8 | Mateo Kovacic - 2023/24

[melrose40yarder]

This is laughable. Our additions are better than Arsenal's and Liverpool's. Doku is a better signing than any one those 2 Signed. Including Rice and He who shall not be mentioned. And Josko is presently a good and starting signing.

FFS Arsenal signed Rice, Havertz, the timid goalie Raya and the injured fullback from Ajax. How the heck is that even close to Doku, Josko and the Matt's? Even if neither of the Matt's become stars. So?

Arsenal is currently better because their old players showed improvement. Zincky, Saliba, Odergard and Trossard have all stepped up performance-wise, and Jesus and Saka have kept their form from last year. Sure Rice has been good. But he has been similar to his form at West Ham.

Doku for us has been better than Rice has been for them. And Josko is not even comparable to any of their otther signings. They fucking hate Havertz and Raya. Who are, in some ways, worse than the ones they replaced. Havertz is now on the bench and Troosard is the de facto starter.

We have signed well. Stopped being spoiled. The reason we are off is because our best (Haaland, Rodri, Dias, Stones and Kevin) have not been at their best or around enough. It has nothing to do with our signings. We are at worst on par with the best signings or better.

Sorry Kovacic and Nunes should be knowhere near our club.Panic buys.
If your 1st option is not available promote youth.

 

[Dax777]

Sorry Kovacic and Nunes should be knowhere near our club.Panic buys.
If your 1st option is not available promote youth.

This is neither here nor there. We bought Doku and Gvardiol. Those 2 alone are as good or better than any two any other team bought. And Kovacic and Nunes are good enough to be on any top club in the world. The fact that Kova has already been on 2 top teams is enough evidence of his pedigree, and Nunes is clearly very talented. Lets not get silly with the take here.

Only time will tell but the players brought in dont seem to be an improvement on the ones who they have replaced.
Gundogan, Mahrez, Laporte all badly missed in my opinion.

Laporte barely played. Josko has played more this year and contributed more than Laporte did all last season. Doku is currently ranked as the 3rd highest-performing player this season... That's higher than Mahrez has been in any season. ANd for what it's worth, It is Alvarez who has replaced Gundo so far this season. He is producing goals and assists at a slightly higher clip than last season's Gundogan. Granted, he is sorely inferior in ball retention and cohesion.

Again, I repeat, it's not our signings nor those who have left (Gundogan, by the way, slightly declined from 2 years ago to last year) that is the problem... It is because our current stars are not at their peak. Dias, Stones, Rodri, Akanji, Ake, Kevin and Haaland have all played poorer than they did last season due to injuries, bone head suspensions, or slight loss of form.

Pretending this is about the two Matt's is silly as they won't get on the first team with everyone healthy and in top form anyway. But they'll be great subs.

 

[MadchesterCity]

When you consider we’ve bought Phillips, Nunes and Kovacic for central position some serious questions need to be asked about why so much money has been wasted on basic players who add no value to starting 11. It’s much worse when you consider we lost Lavia and have missed on many quality targets due to there additions. We’re normally on the ball, but these three have been terrible signings

 

[Dax777]

Those three are 33, 32, and 29. And Laporte was injured a lot (he only played 11 league games last year and only group stage of the CL. I know he has been a really valuable player but I don’t see how replacing him wasnt better in the long term). How long did people want them to stay? Any time you lose senior players there is going to be some drop off, but isn’t a constant cycle of rejuvenation better in the long run?

If Gundo, Mahrez and Laporte had stayed and we had not brought in Doku, Josko and the Matts. We would be a worse team right now. This is what folks seem to be missing. The additions (From outside and within) are an improvement on the aging folds who left. What we are missing is the consistency of the players who have stayed, Whether its Rodri, Dias or Haaland performance-wise or Kevin, John, Jack and Ake injury-wise. Their drop is the issue, not the incomings and outgoings.

 

[Middedon]

And I don’t think any of these signings were meant to be regular starters this year. Injuries have forced this upon us. And if one of them was playing in a fully fit team of last years starters or as a 20 min sub, we wouldn’t be having any of these discussions as they’d likely all look great. ( Kova was the only one that had a preseason and missed Pep for two weeks that has to have a big effect). And really, I think Kova was always meant to be that 20 min sub. Never a regular starter. I think we’re expecting something he was never intended to be.

 

[Barcon]

If Gundo, Mahrez and Laporte had stayed and we had not brought in Doku, Josko and the Matts. We would be a worse team right now. This is what folks seem to be missing. The additions (From outside and within) are an improvement on the aging folds who left. What we are missing is the consistency of the players who have stayed, Whether its Rodri, Dias or Haaland performance-wise or Kevin, John, Jack and Ake injury-wise. Their drop is the issue, not the incomings and outgoings.

Not even remotely true. Maybe in the future but clearly not right now.

 

[Dax777]

When you consider we’ve bought Phillips, Nunes and Kovacic for central position some serious questions need to be asked about why so much money has been wasted on basic players who add no value to starting 11. It’s much worse when you consider we lost Lavia and have missed on many quality targets due to there additions. We’re normally on the ball, but these three have been terrible signings

Wasted? Maybe on Phillips who wasn't a fit. But lets wait and see on the Matt's. I think too many are throwing out their toys too soon here. Let it cook for a minute :)

We've already seen Kova have a couple of great games and some poor ones. So it is not as if he is not capable. Nunes is yet to fully integrate. Let's relax; not everyone is Bellingham or Haaland. You are not going to get onto a team an go bunkers immediately. That's not the norm.

Yaya, David Silva, Mahrez, and Gundogan, to mention a few, took a while to get up to speed. Let's not rush to judgment in 10 weeks.

Damn folks, relax! This isn't Football Manager :)

 

[Dax777]

Not even remotely true. Maybe in the future but clearly not right now.

Right now. Doku and Josko are better performing right now than Laporte or Mahrez wer last year and Alvarez is giving us similar goal-assist numbers to Gundogan. And that assumes Gundogan at 33, loses zero edge (highly unlikely). But even assuming that, we are still better now than we'd be the other way around.

 

[Xhavenjoe]

Those three are 33, 32, and 29. And Laporte was injured a lot (he only played 11 league games last year and only group stage of the CL. I know he has been a really valuable player but I don’t see how replacing him wasnt better in the long term). How long did people want them to stay? Any time you lose senior players there is going to be some drop off, but isn’t a constant cycle of rejuvenation better in the long run?

Thats true but there was no need for all of them to go in the one transfer window.
All were experienced serial winners and used to Pep and his requirements.

You quote a constant cycle of rejuvenation.
Losing 4 senior players plus Palmer is not a constant cycle.
That is more like start all over again.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

What we are missing is the consistency of the players who have stayed, Whether its Rodri, Dias or Haaland performance-wise or Kevin, John, Jack and Ake injury-wise. Their drop is the issue, not the incomings and outgoings.

But how much of that lack of consistency is precisely because of the players we’ve lost? Rodri suddenly having to take more responsibility for playmaking meaning he’s less focused on the defensive side? Dias then being exposed by this? Haaland becoming easier to mark because there are fewer goal threats to mark?