It's Quiet the £250m return

[John Wayne]

I expect it to be crazy week

For incomings as well as outgoings?

In a week's time, might we be thinking Saturday's dismal showing was a blessing in disguise?

 

[richards30]

But not a natural RB.
TBH, I am not bothered about the latter because I am very happy to continue to allow the right back to invert. Others are not, which changes the whole pattern of play.
BUT, if you do allow what we have been doing then you do need to have cover. When Stones joined the midfield, Walker covered. If Lewis joins the midfield, then a pacy CB needs to be the cover.

Khus was great when he played there for a few games last season? Pace to burn, aggressive and an actual defender? The inverting thing is finished now imo, let the flair players do their thing further up and stay more solid at the back.

 

[Xhavenjoe]

I think Reis' loan deal including a break clause probably gives us the insurance we need. If we lose Ake AND Akanji then we'd definitely need an extra body.

But if he has that clause, can he be re - registered before the next transfer window?
I think the only situation where than can occur is if it is a goalkeeping " crisis" situation.

 

[John Wayne]

Khus was great when he played there for a few games last season? Pace to burn, aggressive and an actual defender? The inverting thing is finished now imo, let the flair players do their thing further up and stay more solid at the back.

I quite like the centre-half stepping into midfield but not the full-back. I'm still happy for Stones to do it and the remaining three close up, rather than have a centre-half have to think about covering the RB position.

On the topic of the Khusanov-Stones pairing, I think that was the partnership at home to Newcastle last season. I really liked it. That was our best performance of the season.

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

Tolm , I always pray your going to bring some good news..

Having a really tough time mentally and only thing that get me through is city ...

Think the current situation of the squad is mad ,,, how much of this is on Pep

Sorry you are having a tough ride mentally mate.

Remember, we are a good lot on here and you can always reach out, even for a natter.

Know it's difficult, but try not let City dictate your moods, we don't know what we are going to get at the minute!

I do think Pep dropped the ball, simply because his plan was to leave this summer and didn't think he would have the responsibility to start the rebuild.

 

[richards30]

I quite like the centre-half stepping into midfield but not the full-back. I'm still happy for Stones to do it and the remaining three close up, rather than have a centre-half have to think about covering the RB position.

On the topic of the Khusanov-Stones pairing, I think that was the partnership at home to Newcastle last season. I really liked it. That was our best performance of the season.

Pep has been sleeping on Khus imo mate.

 

[Le Havre Oswald]

watched palace the other night in the euro conference game

Kept a close eye on Wharton

He doesn’t half give the ball away a lot with sloppy careless misplaced passes

He’ll fit right in then

 

[Rodri’s ACL]

I expect it to be crazy week

Any news on the quieter outgoings like Phillips, Ortega, etc?

 

[oldius]

Khus was great when he played there for a few games last season? Pace to burn, aggressive and an actual defender? The inverting thing is finished now imo, let the flair players do their thing further up and stay more solid at the back.

I don't think it is finished at all.
It allows us to dominate possession but you have to have cover. Rodri coming back cuts out a lot of the switch play behind the opposite full back but you need pacy defensive cover too.
We all want Khus to do well - he is an exciting prospect.

 

[John Wayne]

But if he has that clause, can he be re - registered before the next transfer window?
I think the only situation where than can occur is if it is a goalkeeping " crisis" situation.

I think we'd stick with what we have until January anyway. It would have to be a significant glut of injuries and suspensions to bring him in before that time. I think the club are counting on the fact we won't have a defensive injury crisis going into November as we did last year.

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

Any news on the quieter outgoings like Phillips, Ortega, etc?

They will be deadline day, I'd wager.

Teams who are desperate or want to chance their arms on finances.

 

[bluemc]

We really need to respond to the market.

If it's me, in fantasy football mode this week...

Sell -
Akanji
Ederson
Savinho
Gundo
Ake
Phillips
Kovacic
Gonzales

Bring

Baleba
Donnarumma
Rodrygo
Livramento
Gheui

It's gonna take something like radical surgery to have us clearly out in front again.

Whilst I like the cut of your jib, we'll be lucky if 50% of the in's and out's mentioned above actually happen.

 

[richards30]

I hope we get at least Donnarumma in early this week to start working with the group.

 

[NQCitizen]

Seen this Mahrez comparison at 21 thing said a couple of times now by different posters. All that says to me is at 21 Mahrez like Savinho would not have been good enough to play for City. It took Mahrez another 4/5 years to become an elite player and good enough. We haven't got 4/5 years to hope Savinho develops into a proper player. I couldn't care less about his season in Girona. He was was crap last season for us. A little show pony who got kicked out of games. That coupled with the fact he seemingly wants the move, shift him on.

Unfortunately it looks like Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur and the Ballon D'Or voters do care about his season at Girona.

9 G/A in your first premier league season at the age of 20 isn't to be underestimated. Obviously not "shit".

We might not have 5 years but we probably have 2 or 3, after all everyone is talking about "rebuild" and "transition".

