It's Quiet 18 - Wanna ring the bell?

[PragueBlue]

There (it would seem) we have it.

 

[JWCH-99]

 

[ninjamonkey]

I think Haaland aside, Foden is the best finisher at the club. He's an absolute natural in front of goal and if Haaland were to get injured, i'd have no huge worries about Foden playing slightly further forward.

Fodens just won player of the year playing central and being involved as much as possible, many of us were constantly calling for him not to be pushed out wide where he isn't involved as much and now we are going to be pushing him further out of his natural position as the striker/false 9 if one player is unavailable.

Doesn't seem like a good plan to me. Not only is he not a striker, but we lose last seasons best player in his natural creative role too.

Nobody scored more goals from outside the box than foden last season, he isn't going to have the opportunity to bang them in from 20 yards when he's upfront waiting for the pass and even if he drops deep, there's no striker occupying the defenders to give him the space to do that.

 

[Trickyblues]

What makes you think we cannot spend big both windows? We bring in as much as anybody and we've made profit last 2 seasons, we aren't in a position where we need to put the brakes on spending, we could easily spend £200m+ today and next summer and the summer after and have zero issues, money isn't a restricting factor for us right now.

We definitely don’t need to put brakes on spending but who do you suggest we spend big on this summer and then next summer and who will be leaving? Pep stated many times he likes a small squad so I don’t see where all these expensive players, who will be excepting plenty of minutes, play.

 

[Gabriel]

Bobb’s your uncle…

 

[willipp]

Fodens just won player of the year playing central and being involved as much as possible, many of us were constantly calling for him not to be pushed out wide where he isn't involved as much and now we are going to be pushing him further out of his natural position as the striker/false 9 if one player is unavailable.

Doesn't seem like a good plan to me. Not only is he not a striker, but we lose last seasons best player in his natural creative role too.

Nobody scored more goals from outside the box than foden last season, he isn't going to have the opportunity to bang them in from 20 yards when he's upfront waiting for the pass and even if he drops deep, there's no striker occupying the defenders to give him the space to do that.

Not a chance Pep plays him as a striker like Haaland, he would just revert to the false 9 which i don't think is a bad back up plan if Haaland does get an injury.

Reality is, Foden continues to play his position he did last season and only as a false 9 if really needed.

 

[FMwkdsoul]

Blitz teams, fast and direct. Hook Hattrick Haaland on 60 mins and pass the game out.

Hope we rarely see F9 as a perm option for 90mins

 

[JewelZee]

We don't, you are right. And I wanted and expected one myself, for what it is worth.

What we do now have, instead of Alvarez is Gundogan and Savinho. Ok, they are not 'no.9s' but then neither was Alvarez really, the way we played him. He spent more time playing in Kevin's position than Haaland's even when he was injured.
9s 6s, the only numbers Pep sees anyway are completed passes, so we are not that rigid that our season would be defined by the absence of one player in a one specific position.

Btw, we could have signed a second striker, and he wouldn't have been immune from injury either.

All true. I hope Big Erl can go 32/33 games in Prem and most of CL. If that happens we should be gold...

 

[JewelZee]

Be interesting to see how pep approaches the carabau cup, fa cup early rounds etc.
one things certain, Haaland will not play every game so pep must have a ‘plan b’

Could find out in a couple of weeks v Watford...

 

[johnny crossan]

Any straws in the wind apart from Txiki's remark last night?