Recruitment issues

[PrezIke]

ESPNFC pundits were ridiculing our transfer policy on defenders but their analysis was beyond naive and obtuse.

The idea we just need to buy a "proper centre back" is mindless given our style of play.

Also, they were heavily criticising Ake as much as Garcia, when I didn't see him do as poorly as they portrayed him.

They quoted the amount of money spent, but no reference to how Mendy has had 2 serious knee injuries that have ruined his career and our effectiveness as we saw what he offered in the few games prior to the injury.

Laporte has been easily the best, but we all know issues at the no.6 and an aging Silva were related to our defensive problems.

 

[citymad]

ESPNFC pundits were ridiculing our transfer policy on defenders but their analysis was beyond naive and obtuse.

The idea we just need to buy a "proper centre back" is mindless given our style of play.

Also, they were heavily criticising Ake as much as Garcia, when I didn't see him do as poorly as they portrayed him.

They quoted the amount of money spent, but no reference to how Mendy has had 2 serious knee injuries that have ruined his career and our effectiveness as we saw what he offered in the few games prior to the injury.

Laporte has been easily the best, but we all know issues at the no.6 and an aging Silva were related to our defensive problems.

Shelling out another 100 mill on two more defenders doesnt look good though. Hopefully this time it'll be money well spent. Only time will tell. I'm more confident about Ake, I think he'll end up being a top defender. Now all we need to do know is find a couple of very good attacking fullbacks.

 

[Keeper!]

ESPNFC pundits were ridiculing our transfer policy on defenders but their analysis was beyond naive and obtuse.

The idea we just need to buy a "proper centre back" is mindless given our style of play.

Also, they were heavily criticising Ake as much as Garcia, when I didn't see him do as poorly as they portrayed him.

They quoted the amount of money spent, but no reference to how Mendy has had 2 serious knee injuries that have ruined his career and our effectiveness as we saw what he offered in the few games prior to the injury.

Laporte has been easily the best, but we all know issues at the no.6 and an aging Silva were related to our defensive problems.

They have a great point. You could put the worlds greatest CB's in our team and they would be exposed.

Our team is suicidal in the way it defends, we have pull back playing on the edge of the opponents area and two defensive midfielders unable to get around the pitch.

We have to change the way we play, the full back have to stay back more and give the team far better shape defensively or we have to recruit DMF who have pace and incredible stamina. We need a young Fernandinho, not sure a freak like him exists these days!

 

[GaudinoMotors]

What were or injuries like when we had the traitorous physio? Much better or has he improved under Klopp too?

 

[alexmcity]

They have a great point. You could put the worlds greatest CB's in our team and they would be exposed.

Our team is suicidal in the way it defends, we have pull back playing on the edge of the opponents area and two defensive midfielders unable to get around the pitch.

We have to change the way we play, the full back have to stay back more and give the team far better shape defensively or we have to recruit DMF who have pace and incredible stamina. We need a young Fernandinho, not sure a freak like him exists these days!

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.

 

[Del_Bosque]

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.

We played a much slower less expansive game though, teams seem to have figured that out and now sit off us

If we tried to keep it tight and nick a win Rodri or Gundogan might be ok, but we need someone mobile to stop the runners from midfield

 

[Marvin]

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.

Double whammy. The lack of basic speed at the heart of City's defence makes it easy for teams like Arsenal, man Utd, Leicester, Spurs, Chelsea to counter-attack us.

The recipe is easy. Park the bus against City, break at speed. City are no longer good enough defensively to stop it.

But there's Dias to come in with Laporte. That may change a lot. We also have Doyle and can play Foden and Bernardo centrally. Foden and Bernardo are workaholics. There's also Doyle. It's not hopeless. Far from it. I reckon we've still got a top 4 side when Jesus is fit. If you can't defend and you can't score you definitely have problems.

That LCFC game was extreme. We had our usual defensive weakness. No centre-forward and LCFC had a day when everything went right for them. It happens. People draw the wrong conclusions from it. It's either calamitous or a conspiracy. In reality it reveals the same ongoing defensive weakness we had last season but remember that last season we were still a challenger.

 

[Tricky_Trev]

Our obsession with not paying more than €65m for a player is starting to tell.

It's a PR decision, not a footballing one. We want to be seen to not be in the top 10 biggest transfers. A responsibly run club.

But what we end up doing, is spending €200m every season on 4 or 5 average players who don't improve us. We still spend more than anyone else, but don't improve.

Cancelo, Rodri, Mahrez, Torres, Ake, Dias. €260m all in. They're all worse than the players they're meant to be replacing.

Yaya, Silva, Kompany, Sané, and soon Aguero and Fernandinho. All gone.

And look at the state of what's replacing them.

For me, we should be buying one or two world class players a year, instead of 4 or 5 average.

It would cost the same money, we'd have better players, and more opportunities for youth players to come through instead of having their progress blocked by average dross.

Agreed. It would take us probably 3 seasons to get back to the top, but it would be worth the wait. We won’t do that though.

 

[alexmcity]

We played a much slower less expansive game though, teams seem to have figured that out and now sit off us

If we tried to keep it tight and nick a win Rodri or Gundogan might be ok, but we need someone mobile to stop the runners from midfield

They haven't figured anything out, they just take advantage from playing against a makeshift defence and a hit from injuries team. Once we find stability at CB and LB, things will be business as usual.

