Hughes Transfer Strategy ?

[Somud]

Why do we need a big 6"+ centre half?

If you play with a back four of Richards, Toure, Onuoha and Bridge you could defend high up the pitch and rely on the pace and tackling ability. This season we're going to come up against a lot of teams who will try and hit us with quick counter attacks, the attack we have to scare opposition teams particularly at home into defending deep and playing this way. The last person you want defending against pacey attackers is Hangeland or someone similar.

I think our central defenders' ball control and passing, and ability to organize the defence and read the game is more important than pace at the back when we play high up. We don't want to base our game on running duels for the last man. Of course, great pace helps, but these types of defenders tend to have less developed positional sense and ability to read the game, as they have always just relied on their pace.

 

[chrisb182]

Yeah, I was thinking more about our ability to defend from set pieces with the DM also being short. It is true that height definitely isn't that important for a DM, but when the rest of the team is also quite short or not known for their good aerial ability, we might have a problem at our hands. This might be an argument for playing Kompany at DM especially in games where the opposition lies deep and is counting on nicking goals from set pieces. What do you think?

True. I'm not sure how many goals City conceded from set-pieces but in height terms, we are prettty small.

But I think Hughes has rectified this by bringing in Roque Santa Cruz and Emmanual Adebayor... both are 6ft 3" (ish).

I can see City using BOTH of these players against teams that are predominantly bigger than us in stature ... so it wouldn't surprise me if Hughes uses both of them to defend at set-pieces and in turn use the likes of Tevez, Wright-Phillips, Petrov, Bellamy ... etc, as a counter-attack option once the ball is cleared.

I'm sure that Hughes and the coaching staff will point this out in training.

In a nut-shell, with the exception of another tall central defender (and maybe a cover for left back and Ireland), I think that Hughes has got all the bases covered.

 

[smiles]

IMHO I think it is very unlikely you will see Dunne and Onouha as the CB partnership ever again. Toure will start with Lescott if we sign him, failing that which ever CB we sign... There's quite a list building of possibles. Onuoha clearly has a future at the club and a bright one at that, Richard 'won't be forced out' Dunne I'm not so hopefully on.

Obviously the Dunne/Onuoha was conditional on us not signing anyone else.

But of the ones we've got so far, I see Dunne as the only real organiser we've got (and I know people don't rate his abilities in that regard to highly, but I would disagree). Toure was at his best alongside an organiser in Cambell, when he lost it so did Toure to an extent. Ned and Richards are kids, I wouldn't expect either to take on that role. So if a signing was to come in to replace Dunne, it would have to be someone that can marshall a back 4 and in particular help organise a Toure or Onuoha alongside of him.

I think its fair to call Dunne a leader, he hasn't been club captain for so long for nothing, but an organiser he is not, we conceded 50 league goals last season, that it not the mark of an organised defense and is precisely why MH's is buying a new CB pair.
With regards to Toure, yes he formed an excellent partnership with Campbell but his best form was with suprisingly, Senderos during the 05/06 season.

'The 2005/2006 season was arguably Toure's most impressive on an individual level, as he formed a lethal partnership with Phillipe Senderos that led Arsenal to a record ten consecutive clean sheets in the UEFA Champions League.'

<a class="postlink" href="http://goal.com/en/news/9/england/2009/07/30/1412494/goalcom-player-profile-kolo-toure" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://goal.com/en/news/9/england/2009/ ... kolo-toure</a>

As we know now, Senderos is far from an organiser and is not a leader either. I think people are being unduly harsh on Toure. Yes, he had a bad season with Arsenal before he came to us, but from 04-08 he has an awesome record. I think you'll see with time that he is a classy defender who has leadership qualities and the ability to organise a back line.

 

[salfordblue-tony2]

BRING BACK DISTIN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[smiles]

True. I'm not sure how many goals City conceded from set-pieces but in height terms, we are prettty small.

I've geeked out on the defensive stats and we conceded 24 goals in our 6 yard box last season. Our defensive stats are pretty terrible. The link compares us with renegated Newcastle and we don't look much better.

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.statbunker.com/football/btb/index.php?PL=team&CompID=243&TeamID=14&statType=defencestats&TeamID2=16" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.statbunker.com/football/btb/ ... TeamID2=16</a>

 

[moomba]

I think its fair to call Dunne a leader, he hasn't been club captain for so long for nothing, but an organiser he is not, we conceded 50 league goals last season, that it not the mark of an organised defense and is precisely why MH's is buying a new CB pair.

Think you need to query whats down to organisation and whats down to quality. A lot of those goals were down to individual mistakes (several by Dunne himself) and that doesn't have a lot to do with organisation. I still see him as the only organiser we have, and I think it's apparent when he's not there that we do lack another defender capable of organising a back line.

With regards to Toure, yes he formed an excellent partnership with Campbell but his best form was with suprisingly, Senderos during the 05/06 season.

Must admit I can't recall that period. I would be interested to know the opposition was in those champions league games. I'm also wary of reading too much into Arsenals clean sheets as a lot of it has to do with the fact that they have so much more of the ball than their opponents.

I still recall Toure struggling when Campbell left, and I don't think he has really recovered back to his best since.

 

[chrisb182]

True. I'm not sure how many goals City conceded from set-pieces but in height terms, we are prettty small.

I've geeked out on the defensive stats and we conceded 24 goals in our 6 yard box last season. Our defensive stats are pretty terrible. The link compares us with renegated Newcastle and we don't look much better.

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.statbunker.com/football/btb/index.php?PL=team&CompID=243&TeamID=14&statType=defencestats&TeamID2=16" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.statbunker.com/football/btb/ ... TeamID2=16</a>

That is pretty dire.

I think we were the top goalscorers outside the top 4, but conceded the most goals in the top 10.

 

[smiles]

I think its fair to call Dunne a leader, he hasn't been club captain for so long for nothing, but an organiser he is not, we conceded 50 league goals last season, that it not the mark of an organised defense and is precisely why MH's is buying a new CB pair.

Think you need to query whats down to organisation and whats down to quality. A lot of those goals were down to individual mistakes (several by Dunne himself) and that doesn't have a lot to do with organisation. I still see him as the only organiser we have, and I think it's apparent when he's not there that we do lack another defender capable of organising a back line.

With regards to Toure, yes he formed an excellent partnership with Campbell but his best form was with suprisingly, Senderos during the 05/06 season.

Must admit I can't recall that period. I would be interested to know the opposition was in those champions league games. I'm also wary of reading too much into Arsenals clean sheets as a lot of it has to do with the fact that they have so much more of the ball than their opponents.

I still recall Toure struggling when Campbell left, and I don't think he has really recovered back to his best since.

Organisation, quality, call it what you want, conceding 50 goals, 24 of them in your own 6 yard box is terrible. I think its great that we have fans loyal to Dunne, but defensively we can do a lot better and MH is making that happen as I type.

 

[smiles]

10 champions league clean sheets partnered with Senderos.... jesus, give the man some credit when its due!!!

 

[moomba]

I think its great that we have fans loyal to Dunne, but defensively we can do a lot better and MH is making that happen as I type.

It's not a matter of being loyal to Dunne.

I'm more than happy for us to sign a replacement for him, and of the two that finished the season I'd rather get games into Ned than Dunne over the course of the season.

But it's not just a matter of finding a replacement thats a good centre half, he will need to have attributes that we will lose if Dunne moves out of the side. Otherwise it won't be much of an upgrade at all.