Pep's rebuilding job. Pep's City Mk II

alexmcity said:
What we are seeing now is what we saw in 16/17. It has nothing to do with inverted wingers and lack of creativity.

Where are the data which back your point? Can you post them? Are you saying we don't create more big chances than Liverpool and Leicester?

xG models give values to any chance, from big to small. Those values are not arbitrary but based on data from thousands of football games.What yoy say is that we create many small chances which boosts our xG numbers but which does not reflect quality. But this is naive at best. Roughly speaking, the probability to score from 8 small chances and 2 big chances is the same. It's not like teams score only from big chances. And it's not like there is a team creating more big chances than City.

But but we create more chances because we take more risks! Bollocks. If you take more risks, you concede more chances. Whether you concede 8 small chances or 2 big chances doesn't matter in reality. Why do we concede more goals than Liverpool and Leicester if our xGA is comparable to theirs? Because our defenders have been poor. Kompany and Laporte were first choice for most of the run in last season. Now they are not available + Stones who has missed many weeks through injury. We are playing a 34 y.o midfielder at CB and Otamendi who has been shoking at times. Mendy/Angelino have been poor too. Zinchenko started the season in poor form as well. Cancelo is new to the league, Walker inconsistent. This is why we concede more goals than Liverpool, not because we take more risks going forward. And we have conceded only 5 goals more than Liverpool over 16 games. It's not like we concede much more goals than them.

But even if there is some truth to the opinion we commit too many players in attack, it would be different if (1) our defenders were better and didn't concede cheap goals and (2) we were more clinical. If we are not sufficiently clinical, then we will have to take risks, those risks are more significant, if our defenders are poor, etc. Pep is right, if we do better in the boxes, then those problems wouldn't exist. We went back to 16/17 in terms of our performances in both boxes. We didn't have good defenders/keeper in 16/17 and weren't sufficiently clinical. There is a reason why Pep benched Sergio when Jesus arrived. Sergio hasn't been that great this season, Jesus, Sterling, Mahrez, Bernardo have been inconsistent regarding goalscoring. We crate enough chances, but we miss too many of them compared to Liverpool (5 goals from 5 shots on target against Everton!) and Leicester/Vardy.
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That suggests we need to buy new defenders and a clinical striker.
 
Semper aggressus said:
That suggests we need to buy new defenders and a clinical striker.
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Or get the defenders fit and get game time into the young defensive cover.

Aguero has dipped a little but I can't see City replacing him until he leaves. We could challenge for trophies again if we get our defenders fit and if Foden is good enough to take SIlva's shirt.

I knew we'd struggle without Laporte. What has surprised me though is how our midfield has been completely overrun in the opening half hour by Chelsea, Utd and Liverpool. Silva's slowing and Fernandinho has been replaced by Rodri who is a very talented player but he does not have the speed of Fernandinho. KDB has been left exhausted in some games. I remember watching the Chelsea game and KDB looked very tired in that game. We were fortunate in a way that Aguero and SIlva were injured because it enabled us to bring on Foden and Jesus and from the moment they came on we were able to press them and CFC had plenty of the ball but were unable to build-up play and the game was safe.

Against the top sides they've ploughed through our midfield and been able to get one on one with our weak defence. We've conceded and made life difficult for ourselves.

However, that doesn't necessarily need sorting through the transfer market. Pep has repeatedly said Foden will play for City, and we all know how good a player Laporte is. I can recall one bad game he had last season (Spurs CL QF). Apart from that he was near perfect. He is our Van Dijk, and with his return, and with Foden in midfield, most of the problems are gone. What we must do in the Summer is ensure that we have central defensive cover so I am hoping that over the course of the Cups we will find out whether Garcia and Harwood Bellis will be good enough to provide cover for Stones and Laporte. Stones is on trial in 2020. I think he will come through if Laporte comes through from injury.
 
caseball said:
The fact that people are even talking about a rebuild is ridiculous. Since Pellegrini confirmed he was off... Bravo, Walker Cancelo Angelino Mendy Zinchenko Stones Laporte Gundogan Sane Jesus Bernardo Mahrez.
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4 out of the 13 you name ain't good enough...Angelino Mendy Bravo Mahrez

1 will leave.... Sane

3 big question Mark's over....Stones Jesus and Gundogan

1...seen little of ..... Cancello

1...played completely out of position...Zinchenko

Out of the 13 personally for me only 5 or 6 of them are good enough to nail down a starting 11 spot on any given day and one of those wants out ( Sane)

Bernardo
Sane
Zinchenko ( but good enough in his natural position????)
Walker
Laporte
Cancello ( though arguably unknown)

Big questions and big rebuild...losing kompany David Silva kun and ferna in the space of 18 months.....that is huge...you are talking about premiership legends and world cup winners let alone city legends

Kids ain't replacing them without accepting a huge drop off in performances and results and some of the ones we have got in ain't good enough or want out
 
Marvin said:
Or get the defenders fit and get game time into the young defensive cover.

Aguero has dipped a little but I can't see City replacing him until he leaves. We could challenge for trophies again if we get our defenders fit and if Foden is good enough to take SIlva's shirt.

