Josko Gvardiol

[M Gaudino]

laporte out this guy in. perfect for our back 3/4 formation.

 

[WRicko]

Is he good enough to displace any of our CBs in their current form? N’Dicka on a free makes a lot of sense, probably wouldn’t upset the squad and would be great when called upon.

I like that idea

 

[leo_city]

The left sided CB/LB profile is very rare to find. Us getting Gvardiol would be amazing, especially having Aké there already.

 

[Legal Alien]

We don't need this lad, we have Callum Doyle our very own young CH, whose tipped to be a future England captain, winning the Young Player of the Year while out on loan his season.

We have bigger needs this summer, so don't need to buy Gvardiol, especially for the money being mentioned, if we have a talent like Callum already in our club.

Take a chunk of that money and go and get Alphonso Davies instead.

 

[richards30]

We don't need this lad, we have Callum Doyle our very own young CH, whose tipped to be a future England captain, winning the Young Player of the Year while out on loan his season.

We have bigger needs this summer, so don't need to buy Gvardiol, especially for the money being mentioned, if we have a talent like Callum already in our club.

Take a chunk of that money and go and get Alphonso Davies instead.

What if he doesn’t want to join us or Bayern won’t sell? From what’s been said we have all the funds we need this summer and that’s without selling anyone

 

[Gabriel]

We don't need this lad, we have Callum Doyle our very own young CH, whose tipped to be a future England captain, winning the Young Player of the Year while out on loan his season.

We have bigger needs this summer, so don't need to buy Gvardiol, especially for the money being mentioned, if we have a talent like Callum already in our club.

Take a chunk of that money and go and get Alphonso Davies instead.

While Callum Doyle's ceiling is high, he is still ridiculously young, and if Laporte does go this summer, then we arguably need someone who can come in and immediately play both roles: the centre back on the left and the defensive left-back. In that sense, signing Gvardiol would make sense, as he has already played both roles at the highest level and Ake and he could even rotate.

 

[Tugay One Cup]

We don't need this lad, we have Callum Doyle our very own young CH, whose tipped to be a future England captain, winning the Young Player of the Year while out on loan his season.

We have bigger needs this summer, so don't need to buy Gvardiol, especially for the money being mentioned, if we have a talent like Callum already in our club.

Take a chunk of that money and go and get Alphonso Davies instead.

I really don't think it's smart to pass up on a talent like Gvardiol on the off chance that Callum is one of the ones who eventually breaks into our first team.

Loan him out again, maybe even to the Premier League if Coventry make it up, replace Laporte properly and then see where things stand in a year.

Ake will be 29 by then, Stones will be 30 and both have had their injury issues. He'll have gained even more experience and the squad will be well stocked in the short term without having to gamble with a kid's career.

 

[salfordbluetrue]

While Callum Doyle's ceiling is high, he is still ridiculously young, and if Laporte does go this summer, then we arguably need someone who can come in and immediately play both roles: the centre back on the left and the defensive left-back. In that sense, signing Gvardiol would make sense, as he has already played both roles at the highest level and Ake and he could even rotate.

I am not a fan of this lad so you will have to bear that in mind, i do think he is a good player, but Saliba for me is just as good can also play LCB and LB, also has PL experience will cost 1/3rd the price with 1/2 the wages, as for need we have 4 CB`s Dias has played well there, and Akanji was there over the weekend no problems.

 

[Manc123]

I am not a fan of this lad so you will have to bear that in mind, i do think he is a good player, but Saliba for me is just as good can also play LCB and LB, also has PL experience will cost 1/3rd the price with 1/2 the wages, as for need we have 4 CB`s Dias has played well there, and Akanji was there over the weekend no problems.

saliba is a right footer and will more than likley sign a new deal at arsenal.

we do have 4 cbs bt with this new formation and the injurys that stones and ake get alongside laporte going.

I think the club is refreshing the back line in terms of laporte and cancelo going and gvardiol coming in. It feels like they are going for the best young ones who the investment is worth it in the long run.

 

[salfordbluetrue]

saliba is a right footer and will more than likley sign a new deal at arsenal.

we do have 4 cbs bt with this new formation and the injurys that stones and ake get alongside laporte going.

I think the club is refreshing the back line in terms of laporte and cancelo going and gvardiol coming in. It feels like they are going for the best young ones who the investment is worth it in the long run.

My bad i meant Salisu from Southampton

 

[aguero93:20]

My bad i meant Salisu from Southampton

Not good enough on the ball. Our centre halves (and full backs) all have 90% and over pass success, I'd say he is probably down at 60-70% with the majority of centre halves.

 

[Gabriel]

I am not a fan of this lad so you will have to bear that in mind, i do think he is a good player, but Saliba for me is just as good can also play LCB and LB, also has PL experience will cost 1/3rd the price with 1/2 the wages, as for need we have 4 CB`s Dias has played well there, and Akanji was there over the weekend no problems.

I don't become a fan of any of them until they don the shirt. Until then, all I try to do is understand the logic behind why we might go for one over the other. I look at Laporte's playing time and see that, through injury, he is basically capable of giving us every second season, which for us is not enough as his absence places greater strain on the others. He's also less comfortable in the left-back role, so I could see us looking to move him on this summer (still contracted through to summer 2025). Akanji can deputise if Ake is out, but his inability to move the ball down the line with his left makes him much easier to press against; Fulham had sussed that out by the end of the first half yesterday. And, as we also saw yesterday, we sometimes need his muscle in the centre when the opponent plays with a target man.

