It's Quiet the £250m return

[King Jay]

Yes he is when the team has Rodri & a sting centre half pairing. Start of last season Rico was our best player, we lost our whole spine & he looked lacking & he was. He’s there to play in the small spaces which he does perfectly but when we struggle to maintain possession as a team he’s a risk. Nunes is a risk in possession but has great pace & physicality.

„ when and if“ when you start like that you know it’s not true. Rico individually is not anywhere near city standards. So basically he needs a solid Centre half pairing and Rodri. So he needs to be carried. That’s why he got turned in and outside by odobert during the game against France let alone Cherki.

And the best player at the start of last season was actually Savinho not Rico Lewis.

 

[wattle]

And the best player at the start of last season was actually Savinho not Rico Lewis.

 

[WesthoughtonJohn]

At the moment incomings are moot unless we can shift someone as our squad is too big

1. Eddie
2. Trafford (assuming Ortega goes)
3. Bertinelli
4. Nunes
5. Rico Lewis
6. Gvardiol
7. Dias
8. Akanji
9. Ake
10. Stones
11. Khusanov
12. Reis
13. Ait Nouri
14. Rodri
15. Kovacic
16. Gundogan
17. Nico
18. Bernardo
19. Reijnders
20. O'Reilly
21. Bobb
22. Foden
23.  Grealish
24. McAtee
25. Cherki
26. Doku
27. Savinho
28. Marmoush
29. Haaland

We have 29 players who, if come the close of the summer window are here would all want to be in our around the first team, that's 4 too many

We need to shift some bodies before we even think of incomings

We need the usual graphic(s) relating to who fits where in terms of PL/CL squads.
It might actually be useful to have it pinned somewhere mods???
@Gaz (FMwkdsoul) there's you and another guy who are good at this could you keep it updated???

 

[Haaland94]

Yes he is when the team has Rodri & a sting centre half pairing. Start of last season Rico was our best player, we lost our whole spine & he looked lacking & he was. He’s there to play in the small spaces which he does perfectly but when we struggle to maintain possession as a team he’s a risk. Nunes is a risk in possession but has great pace & physicality.

 

[lol yank]

The front 3 look strong
Marmoush Haaland Cherki with Savinho and Doku as back up. There'll get plenty of games.

Midfield 3 pretty good

Rodri, Reinjders, Foden with Bernardo, González as backup.

So who are unlikely to get too much game time? Bobb, Etcheverri, Kovacic, Gundogan

There’s no chance it plays out this way…

 

[oakiecokie]

I am not bothered about winning the PL. There is nothing up with my memory, as I clearly recall the numerous occasions when we were done over by opposition on one transition, one shot, one goal with not a defender in sight.

If that continues to happen, and it did in the CWC then we won't be winning the PL or any trophies this coming season.

And as I`ve suggested before its not just down to the defense but our midfielders, who last season had no pace whatsoever in helping out on containing a quick break from the opposition.

 

[handsofstone]

Rico Lewis, Nico O'reilly and I believe Bobb too all dont need to be registered this season so you can remove all those names from the count.

The restrictive factor then becomes the 17 free spots not the 25 man list of which we've currently got 19 so theres only 2 non-homegrown players we currently need to ship out to fit them all into the squad lists.

Reis going out on loan seems an obvious one to me, I'd like to see us include a recall option for January just in case so then if he goes on loan, it's just 1 more which I suspect as things stand, if the squad remains as is, will have to be a midfielder. However, if we also get rid of grealish, we open a homegrown spot which we can fill in any position and then that would allow flexibility in who we ship out.

Yes and no, we build our squad for the champions league where they do need registering

And while 2 non-hg means we can registering them all, but need to lose 3 of those to add someone new

The point remains, untill those hypotheticals whether its Grealish, Reis or someone else we can do anything at the moment

 

[cheekybids]

„ when and if“ when you start like that you know it’s not true. Rico individually is not anywhere near city standards. So basically he needs a solid Centre half pairing and Rodri. So he needs to be carried. That’s why he got turned in and outside by odobert during the game against France let alone Cherki.

And the best player at the start of last season was actually Savinho not Rico Lewis.

