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

We need a left back, two centre halves, another striker, more physical, and an energetic Kante type midfield/holding player.

Out, Ota, Angelino, Mendy, David is retiring.

We should get another season out of Fernandinho and Aguero. Pep loves Gundogan so he will probably stay as well.

Sane it obviously depends on his contract. Big decisions on Stones, Mahrez and Jesus to be made. Stones for me is mentally and physically weak and injury prone but he may stay as fourth choice centre back. I'm not sure Jesus has what it takes to be our main striker and may not want to play second fiddle any longer. Mahrez although at times showing the quality he possesses not consistent enough and often goes missing. If he's happy to be a bench player he may stay.

It's sure going to be an interesting summer!
 
If we finish 2nd with this situation it will be an incredible achievement.
Laporte will make a big difference but I really feel we have to introduce legs into midfield in front of Rodri.

Pep obviously feels Foden is not ready. He may be right, however, every time I have seen him I have been impressed.

But there are alternatives....play Zinchenko or Bernardo in midfield. Pep is just going to stick to his guns I am afraid and it's going to be very frustrating.
 
In your opinion. Have you seen him play for Ukraine? He is their best player.
Ukraine are like a Championship team, we are the defending champions of England and would put double figures past the Ukraine

And by the way, I like the guy, but he should not even be our LB, again not good enough, only as back up at a push.
 
I've seen enough off Jesus to believe he is a really top player. City weren't at the races against Utd. Our main tactic was getting the ball wide to Angelino and KDB and get them to fore crosses in. That really was meat and drink for a packed man Utd defence. I don't rate Shaw and Bissaka but they are decent at stopping crosses.

I would say any professional football team can stop crosses easily given they possess the following two things:
1. A packed box (just like you pointed out)
2. Tall enough players in the box

Don’t think AWB or Shaw made much of a difference.

How to break that down? Incredible movement from attackers, a target man, and outside the box shots. We used to excel at the 1st option which seems to have disappeared for now.
 
—————————-Ederson————————
Cancelo——Stones——Laporte——??????
——————————Rodri————————-
———————Foden——Bernardo————
Sterling—————Jesus——————Sané

In three years’ time that could be our team.

All of them coming into their prime at the same time.

But Cancelo Stones Rodri Foden and Jesus could all prove to not be good enough and Sané could leave! de Bruyne and Mahrez will be in their 30s then and Otamendi Fernandinho Silva and Agüero will all be gone.

So the team could look like this:
—————————Ederson————————
??????———??????———Laporte———??????
—————————-??????——————————
——————??????———Bernardo—————
Sterling—————??????——————??????

An ageing de Bruyne and Mahrez could be in there:
—————————Ederson————————
??????———??????———Laporte———??????
—————————-??????——————————
————de Bruyne——Bernardo————-
Mahrez—————??????——————Sterling
But do we really want Sterling still on the left in three years? He may even go abroad himself within that time frame (he has mentioned it).
 
We've been well and truly sussed out this season by opposing managers, and I'm afraid we're stuck with the same tactics for the remainder of the season. Pep can't play any other way so expect to drop plenty more points from now until the end of the season. Liverpool could quite easily finish 20 points clear of ourselves which would quite frankly be an appalling effort from all concerned.
As for the rebuilding, will it happen in the summer as I seem to recall that Sheikh Mansour said we wouldn't need to splash out hundreds of millions every season now we have the squad in place. I think we've seen the last of the days when we sign 4-5 players in a window even if this squad does need freshening up big time.
 

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