Otamendi

[Deleted member 58678]

We have major problems in defence. End of.

Our midfield & attack (assuming the recruiting of De Bruyne & Pogba) can trouble any defence in world football, but our defence is so weak that - out of 8 players (1st choices & back-ups) we have 2 (Kompany & Zabaleta) - we have just two that are reliable.

We'll be involved in a lot of gun-fights next year (especially as I expect all PL teams to perform well in the CL).

Kompany has been injury/mistake/card prone in the last two years. Zaba struggled for months with poor form last season.

Demichelis has been our best defender in the last 18 months.

 

[gomer27]

I personally havent watched much of otamendi, but wouldnt we be better off giving denayer a run there and if need be buy a CB in the next window? If getting him costs 35 million now i would much rather spend that money on isco or KDB.

 

[walker_is_faster]

Our CB an RB they are been on World cup and may have excuse but our LB they dont and Fernando.

 

[domalino]

We only conceded a couple more goals last year, but scored 20 fewer than 13/14. Our summer signings show that the upper management prefer to remedy last season by getting back to setting goal scoring records rather than having the best defence in the league. That's why we have an attacking manager like Pellegrini anyway.

On the other hand I think with a front 4 of KDB, Sterling, Aguero and Silva we can afford to have a LB who is primarily a defender more than an attacker. Let Zaba bomb forward, but keep a 3rd man back and we'd be so much more secure in defence. The problem is that they are very rare.

 

[Garry.Cook]

Without digging too far back through the pages, is this just a combined "Otamendi to Rags" and "Our defence is the weakest part of the team" thread? We aren't in for him are we?

 

[Neville Kneville]

I agree, I can easily see Sagna and Kolarov going soon, replaced by maybe Fabinho and a left back.

Perhaps the fullbacks will happen next season though, & by then we have had a look at Maffeo & Angelino for another year too.

 

[City_Sean]

Perhaps the fullbacks will happen next season though, & by then we have had a look at Maffeo & Angelino for another year too.

That was my idea, we could replace Sagna and Kolarov next year, and eventually replace Zaba and Clichy with Maffeo and Angelino.

 

[gomer27]

That was my idea, we could replace Sagna and Kolarov next year, and eventually replace Zaba and Clichy with Maffeo and Angelino.

I live in NYC and have tickets for NYCFC, this has given me the luxury of seeing angelino play and wow he has all the talent in the world...his skill on the ball is very nice to watch but he will definitely need to work on his strength especially in the defensive end considering he is still on the smallish side. But in another year with all the playing time he is getting over here I can see him being implemented slowly into the first team

 

[Kompany is King]

Good to hear about Angelino. Thanks for posting.

 

[Universidad de Chile]

The problem last season was consistency(or lackthereof) of the holding midfield and attacking balance.

The defense was under pressure because we were not opening teams up with ease like the season before, but still also playing wide open. Aguero was red hot when not injured though, and if not for this i dread to think how the season would have ended. I do agree that defensively the players seemed to lack consistency based on last year though...but it was more lack of form from yaya, fernando being an absolute fail, and playing an antiquated 4-4-2 in some risky games that really didn't help matters.

The key was the MF.

We were TOO OFT exposed, as Pelle refuse to play with 2 defensive MF. Fernando is just average IMO, and if we add to this that our defenders ar also not the fastest, we have then there a bad ecuation.

Cheers!