Centre back options

2016-17

Team Goals Scored
Chelsea 85
Spurs 86
City 80

We had Jesus for a handful of games, and Sane clicked in the New Year.

We have since signed bernardo Silva who is also a very attack-minded player.

You can always get better. But it's pretty obvious where the weaknesses are in the squad

You also didn't mention that Kun missed 7 games through suspension and at his scoring rate that's another 4 goals at least.
 
2016-17

Team Goals Scored
Chelsea 85
Spurs 86
City 80

We had Jesus for a handful of games, and Sane clicked in the New Year.

We have since signed bernardo Silva who is also a very attack-minded player.

You can always get better. But it's pretty obvious where the weaknesses are in the squad

This is right out of "how to lie with statistics" mate.

I just responded to you in the Alves thread, but we scored our goals from a very low conversion rate. We created the most clear cut chances in the league. 20 of those 80 from Kun. 12 or 13, from Sane and Sterling. The rest almost all from centre midfield.

You can say that had Jesus played more he would have helped there, yet he is very young and I think Pep sees how relying on scoring from young players (see Nacho as well) is risky for a club with expectations such as ours. It's also about attitude on the pitch.

This is why he wants Sanchez. He poses nightmares for defenders, and putting he and Aguero and any of the young 3 attackers will have them scared to death.

We want to be a world class side. Real Madrid and Barca don't rely on two young, not finished products for the level of their clubs to be awarded 2 of their front 3 attacking players.

They have Neymar, Messi and Suarez or Bale, Benzema, Ronaldo.

How doe Sterling/Sane, Aguero, Jesus sound comparatively at this point in their careers?

Kun is at his peak, so if we risk this we are losing his peak years hoping those 3 become world class. Sanchez is ready now.

That's why we are prioritising a wide attacking player who scores at a high rate over a centre half, also as anyone we sign would mean one of our 3 CBs would need to be sold. Otherwise who are you putting as 4th choice? You think Stones or Otamendi will be okay with that? They'd get into many top sides around the world and we don't want to rotate 4 CBs around like last season (that was disastrous). Pep might rotate 3, and that's it to maintain consistency that we lacked last season.
 
City are one of the clubs that could pay the €30m release clause of Real Sociedad centre-back Iñigo Martínez (26) this summer. [Marca]
 
This is right out of "how to lie with statistics" mate.

I just responded to you in the Alves thread, but we scored our goals from a very low conversion rate. We created the most clear cut chances in the league. 20 of those 80 from Kun. 12 or 13, from Sane and Sterling. The rest almost all from centre midfield.

You can say that had Jesus played more he would have helped there, yet he is very young and I think Pep sees how relying on scoring from young players (see Nacho as well) is risky for a club with expectations such as ours. It's also about attitude on the pitch.

This is why he wants Sanchez. He poses nightmares for defenders, and putting he and Aguero and any of the young 3 attackers will have them scared to death.

We want to be a world class side. Real Madrid and Barca don't rely on two young, not finished products for the level of their clubs to be awarded 2 of their front 3 attacking players.

They have Neymar, Messi and Suarez or Bale, Benzema, Ronaldo.

How doe Sterling/Sane, Aguero, Jesus sound comparatively at this point in their careers?

Kun is at his peak, so if we risk this we are losing his peak years hoping those 3 become world class. Sanchez is ready now.

That's why we are prioritising a wide attacking player who scores at a high rate over a centre half, also as anyone we sign would mean one of our 3 CBs would need to be sold. Otherwise who are you putting as 4th choice? You think Stones or Otamendi will be okay with that? They'd get into many top sides around the world and we don't want to rotate 4 CBs around like last season (that was disastrous). Pep might rotate 3, and that's it to maintain consistency that we lacked last season.

Completely agree.

I would also add that the stats mislead because the other teams (Chelsea especially) are designed to be much more conservative teams than us. It is clear that Pep wants to defend by having the ball and scoring goals. We have to score a to of goals to win, so that games such as Everton, Southampton, West From and even Chelsea are comfortably won before they have a chance of scoring.

I think our big question is who is good for 20 goals a season? We don't have enough players likely to get near there.

I am not saying we should ignore defending (or goalkeeping for that matter) but we did not put teams to the sword when we should have done.
 
We are broadly in agreement, yes. But I don't think Pep is okay with what we have at CB. He realizes that we are thin there. But that pales into insignificance compared to Full Backs where we figuratively had nothing last season and now literally do! As I see it, CB is third priority after FBs and Goalie (hopefully now fixed), but will only be addressed if someone is on the market who is clearly better than Otamendi or Stones.
After Tosin signed a new contract I wouldnt mind seeing him as back up for the first team , I agree left and right back are our priority now Id also like Maffeo to feature more
 
By general I meant someone who could finish more chancs. Be that a wide or central attacker. Pep talked about that need above all else.

The fears that Aguero wouldn't make it with us was due to how much Pep moaned about quality in the final 3rd.

Pep might be more hopefully with feds coz they are young, I don't know, bit he certainly was more dissatisfied with our finishing than he was our defending

Pep did complain about lack of finishing (with justification), but the Aguero "rumours" were purely a concoction of the Scum media. Aguero, Pep or the club has said nothing about his ever being unsettled or wanting to leave - in fact exactly the opposite. Classic case of print something enough times, and it becomes a fact.

That aside, do you think he actually cares/cared more about strengthening our offence vs. getting at least 2 good FBs and a goalie?
 

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