Matthijs de Ligt

Andrew___K said:
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Aren't we only signing 2 players in the summer? We already have Otamendi, Kompany, Stones and Laporte. Fernandinho could also cover as CB. In a couple years Latibeaudiere or Eric Garcia might be ready to play for the first team. We don't need another CB IMO, even though De Ligt looks very talented
 
Delphinho said:
Aren't we only signing 2 players in the summer? We already have Otamendi, Kompany, Stones and Laporte. Fernandinho could also cover as CB. In a couple years Latibeaudiere or Eric Garcia might be ready to play for the first team. We don't need another CB IMO, even though De Ligt looks very talented
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City have only 3 healthy CBs, and only 2 of them look perfectly suited for a Pep team (Stones and Laporte, as Ota is terrible under pressure). Stones is struggling ATM. It's clear that we need an alternative and competitor to Stones. CBs were the weakest area during Liverpool games.

Kompany is leaving in a year.
De Ligt would become club-trained if signed this summer.

And you tend to overrate youngsters. It's not guaranteed that young lads from the EDS will ever play on a high level, never mind at City level.
 
pudge said:
And he'll no doubt fare OK for Breda or Girona and make us a profit with any luck
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Going from Zwolle to NAC Breda is backwards for his development. We have to start thinking about life post Vinnie and if we can’t get one of the best signed now, then we need to do it.
 
Complete waste of money if true. He won't improve us in the short term. Davinson Sanchez always looked the far superior defender. Good on the ball, but seems defensively weak. Was average at best in the Europa League final against the rags. Wouldn't class him as better than Stones.
 
Simon Mullock reporting this maybe true then.
However we aren't letting bgo either Otamendi and Kompany this summer.
That means it could happen that we sign him and let him stay on loan at Ajax for a season or 2
 
Homar said:
Complete waste of money if true. He won't improve us in the short term. Davinson Sanchez always looked the far superior defender. Good on the ball, but seems defensively weak. Was average at best in the Europa League final against the rags. Wouldn't class him as better than Stones.
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All maybe true, but he is 18 years old.

To put that into perspective, Vinny was 22 when he signed for City & spent quite a while getting used to the Premier League before being trusted as a cb.

I have no idea whether this guy will be the next Vinny, but if our scouts & D.O.F. are good enough to get 50% of these kind of judgements right, I am all for us signing the best young players from around the world & playing them in our team whenever the time comes.
 
Andrew___K said:
City have only 3 healthy CBs, and only 2 of them look perfectly suited for a Pep team (Stones and Laporte, as Ota is terrible under pressure). Stones is struggling ATM. It's clear that we need an alternative and competitor to Stones. CBs were the weakest area during Liverpool games.

Kompany is leaving in a year.
De Ligt would become club-trained if signed this summer.

And you tend to overrate youngsters. It's not guaranteed that young lads from the EDS will ever play on a high level, never mind at City level.
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Good points. De Ligt also has considerable experience already and not only domestically, having played in CL qualifiers, Europa League games, and full internationals.
 
Seems an odd one this, is he purely a centre half or could he step into midfield? Don't know much about him at all, but if it's a case of us not wanting to miss out on a top talent then maybe it's worth losing one of our centre halves?
 
I think we have a good blend at CB

50% duel winners who are decent enough on the ball
50% ballplayers who are decent enough at duels
50% experienced
50% young
1 leader
& 1 (Kompany) of which at a stage where we can happily leave him out of the matchday squad

The last point is important too because if we sign another DM and a FW the bench is gonna be difficult to pick as it is

eg. if picking a normal matchday squad

Sane Aguero Sterling
Silva KDB
Mendy Jorginho Walker
Laporte Otamendi
Ederson

the bench would look something like [Bravo, Stones, Fernandinho, Gundogan, Bernardo, Bailey, G.Jesus] at least based on players you wouldn't expect to see sat in the stands very often.

Which would leave Maffeo/Danilo, Kompany, Delph, Foden in the stands. It's doable with maybe Silva/Gundogan sitting out every now & then for an extra FB option (outside of Laporte filling in at LB and DInho at RB if an injury occurs during a game). Whereas having 1 of Ota, Stones, Laporte or De Ligt sat in the stands as well doesn't seem reasonable at all.

Personally, If I was to sign a CB this summer it would be someone to start and replace Otamendi. He's had a great season but perhaps it's now when you sell before he declines - a la what Ferguson used to do.
Someone with more pace (which wouldn't be de Ligt) could help us against a team like Liverpool... (which this season has shown probably ought to be the benchmark for any transfer we make - will he help us deal with the scousers? - I'm not saying they will be our closest contender but if we can do the double over them next season I can't see us not defending the title as we'd almost be a perfect team)

On that last point, I think one of the reasons we've switched our attention to Jorginho is precisely that, to beat the press of Liverpool. Dinho is a superb player but isn't as press resistant as someone like Jorginho. Fred isn't either, and so whilst Fred is better defensively, the losses to LFC & the way they targeted Dinho probably made Pep believe we needed a possession DM over another Dinho-esque type in Fred. Dinho also has a few years in him yet anyway given his build, esp. if he needn't play every game.
 
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