 

[Tricky_Trev]

We are no longer able to entice the opposition out of their shape. They know full well we would just pass through them, so they just stay in their shape and wait. The space is with our full backs because they know they cannot cross and they know that there’s nobody to head anything anyway (unless Delap plays).

So our aim should be to find two excellent attacking full backs that can cross. People seem to want solid full backs but that won’t help us. It won’t force the opposition to change the way they play against us. If Tagliafico isn’t that kind of full back then I’m afraid he will be another poor signing that sets us back further. Attacking well and pressing well is our best form of defence. We no longer apply sustained pressure. We used to be masters at it, now that’s Liverpool.

 

[Del_Bosque]

They haven't figured anything out, they just take advantage from playing against a makeshift defence and a hit from injuries team. Once we find stability at CB and LB, things will be business as usual.

You think we look as effective going forward as we did in 2017/18?

 

[alexmcity]

You think we look as effective going forward as we did in 2017/18?

We created more chances in 19/20 than in 17/18. The difference was that last season (and also in 16/17) we were less clinical and missed many big chances. In terms of creativity we are still up there. We were bad at finishing in 16/17 and then improved in 17/18. Hopefully, same (improvement) will happen this season.

 

[iwasthere1968]

Shelling out another 100 mill on two more defenders doesnt look good though. Hopefully this time it'll be money well spent. Only time will tell. I'm more confident about Ake, I think he'll end up being a top defender. Now all we need to do know is find a couple of very good attacking fullbacks.

"Doesn't look good " ?

 

[Del_Bosque]

We created more chances in 19/20 than in 17/18. The difference was that last season (and also in 16/17) we were less clinical and missed many big chances. In terms of creativity we are still up there. We were bad at finishing in 16/17 and then improved in 17/18. Hopefully, same (improvement) will happen this season.

when you watch us do you think the chances were of the same quality

17/18 was plenty of cutbacks from the byline, 19/20 when we were struggling it was all crosses from deep

i don’t think anyone is questioning that we can blow teams away and score 4/5/6 when their heads drop

but in tight games we run out of ideas

Sunday we scored a worldy from a corner that was half cleared and a header from a set piece

 

[mancity1]

Our transfer business has by and large been below what it should be for a number of windows now.

Hopefully Dias will be Kompany mark two but the fact that we still rely heavily on Kun in his 9th season now says alot.

Haven't found a gem under the radar for many a year IMO ,we basically wait for others to show their wears in other lesser teams and pay what they ask for.

That is not a strategy destined for long term success.

 

[alexmcity]

when you watch us do you think the chances were of the same quality

17/18 was plenty of cutbacks from the byline, 19/20 when we were struggling it was all crosses from deep

i don’t think anyone is questioning that we can blow teams away and score 4/5/6 when their heads drop

but in tight games we run out of ideas

Sunday we scored a worldy from a corner that was half cleared and a header from a set piece

There's a statistical tool that measures the average quality of chances. In terms of xG we should have scored 91 goals in 17/18 (we scored 106!) and 102 goals in 19/20 (we scored 102). We were more clinical in 17/18 but created fewer chances than in 19/20.

 

[Del_Bosque]

There's a statistical tool that measures the average quality of chances. In terms of xG we should have scored 91 goals in 17/18 (we scored 106!) and 102 goals in 19/20 (we scored 102). We were more clinical in 17/18 but created fewer chances than in 19/20.

Ahhh you’re an xG type

fair enough we’ll leave it there

 

[blueinsa]

Ahhh you’re an xG type

fair enough we’ll leave it there

Fucking bonkers.

Maybe its my age and lack of time on football manager type games or the latest FIFA but what the actual fuck is the xG bollocks that gets trotted out?

Meaningless fucking drivel.

 

[Ribchester]

The only “strategy” I’ve seen was to get Pep, and it worked, the same attitude should have been more visible to us all in replacing key players aligned to their ages and contracts without even considering form or injury.
Zabba, Vinnie, YaYa, David, Kun should have had the targets all ready to sign at any cost regarding fee and contract if we had evolved we would have at least 2 more PL titles in the bag and would not be where we are today. General view being we need a transition period. Hate to say this but that is not how GPC operated he’d have replacements lined up and smoothly reengineered the rags in flight. Classic example of a “strategy” was getting Van Nistleroy 1 year before he needed him even allowed for a serious pre contract injury.
The other thing we’re evidently not doing is quick fixes the minute Piss Can lost the league to us he extends his contract for a year and quick fix Van Persie is bought and they win the league.
Where is our strategic target for Aguero... ain’t got one otherwise he’d be here...where’s our quick fix target ...ain’t got one.

 

[alexmcity]

Ahhh you’re an xG type

fair enough we’ll leave it there

In many cases (though not always, of course) statistical tools are much more reliable than personal impressions, which tend to be heavily destorted by biases. On the basis of our xG in 16/17, many predicted that we would win the league in 17/18, unlike the dumb pundits in the media who thought Pep was destined to fail in England with his naive tactics. I'm sure that many City fans were pretty sceptical about Pep at the end of 16/17. Because their personal impressions were that Pep's football was inefficient in England.