This idea you can only have 24 27 year old+ elite players in the squad is suicidal squad building.

 

[blue moony]

Sorry you are having a tough ride mentally mate.

Remember, we are a good lot on here and you can always reach out, even for a natter.

Know it's difficult, but try not let City dictate your moods, we don't know what we are going to get at the minute!

I do think Pep dropped the ball, simply because his plan was to leave this summer and didn't think he would have the responsibility to start the rebuild.

Thank you appreciate it...

Question ,,, do you think he should of gone ?

 

[simon23]

We really need to respond to the market.

If it's me, in fantasy football mode this week...

Sell -
Akanji
Ederson
Savinho
Gundo
Ake
Phillips
Kovacic
Gonzales

Bring

Baleba
Donnarumma
Rodrygo
Livramento
Gheui

It's gonna take something like radical surgery to have us clearly out in front again.

on the in list Guehi, Baleba and Livramento would be absolute priority

the rest can wait

 

[Dribble]

I disagree with most if not all of that, but fair play on outlining it, clearly enough. I think you are reading into things that aren't necessarily there to read into. Hopefully I am right and you are wrong, guess we can both agree there.

I hope I'm wrong too, but I'll elaborate a further.

Since last November, I honestly can’t recall the last time I saw the dominant City of old. Many fans were ecstatic with the drubbling of Wolves & believed "City were back".

This forced me to watch the match back twice, because I couldn't see what everyone else saw. Wolves could've/should've scored three against us & my fear was that a team with better quality players would've put us to the sword. A week later, Spuds did just that.

I'm seeing few signs of us consistently getting back to our best anytime soon. If I & many others have noticed our performances & seen the same thing, our management can't failed to have noticed either.

My question is, if this season we continue to regress at the rate we did last season, how long will it be before our board feel they're forced to act? Also, what action will they take?

We've practically bought a new team, & changed the whole coaching staff, so what options for change are left?

All things considered, I honestly think this is the inflection point that we're at. As I've said repeatedly, I seriously hope I've got this all wrong.

 

[Blue Since 76]

I quite like the centre-half stepping into midfield but not the full-back. I'm still happy for Stones to do it and the remaining three close up, rather than have a centre-half have to think about covering the RB position.

On the topic of the Khusanov-Stones pairing, I think that was the partnership at home to Newcastle last season. I really liked it. That was our best performance of the season.

It worked when Stones was doing it from centre half and, to some extent when he did it from right back. Walker did ok from right back due to pace, but didn't have the composure on the ball to bring anything in midfield.

The current system doesn't work anymore and we can all see where the weaknesses are (not a player, systematic) and how to find the gaps against us and it would take exceptional players across the entire team to resolve the issues (would have to stop giving the ball away, would need to be first to everything in winning it back, would need wingers to track back properly etc).

Khusanov could make a good right back with his pace and strength although I'm not sure he'd offer much overlapping (not that Walker did either, more a distraction for the opposition), but I'm pretty sure he couldn't step into midfield. Using Stones or Gvardiol from centre half night be a better option, although you wouldn't then want Alt-Nouri bombing forwards as well unless Rodri/Gonzalez drops in.

Still a long way from being anything other than a top 4 side and not sure it can/will get fixed this window

 

[Coatigan]

I hope I'm wrong too, but I'll elaborate a further.

Since last November, I honestly can’t recall the last time I saw the dominant City of old. Many fans were ecstatic with the drubbling of Wolves & believed "City were back".

This forced me to watch the match back twice, because I couldn't see what everyone else saw. Wolves could've/should've scored three against us & my fear was that a team with better quality of players would've put us to the sword. A week later, Spuds did just that.

I'm seeing few signs of us consistently getting back to our best anytime soon. If I & many others have noticed our performances & seen the same thing, our management can't failed to have noticed either.

My question is, if this season we continue to regress at the rate we did last season, how long will it be before our board feel they're forced to act? Also, what action will they take?

We've practically bought a new team, & changed the whole coaching staff, so what options are left?

All things considered, I honestly think this is the inflection point that we're at. As I've said repeatedly, I seriously hope I've got this all wrong.

I'll be completely honest, I'm just not ready to choose to think about that yet pal.

Happy to watch and see how the team gets on.

Ask yourself this though. If teams have 'found pep out', and his tactics no longer work, then anywhere he goes he should really 'fail' on the same way. Yet, most expectation would be that anyehere he wnds up he would probably thrive and his tram would dominate again. So I don't see why that shouldn't still be the case here.

 

[waspish]

No idea pal, but we have gone out of our way to keep him and his agent happy.

Pep seems to want Dias stones Ake Gvardiol as our main centre backs! Khosonov has been left out in the cold after coming in player 5/6 games and look like a player we need in the side! Pep has his ways bringing Bah back even though I agree with he should have been in this season Pep will play Dias Gvardiol and stones at centre backs first! It’s experience what they’ve done for him is why and he trusts! Won’t be surprised that we never see Bah and be sold!