Houssem Aouar

r.soleofsalford said:
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IMO we need a C/M with pace and aggression and ability.

We again in my IMO can`t have a mixture Fern, Rodri and Gundogan as a two and still maintain our silverware gathering. Gundogan has never been the player we thought we were buying due to 2 near career ending injuries. Weak and timid in the tackle since the injuries compared to before which is a shame because I thought he was a brilliant player prior to those 2 injuries.
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I think we need a proper decent central midfielder as much as we do a centre half and more than we do a left back or striker.

Three years ago our midfield was: Fernandinho, DSilva and de Bruyne. It was the best midfield in the world! While we still have de Bruyne, the quality of our midfield is miles behind what it was in 2017-18. Fucking miles behind.

Rodri is okay, decent enough but slow, and that’s not good enough. Gundogan was brilliant in 2018-19 but was so far off the pace last season it was painful. Foden will be inconsistent at 20, which is expected but won’t be good enough to win the league with players that aren’t of standard behind him...
 
Psychedelic Casual said:
I think we need a proper decent central midfielder as much as we do a centre half and more than we do a left back or striker.

Three years ago our midfield was: Fernandinho, DSilva and de Bruyne. It was the best midfield in the world! While we still have de Bruyne, the quality of our midfield is miles behind what it was in 2017-18. Fucking miles behind.

Rodri is okay, decent enough but slow, and that’s not good enough. Gundogan was brilliant in 2018-19 but was so far off the pace last season it was painful. Foden will be inconsistent at 20, which is expected but won’t be good enough to win the league with players that aren’t of standard behind him...
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Yes I`ll go with that. The signing of Ake has somewhat lessened the need to by a left back
 
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Psychedelic Casual said:
I think we need a proper decent central midfielder as much as we do a centre half and more than we do a left back or striker.

Three years ago our midfield was: Fernandinho, DSilva and de Bruyne. It was the best midfield in the world! While we still have de Bruyne, the quality of our midfield is miles behind what it was in 2017-18. Fucking miles behind.

Rodri is okay, decent enough but slow, and that’s not good enough. Gundogan was brilliant in 2018-19 but was so far off the pace last season it was painful. Foden will be inconsistent at 20, which is expected but won’t be good enough to win the league with players that aren’t of standard behind him...
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What people seem to forget is that we played with Delph as LB that season. Fernandinho was great, but while we were in the final 3rd, Delph would invert and sit next to Fernendinho as another holding midfielder. There was less space in midfield for opponents to play through, but the space was over the top to our left. Also let us not forget that although we were defensively solid in the 17/18 season we escaped with a lot of last minute winners. Both games against Southampton, Huddersfield, West Ham to name a few. Some of those results could have easily been draws.

When we played with Mendy this past season he had to stay high and wide to provide width which was hugely different to what Delph did. Rodri had to shift over, but he had too much space to cover. That's why at times would play both Rodri and Gundogan, but it did make us more porous in the midfield when the ball was lost.

I'm hoping this season Aké will do what Delph did and sit next to Rodri. Aké has the pace and can defend better than Delph or Zinchenko against counters. However, this would mean the forward players would need to create more by themselves instead of having an attacking LB like Mendy. But I do think with possibly Torres on the LW and Phil or Bernardo in the middle we can create enough chances and still be better against counters.
 
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Larry Stranger said:
What people seem to forget is that we played with Delph as LB that season. Fernandinho was great, but while we were in the final 3rd, Delph would invert and sit next to Fernendinho as another holding midfielder. There was less space in midfield for opponents to play through, but the space was over the top to our left. Also let us not forget that although we were defensively solid in the 17/18 season we escaped with a lot of last minute winners. Both games against Southampton, Huddersfield, West Ham to name a few. Some of those results could have easily been draws.

When we played with Mendy this past season he had to stay high and wide to provide width which was hugely different to what Delph did. Rodri had to shift over, but he had too much space to cover. That's why at times would play both Rodri and Gundogan, but it did make us more porous in the midfield when the ball was lost.

I'm hoping this season Aké will do what Delph did and sit next to Rodri. Aké has the pace and can defend better than Delph or Zinchenko against counters. However, this would mean the forward players would need to create more by themselves instead of having an attacking LB like Mendy. But I do think with possibly Torres on the LW and Phil or Bernardo in the middle we can create enough chances and still be better against counters.
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I agree with the rest of the post but I never ever understand this argument. If we hadn't scored any goals at all we could have easily drawn or lost all of our games. We won them because we never lost faith in each other or Pep s system. You don't get extra points for scoring early.
 
Walker understands the versatility Pep expects from full back. He can play conventional full back, attacking full back, and inverted full back and he is quick enough to defend when our high press breaks down. Mendy and Zinch both struggle to fit the full package for different reasons. Jury's still out on Cancelo who possibly can but maybe not on the left side. Ake, being mostly left footed fits the bill hopefully. I suspect that's where Pep wants him to play but it all depends (imo) on having a top class CB to partner Laporte.
 
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