Is left back really a problem?

Maybe losing Mendy will help for squad reasons, but I'm not very excited at the prospect of too many matches with Laporte or Ake at left back. You will gain a bit at the back, but lose a lot going forward. We better hope Zinny stays healthy if we aren't going to bring someone else in.
 
kun said:
I don't think it suggests anything. Player gets charged with a crime, suspension until the matter is resolved.

If guilty, contract termination is inevitable.
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There’s a group for coppers on Facebook, serving and ex…. They have a very good case, just saying.
 
big issue
its now looking bad for mendy

city need to look at the balance and a new left back is needed. ake and laporte can play there but going forward struggle in getting back ? maybe the young EDS or youth team player can step up but its asking a lot
 
ancoats said:
big issue
its now looking bad for mendy

city need to look at the balance and a new left back is needed. ake and laporte can play there but going forward struggle in getting back ? maybe the young EDS or youth team player can step up but its asking a lot
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Not realy, best way to develop local players, we can never get an Alexander-Arnold if dont let them play a lot.
 
Summerbee88 said:
Not realy, best way to develop local players, we can never get an Alexander-Arnold if dont let them play a lot.
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am on the same page matey
love nothing more than a youth player coming through the ranks and given a chance
but pep and city are now under so much pressure to win every season that the youth are never push into the deep end and told to swim. city/pep do seem to take care in the development of the youth and sometimes far to much
 
not my fault! said:
There’s a group for coppers on Facebook, serving and ex…. They have a very good case, just saying.
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The fact he's in police custody means absolutely nothing about the strength of the case and no serving or ex police officer worth listening to would comment on live criminal proceedings in this way. Mods should be cracking down on this sort of talk.
 
ninjamonkey said:
We haven't been able to keep 3 top CB's happy, no idea how you think we keep 4 happy. Centre backs are never going to be rotated on a schedule, ever. chemistry, rhythm and form are vital. Let's say we have a knockout CL game and we're bringing in a cb from the cold because he didn't play the last 2 big games? not happening.
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Again I disagree. City's policy was always to have two top players for every position, as this would also provide cover for injuries, fatigue, loss of form & suspensions. We'll never have every squad member available for every match of the season. Hence if we're covered, every squad member should get a decent amount of game time.
 
Dribble said:
Again I disagree. City's policy was always to have two top players for every position, as this would also provide cover for injuries, fatigue, loss of form & suspensions. We'll never have every squad member available for every match of the season. Hence if we're covered, every squad member should get a decent amount of game time.
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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.
 
ninjamonkey said:
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.
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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. )(
 
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In the words of Officer Dribble in his latest post...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...
 
ninjamonkey said:
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.
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We could have 15 players capable of playing left back but not much use if it is a weak point that top opponents manage to exploit.
Regardless the man we are pretending doesn't exist will not be missed.
 
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