Are we Having a Transition Season?

[Gabriel]

Like I said above, we panicked with Walker because we couldn't tie down Gundogan and we didn't dig our heels with Mahrez to convince him to do his last year. To allow Walker to go to Bayern would probably have been one too many influential players gone. My issue with his renewal was why make him captain? Got to play him every game now almost.

True. We only have to play him because we have nobody else with pace on that side of the defence, and to be fair to him he's not doing too badly this season. As for the captaincy, I think everyone seems to get a go wearing the armband at some point.

 

[carlosthejackal]

This.

We had a shocking transfer window - worst since 2012/13.

We failed to get an extension done for one of the best midfielders the PL has ever seen in Gundogan, didn't dig our heels in with Mahrez to try and convince him to see out his last year of his contract and then panicked with Walker when he was rumoured to be going to Bayern by offering him captaincy meaning he has to play every game now.

Kovacic was a decent signing as a rotational player to come in against your mid-table teams when one of the primary midfielders needed a rest, but we are now relying on him to be one of our most influential players.

Nunes was the very definition of a panic signing. Not the profile of player needed, simply not good enough. Scored a grand total of 10 league goals in his entire career. 1 goal and 1 assist last year for Wolves and we thought he was good enough for us? Baffling.

On top of all this we decided to make Gvardiol one of the most expensive CB's the world has ever seen and decided to play him left back despite Ake being absolutely lethal there last season and whom didn't need moving away from that position.

Doku has been the only positive signing so far this season.

A summer of complacency

 

[KS55]

Deffo a transition.
Gundog gone. Kev not long. That’s a midfield minefield.
Tired from extended season last year. Reaction to treble.
Time to regroup, replan, go again.
Nothing wrong with a modest season provided we sort the comeback for the future.
I am relaxed: there’s no such thing as continuous success these days.
Just breathe blue brethren, we will be fine.

 

[KS55]

Doku is the saving grace.

 

[Crooked_rain]

Dunno

We're not even half way through

We were 8 points behind closer to the finish line last season.

Stop shitting yourselves so early. People have short memories. Pep was getting all sorts of criticism before christmas last season when we were behind Arsenal and look how the season played out at the end and what we won. Go back through the forum and look at how much many of you were shitting your knickers this time last year, its all there.

 

[Gorbachev]

Dunno

We're not even half way through

We were 8 points behind closer to the finish line last season.

Stop shitting yourselves so early. People have short memories. Pep was getting all sorts of criticism before christmas last season when we were behind Arsenal and look how the season played out at the end and what we won. Go back through the forum and look at how much many of you were shitting your knickers this time last year, its all there.

We are worse this time around though, a lot worse in my opinion.

And I do think alongside Pep's speech post Spurs, us having those charges put against us last season massively riled up the players and club. It was night and day almost from there on in.

During the first half of last season, or at least up until we started getting better, the games we drew or lost were pretty tight games. We got done by a 98th minute winner at home to Brentford, an offside Rashford goal, Everton defended really resiliently and scored an absolute worldy via Demarai Gray to get a draw and we got beat by Spurs away 1-0 which we was nothing out of the ordinary considering our record there in recent years.

We were not brilliant but we were far from terrible. Arsenals incredible start made it look worse than it was in my opinion.

This season, we are getting 3s and 4s put past us and having around 20 shots a game peppered on our goal by the likes of Villa and Chelsea. We have lost our ability to control football matches and when we are getting beat there are moments where the intensity is non-existent in the players.

That game last night could have been 4 or 5-0 and it wouldn't have been a disgrace.

We will be there or thereabouts come the end of the season, but there some really fundamental flaws in this squad right now.

 

[Chi-town blues]

I think we might be tbh. Bedding in some players, really missing gundog. All just my opinion though. What do you guys think?

We’ve been on mild transition phase since last season .

 

[FJRMCFC]

We have enough to go for the 4 peat but the squad has lost quality and is a bit unbalanced. Arsenal have caught up and Liverpool seem to be the threat they were in previous years.

Gundogan was more or less a complete 8 and we failed to replace him adequately (Bellingham, Paqueta).

Kovacic is useful when sitting next to Rodri as we saw earlier in the season but offers zero going forward. Nunes has legs and is a good ball carrier but just lacks quality in general. Bernardo is the best option we have in the middle which is why he’ll always end up there when we’re up against good opposition.

Out wide, we let Palmer go and while I do believe Doku was the Mahrez replacement, he’s been meh on the right so far and electric on the left. That leaves us with Foden + Bernardo(who happens to be our best option in the middle) being the only legit options on the right wing. Those factors and KDB’s injury pretty much forces Pep to play Alvarez centrally because he’s the only other player in the squad who offers a healthy number of goals and assists from that area.

 

[waspish]

Yes but we are the only club who won't be allowed to

 

[Sleeping_Easy]

Some of the over reactionary stuff in this thread is laughable. We weren't great last night but we've had bad days in the past and came back stronger from them. With the midfield injuries and suspensions, coming up against a very good Villa side was always going to be a tough ask. We deal with times of the profile of Villa by having great control of the game and stemming the counter attacks to keep the pressure on teams and force them to make mistakes. The profile of player we had in the midfield three yesterday wasn't the profile of player for that. Pep tried something, it didn't work, end of.

Are we as good as we were last season at this point in time? No. But we're certainly not out the title race and we've been in much worse positions before and won the title. Lets get Rodri and Grealish back from suspension. Kovacic and Nunes both back from Injury now. KDB back in 3-4 weeks. Possibly another body in January. All those things happen and it'll start looking a hell of a lot rosier.