19 | Ilkay Gundogan - 2024/25

[northmr8]

Is he carrying an injury? He is just so laboured

 

[Roachy]

Is he carrying an injury? He is just so laboured

Legs have gone I fear.

 

[sir baconface]

There’s a lot of 20/20 hindsight on here. As I recall, the predominant feeling was positive when we heard he was coming back.

He was brought in to supplement - not replace - the midfield and be played relatively sparingly. Circumstances haven’t allowed that.

To be fair, he was hardly on fire before we hit the buffers but he’s the sort of canny old guy you hope might be influential in the run-in.

 

[supercity88]

There’s a lot of 20/20 hindsight on here. As I recall, the predominant feeling was positive when we heard he was coming back.

He was brought in to supplement - not replace - the midfield and be played relatively sparingly. Circumstances haven’t allowed that.

To be fair, he was hardly on fire before we hit the buffers but he’s the sort of canny old guy you hope might be influential in the run-in.

It looked to be the ideal signing. He'd been Barca's best player last season and was excellent in the Euro's. His form has been horrific. Started off with missing some easy chances and then evolved into poor decision making, poor passing and then, through no fault of his own, a move to number 6 where he's just woeful because of his lack of pace now.

As you say, a fully fit squad with Gundo coming on to manage the game and he can do a job. He needs to improve, but he was never brought in to play the number of games he has. Pep believes in the players who have delivered for him before, and by the sounds of it he'll stick with them rather than tear things up and start again.

Pep's mindset will always be to ensure you keep the ball and that way you don't have an exposed defence. Gundo is one of the best at doing that in usual circumstances so he's not going to look at how poor he is in transition. He'll look at making sure we don't get into that position.

 

[donsmoke]

It's not a form thing, the pace of the league is just too fast for him hence La Liga suited him.
You could see his legs starting to go in the treble season whenever there was a turnover high up the pitch, hence him leaving on a high was the best thing for him.

One of Pep's best trait was not being sentimental over players and knowing when to let go

 

[Bruun]

He offers absolutely nothing anymore. Leaves the whole midfield open.

Sad to see the king return in such a state.

 

[northmr8]

Looks like he's playing walking football

 

[Blue2202]

Performances just getting worse and worse. Offers absolutely nothing offensively or defensively he's just a passenger at this point. Convinced one of o'reilly or wright would do no worse.

 

[Dage]

Mr. Whippy got off at 3:0 and the team fell apart after.

 

[Blue_Lightsaber]

Guess we know why Pep plays Gundo so much.. without him we have no midfield vs having a slow midfield.