It's Quiet 18 - Wanna ring the bell?

[Centurions]

Great news if Laporte goes to Saudi, don’t know why anyone gives a shit where he ends up as long as we get a permanent deal and a decent fee, it is what it is.

Yep, it's his and his families decision in the end, not the moral police who seem to think they have a say in matters.

 

[Centurions]

Sorry if it's been mentioned but what fee did we get for Laporte ?

Not been said yet.

 

[Asa's left peg]

If I'd won everything pretty much, maybe unsure how long before my knee goes again, had assurances from the national team about my place and can jet in on the team jet from Dubai then it's a no brainer. How long can their season be! Probably a lot less matches. Then there is the weather.
Then the fact he'd have to earn nearly twice that to keep it here or France or Spain.

The only draw back seems to be a few grains of sand in your bacon barm on a windy day!

 

[Semper aggressus]

Gvardiol in and Laporte out is good business I reckon. We probably have the best set of centre backs in the world.

We‘re still desperately light in midfield though, especially now with Kev’s injury.

 

[Dribble]

Why do people keep forgetting Lewis in discussions like this?

Lewis is the exception! He's a star in the making, Foden MkII...

 

[foggy1974]

Can it buy you happiness..but yea I see what your saying

Sheikh Mansours' wealth has bought the happiness of
City fans

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

Could you not play it with both centre halfs (Stones and Gvardiol) pushing up into midfield with Ederson taking the space left by then. Ake and Walker wide. Rodri then becomes the spare Gundo replacement (assist and a goal on Friday already showing he's more of a threat than Kova) and we then have 6 in attack and not 5. The box 4 becomes a diamond shape as Rodri advances but with Stones and Gvardiol you have two great players who can pass from deep in that really squeezed space and we have loads of runners attacking the half spaces in the oppo box? Unfortunately would mean no Dias :(

Or you could keep Stones at right back and Gvardiol at left back (Ake and Dias push wide with Ederson pushing up). They both invert - Stones makes the box 4 and Gvardiol becomes spare and moves up and down causing chaos, breaking lines and becoming Cancelo 2.0

Either way you end up with the spare man attacking. It's really vulnerable to overloads in the wide positions but to do that the opposition will need go leave even more space for us to attack. Walker, Dias, Ake are all good one on one defenders though whichever combo of the three you play. Although Pep's probably playing Akanji anyway

Absolutely and Pep would want the players to work out which combination works best against each opposition during a match.

Each opposition has its own strength and weaknesses. Pep is the master of finding them and coming up with how to nullify their strengths and exploit their weaknesses.

 

[Keeper!]

Laporte's rumored to be paid 400k a week TAX FREE.

Wow.

Nice work if you can get it, he would be crazy to turn that sort of offer down.

 

[Keeper!]

Rather Saudi than to one of our rivals. It beggars belief that clubs in Europe don't value Laporte, Cancelo or Bernie that highly, but yet are willing to pay way more for players nowhere near their playing level.

It's like there's a conspiracy against buying from City.

Laporte has has two serious injuries in the last few seasons, that may answer your question.

Class act he is but he has visibly slowed down since that knee injury and he was hardly fast before it.

 

[Asa's left peg]

It's been mentioned that the dippers got 40m for Fabinho - he's also 29 and has a worse injury record, I think.
(and is shite)