14 | Nico Gonzalez - 2025/26

City_Sean said:
Nunes starts at RB because he's not good enough to play in his natural position. Kovacic was not "fantastic" last season by any stretch.

I want Nico G to stay and think he's got plenty to offer, my concern is that whilst Pep has the old guard they'll play at his expense.
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It doesn't matter where Nunes starts. It matters that he is currently helping the team by playing. Thats a win. Brazilian dude at Newcastle was bought as a striker. Dint think Newcastle thinks he is a loss coz he now plays box to box CM for them. If you are playing, you are a net positive.

Kovacic according to the metrics and anyone who watches the games without pre-existing bias can easily tell he was fantastic. 7 goals from DM alone tells a story. Best midfield player at the club last season. So yeah, he was fantastic.

Nico will get up to speed and eventually ball out. No doubt. Old guard or not. They'll all be gone in 24 months and will be mostly backups long before that. I'm not worried about Nico G personally. Even though i understand that he might be worried see as this is a World Cup year. Long-term he is going to be a cog.
 
mattcity5 said:
Fair points mate, can understand your point of view.

Personally I put the boredom down to the opposition approach more than our own. When a team is willing to sit so deep in such numbers, it is difficult to be exciting. That said, I do think Pep's become a bit too obsessed with his "handball-style" football. It surprised for a while, but I think teams now employ a handball-style defence and we struggle a bit as a result.

My hope is that the ex-Liverpool coaching input will help this season and make us a little more direct. It goes against Pep's philosophy to some extent though, so I expect some good and some bad days. If we can get through the first few months pretty well, I think we'll do well.
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That my friend, is where we can agree!
 
Lavinda Past said:
Whereas you say nothing. Typical fanboy. If he was at the swamp, you'd be slagging him off left, right, and centre.
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Nope I say nothing, that’ll be right. I stay well away from matchday threads, Beginning to think some of the posters posing some of this bollocks about Pep and how he works are probably those same posters that post in those threads.
 
JewelZee said:
He's better on the ball NOW than Dias or Akanji...
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At actually pinging the pass, sure. But his positioning when we are in possession is terrible. You csn tell he wants no part of the build up. And he tried his best not to move with the ball. Something Akanji and Dias do well ( Perhaps, even too much :p)

So I won't say he is better on the ball. He has a crisper pass. But everything else sucks. He is easy to pressure because he is very stationary in possession.
 
If we have deemed him not the standard we need, sell him. And even better, replace him with someone like Wharton who also ticks the HG box.

I want everyone we sign to turn out great, but in reality they won't. Sad to see him go without hardly playing but this ruthlessness in our squad building is something I welcome and a thing I think we have fallen behind on. If it doesn't work out, cut our losses while we can, and sign someone better.

And yes I want us to be ruthless with the old-guard as well, but we did the right thing with Kev and will probably see Gundo and Bernie leave after this season. As long as we have Reijndeers and assume Pep sees O'Reilly and maybe Lewis as midfielders I genuinly think there is more value keeping the experience in the dressing room rather than have someone we don't think are good enough to play hanging around wasting a foreign spot
 
Dax777 said:
At actually pinging the pass, sure. But his positioning when we are in possession is terrible. You csn tell he wants no part of the build up. And he tried his best not to move with the ball. Something Akanji and Dias do well ( Perhaps, even too much :p)

So I won't say he is better on the ball. He has a crisper pass. But everything else sucks. He is easy to pressure because he is very stationary in possession.
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"Everything else sucks" ?
 
Lavinda Past said:
There's too much sentiment on here. History is history... Pep is stale and looks to me to be on a tired, downward trajectory, and I believe it's time for a change. Fresh faces have arrived but we're still seeing the old ones. We need fresh thinking, a new era.

Winning trophies isn't everything for me. I've seen 64 years of City and despite the trophies have found the football played over last 3 or 4 seasons to be largely boring. Football should be entertaining, not just a side to side possession based bore.

I'd be happy to see anyone take over just to see a bit more excitement in our play. I'd have Enrique, Klopp, Maresca... whoever you want, as long as they try to play open, attractive, attacking football, I'd be happy.

It's quite simply time for a change, and consign the legendary Pep era to history.
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Fair enough. I get that. Im not a new school Pep fan either. I think his system sometimes harm us. And dulls the players edge. I see it in new arrivals all the time. They come in energetic and making early runs ( Erling, Marmoush, Savio, Rudolph now etc) only to slowly fall in line with the guarded need to keep consistent possession which leads to ignoring risky but exciting opportunities.

