Defensive Midfielder

SidJames said:
No idea what the long term solution is.

I am sure Rodri is not it though.

He is not a bad player. He is well suited for the much slower La Liga.

In the Prem though he is far too slow,and wants too much time on the Ball. You press him and he loses the Ball.

We might see Grealish given a go in this role during this season, if Bernado stays.

Will be interesting

I was impressed with Grealish physicalitty.
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Gaelic football training as a youngster. He should be used to getting knocked around.

He has good lower body strength.
 
Its glaringly obvious that Mendy and Ake are not good enough for City and need to be moved on ASAP.

But having been a massive Fernandinho fan like 99% of blues I have to say I am very concerned about the holding role in our team for this season. Dinos performance against Spurs seems to have gone under the radar due to Mandy and Ake‘s predictably shit contribution but he was also very poor. Dino will be 37 years old by the time this season finishes and his speed and reaction time in the centre of the park against quicker younger athletes is frequently found wanting, something that was very evident against Spurs. Yes he can read the game but I’m sorry he is nowhere even close to the player who has served us so well up until a couple of seasons ago, he gives away a lot more free kicks these days when he tries to get the ball but is just too late. His pace around the pitch and recovery runs are so much slower. You can’t stop the aging process, it catches up with all players and Dino is no different.

To compound the problem I’m not a big Rodri fan. I feel he is a bit of a plodder and isn’t dynamic enough with no real edge to his game. My biggest criticism is his lack of penetration in his passing range, always going side or backwards. Dino always looks to penetrate when he can but Rodri just plays safe all the time and misses loads of chances turn defences or thread quality passes forward.

Rodri does have a place to play in the squad, but with only him and a player way past his best competing for the position I have big concerns.

We need a striker a left back AND A HOLDING M/F
 
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swblue64 said:
Its glaringly obvious that Mendy and Ake are not good enough for City and need to be mover on ASAP.

But having been a massive Fernandinho fan like 99% of blues I have to say I am very concerned about the holding role in our team for this season. Dinos performance against Spurs seems to have gone under the radar due to Mandy and Ake‘s predictably shit contribution but he was also very poor. Dino will be 37 years old by the time this season finishes and his speed of reaction in the centre of the park against quicker younger athletes was very evident against Spurs. Yes he can read the game but I’m sorry he is nowhere even close to the player who has served us so well up until a couple of seasons ago.

To compound the problem I’m not a big Rodri fan. I feel he is a bit of a plodder and isn’t dynamic enough with no real edge to his game. My biggest criticism is his lack of penetration in his passing range, always going side or backwards. Dino always looks to penetrate when he can but Rodri just plays safe all the time and misses loads of chances turn defences or thread quality passes forward.

Rodri does have a place to play in the squad, but with only him and a player way past his best competing for the position I have big concerns.

We need a striker a left back and a holding m/f.
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I cant disagree. Fern looked leggy v spurs and its nothing more than Date of Birth Syndrome. It comes to us all. He’ll have a roll to play in certain games though.

Rodri doesnt float my boat. Again he’ll have a roll to play in certain games but feel he comes up short in the big games.

Trouble is, top class DMs are like hens teeth, they are so few and far between and dont come around often.
we need our scouting network to find an uncut diamond, though i dont hold out hope

LB, mendy is poor but i like Zinchenko. He might not be top drawer but i think he suits us.
thing is, cant remember the last really decent LB we had. Maybe clichy was nearly there. So over 10 years we obviously just cant spot an LB

And weve needed a striker for 2 years. The longer the silence on Kane goes on the more i doubt itll happen. Be a huge error to go into another season without a top striker
 
marcus said:
I cant disagree. Fern looked leggy v spurs and its nothing more than Date of Birth Syndrome. It comes to us all. He’ll have a roll to play in certain games though.

Rodri doesnt float my boat. Again he’ll have a roll to play in certain games but feel he comes up short in the big games.

Trouble is, top class DMs are like hens teeth, they are so few and far between and dont come around often.
we need our scouting network to find an uncut diamond, though i dont hold out hope

LB, mendy is poor but i like Zinchenko. He might not be top drawer but i think he suits us.
thing is, cant remember the last really decent LB we had. Maybe clichy was nearly there. So over 10 years we obviously just cant spot an LB

And weve needed a striker for 2 years. The longer the silence on Kane goes on the more i doubt itll happen. Be a huge error to go into another season without a top striker
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I agree with most of that and the OP but as regards Kane, the longer the silence the better otherwise they'd have announced he's staying which quite simply, they haven't!
 
He was great 1st half but tired 2nd half. Change should have been made in that position to put Rodri in at that point. He has to get through a lot of work and he had "proper" games for 3 months unlike most of the squad. If he is managed corectly, he will still be great for us in the games where we need him
 
Thought Fernandinho was our best player by a mile in the first half. With Grealish far too wide leaving Gundogan overrun in attacking mid against three men at all times; Fernandinho was mopping up everything he could to make up for that.

He faded massively in the second half though, but that was probably down to how much work he had to do in the first half.

I’ve always been critical of Rodri. But after seeing Rice for England, it made me realise how good a player Rodri is. He’s a few levels above Rice.
 
Psychedelic Casual said:
Thought Fernandinho was our best player by a mile in the first half. With Grealish far too wide leaving Gundogan overrun in attacking mid against three men at all times; Fernandinho was mopping up everything he could to make up for that.

He faded massively in the second half though, but that was probably down to how much work he had to do in the first half.

I’ve always been critical of Rodri. But after seeing Rice for England, it made me realise how good a player Rodri is. He’s a few levels above Rice.
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If we are planning on using Grealish more centrally, it will probably take time for him to stop drifting out too wide as it's what he's done for years.
 
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