I'm not really sure what you're disagreeing with tbh, most of what I said in that post was just fact.
we've got 2 players for every position at the back, mendy was permanently injured which turned into a blessing in disguise really as it allowed us to give minutes to cancelo, ake and laporte in that position and even with ake being out for most of the season we still couldn't keep everybody happy. Swap mendy for somebody who isn't permanently injured and keeping everybody happy, something we haven't been able to do with 6 players for most of the season becomes impossible with 8. Keeping 7 players content and not having 2 specialist left backs is infinitely preferable to failing to keep 8 players happy and having to buy multiple replacements every season. Excluding Mendy who we will pretend doesn't exist for now, we've got 4 players capable of playing left back more than adequately, we don't need a 5th.
I've already explained why we failed to keep Laporté in particular happy last season. We generally setup with Dias & A Nother, usually Stones. My point is this, if we had 4 equally good CB's & they shared the playing load equally, what's the problem?
Laporté was pissed because Dias & Stones were generally selected, & when Laporté was used, it was in a distinctly second string side. Laporté probably believes he's better than that & wants to play in the top matches.
If we were to play PSG in the CL & he was on the bench, but the following weekend started against the Rags in the Derby, both are huge matches, so he couldn't moan. If he was then selected in the CL PSG return the following week, & benched for the PL match vs Chelsea the following weekend, he's equally shared 50% of our major matches with the other CB's. That's the level of squad I'd love us to have.
I get why Silva is unhappy. As I stated a few days ago we went on a 7 match (I think) winning run in the PL. Up comes the Derby & a not match fit KDB is immediately selected & Silva dropped to the bench. Silva was on a hot streak of form, & KDB was as rusty as fuck.
I could sense from that day that Silva probably thought he was always gonna be playing second fiddle to Gundog & KDB regardless of how he played. I thought playing KDB in that match was a mistake, & so it proved as we were shit & KDB was badly out of sorts. That decision was on Pep & not one I would have made.
We can easily have two almost equally as good teams to share the load over 4 competitions throughout the season. However, that ain't gonna happen with the drop in quality between Dias & Aké, or Zin & Mendy.
Cancelo can play LB, but he's a better RB. Zin has earned his LB spot through hard graft, endeavour & skill. What I & many fans believe is that we need a proper specialist LB to share the load with Zin, & increase the quality of our squad's gene pool. All this square pegs in round holes to me is utter bollocks & unnecessary. We had the same at CB 2 seasons ago with some fans famously saying 'Play Fern there, Rodri or Harewood Bellis' & we'll be fine. Look how the square pegs in round holes ended up that season? :-|
With what I've suggested, we'd be infinitely stronger, we'd put less playing stress on our squad, & I'm pretty sure our players would accept playing 30+ top class games each for City per season, rather than some playing 50+, plus internationals, & others barely scraping 20.
Pep is continually lamenting that top class players are being burned out being expected to play so many top class matches. This is one way to better our squad, & help save our players physically. Sorry if this doesn't make sense to you, but it makes utter sense to me, as it's what Pep, Txiki & Soriano have always said was our ultimate goal. We've just got to share that load better so that all our players feel fully involved across the season.
OK, only 11 can start a CL final, but another 11 can start an FA Cup final, or the pivotal game to secure a title. That will never happen when we have such a serious drop off in performance when the likes of Mendy & Aké play. We're literally a top striker, top LB, CB & a CDM short of achieving that for next season. )(
