Are we a out and out striker short from being the squad we all want?

[Tevez City]

Chelsea & Liverpool won the CL without out & out striker.

We just need our wingers to be as clinical as Jota.

 

[mancityscot]

Is it not just a case of having more clinical forward players?

 

[BlueAnorak]

We need another defensive mid to replace Fern and class striker along with Alvarez.(who doubles as a wide player).

 

[FantasyIreland]

A fully fit Aguero to call upon and this league would already be sewn up.

It was a huge mistake not to get someone in,probably two seasons back.

 

[alexmcity]

The squad is a work in progress all the time, it's never "sorted".

At the start of last season, Liverpool thought their defence/squad was sorted. Then VVD and Matip got injured. They needed their keeper to score a header to make the top 4, conceding in the process many goals and 6 consecutive losses at home (!). This fantasy of having an ideal squad is just that.

People tend to think linearly. They think that if you add Haaland to this squad, we will win everything without many problems. Football doesn't work like that, though. The better the squad, the more difficult it is to significantly improve it. If you add Haaland to Arsenal, the difference he will make for them will be huge, but if you add him to us, the difference will be much smaller than people think. Still, there will be some difference. The better you are, the more money you have to invest to make a small difference to the performances.

The law of diminishing returns holds in football as well. The difference in quality between a 30m player and a 100m player is much bigger than between a 100m player and a 200m player. To sign a better player than Mahrez you may need 100m in today's market. But to sign a much better player than Mahrez, you'll need 200m!

Liverpool fans, for instance, don't realize that the law of diminishing returns works in football. They think that if Klopp worked with City's budget, the difference for Liverpool would be dramatic. That's wrong, though, it's a mistake of the linear thinking.

 

[skillman]

Given our danger comes from balls into the box and through the middle, we need a striker who is comfortable in those situations. I love Sterling but let's face it, it was a shock to the majority of us that he scored that one yesterday so comfortably.

Had that been Aguero, you're shocked if it's not in the back of the net. We need that and somebody to get on the end of balls into the box - mainly the 6 yard box.

 

[Sir peace frog]

so everyone is saying we need a striker, i think we all know we need a striker, pep knows it as well, don't know why we have a thread questioning if we need a striker when we've all already said we need a striker, all you have to do is look at the threads after a draw or defeat, its funny how its never brought up after a win.

 

[kaz7]

This gets a new thread after every game we dont win

 

[mccity]

Tbf I think if we didn't rotate our starting forwards as often as we do they'd all be racking up better numbers (whoever they are). Sterling, Mahrez, Jesus, Foden, and even winger Bernardo have all shown that with enough games under their belts they can put the ball away pretty confidently and pick up good numbers.

But being in and out of the team and/or in different positions I think makes them want to be a bit safer and it they lose that stride.

I think if Salah, Mané, or Jota were in our team and rotated as much as our forwards are they'd have similar issues. Similarly, stick one of the City players listed above in Liverpool's frontline and they'd get great numbers.

Of course, there's a payoff in that the rotation is usually more beneficial than not, it's just this is one of the downsides.


A genuinely top striker would still have these issues too. But hopefully if they're really that good they wouldn't be rotated too often, so they wouldn't suffer.

Whatever the case, I think we would benefit from having a top quality striker, but nothing would magically change because of it. We'd still have plenty of games where we struggle to put the ball in the net.

 

[PragueBlue]

We need a striker that can do more than just score goals though. We make so many chances due to having a lot of skilful players that can play their part in dominating possession and build-up play. So any striker needs to be able to actually do those things as well. Otherwise we end up with a clinical striker but less chances being created overall (which might not actually increase our goals total).