Kalidou Koulibaly

Unless Stones comes back as a worldy, will be very frustrating watching us repeat last year's errors defensively. Think this year's title race will be tighter given e.g. Arse and Chelski strengthening so frustrating if we can't exploit that.
 
CC1 said:
Second best defensive record in the league last year. What we couldn’t do is break down the teams that park the bus & then hit us on the break when the whole team is trying to get that goal!!
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Those stats say absolutely nothing. We lost NINE league games and we need a much better defence for that not to happen again.
And remember how good Liverpool has been in defence. In 18/19, they conceded 22(!!) goals, and lost one game, and they still got it if they find their form. We had a fantastic run-in with Laporte and Kompany at the time, but he’s gone now and we need proper centrebacks that can make a big difference.

No Koulibaly or other world class CB joining Laporte, and we will struggle this season. No flapping, just facts.
 
skyblues said:
Those stats say absolutely nothing. We lost NINE league games and we need a much better defence for that not to happen again.
And remember how good Liverpool has been in defence. In 18/19, they conceded 22(!!) goals, and lost one game, and they still got it if they find their form. We had a fantastic run-in with Laporte and Kompany at the time, but he’s gone now and we need proper centrebacks that can make a big difference.

No Koulibaly or other world class CB joining Laporte, and we will struggle this season. No flapping, just facts.
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As you say - it’s how you choose to interpret stats. For me, we lost creativity in midfield with Bernardo being off form & Sane out all season. Stats also point to the number of chances created & missed as well as the amount of possession we had in the games we lost
 
balotellishaircut said:
Wow I didn't think you'd be taken in by the narrative of the media that City can't defend.

The dippers had a GA of 35
City had a GA of 38
And this was only last season.

Some on here have very short memories.
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Pretty sure our goals against per minute in all comps is better than liverpools and has been for the last 3 years
 
skyblues said:
If anything is happening around Koulibaly, it should be moving within days. Napoli still have several transfer targets and they play their first game on Sunday.

For our part, I don’t think we care if this goes down to the last week since Koulibaly is probably our last transfer of the window, but the same cannot be said about Napoli. If we have no movement by Saturday, I’m certain this deal is off.
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72_hours, then.
 
A number of the goals we let in last season were down to individual errors caused by loss of concentration following breakdowns in possession. Previously that was a large part of Fern's job as defensive midfielder. He covered for others brilliantly, read the game really well and, as some might say, was a master of the technical foul. Rodri and Gundo are good players but in that position neither is as good as Fern was in previous seasons. Stones.Walker, Ota and Mendy all had lapses in concentration that led to goals last season and Garcia and even Laporte had moments too. So for me, any new defensive additions must have that single minded level of concentration that only the best have. However, we would all praise VK as our best defender in recent years and he too was prone occasionally. Its a conundrum really. Maybe if we had bought Kante a few years ago we wouldn't be talking about it?
 
Moorland Blue said:
A number of the goals we let in last season were down to individual errors caused by loss of concentration following breakdowns in possession. Previously that was a large part of Fern's job as defensive midfielder. He covered for others brilliantly, read the game really well and, as some might say, was a master of the technical foul. Rodri and Gundo are good players but in that position neither is as good as Fern was in previous seasons. Stones.Walker, Ota and Mendy all had lapses in concentration that led to goals last season and Garcia and even Laporte had moments too. So for me, any new defensive additions must have that single minded level of concentration that only the best have. However, we would all praise VK as our best defender in recent years and he too was prone occasionally. Its a conundrum really. Maybe if we had bought Kante a few years ago we wouldn't be talking about it?
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That’s a good post.

In our system the defence needs a Fernandinho in front of them it’s the most important position.

Now that Fern is 287 years of age he needs replacing with as close as we can get.

My pick right now is Ndidi at Leicester but it seems we aren’t in for any midfielders this window.
 
Marvin said:
We lost 9 league games and lost against Lyon with Pep frightened to expose his defence to a handful of counter-attacks we'd have faced against Lyon. Our defence was weak. The job over the Summer was to rebuild it and one signing isn't enough imo. I'd love to be proved wrong, and hope to be.
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You can see it has 9 league losses and on paper it is, I see it has we lost the game by the odd goal because our forwards didn't do there jobs.

