It's Quiet the £250m return

Berti No Show said:
Look, I’ve been critical of Ruben Dias at times, but let’s be honest—since the day he walked through the door, he’s been absolutely top class. He’s only missed out on the league title once since joining us, and that was last season when our best player was out injured all year.

Ruben, along with the rest of the squad, has given everything. We’re talking about a team that’s done the Double, the Treble, made it to two Champions League finals, three FA Cup finals, and won four league titles on the bounce. That kind of success doesn’t come easy—it’s been unbelievably relentless. Most of those campaigns went right to the wire, and by the end of the season before last, the players looked absolutely spent. It felt like they were clinging on for that historic fourth title in a row, and once that was done, you could see the legs had gone. We needed to regroup, bring in some fresh blood.

But here’s the thing, you don’t just chuck out world class players like Ruben Dias after one tough season. The lad’s been a leader and a top performer since day one. Same goes for Phil Foden. It's madness to even suggest binning them off. They've earned a bit of leeway through the titles they have won. I just don’t get the stick they get sometimes on this forum and on social media platforms by our fanbase.
Click to expand...
Absolutely spot on. I can’t stand the majority our fanbase nowerdays. I used to think it was just the “I want everything now” younger generation, but it’s actually older fans as well talking absolute bollox. It’s just not very bright to expect such high levels of performance for 4/5 years and not to expect a car crash season. We’ve had ours, finished 3rd, were top on form after Xmas and reached a cup final. Some car crash season that eh?
 
KDBPLGOAT said:
Ratings Out of 10 (by position)

Man City
goalkeeper 6 (Ederson in 25/26?)
RB 4 (we don’t have one Rico? Nunez?)
LB 8
CB 7
CM 9
wingers 6
Striker 9
Manager 10

Liverpool-
goalkeeper 10
RB 8
LB 8
CB 9
CM 8
wingers 8
Striker 7
Manager 8

Arsenal
goalkeeper 9
RB 8
LB 8
CB 9
CM 8
wingers 9
Striker 8
Manager: 8

Both Liverpool and Arsenal are also heavily linked with Rodrygo and Eze too, these are top players too. IMO, we will probably have the 3rd best XI at the start of the season. First time in nearly 15 years we are going into the season as clear 3rd favourites by the bookies to win the league, and not in top 5 to win UCL.
Click to expand...
The gap is not that close between the strikers btw. Haaland is a 10 the other two are 6s until we see them play. Same in midfield, we literally have the current ballon d’or winner, that alone should make it 10 every other midfield is an 8 at best if you scale it properly. Our wingers are at least a 7 (marmoush, Foden/Cherki(whoever plays RW), Doku and Savio are a good crop of players). Managerially Pep is a ten, slot and arteta are 8s at best.
 
wattle said:
Absolutely spot on. I can’t stand the majority our fanbase nowerdays. I used to think it was just the “I want everything now” younger generation, but it’s actually older fans as well talking absolute bollox. It’s just not very bright to expect such high levels of performance for 4/5 years and not to expect a car crash season. We’ve had ours, finished 3rd, were top on form after Xmas and reached a cup final. Some car crash season that eh?
Click to expand...
Remember when Liverpool had their car crash season. Still had Salah, Van Dijk fit and finished in 5th position. We were actually top of the league in the last 20 games of the season. We just had a very mad 12 games and that was our season done. This won't happen again with the players we've brought in.
 
Pablo ZZZ Peroni said:
24/25 Prem from fbref:

Gvardiol 56.8 (56.7)
Ake 56.5 (63.5)
Dias 52.1 (57)
Akanji 47.6 (46)

Where have you got 11% and 17% from? Looks complete bollocks to me.

The figures in brackets are the averages in PL for their respective time at City.

Stones average for his time at City is 69.7%
Click to expand...

DataMB

Dias 11 percentile in Aerials
Akanji 17 percentile in Aerials

Stats are different on each site

You’ve got Dias at 52.1% then fotmob has got 40 percent. Datamb at 11 percentile.
 
Last edited:
ken tali said:
11% seems impossibly low yes ,but even 52 doesnt seem to be good? How are these comparing to Liverpools or Arsenals defenders?
Click to expand...

Liverpool

Van dijk 100% aerial success rate according to fotmob

Konate 70.8% aerial success rate according to fotmob

Arsenal

Saliba 62% success rate
Gabriel 59.1%
 
Berti No Show said:
How do we know if we don't play them? They could be 2 world beaters if given a fair run in the side. Khusanov was given a fair chance and won our player of the month, had 1 bad game and wasn't to be seen again. Players like that need a run of games.

We all know how difficult those Brazilian sides were in the CWC. Brazilian sides beat PSG, Chelsea and Inter Milan in the competition. The Brazilian league is fast, ferocious and physical, and Vitor Reis was Palmeiras main centre back in that side. He is ready right now.
Click to expand...
Great points...so why didn't hecreally play last year and why not much in the CWC? Also potential talk of a loan?
At present with what we know he is at the very best inexperienced and throwing a player in at the deep end is risky

I'd prefer yo see Stones and Ake leave, bring in one experienced centre half which gives us time to blood Reis and Khusonov at the right moments [ cip games, games where we are winning comfortably etc)

Do any of our senior centre half options ( not Stones and Ake) strike you as really top class.....
Gvardiol has the potential
Dias is one step below IMHO
Akanji is a no
 
Gumzy97 said:
DataMB

Dias 11 percentile in Aerials
Akanji 17 percentile in Aerials

Stats are different on each site

You’ve got Dias at 52.1% then fotmob has got 40 percent. Datamb at 11 percentile.
Click to expand...

Dias could be at 52% aerial success rate and be in the 11th percentile, as the latter depends on how it compares to every other defender
 
This tapping up from Madrid is what they do when a contract is being negotiated because they want a player for nought or way less! But until Rodri signs that contract it will carry on all season, also Rodri might fancy Madrid so it’s a wait and see!
 
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.
Click to expand...
Evidence of the above statement please.
 
Gumzy97 said:
DataMB

Dias 11 percentile in Aerials
Akanji 17 percentile in Aerials

Stats are different on each site

You’ve got Dias at 52.1% then fotmob has got 40 percent. Datamb at 11 percentile.
Click to expand...
I use Fotmob and it has Dias the same as FBref at 52.1% for 24/25 Premier League and not 40%.
FBref use OPTA data (presumably fotmob do as well) and I'm comfortable with that.

This is for percentage of aerial duels won as per your your original post but you've now changed it to percentile which is something else and might partially explain it. However, Dias has consistently been better than Akanji in terms of aerials won on average.

I've not used datamb.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top