Do you believe in the tooth fairy too? - what else do you expect him to say?Seems Pep has decided Vinny is going to stay fit.
Like many before him.
Small left-footed ball-playing CB, same type of defender as L.Hernandez. Good, but not of a star level. If we're buying him, hope it's a rotational solution and we're getting someone better next summer to replace Ota. Better fit than Mangala, no doubt. The only concern is that we would lack powerful tall defenders in case Komps needs rest.
Do you believe in the tooth fairy too? - what else do you expect him to say?
Of course we will get another centre half, we only have 6 defenders at the moment, Pep is not stupid.
I'd hazard a guess that assuming we get Sanchez then we will probably look to bring in a cheap experienced defender, someone happy to not play too often at the back end of career.
Hence why I reckon we may go down the experienced route of a 30something year old, couple of mil or freebie/loan, that can happily not expect too much game time except in emergencies.The beauty of Danilo is it may allow Mendy to play as an emergency CB, should we need to, however, no 25/30m cb is an upgrade on Mangala, we'd be nuts, especially in this market.... ffs I've heard Gibson being banded about..
Now if we can pick up a worldy for 30m then sound, however the reason we're over stocked with 'good CBs' rather than the 'very good' is rushing in to panic buys for the position...... I think we risk it for 12 months and literally steamroll teams with our potential attack!
The beauty of Danilo is it may allow Mendy to play as an emergency CB, should we need to, however, no 25/30m cb is an upgrade on Mangala, we'd be nuts, especially in this market.... ffs I've heard Gibson being banded about..
Now if we can pick up a worldy for 30m then sound, however the reason we're over stocked with 'good CBs' rather than the 'very good' is rushing in to panic buys for the position...... I think we risk it for 12 months and literally steamroll teams with our potential attack!
I agree with that.
What I don't agree with is Pep putting his faith in Vinny. He has said he can't 'trust' him. Now he can. Huge gamble.
We're going to have serious problems next season if we have to rely on Mangala at some point. He's a woeful player who, like Joe Hart, shines only when we have our backs to the wall for ninety minutes and he has a fight on his hands. Personally, I think his athleticism is the only thing he has going for him and that opposition identify him as the weak link. Often when he plays for us the other team will press and press and press until it reaches Mangala and then they'll just give him as much time as he wants while marking everyone else as they know there's zero danger for them when he's on the ball. His first touch is consistently shocking and how anyone could miss that is beyond me.
Believe it or not, I have a soft spot for him and would love nothing more than to be proven wrong and for him to become a success for us but he'd have to change virtually everything about his game for that to happen.
We're trying to put together a world class squad here and the centre back position is one where we're seriously lacking. An injury to Kompany and we're left with Stones and Otamendi, neither of whom are currently anywhere near world class, with Tosin and Mangala as backup, both of whom are midtable quality at best.
I'll take a lot of stick for this post but I've been reading all the 'give Mangala a chance' comments and honestly can't believe people have that much faith in him.
I'm not sure I agree with that. We were after Mangala for ages, and John Stones was also a very considered buy. Otamendi was a bit more spur of the moment (relatively) I think, but I don't think we've been panic-buying defenders, we just haven't been great at identifying great ones.Now if we can pick up a worldy for 30m then sound, however the reason we're over stocked with 'good CBs' rather than the 'very good' is rushing in to panic buys for the position...... I think we risk it for 12 months and literally steamroll teams with our potential attack!
You might get an end of career one on the cheap like we did with Demichelis who was really pretty good for two seasons before his last one. Not sure who that would be though.I'm not sure I agree with that. We were after Mangala for ages, and John Stones was also a very considered buy. Otamendi was a bit more spur of the moment (relatively) I think, but I don't think we've been panic-buying defenders, we just haven't been great at identifying great ones.
But yeah, I agree. We'd have to pay at least £30m to get someone as good as Mangala in this market and we'd probably get less than £20m back for him, so it makes no sense to bring another player in as cover, unless that player is far more suited to our system, or more versatile.
Ball-playing is the key word. A player that cannot participate in the buildup can't offer anything to a Pep team, it applies to keepers and defenders as well. CBs function as deep-lying playmakers in his teams, Mangala would be a disaster in that role.Like many have said no point in buying a 30-40m CB that will probably be 3rd or 4th choice. I don't see the issue with keeping Mangala and rotating him in for cup games and relegation level teams for example. Surely he can play a role. If Mangala can play well against teams like Real, he can do it against Stoke as well. Would be perfect to deal with bigger forwards like Lukaku. Plus we have the added bonus of him possibily improving under Pep, he works hard and has something to prove.
I would keep him as 4th choice. If he doesn't cut it we can sell him next summer and go big on CB and DM.
Struggling to see how bringing in a small ball playing LCB will improve us, especially for 30m.
Badstuber free, experienced, pep rates him and can play CB, lb and dm. One player can cover all the area that we are short, knows peps systems and is on a free, leaving us 150 odd million for the mbappe deal.
Ball-playing is the key word. A player that cannot participate in the buildup can't offer anything to a Pep team, it applies to keepers and defenders as well. CBs function as deep-lying playmakers in his teams, Mangala would be a disaster in that role.
There's no such position on the pitch as '4-th choice' CB. If he plays, he plays. He would be an obvious and easy target for opposition managers while planning their tactical approach. Puyol was often targeted by Mou in clasicos as everyone new that he's the worst passer in that Barca. And Puyol is like Maradona compared to Mangala.Again, he will be 4th choice. All he has to do is pass it to the Stones/Kompany, Mendy, Ederson or Yaya. He can play a role in our squad. A physical presence is a must, he will be a perfect fit for specific matches. Has pace to prevent counter attacks and has the physical presence to deal with big body strikers.
That would be true if we didn't play possession game with high def line. Good ball-playing means more than ability to tackle and chase counters within this system. Therefore Pep considering Badstuber's and I.Martinez's candidatures is understandable - the solution could be temporary and fairly cheap, but the player has to have a partucular skillset.His pros outweigh his cons IMO especially as we don't have the budget now to spend big on someone like Van Dijk.
He's a crock, was released from Bayern for a reason.Badstuber free, experienced, pep rates him and can play CB, lb and dm. One player can cover all the area that we are short, knows peps systems and is on a free, leaving us 150 odd million for the mbappe deal.