Are we dining at the top table or not?

[Danamy]

You seem rather emotional about the whole thing. I'm fairly confident that a squad of world class players and a world class manager can alternate between playing with two out and out forwards and one out and out forward without totally flummoxing themselves.

I mean, only last week were people discussing moving Yaya forward and playing Fernando and Fernandinho together, which I reckon we will do in games such as Bayern away, Roma away etc. to ensure we get the points away to get at least 2nd in the group.

The argument seems to be that Pellegrini won't in fact play that way and will continue to play 442. I'm again not sure why this is a problem when if a player does get injured we can easily shift to 4231 and have copious options to play that way.

Some serious mountains being made out of a minor molehill IMO.

It makes you wonder how we coped for the majority of last season we only 3 strikers eh?

 

[Lancet Fluke]

again, considering our wage structure and CL squad restrictions, who would you have brought in to replace Negredo, considering he wouldn't have been in the CL squad?

Judging by the recent threads on the CL i daresay most people will probably just say "not bothered about the CL".

which is interesting because I assume therefore that they have a name, or names in mind, of players who would also "not be bothered about the CL" and want to come in, who would also be good enough and have the right mentality and attitude for us, which incidentally, they couldn't have otherwise they wouldn't be happy coming in and not playing CL.

but still, I'm interested to here targets from the people who believe Txiki's done something wrong.

Give me the support and resources that Txiki has at his disposal, for instance a scouting network that is there specifically to find players that suit certain roles within a football squad and I will give you a name or two.

 

[ST Coleridge]

If we want to change to playing 1 top line striker and having 3 in the squad then fine. Do it. Plan for it. Practise it. It's what Ferran and Txiki preach. The reason why this sale and the timing of it looks odd is because it is contrary to what they preach.

You seem rather emotional about the whole thing. I'm fairly confident that a squad of world class players and a world class manager can alternate between playing with two out and out forwards and one out and out forward without totally flummoxing themselves.

It's going to be a very minimal shift, from 442 to 4411/4231 - and one might almost argue that, with Jovetic, we've been playing that way anyway. Regardless how it's come about, I'm pleased - our 442 (especially with Yaya in the middle two) makes me nervous.

 

[Le Havre Oswald]

You seem rather emotional about the whole thing. I'm fairly confident that a squad of world class players and a world class manager can alternate between playing with two out and out forwards and one out and out forward without totally flummoxing themselves.

I mean, only last week were people discussing moving Yaya forward and playing Fernando and Fernandinho together, which I reckon we will do in games such as Bayern away, Roma away etc. to ensure we get the points away to get at least 2nd in the group.

The argument seems to be that Pellegrini won't in fact play that way and will continue to play 442. I'm again not sure why this is a problem when if a player does get injured we can easily shift to 4231 and have copious options to play that way.

Some serious mountains being made out of a minor molehill IMO.

It seems to be the same poster's who had a nervous breakdown when mancini was sacked and who blame *the 2 Spanish clown's * for everything, even the weather.

They haven't got a clue.

 

[Danamy]

Judging by the recent threads on the CL i daresay most people will probably just say "not bothered about the CL".

which is interesting because I assume therefore that they have a name, or names in mind, of players who would also "not be bothered about the CL" and want to come in, who would also be good enough and have the right mentality and attitude for us, which incidentally, they couldn't have otherwise they wouldn't be happy coming in and not playing CL.

but still, I'm interested to here targets from the people who believe Txiki's done something wrong.

Give me the support and resources that Txiki has at his disposal, for instance a scouting network that is there specifically to find players that suit certain roles within a football squad and I will give you a name or two.

I'll give you one........David Villa, it wouldn't take much to do that deal as per Lampard until January if we felt we fell short?

 

[BillyShears]

Judging by the recent threads on the CL i daresay most people will probably just say "not bothered about the CL".

which is interesting because I assume therefore that they have a name, or names in mind, of players who would also "not be bothered about the CL" and want to come in, who would also be good enough and have the right mentality and attitude for us, which incidentally, they couldn't have otherwise they wouldn't be happy coming in and not playing CL.

but still, I'm interested to here targets from the people who believe Txiki's done something wrong.

Give me the support and resources that Txiki has at his disposal, for instance a scouting network that is there specifically to find players that suit certain roles within a football squad and I will give you a name or two.