Look at the games after lockdown, lost away at Chelsea n Southampton, without doubt we should of won both games.

I could go on Wolves away, Norwich away, Spurs away where we missed a pen.

That's 5 of the 9 league loses we should of won.

If our forwards keep missing chances we will lose games this season, with or without KK.
 
balotellishaircut said:
You can see it has 9 league losses and on paper it is, I see it has we lost the game by the odd goal because our forwards didn't do there jobs.

Look at the games after lockdown, lost away at Chelsea n Southampton, without doubt we should of won both games.

I could go on Wolves away, Norwich away, Spurs away where we missed a pen.

That's 5 of the 9 league loses we should of won.

If our forwards keep missing chances we will lose games this season, with or without KK.
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It's easy saying we can wins games by outscoring the oppositions but there are days when it just doesn't go in. And City are a soft touch defensively.

Some will argue Ake is enough. I don't want to hope. I want to go into this season feeling that the opposition is going to have to do really well to score. We aren't there yet.

This was the Summer with Covid and a rich owner to get the job done. Barca, Real Madrid, Liverpool all got their horns in. There's few teams spending-only Chelsea. We can still do the job.

There's not much point grumbling now but there's even less point when the season has started
 
balotellishaircut said:
You can see it has 9 league losses and on paper it is, I see it has we lost the game by the odd goal because our forwards didn't do there jobs.

Look at the games after lockdown, lost away at Chelsea n Southampton, without doubt we should of won both games.

I could go on Wolves away, Norwich away, Spurs away where we missed a pen.

That's 5 of the 9 league loses we should of won.

If our forwards keep missing chances we will lose games this season, with or without KK.
Click to expand...

We actually score the amount of goals we are expected to overall believe it or not. The problem is that where we underperform tends to be in crucial moments particularly when we are behind. I have no idea why this is...we should be used to the pressure.

Given the above I’d prioritise a Fern replacement. A DM that has an engine on him and breaks up counters before they reach an exposed defence.
 
Marvin said:
It's easy saying we can wins games by outscoring the oppositions but there are days when it just doesn't go in. And City are a soft touch defensively.

Some will argue Ake is enough. I don't want to hope. I want to go into this season feeling that the opposition is going to have to do really well to score. We aren't there yet.

This was the Summer with Covid and a rich owner to get the job done. Barca, Real Madrid, Liverpool all got their horns in. There's few teams spending-only Chelsea. We can still do the job.

There's not much point grumbling now but there's even less point when the season has started
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Not agreed with too many of your posts recently but I can’t fault that one. Definitely agree.
 
Marvin said:
It's easy saying we can wins games by outscoring the oppositions but there are days when it just doesn't go in. And City are a soft touch defensively.

Some will argue Ake is enough. I don't want to hope. I want to go into this season feeling that the opposition is going to have to do really well to score. We aren't there yet.

This was the Summer with Covid and a rich owner to get the job done. Barca, Real Madrid, Liverpool all got their horns in. There's few teams spending-only Chelsea. We can still do the job.

There's not much point grumbling now but there's even less point when the season has started
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I didn't mention the word "out scoring" you did and I didn't mean that, so on your reply we have to agree to disagree.
 
Cobwebcat said:
We actually score the amount of goals we are expected to overall believe it or not. The problem is that where we underperform tends to be in crucial moments particularly when we are behind. I have no idea why this is...we should be used to the pressure.

Given the above I’d prioritise a Fern replacement. A DM that has an engine on him and breaks up counters before they reach an exposed defence.
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Agreed that finding a good replacement for Fern is the key. So many of the issues last season hinged on the breakdown of the midfield defensive set-up.
 
balotellishaircut said:
You can see it has 9 league losses and on paper it is, I see it has we lost the game by the odd goal because our forwards didn't do there jobs.

Look at the games after lockdown, lost away at Chelsea n Southampton, without doubt we should of won both games.

I could go on Wolves away, Norwich away, Spurs away where we missed a pen.

That's 5 of the 9 league loses we should of won.

If our forwards keep missing chances we will lose games this season, with or without KK.
Click to expand...

We didn't lose those games by the odd goal though.

We would typically need to score 3 goals, in order to beat decent teams.

That's ridiculous.
 
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