De Bruyne?

[TRUE BLUE NO1]

so is he any good then?

Hi Sterling Silva, have a look at De Bruyne's top 10 goals link I posted on last page mate.....I think this is what he would bring to the table.....pace, direct, great final ball and will give us goals.....think he would be a great signing mate!;)

 

[Blue warrior]

I think we look good on the eye but we don't work hard enough without the ball. Some individual's press but not as a team.

 

[waspish]

I think we look good on the eye but we don't work hard enough without the ball. Some individual's press but not as a team.

agree we should change to everyone getting behind the ball as quickly as possible once we lose it.. This high pressing is why we look all over the place when teams attack

 

[bluemick1]

Maybe it's time to give up on him (and Pogba). Both have been offered (allegedly) vast amounts of money and seem to be just waiting around to see if better offers come in. I'm sure if they wanted to come to City there would have been more said on their part.
I would rather sign a "lesser player" if they genuinely wanted to play for us.

 

[Dr Jacoby]

Reminds me of a young Bastian Schweinsteiger.

 

[bluwes]

Maybe it's time to give up on him (and Pogba). Both have been offered (allegedly) vast amounts of money and seem to be just waiting around to see if better offers come in. I'm sure if they wanted to come to City there would have been more said on their part.
I would rather sign a "lesser player" if they genuinely wanted to play for us.

We did that before when we missed out on Hazard and Isco, we ended up with Garcia and Jovetic. It doesn't work

 

[CC1]

Maybe it's time to give up on him (and Pogba). Both have been offered (allegedly) vast amounts of money and seem to be just waiting around to see if better offers come in. I'm sure if they wanted to come to City there would have been more said on their part.
I would rather sign a "lesser player" if they genuinely wanted to play for us.

How do you know this? The negotiations are somewhat out of their hands…..

 

[imtangledupinblue]

Nah mate he's coming to City. You worry about signing Muller and Bale ;)

Rag

 

[salfordpaul]

Thanks Kippax! ;)

true blue i have to agree with kippax, you are a breath of fresh air.....an outstanding poster who i always read......keep it up pal :-)

 

[franksinatra]

I'd say it's the opposite. I think having a solid base in midfield will help us both with and without the ball. With the ball, we'd have more of a solid midfield and should be able to keep the ball better against better opposition and against the teams that press us high up, (we're currently awful at keeping possession against teams that press us, especially when our entire game is built around keeping possession). Without the ball we get absolutely ripped apart by not just the best teams but average teams too. It's just fortunate that in the league we're generally the best possession team there is so we don't lose the ball much and therefore the huge defensive weaknesses in our system aren't exploited as much as they otherwise would. Then we get to the champions league where suddenly we don't have 70% possession because we can't keep the ball against better teams and we look lost and sometimes amateurish. Unless we reach Barcelona's standard we'll never win the champions league with the current system imo.




You;re right about both. regarding his pace. he occasionally looks like nobody can sprint past him then 2 minutes later the very same player will practically walk passed him. It's an odd one, i'm still not sure whether he's quick or not. And the system is going to make anybody who's main purpose in the team is to offer a defensive contribution look a lot worse than they are. The players are (almost) all there, to win the league anyway, it's the system that's letting us down.

So who would you drop then to accommodate this midfield three?. If we base the team on my system of a 4-2-3-1 with the three being Nasri/De Bruyne, Silva, Sterling and Aguero up top which player would you drop. I fail to see how dropping any of those three for Fernando or Delph would help us retain the ball better. I can understand being more pragmatic in certain games but a typical game, particularly at the Etihad, is primarily based in the oppositions half. Removing a creative player to allow a midfield three to counter a non-existent attacking threat seems pretty pointless.