I knew we'd struggle without Laporte. What has surprised me though is how our midfield has been completely overrun in the opening half hour by Chelsea, Utd and Liverpool. Silva's slowing and Fernandinho has been replaced by Rodri who is a very talented player but he does not have the speed of Fernandinho. KDB has been left exhausted in some games. I remember watching the Chelsea game and KDB looked very tired in that game. We were fortunate in a way that Aguero and SIlva were injured because it enabled us to bring on Foden and Jesus and from the moment they came on we were able to press them and CFC had plenty of the ball but were unable to build-up play and the game was safe.

Against the top sides they've ploughed through our midfield and been able to get one on one with our weak defence. We've conceded and made life difficult for ourselves.

However, that doesn't necessarily need sorting through the transfer market. Pep has repeatedly said Foden will play for City, and we all know how good a player Laporte is. I can recall one bad game he had last season (Spurs CL QF). Apart from that he was near perfect. He is our Van Dijk, and with his return, and with Foden in midfield, most of the problems are gone. What we must do in the Summer is ensure that we have central defensive cover so I am hoping that over the course of the Cups we will find out whether Garcia and Harwood Bellis will be good enough to provide cover for Stones and Laporte. Stones is on trial in 2020. I think he will come through if Laporte comes through from injury.
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Some great points Marvin, the only think I somewhat disagree with you on is Stones. I personally think he's done at City and cannot believe nor understand the decline in him. I honestly thought he would go on and win 100+ caps and captain England and be our version of the late great Bobby Moore - yes I rated him that highly! Something has happened and maybe a change of club is the only thing that will get his career back on track - shame but we need to move on!
 
Not denying we need one or two reinforcements but let’s not forget we were purring not long ago about our nucleus of young players for the future.

Eddie
Laporte
Stones (OK, not flavour of the moment)
Zin
Cancelo
Rodri
?? Garcia
?? Taylor-Bellis
Bernardo
Foden
Sterling
Sane - if he stays
Jesus

Although Pep doesn’t trust homegrown kids, he has certainly concentrated on buying relative youngsters to freshen the squad. And we’re still rich enough to throw cash at any problem area.

Viewed that way, life’s not so bad.

But please let’s bed in more of our own during the rest of the season.
 
Marvin said:
-----------Ederson
Walker-Stones-Laporte-Zin
-------------Rodri
-----KDB----------Foden
Bernardo--Aguero--Sterling

We could if we wanted field the faster forward line in European football if we so wished: Sane, Sterling and Jesus.

There is no major rebuilding job to be done. You might have one or two concerns long term but the problem at the moment is that Laporte is out, Stones can't play more than 3-4 games back to back and the cover is a 34 year old midfielder. That is a temporary problem.
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I think people are more talking about over the next 18 months....
Of that starting 11 you out there plys other options there is:

Sane wanting out.
Question mark's for many over stones and jesus
Kun - 1 season left
Foden - can we expect him to he prime David Silva level - it will take him a long time if ever
Zinchenko- attacking midfielder played out of position - we need at least one left back but preferably 2 as both are dogs hit ( I have a slight hope that Angelino could improve but not seen anything to suggest Mendy will be anything more than a defensive liability
 
simon23 said:
4 out of the 13 you name ain't good enough...Angelino Mendy Bravo Mahrez

1 will leave.... Sane

3 big question Mark's over....Stones Jesus and Gundogan

1...seen little of ..... Cancello

1...played completely out of position...Zinchenko

Out of the 13 personally for me only 5 or 6 of them are good enough to nail down a starting 11 spot on any given day and one of those wants out ( Sane)

Bernardo
Sane
Zinchenko ( but good enough in his natural position????)
Walker
Laporte
Cancello ( though arguably unknown)

Big questions and big rebuild...losing kompany David Silva kun and ferna in the space of 18 months.....that is huge...you are talking about premiership legends and world cup winners let alone city legends

Kids ain't replacing them without accepting a huge drop off in performances and results and some of the ones we have got in ain't good enough or want out
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You are absolutely correct Simon, that losing the likes of VK, Merlin, Kun & Ferdi around the same time is huge ………….. but ……….. its not like its a shock and we didn't see it coming is it ??? That's what worries me the most, unless we do indeed have a plan, which is yet to be revealed ????
 
sir baconface said:
Not denying we need one or two reinforcements but let’s not forget we were purring not long ago about our nucleus of young players for the future.

Eddie
Laporte
Stones (OK, not flavour of the moment)
Zin
Cancelo
Rodri
?? Garcia
?? Taylor-Bellis
Bernardo
Foden
Sterling
Sane - if he stays
Jesus

Although Pep doesn’t trust homegrown kids, he has concentrated on buying relative youngsters to freshen the squad. And we’re still rich enough to throw cash at any problem area.

Viewed that way, life’s not so bad.

But please let’s bed in more of our own during the rest of the season.
Click to expand...
Apart from Norwich away results and performances weren't too bad until Southampton at home which was only 4 or 5 weeks ago, so think there's a lot of panic about problems that are in the main fixable without major upheaval.
 
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