How do you assess our transfer business?

[I'm With Stupid]

Are we stronger than we were at the start of last season? No.

That's the only question you need to ask really. Torres and Ake are good signings, but neither really gets into our strongest eleven. Meanwhile, we've lost Silva and Sane who you could make a case do. Buying only youngsters and squad players is fine if you won the league by 20 points and kept the rest of the team together, but when you finished a distant second, you need to bring in guaranteed starters.

Having said that, Laporte will be like a new signing, and Bernardo has shown in the past that he's capable of delivering world class performances in a CM role (arguably POTY when KDB was out).

-1 point for not bringing in Koulibaly before the first game.

 

[blueparrot]

Are we stronger than we were at the start of last season? No.

That's the only question you need to ask really. Torres and Ake are good signings, but neither really gets into our strongest eleven. Meanwhile, we've lost Silva and Sane who you could make a case do. Buying only youngsters and squad players is fine if you won the league by 20 points and kept the rest of the team together, but when you finished a distant second, you need to bring in guaranteed starters.

Having said that, Laporte will be like a new signing, and Bernardo has shown in the past that he's capable of delivering world class performances in a CM role (arguably POTY when KDB was out).

-1 point for not bringing in Koulibaly before the first game.

Don’t think we are weaker than last season, named this team and bench earlier and asked who had a stronger 18, nobody suggested anyone.


Ederson
Walker ?????( lets guess Koulibaly) Laporte Ake
Rodri Bernardo
KDB
Torres Aguero Sterling

Bench 7 from
Steffen Cancelo Stones Gundogan Foden Mahrez Jesus Fernandinho mendy

 

[I'm With Stupid]

Don’t think we are weaker than last season, named this team and bench earlier and asked who had a stronger 18, nobody suggested anyone.


Ederson
Walker ?????( lets guess Koulibaly) Laporte Ake
Rodri Bernardo
KDB
Torres Aguero Sterling

Bench 7 from
Steffen Cancelo Stones Gundogan Foden Mahrez Jesus Fernandinho mendy

Well at the moment, Stones is going in that ????? and Pep said today that Ake is only playing left-back if we really need it, and he was bought as a CB. And let's be honest, Torres isn't better than Mahrez yet. Hence why I was saying that our strongest starting eleven is no different to last season.

Ederson
Walker Stones Laporte Mendy
Rodri
KDB Bernardo/Foden (but knowing Pep, probably Gundogan)
Mahrez Aguero Sterling

 

[blueparrot]

Well at the moment, Stones is going in that ????? and Pep said today that Ake is only playing left-back if we really need it, and he was bought as a CB. And let's be honest, Torres isn't better than Mahrez yet. Hence why I was saying that our strongest starting eleven is no different to last season.

Ederson
Walker Stones Laporte Mendy
Rodri
KDB Bernardo/Foden (but knowing Pep, probably Gundogan)
Mahrez Aguero Sterling

Fair enough but when did we put out an 11 as strong as that with injuries to Laporte , Mendy, Stones even, looked at the team that played wolves last year Otamendi and Fern started centre backs. At least now we have better back up to it and I’m almost certain we’ll get a new centre back partnering Laporte.. Think Torres will surprise people and be starting sooner than we think.

 

[rodders1973]

Ok, but we still need another experienced CB aswell as a striker. So I'll wait and see what happens in what remains of this transfer window.

 

[Paul1970]

We have made 2 good signings in ake and Torres.. is it enough to win the title I don’t think so . We really need another centre half because we will get injuries and straight away we are in the back foot. Also the left back position is still a cause for concern as both mendy and zinchenko are not good enough but maybe cancelo will step into that position. Hopefully fernandhino will stay in midfield and share that duty with Rodri who has in my eyes a make or break season. Gundogun will once again make us smile and tear our hair out as he isn’t going anywhere but our midfield is the best in the premier by a country mile but I’m really worried about our ability to miss really easy chances which cost us big games last season . Kun needs to be injury free all season if we are to win the title it’s as simple as that .

 

[Colin Bells Boots]

We have made 2 good signings in ake and Torres.. is it enough to win the title I don’t think so . We really need another centre half because we will get injuries and straight away we are in the back foot. Also the left back position is still a cause for concern as both mendy and zinchenko are not good enough but maybe cancelo will step into that position. Hopefully fernandhino will stay in midfield and share that duty with Rodri who has in my eyes a make or break season. Gundogun will once again make us smile and tear our hair out as he isn’t going anywhere but our midfield is the best in the premier by a country mile but I’m really worried about our ability to miss really easy chances which cost us big games last season . Kun needs to be injury free all season if we are to win the title it’s as simple as that .

Pep was spot on when he said we had problems at both ends of the pitch.

 

[1961_vintage]

Pep was spot on when he said we had problems at both ends of the pitch.

And he's been saying it for 2 seasons now.

 

[BluechesterCity]

Losing Laporte last season was one of the main reasons why we found ourselves in so much trouble. We haven't properly addressed this even with Ake coming in. We have to get an elite CB before the season starts. Sorry for stating the obvious.

 

[argyle]

Losing Laporte last season was one of the main reasons why we found ourselves in so much trouble. We haven't properly addressed this even with Ake coming in. We have to get an elite CB before the season starts. Sorry for stating the obvious.

I think moving Fernandinho out of midfield has been a bigger miss. We look a soft touch without him there.