When Pep arrived in 2016 he inherited some truly great players who were part of a squad which was growing old together. In two transfer windows he brought in young players to rejuvenate the team, especially the defence, and created a blend on the pitch which not only dominated the game domestically but rewrote the record book completely and played football of such superlative quality that it may never b equalled. Even this cannot stop the clock - Ya Ya, Vinnie and Merlin realised that the intensity, the demands of consistency and the sheer physicality of City in PL could not be met regularly and called time. The downside is that Pep "should have replaced them". Just like that! Who can replace any of them? Maguire to replace Kompany? Really? Dias is NOT a replacement for Vinnie. He may well become a City great in his own right - in time. But he will be different to Vinnie. And who replaces Merlin? And Ya Ya? Unfortunately you can't replace the irreplaceable!
But if we look at City now we note that there are only four players who are 30 or over. Unfortunately, at least two fall into the category of greats and legends and one has a claim to be the definition of great or legend. Apart from that the squad is at the oldest "coming to its peak" though any changes required will have to wait for January or, more likely, summer. Still, the age profile of the squad gives us hope for the season, though our players have played more games over the last 3 seasons than any other PL club and even in a season which some of our fanes apparently regard as "shit" we played every round of the Carabao cup (and won them all), got to the semi-final of the FA cup, the quarter-final of CL and finished second in PL. We do not know how the continuous playing over 3 seasons coupled with the absence of any close season and the congested schedule this season will affect our players. Certainly one of the influential factors in the defeat to Leicester was the fact that our lads were simply not match fit or sharp. I know this outrages those who assure us that they can play 3 matches a week, every week on a diet of pie, chips and stout but... Nevertheless Pep has solved one major problem and that is our vulnerability to the counter, or so it seems. At the moment, the cost appears to be that we are scoring far fewer goals and this needs solving SOON. We are not creating as much but I think we are creating ENOUGH very good chances to win games: two in stoppage time on Tuesday, at least two which Gabby should surely have put away at OT, a penalty against the scousers, two or three against Leeds and West Ham and so on. And who can possibly put this problem right?!
