impact than buying another striker. We are unbalanced at the moment and another 10 strikers would not sort this out. I'm confident that if we had signed 2 new fullbacks and a defensive CM player over the summer, we'd be alot closer to Chelsea now and all the forwards, wingers in the world will not fix the problems we are currently seeing....I agree, at the end of the day...you need a complete team (strikers and defenders) to win things but at this present moment our squad is unbalanced in a big way and that needs fixing.

I do agree on Aubemenyang tho......I think he'd make a wonderful signing for us! Will also be exciting to see what Gabriel can bring to the team....

Yeah, I think one of Peps main successes in style have been his awesome full backs, saw a stat one year that said Dani Alvez had assisted Messi more than Inesta and Xavi combined, and Ive seen games and been incredibly impressed with Alaba.

Rose and Clyne, would be a good fit for me though, because they're decent and English, which could be a problem for us due to homegrown players down the line and there the only English players I'd really want in our first team.

I agree with the DM too, I think Dinho is a great player, I don't rate fernando much (a shame because i liked him at Porto and wanted us to sign him years ago) and Yaya cannot defend at all. For me Barry and De Jong were better than these guys at defending, so personally I'd love to just see a no nonsense DM come in. I was very disappointed we didn't try and get Kante in the summer, he would have been fantastic for us.

But I still firmly believe if we don't get more goals in this side we won't win any trophies, especially not with Peps philosophy. As everyone is saying though, hopefully GJ hits the ground running.

 

[TRUE BLUE NO1]

Yeah, I think one of Peps main successes in style have been his awesome full backs, saw a stat one year that said Dani Alvez had assisted Messi more than Inesta and Xavi combined, and Ive seen games and been incredibly impressed with Alaba.

Rose and Clyne, would be a good fit for me though, because they're decent and English, which could be a problem for us due to homegrown players down the line and there the only English players I'd really want in our first team.

I agree with the DM too, I think Dinho is a great player, I don't rate fernando much (a shame because i liked him at Porto and wanted us to sign him years ago) and Yaya cannot defend at all. For me Barry and De Jong were better than these guys at defending, so personally I'd love to just see a no nonsense DM come in. I was very disappointed we didn't try and get Kante in the summer, he would have been fantastic for us.

But I still firmly believe if we don't get more goals in this side we won't win any trophies, especially not with Peps philosophy. As everyone is saying though, hopefully GJ hits the ground running.

You not the only one mate.....think Kante would have improved us greatly!;)

 

[BusterPhillips]

I think we need to strengthen the full backs and midfield as a priority.

If we had more energy in these areas then we will defend better as a team and in turn protect our centre backs

 

[ADegenerate]

You make some excellent points mate....but would say for this squad, at this point in our development, yes....defenders are the most important. We cant carry on being so unbalanced. I agree, our strikers are not taking their chances and need to improve greatly but all I would say is that, in Pep's system the defenders are alot more involved in the build up play.....getting fullbacks that are capable of playing his system, will make our forwards better and give them more space to play. Our current fullbacks lack, pace and ability to play Pep's style and limit our build up play, while leaving us open at the back. I still think, adding the right defenders to our squad will have a bigger impact than buying another striker. We are unbalanced at the moment and another 10 strikers would not sort this out. I'm confident that if we had signed 2 new fullbacks and a defensive CM player over the summer, we'd be alot closer to Chelsea now and all the forwards, wingers in the world will not fix the problems we are currently seeing....I agree, at the end of the day...you need a complete team (strikers and defenders) to win things but at this present moment our squad is unbalanced in a big way and that needs fixing.

I do agree on Aubemenyang tho......I think he'd make a wonderful signing for us! Will also be exciting to see what Gabriel can bring to the team....

We have so many problems and it's centered around defense for most people but not for me. We simply 'are what we are'. There's been 0 change under Pep. We lose to the teams we're supposed to lose to and beat the teams we're supposed to beat. We've scored 6 goals against the top 7 teams. The total GF/GA is 6/9. 1.5 goals is more than a fine defensive output there for what we have. For me the problem is the system and the players we have in the system. Kun is not fit for our 4/3/3 and he doesn't show up in big games. He's one dimensional, sorry. 0 goals in those games. There's a reason we were in for Aubmeyang, Suarez, and Sanchez. We have too many creative players in the midfield and not enough goal scorers. We can dominate possession all we want with KDB, Gundogan, and Silva all in the squad but there's a reason we get beat vs the best. Chelsea, Tottenham, Liverpool, and Arsenal get goals from everywhere and we don't. I thought we butchered it this summer, probably because we couldn't get what we wanted, but partially because we gambled away this year for the future hoping Pep could make due with what we had. That's fine but don't act surprised that it's not working out. Gundogan was too balanced of a player for me. Good everywhere but not spectacular anywhere. He's not a DM like we needed (Kante) type. I suspect we didn't buy any fullbacks because we held out for the home runs. The Bellerins, Sandro's etc. Until we find someone that gives us the input that Yaya gave us from the mifield during our title winning runs I don't think we'll be anymore than a 2-4th place squad. That's why Pogba was so huge for me.

4/3/3 only works if you have killer finishers out wide. Maybe Jesus is that second piece to the MSN, Ben/Bale/Ronaldo front line, I think he can be but that's a lot of pressure. We talk about the process but Pep's here for three years. Year 1 was a learning process and year 2 might not even be in the CL. I think this process is going to take a lot longer than expected sadly.

I'm a KFA granted, but it's how I see it.