It's Quiet the £250m return

King Jay said:
Let’s get more top injury prone players then, because they will manage a certain amount of games between them. No one is taking about a poor season. Ake and Stones are injury prone it’s facts. Stones barely played in the last years. Also i personally don’t rate Dias as much as you seem to do. For me he is weaker than Stones and Ake and has leadership qualities in terms of overall defending he isn’t as good as them and not as good as the starting CB of Liverpool and Arsenal.

Pep refused to change the squad last year which put us in trouble and then barely used the new players who were wanted by other clubs. At this point you need to sell these players so he won’t use them. The club has 7! CB. Most have 4-5 but we have 7. and 2 of those will always start the moment they come back and take the momentum of others. Akanji coming back from injury to play over an inform Nunes literally nearly killed us last season.
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Agree with you on Dias ,thanks to his leadership he seems to be a better defender than he really is. In our high line he struggles quite a lot.
 
Mad 4 It said:
Unless you take the old toys off Pep he will continue to use them. They have to be sold this window or expect the same as last season.
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Keep saying that doesn't make it true, and also completely ignores what Pep said himself about what he learnt about the younger players last season. It also assumes he doesn't want to win or give himself the best players to do it.
 
I think one of the issues with our defence, which is why we are so weak to an over the top ball is some centre backs are not good in the air, I've watched the Palace game , Juve game other highlights from last season.

Dias and Akanji are not good at aerial battles, Gvardiol stats he is better at dealing with over the top balls and aerial challenges, Noticed when the camera pans to Pep he looks so frustrated he starts shouting at the defence. Because its something that Pep can't do anything about.

Genuinely Dias and Akanji for their height lose so many aerial challenges. Juve game in particular they play a ball over the top from their keeper and both centre backs go for the ball and miss it giving Vlahovic a 1v1 against Ederson.

Stats back it up

Akanji only wins 17 percent of his aerial duels
Dias wins 11 percent of his Aerials duels
Stones wins 84 percent of his aerial duels
Ake wins 50 percent of Aerial duels
Gvardiol 77 percent of Aerial duels.
 
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Sheikh rattle and roll said:
So according to your ratings we have the weakest keeper and RB of the three teams
Coincidentally we are heavily linked to players in those two positions
You mention Arsenal and Liverpools links to very good players but not ours
There won’t be much between all three teams at the start of the season
That’s without knocking points of Arsenal for lack of experience and mentality on winning trophies
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We are DEFINITELY the worst when it comes to RB and GK, from what I seen online we wanted Cambiaso and Livramento (links have gone quiet) and Ederson doesn’t want to go Saudi anymore said he wants to stay (which isn’t a good thing). Also no bids for Grealish is a big worry too, he’s on very high wages and isn’t even picked in the matchday squad sometimes. He really needs to leave so we can get a top quality winger which will help big time. Defensively we were shocking last season (compared to our standards) our midfield looks back to its best but that’s it really.
 
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Gumzy97 said:
I think one of the issues with our defence, which is why we are so weak to an over the top ball is our centre backs are not good in the air, I've watched the Palace game , Juve game other highlights from last season.

Dias and Akanji are not good at aerial battles, Gvardiol sometimes wins it in the air but other times he misses the ball completely. Noticed when the camera pans to Pep he looks so frustrated he starts shouting at the defence. Because its something that Pep can't do anything about.

Genuinely Dias and Akanji for their height lose so many aerial challenges. Juve game in particular they play a ball over the top from their keeper and both centre backs go for the ball and miss it giving Vlahovic a 1v1 against Ederson.
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Forget Akanji, but I’ve said many times I don’t particularly rate Dias, and don’t think he’s good enough to be our first choice leader at the back. Hes regressed. Hes not quick, he’s crap in the air, and he’s got worse on the ball too. He’s a good leader within our inexperienced defence but that shouldn’t be enough to justify being in our first 11.
 
King Jay said:
Let’s get more top injury prone players then, because they will manage a certain amount of games between them. No one is taking about a poor season. Ake and Stones are injury prone it’s facts. Stones barely played in the last years. Also i personally don’t rate Dias as much as you seem to do. For me he is weaker than Stones and Ake and has leadership qualities in terms of overall defending he isn’t as good as them and not as good as the starting CB of Liverpool and Arsenal.

Pep refused to change the squad last year which put us in trouble and then barely used the new players who were wanted by other clubs. At this point you need to sell these players so he won’t use them. The club has 7! CB. Most have 4-5 but we have 7. and 2 of those will always start the moment they come back and take the momentum of others. Akanji coming back from injury to play over an inform Nunes literally nearly killed us last season.
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Well I don’t agree with hardly any of that so we’ll agree to disagree your highness :)
 
Rammy Blue said:
Forget Akanji, but I’ve said many times I don’t particularly rate Dias, and don’t think he’s good enough to be our first choice leader at the back. Hes regressed. Hes not quick, he’s crap in the air, and he’s got worse on the ball too. He’s a good leader within our inexperienced defence but that shouldn’t be enough to justify being in our first 11.
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I was just looking up the stats Dias only wins 11 percent of his Aerial duels. That's really poor, if you pair him with Stones you don't have to worry about that , but with Akanji who also is low on Aerial duels at 17 percent. No wonder Peps frustrated with the defence, your two fit centrebacks can't deal with over the top balls or route one.
 
Gumzy97 said:
I think one of the issues with our defence, which is why we are so weak to an over the top ball is some centre backs are not good in the air, I've watched the Palace game , Juve game other highlights from last season.

Dias and Akanji are not good at aerial battles, Gvardiol stats he is better at dealing with over the top balls and aerial challenges, Noticed when the camera pans to Pep he looks so frustrated he starts shouting at the defence. Because its something that Pep can't do anything about.

Genuinely Dias and Akanji for their height lose so many aerial challenges. Juve game in particular they play a ball over the top from their keeper and both centre backs go for the ball and miss it giving Vlahovic a 1v1 against Ederson.

Stats back it up

Akanji only wins 17 percent of his aerial duels
Dias wins 11 percent of his Aerials duels
Stones wins 84 percent of his aerial duels
Ake wins 50 percent of Aerial duels
Gvardiol 77 percent of Aerial duels.
Click to expand...
Yep we have been proper shite in the air for a while without Stonesy or Vinny
 
Gumzy97 said:
I was just looking up the stats Dias only wins 11 percent of his Aerial duels. That's really poor, if you pair him with Stones you don't have to worry about that , but with Akanji who also is low on Aerial duels at 17 percent. No wonder Peps frustrated with the defence, your two fit centrebacks can't deal with over the top balls or route one.
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If Stones could stay fit then Dias wouldn’t be in the side, fully fit Stones with Gvardiol is by far and away the best partnership. Unfortunately it’s highly unlikely to be one we see too often.
 
Rammy Blue said:
If Stones could stay fit then Dias wouldn’t be in the side, fully fit Stones with Gvardiol is by far and away the best partnership. Unfortunately it’s highly unlikely to be one we see too often.
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Dias will be much better playing consistently alongside Josko next season. Will also help that Ait Nouri is a physical specimen too. Once the three of them have a bit more chemistry and the midfield in front of them is functioning properly, we'll go back to being one of the best defensive sides in the country.

Worth remembering that last season we conceded 44 goals, and the title winners conceded 41. There's a much smaller road to travel to get back to our best than a lot of people realise.
 
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