Recruitment issues

[alexmcity]

Believe what you want, what Fernandinho brought to that side was incredible, he did the dirty work, the work that allowed the footballers to shine and do their thing, and the thing we no longer have at this football club.

Well, we saw in 2019 that Gundogan was doing perfectly fine at DM and we were rock solid without Fernandinho in decisive for the title and the treble games. So, it wasn't all about Fernandinho. It's a myth that needs to die. Kompany plus Laporte at CB was the more important factor in the run in. It's easy to see why the myth is stubborn though. People love simplistic explanations and many pundits feed them with such.

 

[Marvin]

Well said, liverpool did the same in the 80s, always bought the best players of the best young up and coming talent.

It what all the clubs that dominate do, Real, and Barca in Spain, Bayern in Germany.

It's a myth that the best teams are not the ones that spend the most money.

If our owners want to to continue winning titles and to win the Champions League they will have to pay the top transfer fees and pay the highest wages.

I agree although I think when we had a title winning side all we had to do was buy one or two top players a season. Twice we've been in that position now, and twice made mistakes in replacing players as they retire.

Fergsuson was an expert at this although he did mess it up at the end. He though as we agreed had a club which dominated the market whereas City don't. We're not a Real madrid or barcelona. We could become one. Nothing stays constant but we're moving in the wrong direction at the moment.

We can of course change this. We've yet to see the combined effect of laporte, Dias and Ake. We can expect these to be serious upgrades on Garcia and Otamendi.

It's not possible to overreact when you concede 5 at home but lets remember that 3 were pens, and they were all questionable, and the other 2 goals were world class. The goal that vardy scored at the near post was sensational.

 

[bluemoon32]

This summer we didn't need hidden gems, we needed players who would step into the first team straight away & make it better

 

[HelloCity]

No, that's wrong. Fernandinho got injured in February 2019, Gundogan replaced him and we continued to be rock solid at the back, even with Zinchenko at LB! Why? Mostly because we had Kompany and Laporte at CB.

Also Fernandinho was crap in Pep's first season to the extent that Pep had to play Toure at DM. This myth that our defensive stability was all down to Fernandinho has to die. It's silly and it is also a big reason why both Rodri and Gundogan are heavily criticised for the mistakes of the defenders.

Our defence suffered badly from several simple things: Kompany retired, Laporte got injured, Stones had personal problems and permanent injuries, Otamendi declined. Suddenly, all our CBs from 17/19 were unavailable for one or another reason and we played almost the entire 19/20 season with a makeshift defence. Yet, many on here still think it's mostly about not having Fernandinho at DM. Utterly simplistic.

Fernandinho was one of the best players in the world in his position at his peak. That’s why he’s so hard to replace. Excellent defensively whilst also happy to be on the ball.

 

[mancity1]

You say we should buy gems under the radar but this Summer we really need a proven central defender and not a player who will be good in 18 months time. In other positions we have bought players like Jesus and Sane. KDB came with a Chelsea question mark too.

i agree and as mentioned we hope Dias can make us much more difficult to expose Ederson and the like.

On top of that we need more pace and guile and effective distribution from midfield both in defence and in attack unless we use the Liverpool model which often by passes DM for the majority of their set up play in the box.

Whether we can get that from our current squad is certainly debatable at least.

I am all for buying players who are not yet on the world stage but have shown enough in their locker to capture our attention to take a punt on combined with proven performers albeit they will cost us much more and there is always that risk verses reward for both types.

KDB had established himself and Wolfsburg just as Virgil had at Southampton before transferring to clubs in line for trophy success at the time.

I think it was just a simple matter of personality clashes as you often get with Mou and players ( Dele Alli being the latest ) and Mou's inability to persist with talent which can happen ( Mo Salah being another example ) that resulted in the player moving on to their benefit and Mou's demise.

 

[alexmcity]

I am all for buying players who are not yet on the world stage but have shown enough in their locker to capture our attention to take a punt on combined with proven performers albeit they will cost us much more and there is always that risk verses reward for both types.

Ederson, Laporte, Stones, Rodri, Sane, Sterling, Jesus, Bernardo, Torres, Dias, Ake...

Most of those players fit the bill: big potential, and thus a bit expensive, but none world class (then).

 

[Keeper!]

I agree although I think when we had a title winning side all we had to do was buy one or two top players a season. Twice we've been in that position now, and twice made mistakes in replacing players as they retire.

Fergsuson was an expert at this although he did mess it up at the end. He though as we agreed had a club which dominated the market whereas City don't. We're not a Real madrid or barcelona. We could become one. Nothing stays constant but we're moving in the wrong direction at the moment.

We can of course change this. We've yet to see the combined effect of laporte, Dias and Ake. We can expect these to be serious upgrades on Garcia and Otamendi.

It's not possible to overreact when you concede 5 at home but lets remember that 3 were pens, and they were all questionable, and the other 2 goals were world class. The goal that vardy scored at the near post was sensational.

There is an argument if we were playing a very good side on sunday the score could have been considerably worse.

All 3 were penalties , all 3 poor, unprofessional defending.

We as a club have to decide what we want to be, a dominating club and financial powerhouse, or a well run self sufficient club.

 

[Keeper!]

Well, we saw in 2019 that Gundogan was doing perfectly fine at DM and we were rock solid without Fernandinho in decisive for the title and the treble games. So, it wasn't all about Fernandinho. It's a myth that needs to die. Kompany plus Laporte at CB was the more important factor in the run in. It's easy to see why the myth is stubborn though. People love simplistic explanations and many pundits feed them with such.

Yours is an incredibly simple explanation if you think Fernandinho is a myth.

 

[King KdB of Belgium]

Just 6 days to go before the transfer deadline and still no sign of Pep,is going to sign a striker, which is so important to us. Jesus out for up to another 3 weeks + time to get fit. Then there's Sergio who will need at least another 6 weeks to get match fit. Therefore another striker is an absolute essential for us if we want to go and win the Premier League crown back.

So with the Champions League just around the corner where we will be needing 3 strikers to see us through the group stages. Depending on how kind the draw is to us, we may just get away with two. Should we end up with a tough group we could well fail to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League and end up playing on Thursday night in the Europa League. This is something that I don't want. That is unless Pep will go all out to win it.

 

[Dax777]

I'm not happy, bit I'll wait till we have everyone available and then see how we perform. But from a depth standpoint we seem quite inferior. I know we are missing a shit ton.


So let's wait and see. But just from stretching my neck and trying to see the future, I see no possible solutions at Left back. And that's worrying.