I'm not completely sold on Gvardiol, given the assumed price, but I can see the logic in going for him. As I mentioned above, he could end up covering two positions, and he already has huge experience. Even though he has only just turned 21 (a week older than Harwood-Bellis), he has already played almost the same number of minutes in the Champions League as Ake (20 minutes less) and played in a World Cup semi-final. He would also bring the average age of the centre defenders down.

However, all that said, if we end up laying out big fees elsewhere, I wouldn't be at all surprised if we went sniffing under the trees again. We've shown with Alvarez, Akanji, and Perrone that we've got a good nose for the truffles. :-)

 

[mdj0520]

I don't become a fan of any of them until they don the shirt. Until then, all I try to do is understand the logic behind why we might go for one over the other. I look at Laporte's playing time and see that, through injury, he is basically capable of giving us every second season, which for us is not enough as his absence places greater strain on the others. He's also less comfortable in the left-back role, so I could see us looking to move him on this summer (still contracted through to summer 2025). Akanji can deputise if Ake is out, but his inability to move the ball down the line with his left makes him much easier to press against; Fulham had sussed that out by the end of the first half yesterday. And, as we also saw yesterday, we sometimes need his muscle in the centre when the opponent plays with a target man.

I'm not completely sold on Gvardiol, given the assumed price, but I can see the logic in going for him. As I mentioned above, he could end up covering two positions, and he already has huge experience. Even though he has only just turned 21 (a week older than Harwood-Bellis), he has already played almost the same number of minutes in the Champions League as Ake (20 minutes less) and played in a World Cup semi-final. He would also bring the average age of the centre defenders down.

However, all that said, if we end up laying out big fees elsewhere, I wouldn't be at all surprised if we went sniffing under the trees again. We've shown with Alvarez, Akanji, and Perrone that we've got a good nose for the truffles. :-)

I don't necessarily disagree with most of your points and I think it's time for laporte to move on, but using laporte's injury record as a justification is bizarre considering stones and Ake arguably have worse injury records.

 

[Kamaro011]

I don't necessarily disagree with most of your points and I think it's time for laporte to move on, but using laporte's injury record as a justification is bizarre considering stones and Ake arguably have worse injury records.

Laporte while not worse than Cancelo is also one of sad faces not happy being constantly played unlike Stones and Ake even if they are not regularly played in past season they still pull their weight in training and still commit for the good of team unlike Laporte.

 

[mdj0520]

Laporte while not worse than Cancelo is also one of sad faces not happy being constantly played unlike Stones and Ake even if they are not regularly played in past season they still pull their weight in training and still commit for the good of team unlike Laporte.

Um... Not sure if you're replying to the wrong person. I want to move laporte on and ideally replace him with gvardiol for all of the obvious reasons.

I was just pointing out that posters on here fit narratives to suit their ideal unfolding of events. The example in question, siting laporte's injury record as a reason to move him on whilst ignoring stones and Ake injury records. Stones and Ake are good enough and play multiple roles that their injury records are worth riding out. But you could easily make the same argument for laporte if you were in the stay camp.

Again, injury records aside, time for laporte to go. But let's not pick apart everything.

 

[salfordbluetrue]

Not good enough on the ball. Our centre halves (and full backs) all have 90% and over pass success, I'd say he is probably down at 60-70% with the majority of centre halves.

We bought two CB who are good on the ball, good composure with a good passing range, Ake and Stones while Gvardiol is not as good it is his strength, it is wrong to say an average player would not improve under Pep`s style and training, even Vinny improved that part of his game, although obviously to what level can they improve is another matter.

 

[aguero93:20]

We bought two CB who are good on the ball, good composure with a good passing range, Ake and Stones while Gvardiol is not as good it is his strength, it is wrong to say an average player would not improve under Pep`s style and training, even Vinny improved that part of his game, although obviously to what level can they improve is another matter.

I'm not talking about Gvardiol, I'm on about the Southampton lad. It isn't Dias' strength but he's good enough technically to slot in, we'd never have coached Richard Dunne to do it though. There's a limit.

Kompany is a silly example, he was a midfielder as well as a centre half.

 

[Gabriel]

I don't necessarily disagree with most of your points and I think it's time for laporte to move on, but using laporte's injury record as a justification is bizarre considering stones and Ake arguably have worse injury records.

Sorry, I wasn't using it as a justification, my apologies, just thinking that the club might wonder whether now is the time for both parties to call it quits. Just checked and Laporte appears to have missed 62 games for us through injury in 5 seasons. Stones 61 games in 6 seasons, and Ake 28 games in his time with us. Perhaps of more importance might be the fact that the latter two appear to be showing greater flexibility in terms of where they can play, while Laporte and Dias are more orthodox.

 

[salfordbluetrue]

I'm not talking about Gvardiol, I'm on about the Southampton lad. It isn't Dias' strength but he's good enough technically to slot in, we'd never have coached Richard Dunne to do it though. There's a limit.

Kompany is a silly example, he was a midfielder as well as a centre half.

I think we are at cross understanding, we have 2 CB`s that are good footballers, we have 2 that are powerful even without Laporte, i do not know about Dunne he actually was a good footballer, who was fast which surprised an awful lot of players, perhaps if he got his head out of that keg? as for Vinny i watched him hoof the ball out of defense 7 times, Pep hooked him at half time.

 

[Manc123]

My bad i meant Salisu from Southampton

Ahh now I see lol