Like I've said many times, Pep's greatest strength now is player attraction. He still pulls talented players. But im not enamored with his philosophy going forward anymore.

Ball dominations by your Center backs is a recipe for boring football :(
 
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MCFC1993 said:
And yet he might be the worst of those 4 players, the first 2 definitely, I dont rate Kovacic but he's arguably better too.
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That maybe true today but won’t be in 12 months. Pep and the club probably know that too.
Still very likely IMO Id say 80% Gundogan and Kovacic are gone by end August and Gonzalez is still with us.
 
youngbob said:
Not sure how it's farcical at all. It's a made-up transfer rumour that City have quickly shut down.
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I don't think City have shut down anything, those 2 stories aren't discrete as you don't have to be looking to sell a player to be open to the right offers. As others have alluded to. I'm also not one to believe that the guy who has had a very good inside line on our transfers (especially since Viana has joined) is just making things up, but that's my opinion.
 
blueparrot said:
That maybe true today but won’t be in 12 months. Pep and the club probably know that too.
Still very likely IMO Id say 80% Gundogan and Kovacic are gone by end August and Gonzalez is still with us.
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As I said, I wouldn't get rid of Gonzalez but we also can't be looking massively down the line either, we need to bounce back this season.

I'd probably keep him over Kovacic, sounds like Gundo wants to stay at this level so I think he sees his contract out.

If I was Gonzalez though I'd be a bit worried and I think that's where the stories are coming from. He's not even close to starting this upcoming season and we could sign someone else when the contracts are up in 12 months.
 
Ajm1985 said:
I don't think City have shut down anything, those 2 stories aren't discrete as you don't have to be looking to sell a player to be open to the right offers. As others have alluded to. I'm also not one to believe that the guy who has had a very good inside line on our transfers (especially since Viana has joined) is just making things up, but that's my opinion.
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Fabrizio puts out anything agents tell him to - that's his whole deal. Simon Bajkowski only tweets out news when someone from City has fed it to him - that's his whole deal.

A media contact at City has seen this Fabrizio story, which has likely come from Nico G's agent, and has shut it down immediately through Simon instead of letting it linger, which they easily could have done.
 
MCFC1993 said:
As I said, I wouldn't get rid of Gonzalez but we also can't be looking massively down the line either, we need to bounce back this season.

I'd probably keep him over Kovacic, sounds like Gundo wants to stay at this level so I think he sees his contract out.

If I was Gonzalez though I'd be a bit worried though and I think that's where the stories are coming from. He's not even close to starting this upcoming season and we could sign someone else when the contracts are up in 12 months.
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We could and we are all guessing because only Pep and his coaching team know. Gundogan seem closest to leaving, only from rumours to be fair.
What we do know is we can all give a list of players some current that took time to gain Peps confidence.
Gonzalez may or may not be another but far too early to know and be certain about. A few posters seem to have forgotten recent history and discard him already
 
youngbob said:
Fabrizio puts out anything agents tell him to - that's his whole deal. Simon Bajkowski only tweets out news when someone from City has fed it to him - that's his whole deal.

A media contact at City has seen this Fabrizio story, which has likely come from Nico G's agent, and has shut it down immediately through Simon instead of letting it linger, which they easily could have done.
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No it's not his whole deal, hence why he's been a much better source for City transfers since Viana arrived as he is close to Viana. I'm well aware of Bajkowski, Gaughan, Blackburn getting company lines. Like I said, I don't think it cancelled anything out.
 
Bournemouth Blue said:
Please don’t write off a player after four months and few appearances, otherwise we’ll be the next Chelsea.
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Nah. Sometimes players don't work out for loads of reasons, or are just stopgaps. We aren't immune, Nolito and Torres come to mind. Wouldn't be surprised if he ends up at Atletico - if he does, maybe we buy a replacement, or maybe we go with what we have, no idea. It'd be one less foreign player to try and fit into the squad though.
 
In the league he played 11 games out of 14 and started 9 of them.
He didn't play many cup games but I'd say playing PL games is more of an indication of where he stands.

Where's this chat that he never played coming from?
 
kurious oranj said:
In the league he played 11 games out of 14 and started 9 of them.
He didn't play many cup games but I'd say playing PL games is more of an indication of where he stands.

Where's this chat that he never played coming from?
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Started at Fulham and was decent until subbed on a yellow.
 
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