It's Quiet 18 - Wanna ring the bell?

[Gaz (FMwkdsoul)]

I dont think beating Luton is any basis for a presumption that we are ok without him with the players we currently have....
No we are not a one man team I agree but without Rodri we are defensively and attacking wise worse off and none of the combinations of players you mention (or that are possible with the current squad work anywhere near good enough to win important games)

Phillips with anyone or on his own - this is just a no - even alongside rodri he makes us worse
Nunes and Kovacic - both good ball carriers but neither are very good defenislvely

Kovacic and Rodri - not enough creativity as you have to drop one of KDB or Foden (unless you play foden wide which we all know aint the answer)

Rico can play in the midfield BUT not alongside anyone other than rodri

There is John Stones who is more than capable defensively and balll retention wise.....BUT he is so unreliable with his injuries that you cannot put all your eggs into this basket

Disagree worked more than fine in the run in. Just moves into the 10, Gvardiol plays left.

 

[simon23]

Would put money on Nunes, Walker and Bernardo staying, probably Alvarez too, Ederson 50/50.

I agree

BUT

Nunes is taking up a spot....He aint going to be used by Pep - plenty of times Pep could have used him and he chose to bring a younger player on instead of him....He is a decent ball carrier but that is about it..no goal threat and no creativity

Walker is starting to lose it - he has lost focus for whatever reason..it was there with us last seasona nd again for England - he doesnt want to be here and we cannt afford to have players like that that are both declining and have lost motivation

Alvarez is clearly making noises about wanting to leave - he will probably stay as you say as no one will be able to afford him - hopefully he has the mindset to not slack off and still be motivated (I think he will be ok in this respect) - I suspect someone will put a low ball bid in for him last minute

Bernardo - same as Alvarez but i can see someone putting in a low ball last minute bid for him on deadline day just to test our resolve.....it will be below our asking price but we know the club are more more inclinded to let players go if they dont want to be here and its been no secret for about 3 years now that Bernardo fancies going back to europe.

Ederson is looking more like going than staying based on Peps comments.

 

[simon23]

Disagree worked more than fine in the run in. Just moves into the 10, Gvardiol plays left.

Its fine but we need to be better than fine over the course of a full season...we were no where near our best last season....other teams will improve again so we need to be better than fine.

 

[Gaz (FMwkdsoul)]

Its fine but we need to be better than fine over the course of a full season...we were no where near our best last season....other teams will improve again so we need to be better than fine.

maybe phil put up outstanding number in there. can see us switching to a 2-3 build again in most games this season .

 

[better dead than red]

Lol calm Diablo, it was written, its your fate!

¡Ay, Dios mio!

 

[KennyG]

The main gripe for me is we are acting like Everton, as in being under severe financial constraint. We’ve been lucky with injuries in last two seasons, now there is an expanded champions league.

Last season we wouldn’t have won the league, if we had got past Madrid, the squad would’ve been stretched to breaking point.
This is not a squad that can compete on all fronts, we’d need a big buffer of points in the league by the springtime to go all the way in Europe.

The fact is, the gap between us and Arsenal is getting so small, and we’ve allowed it to get that way, unnecessarily.

This season will probably be the one where we get found out.

 

[bell_mcfc]

We have such a talented and experienced squad I’d like to see some young players come through rather than signings. McAtee, Lewis, Bobb and Perrone could all do a job and familiar with how we play. Palmers move highlights how good these guys can be as they’ve been playing this style of football for years now.

We need a Rodri back up/midfielder that can play alongside him. We might go into the season with that option being Kovacic.

If Nunes was to go (don’t think he will) give those minutes to McAtee/Lewis.

Lewis is really a midfielder but can invert for us and should be getting more minutes, especially if Walkers form dips. Akanji can also play there. If Walker was to go we could probably get by just fine and Lewis will find it hard to get minutes in midfield.

Bobb. No need for another CAM/Winger. No need for Olmo, Paq, etc. give him the minutes.

 

[supercity88]

I dont think beating Luton is any basis for a presumption that we are ok without him with the players we currently have....
No we are not a one man team I agree but without Rodri we are defensively and attacking wise worse off and none of the combinations of players you mention (or that are possible with the current squad work anywhere near good enough to win important games)

Phillips with anyone or on his own - this is just a no - even alongside rodri he makes us worse
Nunes and Kovacic - both good ball carriers but neither are very good defenislvely

Kovacic and Rodri - not enough creativity as you have to drop one of KDB or Foden (unless you play foden wide which we all know aint the answer)

Rico can play in the midfield BUT not alongside anyone other than rodri

There is John Stones who is more than capable defensively and balll retention wise.....BUT he is so unreliable with his injuries that you cannot put all your eggs into this basket

There aren't many games we can make a call on when we play without Rodri. Wolves, Arsenal, Villa. Other injury issues had an impact on how we lined up in those so I don't put too much on the whole "we can't win without Rodri" statement. The Luton game was more reflective because we had a fully fit squad near enough. I also don't judge players on the odd game because combinations and time in the squad and under Pep make a huge difference as we've seen with plenty of players in his time. Phillips isn't worth mentioning, he's not replacing anyone sadly and will be gone as soon as we can get rid.

There's also the fact that all this panic over Rodri is potentially unnecessary. He missed games because he was suspended. Otherwise he's been fit and available. So the rest is all hypothetical. He needs resting, but there are opportunities to do it. Ideally not away from home and ideally not against sides at the top of the table. But certainly even bringing him off after 60 minutes or so would help.

 

[blueparrot]

The main gripe for me is we are acting like Everton, as in being under severe financial constraint. We’ve been lucky with injuries in last two seasons, now there is an expanded champions league.

Last season we wouldn’t have won the league, if we had got past Madrid, the squad would’ve been stretched to breaking point.
This is not a squad that can compete on all fronts, we’d need a big buffer of points in the league by the springtime to go all the way in Europe.

The fact is, the gap between us and Arsenal is getting so small, and we’ve allowed it to get that way, unnecessarily.

This season will probably be the one where we get found out.

Nonsense,IF we don't bring anyone else in then it's because we choose to not bring anyone else in.If people leave then we'll replace them. This season is the one we'll get found out really again every summer we hear this or we'll have a fight for top 4. The lack of trust in the club and how we go about our business is ridiculous after the last 10 years.

 

[TonyM]

We still have a squad capable of winning promotion from the Championship. It's going to be a great season!!!!