Romeo Lavia

[JewelZee]

Lavia would be ahead of both Phillips and Kovacic in the pecking order if he was here. He was fantastic at Southampton last year and will solve a massive part of Liverpool's weakness, which is their midfield.

I find it so weird that the club went as high as £90m on Rice but won't buy Lavia back. For me he's more talented than Rice and has already been in and around the setup.

This is just silly...silly I tell ya...

 

[JewelZee]

I agree that he's not stand out enough to bring him right back, but City scored three times as many goals as Southampton, so tripling his offensive stats wouldn't be a surprise.

Wow, now that's what's called advanced metrics...

 

[Iassel]

For what it’s worth I suspect that off the record all parties are a bit frustrated with how this turned out.

Clearly City felt he needed to play games and with Pep wanting Phillips that wasn’t going to happen, and unfortunately he has come on much quicker than expected, whilst Phillips has turned out to be a waster that Pep had to publicly call out.

Not only has the club ultimately left money on the table, he will strengthen a league rival for the next 10–15 years.

C’est la vie - with the clubs current strategy of selling with buybacks, it’s inevitable that there will be a mistake in amongst the ones who are never good enough to return.

 

[trueblue1972]

Lavia would be ahead of both Phillips and Kovacic in the pecking order if he was here. He was fantastic at Southampton last year and will solve a massive part of Liverpool's weakness, which is their midfield.

I find it so weird that the club went as high as £90m on Rice but won't buy Lavia back. For me he's more talented than Rice and has already been in and around the setup.

Ahead of Kovacic ? Can I have some of what your smoking pls

 

[oldius]

I will make it clear - I was a fan of Lavia and thought that he had the chance to make it with us. He is a talented player. I will also be clear that despite me wishing him well in his career, and feeling a certain amount of loss that he is not with us, he has done nothing to suggest, yet, that he will reach the top levels of world class, which is what he would need to do to thrive here. He would not be displacing any of our central midfield of last season (based on his Southampton performances) and we would be buying a prospect who would have to earn his place, with no guarantees that he would. Sometimes, the stars do not align, and young players want their shot before we believe they are ready; they have the right, just as we have the right to take the money for them. We don't need to slag off members of our current squad either - we are the treble winners, for goodness sake, and recognised as the world's best team, so get a grip of yourself.

 

[RayCTID]

Would have been worth a gamble if we didn't have Kalvin Phillips already in the squad

 

[I'm With Stupid]

People moan whenever we let go a talented youngster, but we've definitely not had a 'Chelsea letting go of De Bruyne and Salah' moment yet. As others have said, he was decent in a team than managed 25 points. I get that he's only 19, but would anyone be talking about him at all if he wasn't ex-City? I'm not sure they would.

Fans always have a soft spot for academy lads, but if we listened to fans, the current team would be made up of Jason Denayer, Brahim Diaz, Ferran Torres, Jadon Sancho, Angelino, Garcia, Porro, Muric, Roberts, etc. While some of them have had decent careers since leaving us, I'd argue that not a single one would get into our matchday squad.

The only argument is that he'd contribute to our club-trained quota. Is that still a thing?

 

[bluenova]

Wow, now that's what's called advanced metrics...

Ha! Maybe - but let's face it, he's playing a different game of football at Southampton.

Southampton make just over half as many passes as City, while Rodri spends much of his time behind the ball, with the opponents sitting off in a low block, so of course he's going to have more chances to pass forward. Rodri makes nearly 3 times as many passes per game as Lavia, so when you're comparing quantities (which is what most of those stats that were shared do), he's going to be 2-3 times ahead.

James Ward-Prowse makes the most passes for Southampton, and he'd only sneak in at number 10 in City players passes per 90 minutes.

So, yes - "advanced metrics", but stick a player into midfield in City's team and they're going to spend a hell of a lot more time on the ball, and make more passes. They'd struggle not to.

 

[yankblue]

Lavia is extremely overrated on here imo. I don't think he'd get anywhere near our midfield as is, and if he's ever going to progress to the point where he could, he needs consistent minutes which I highly doubt he'd get with us.

 

[ElMago_DSilva]

Lavia would be ahead of both Phillips and Kovacic in the pecking order if he was here. He was fantastic at Southampton last year and will solve a massive part of Liverpool's weakness, which is their midfield.

I find it so weird that the club went as high as £90m on Rice but won't buy Lavia back. For me he's more talented than Rice and has already been in and around the setup.

Ahead of Kalvin Phillips? I agree.

Ahead of Kovacic? Based on what exactly?

Kovacic was playing in the champions league last season, he's a regular Croatia international that plays almost every game for them and he's won a European cup.

What has Lavia done in his career to merit being a starter above Kovacic? Playing just ONE season of premier league football for bottom of the league? Is he a regular Belgian international? No he isn't.

I want whatever you're smoking, pal.