Yes and those names would undoubtedly be either players under 21 with great potential, or English players. Given that we have signed Kelechi because we believe he has great potential, then surely it'd make more sense to give him the chance rather than signing someone of his profile for the sake of 4 weeks.

 

[BobKowalski]

If we want to change to playing 1 top line striker and having 3 in the squad then fine. Do it. Plan for it. Practise it. It's what Ferran and Txiki preach. The reason why this sale and the timing of it looks odd is because it is contrary to what they preach.

You seem rather emotional about the whole thing. I'm fairly confident that a squad of world class players and a world class manager can alternate between playing with two out and out forwards and one out and out forward without totally flummoxing themselves.

Emotional? Because I advocate planning and structuring a squad to play a certain way and practising to play that way? Well yes I guess I am 'emotional'. Equally I may just be reacting to the quality of your argument which basically is 'you are fairly confident' we can muddle through. Well thanks for that insight. Would have been fucking lost without it.

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

Judging by the recent threads on the CL i daresay most people will probably just say "not bothered about the CL".

which is interesting because I assume therefore that they have a name, or names in mind, of players who would also "not be bothered about the CL" and want to come in, who would also be good enough and have the right mentality and attitude for us, which incidentally, they couldn't have otherwise they wouldn't be happy coming in and not playing CL.

but still, I'm interested to here targets from the people who believe Txiki's done something wrong.

Give me the support and resources that Txiki has at his disposal, for instance a scouting network that is there specifically to find players that suit certain roles within a football squad and I will give you a name or two.

that's not an answer, you know who's moved this summer (if you don't, my little update thread will help), you can have a very fair guess at who would want to play CL football, who would be happy to come anyway and you can make a fair guess on their talent, wages etc.

I mean to be honest, I don't think Txiki has someone in his scouting ranks he goes to for "a player who is top class but doesn't want to play CL football, but is still a consummate professional, doesn't want extortionate wages but is good enough to play in the Premier League for the champions", so I don't think his scouting network would be of much help.

I think he would tend to go "let's see where our slight weaknesses are, and we've got a really nice budget next summer so let's go and make 1 or 2 world class signings next summer when we don't have squad restrictions".

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

which is interesting because I assume therefore that they have a name, or names in mind, of players who would also "not be bothered about the CL" and want to come in, who would also be good enough and have the right mentality and attitude for us, which incidentally, they couldn't have otherwise they wouldn't be happy coming in and not playing CL.

but still, I'm interested to here targets from the people who believe Txiki's done something wrong.

Give me the support and resources that Txiki has at his disposal, for instance a scouting network that is there specifically to find players that suit certain roles within a football squad and I will give you a name or two.

I'll give you one........David Villa, it wouldn't take much to do that deal as per Lampard until January if we felt we fell short?

Don't encourage them, Villa has already agreed to go to Melbourne, so was off the market very early on, whether he comes in in January for 2 months is a different matter. The wider project of CFG has to be appreciated, as well.

 

[BillyShears]

If we want to change to playing 1 top line striker and having 3 in the squad then fine. Do it. Plan for it. Practise it. It's what Ferran and Txiki preach. The reason why this sale and the timing of it looks odd is because it is contrary to what they preach.

You seem rather emotional about the whole thing. I'm fairly confident that a squad of world class players and a world class manager can alternate between playing with two out and out forwards and one out and out forward without totally flummoxing themselves.

Emotional? Because I advocate planning and structuring a squad to play a certain way and practising to play that way? Well yes I guess I am 'emotional'. Equally I may just be reacting to the quality of your argument which basically is 'you are fairly confident' we can muddle through. Well thanks for that insight. Would have been fucking lost without it.

With respect, I'm fairly confident that I didn't advocate "muddling through". I advocated that a group of world class players and a world class manager could fairly easily alternate between playing with 2 forwards and 1 forward without needing the much vaunted Louis Van Gaal 3 month bedding in period.

I'm also fairly certain that not just City, but most top clubs in the world and most top managers in the world, no matter how wedded to their preferred system, do train for the eventuality that they will have to play a different system. We did at various times last season play with 1 forward, even if it was for the last 30 minutes of matches. This will have been done with some training behind it because it was as effective as when we played with two forwards.

So I appreciate that your emotional, but once you calm down I'm sure you'll see what I'm saying makes perfect sense and there's nothing i particular to worry about.