Deary me mate. Is Haaland any good without any service? You’ll see I said he was found out but who did look good in that period?

It’s how we play, Pep plays him in a role to ensure we make more passes not to defend 40 yards from goal. It’s all about opinions & I had more concerns about Savio last season & a return of 1 goal which was abysmal.

 

[cheekybids]

View attachment 164398

Those were Peps words….. we were unbeaten until October.

 

[Xhavenjoe]

Those were Peps words….. we were unbeaten until October.

People seem to forget how well we played at the start of last season.
Unbeaten in CL and PL until we had that Carabao Cup debacle with Spurs.
Went pear-shaped in November when we went on that desperate run

 

[richards30]

Just get a bloody right back!

 

[TonyM]

Don’t disagree with you but. This is what we need to change next season this is awful. It’s transitions that really hurt us last season.

View attachment 164349
View attachment 164350

It's not the spike that jumps out at me, it's the upward trend. Imo last years injuries made an already poor set of defensive tactics worse. So unless we fix our style of play we may not be much better when it matters even with Rodri and others back.

 

[alexmcity]

It's not the spike that jumps out at me, it's the upward trend. Imo last years injuries made an already poor set of defensive tactics worse. So unless we fix our style of play we may not be much better when it matters even with Rodri and others back.

We were chasing a consecutive Treble as late as mid-April in 23/24, won 4 in a row and got beaten in the league in October...

No need to change the style of play.

We need Rodri back plus several fresher and hungrier players.

 

[The Stockport Iniesta]

Just get a bloody right back!

I was the CF in the school team but had an argument with the teacher who ran the team. As a punishment he made me play RB for the next 2 games so I suppose I could do it at a push.

 

[citytill1die84]

People seem to forget how well we played at the start of last season.
Unbeaten in CL and PL until we had that Carabao Cup debacle with Spurs.
Went pear-shaped in November when we went on that desperate run

People seem to forget? We wasn’t playing well at all we were scraping by. Couple lucky results last minute winner at Wolves, lucky at home to Brentford, Southampton and Fulham. Beat the mighty West Ham and Ipswich the only decent result was away to an unknown Chelsea opening day.

Unbeaten in Champions League we’d played Inter at home and Sparta away. League cup we beat Watford.

We were far from convincing and the signs were showing.

 

[Doc_Testosterone]

The front 3 look strong
Marmoush Haaland Cherki with Savinho and Doku as back up. There'll get plenty of games.

Midfield 3 pretty good

Rodri, Reinjders, Foden with Bernardo, González as backup.

So who are unlikely to get too much game time? Bobb, Etcheverri, Kovacic, Gundogan

I am curious why everyone thinks Foden, who has always played better as a winger, will be in midfield over Cherki.

 

[King Jay]

I am curious why everyone thinks Foden, who has always played better as a winger, will be in midfield over Cherki.

In the mind of some he is still a 10

 

[blueparrot]

I am curious why everyone thinks Foden, who has always played better as a winger, will be in midfield over Cherki.

I think they will both play and switch the 10 and wide right between them maybe several times in a game. Unless one starts to stand out more in one position or the other.In fact think the 3 behind Haaland will be very fluid.

 

[Xhavenjoe]

People seem to forget? We wasn’t playing well at all we were scraping by. Couple lucky results last minute winner at Wolves, lucky at home to Brentford, Southampton and Fulham. Beat the mighty West Ham and Ipswich the only decent result was away to an unknown Chelsea opening day.

Unbeaten in Champions League we’d played Inter at home and Sparta away. League cup we beat Watford.

We were far from convincing and the signs were showing.

You can take a negative spin on it but we were top, had won 7 of our first 9 PL games, The 2 games where we had dropped points were in drawing away to Newcastle and drawing with arsenal in that game where Rodri got injured, Trossard was sent off and we were camped in their area for the whole of the 2nd half.
3 games played in the CL 7 points gained, 9 goals for and none conceded.

 

[richards30]

I was the CF in the school team but had an argument with the teacher who ran the team. As a punishment he made me play RB for the next 2 games so I suppose I could do it at a push.

Might take you up on that offer mate ;-)