Alexis Sanchez

[SilverFox2]

Compare attacking squads just now.

City - Aguero, Jesus, B. Silva, Sane, Sterling, De Bruyne, D. Silva, Nacho

Chelsea - Morata, Hazard, Pedro, Willian, Fabregas, Batshuyai (I'm assuming Costa will be sold)

Arsenal - Lacazette, Giroud, Welbeck, Walcott, Ozil, Iwobi, Sanchez (replaced by Lemar maybe)?

Utd - Lukaku, Rashford, Martial, Mkhitaryan, Mata, Lingard, Perisic?

Spurs - Kane, Janssen, Ali, Eriksen, Son, Lamela

Are City really behind the others in terms of goalscorers. I'd argue that Spurs have the least amount of options, yet did they not finish top scorers last season.

As others have pointed out, sorting the defence out with good full backs, will go a long way to addressing the balance issue, which affects defending and attacking,and should provide better numbers in each.

On paper we should not have goalscoring problems with the players we have and to be fair we do tend to convert our shots on target into goals with reasonable efficiency. Our problem for most of last season was shooting accuracy.
For whatever reason despite creating many shooting opportunities we failed to hit the goalpost defined area so we never troubled the defence with most of those shots.
How often have we seen 20 shots at goal with only say 2 or 3 on target with say 1 goal to show for it.
WE finish up struggling to save a draw against teams we should have beaten by some distance who seem to only need one chance to be on target and score.

Perhaps Pep needs a new dependable striker to prevent a repetition next year or maybe last years problems are behind us and our current strikers will actually hit the target more because we have just bought at least one expensive fullback who will give even more chances to our miss firing strike force.

 

[geoff clipp]

Another one who 'bottled it

Why is he bottling it? The fact is, Arsenal will not sell him to us if he they can sell him abroad instead. He'd have signed weeks ago if arsenal had accepted our offer and he probs still would now. PSG might not have been his first choice but if it's the only place he can get a move to right now then he's obviously going to do it. Neymar moving there and the salary on offer makes it an attractive enough proposition id say.

 

[Theo555]

Why is he bottling it? The fact is, Arsenal will not sell him to us if he they can sell him abroad instead. He'd have signed weeks ago if arsenal had accepted our offer and he probs still would now. PSG might not have been his first choice but if it's the only place he can get a move to right now then he's obviously going to do it. Neymar moving there and the salary on offer makes it an attractive enough proposition id say.

You're guessing as much as me

 

[BringBackSwales]

Jefferson thinks this is still on!

Jefferson isn't known for his rational thought patterns

 

[BringBackSwales]

On paper we should not have goalscoring problems with the players we have and to be fair we do tend to convert our shots on target into goals with reasonable efficiency. Our problem for most of last season was shooting accuracy.
For whatever reason despite creating many shooting opportunities we failed to hit the goalpost defined area so we never troubled the defence with most of those shots.
How often have we seen 20 shots at goal with only say 2 or 3 on target with say 1 goal to show for it.
WE finish up struggling to save a draw against teams we should have beaten by some distance who seem to only need one chance to be on target and score.

Perhaps Pep needs a new dependable striker to prevent a repetition next year or maybe last years problems are behind us and our current strikers will actually hit the target more because we have just bought at least one expensive fullback who will give even more chances to our miss firing strike force.

More chances will be created if we play with MUCH higher intensity from the start of matches, rather than last 15 mins when desperation for a goal has an impact

 

[SilverFox2]

More chances will be created if we play with MUCH higher intensity from the start of matches, rather than last 15 mins when desperation for a goal has an impact

Agreed but even with the boringly patient build up play from last year we still managed to generate many more chances than our opponents apart from a couple of games. WE even managed a lot of chances when United parked the bus last season but that resulting draw included our inaccuracy no doubt built into their defensive strategy.

 

[J_MCFC21]

Agreed but even with the boringly patient build up play from last year we still managed to generate many more chances than our opponents apart from a couple of games. WE even managed a lot of chances when United parked the bus last season but that resulting draw included our inaccuracy no doubt built into their defensive strategy.

Think we will see a difference alone in numbers in the box for crosses...last year it was KDB/Sane/Sterling crossing to just Sergio +1...this year having full backs who can get forward will mean more in the box to actually get on the end of a cross imo, so many chances last season out wide where it was 1 to aim at and it went to waste

 

[SilverFox2]

Think we will see a difference alone in numbers in the box for crosses...last year it was KDB/Sane/Sterling crossing to just Sergio +1...this year having full backs who can get forward will mean more in the box to actually get on the end of a cross imo, so many chances last season out wide where it was 1 to aim at and it went to waste

I agree but for some reason those who shot at goal thought they could score otherwise why shoot and the inaccuracy was shared by many not just the usual suspect(s)

 

[BringBackSwales]

Agreed but even with the boringly patient build up play from last year we still managed to generate many more chances than our opponents apart from a couple of games. WE even managed a lot of chances when United parked the bus last season but that resulting draw included our inaccuracy no doubt built into their defensive strategy.

The reality is that it's easier to convert chances when there is less pressure earlier in the game than when desperation sets in, especially in the crowd, i think so anyway

 

[bluemoonmatt]

Is we don't get Sanchez as looks likely then we need to accept we HAVE missed on some of our targets. There's little point trying to gloss over that, it's a fact. As for Sanchez I think all power to whinger and arse for sticking to their guns. I read at end of last season an article which would never have been printed had we missed out on cl qualification but nevertheless it highlighted the financial impact of not qualifying and how that is ultimately negated by the TV deal, the same deal that's seeing us sign Walker for 20m more than you'd expect last season, the same one that sees Pickford go the neverton for 30m lukaku to rags for 90m etc etc all for close to double their worth. All this talk of will arse lose 50m hanging onto him yadda yadda, why not. They aren't technically that out of pocket, as it seems they haven't needed to purely by sticking to their guns so fair play. I do wonder how much this proposed neymar deal might be swinging things for psg though, I've a sneaky feeling that it's all a front to sell the club and its ambition to Sanchez to get him to sign and when it comes to closing the deal psg will bottle it. We need to make sure though he is the last target we do miss out on, and wee need to close a deal on Mendy as that position is totally vacant at the moment