19 | Ilkay Gundogan - 2024/25

[ninjamonkey]

Not the problem today. He did fine under the circumstances. AS I said in kovacic's thread, Villa intentionally outnumbered us in midfield, they had Kamara, onana and tielemans as a 3, mcginn spent the majority of the match making it a 4 and rogers roamed in to make it a 5, they were up against gundo, kovacic and Lewis, there was no possible way of winning that midfield battle today regardless of who was in there. Not sure how people aren't seeing that.

The midfield needed to do what they could and rely on the players in positions that villa left open, namely out wide, to do something with yhe space afforded to them which they did not.

 

[JewelZee]

Nope. Even without considering McAtee
Doku and Savio can play on the wing to release Grealish or Bernado to replace Gundo. They can run and that is a huge positive comparing to current Gundo - sadly. I really love him as a player but his legs are gone.

Pep insists on playing Gundo. He has better options...

 

[JewelZee]

Pep values control in midfield and despite Gundo's lack mobility he has kept most of his technical ability.

Control of what? He's an orange practice pilon at this point. It's painful to watch this once great player get brushed off and run past by bang average midfielders...

 

[Scottyboi]

Not even Gundos fault he wasn't brought back to be playing this much and trying to cover the loss of Rodri. Feel sorry for him now he's been flogged to death.

 

[JewelZee]

Well because he tried it again against Juve and it failed miserably.

Did it tho, He wasn't doing much going forward but we weren't getting run over either. Pep couldn't wait to move him back outside and we collapsed shortly thereafter.

 

[Chak19]

Did it tho, He wasn't doing much going forward but we weren't getting run over either. Pep couldn't wait to move him back outside and we collapsed shortly thereafter.

We did our usual second half capitulation.

 

[blue wang]

Not the problem today. He did fine under the circumstances. AS I said in kovacic's thread, Villa intentionally outnumbered us in midfield, they had Kamara, onana and tielemans as a 3, mcginn spent the majority of the match making it a 4 and rogers roamed in to make it a 5, they were up against gundo, kovacic and Lewis, there was no possible way of winning that midfield battle today regardless of who was in there. Not sure how people aren't seeing that.

The midfield needed to do what they could and rely on the players in positions that villa left open, namely out wide, to do something with yhe space afforded to them which they did not.

Shows you the quality of Rodri, we would have had control with him there. He is like Rambo. One man takes out half of Vietnam.

 

[RayCTID]

Control of what? He's an orange practice pilon at this point. It's painful to watch this once great player get brushed off and run past by bang average midfielders...

Still can pass a ball and besides the squad isn't full of suitable options either to replace him either. We are stuck until the summer.

 

[JewelZee]

Still can pass a ball and besides the squad isn't full of suitable options either to replace him either. We are stuck until the summer.

Ray, I mean this sincerely. I'm impressed by how you're able to spin anything into a positive. Can Pep and the club really be this infallible?

 

[MCFCFanTX]

I actually thought he was our best midfielder today. Not saying much. Physicality was never his strong point but whatever he did have is completely gone.