The Best XI

[zepenedo]

Lets me get this right, you think we need 9 signings this summer?

Only 8 actually. The new striker should come next season when Agüero leaves.

1: Bravo's leaving the club. I think a 2nd keeper is needed. Not someone expensive. I wonder if Angus Gunn would be a good option? He counts as homegrown and shouldn't be expensive. Unless you trust Muric/Bazunu to be back-up keepers.

2 and 3: I think Aké and a new CB (Koulibaly? Upamecano?) are unanimously seen as a must.

4: A left back is also a must, obviously. Alaba would be top pick for me, Guerreiro would fit this team quite well.

5: Fernandinho is done. He's not even a leader so we should move him. That leaves Rodri. So we need another one.

6: We need cover for Kevin as well, don't we? Especially given his propensity for injuries and Gundo's current lack of ability to make things happen. Thiago would be perfect for Pep. Aouar seems like a good option too.

7 and 8: Ferrán came to replace Sané. Another winger would be needed to cover for Bernardo, who would be playing as CML.

Which of these do you not agree?

To be fair, the only reason we need to sign 8/9 players this summer is because the club didn't buy in the past 2 years. They only brought in Mahrez, Rodri and Cancelo when David Silva, Kompany, Otamendi and Fernandinho needed replacements; Mendy proved repeatedly to be physically far from his best form.

 

[ctid1894]

Only 8 actually. The new striker should come next season when Agüero leaves.

1: Bravo's leaving the club. I think a 2nd keeper is needed. Not someone expensive. I wonder if Angus Gunn would be a good option? He counts as homegrown and shouldn't be expensive. Unless you trust Muric/Bazunu to be back-up keepers.

2 and 3: I think Aké and a new CB (Koulibaly? Upamecano?) are unanimously seen as a must.

4: A left back is also a must, obviously. Alaba would be top pick for me, Guerreiro would fit this team quite well.

5: Fernandinho is done. He's not even a leader so we should move him. That leaves Rodri. So we need another one.

6: We need cover for Kevin as well, don't we? Especially given his propensity for injuries and Gundo's current lack of ability to make things happen. Thiago would be perfect for Pep. Aouar seems like a good option too.

7 and 8: Ferrán came to replace Sané. Another winger would be needed to cover for Bernardo, who would be playing as CML.

Which of these do you not agree?

To be fair, the only reason we need to sign 8/9 players this summer is because the club didn't buy in the past 2 years. They only brought in Mahrez, Rodri and Cancelo when David Silva, Kompany, Otamendi and Fernandinho needed replacements; Mendy proved repeatedly to be physically far from his best form.

I think you'll be lucky to get 2 more (CB and CM).
1. Zack Steffen.
2. Ake is done.
3. Can't argue now Garcia has told us he wants to leave.
4. Very little chance, we've got more than enough cover with Mendy, Cancelo and Zinchenko. Unless someone falls into our lap with a cracking deal then I don't think we'll go for a left back.
5. No chance, Rodri and Gundogan are the two #6's.
6. I think we'll bring in Aouar to compete for the #8 roles alongside KDB, Bernardo and Foden.
7. Torres is done.
8. No chance, we have Sterling, Mahrez and Torres as well as Bernardo and Foden who can all play wide, maybe even Jesus.

 

[zepenedo]

I think you'll be lucky to get 2 more (CB and CM).
1. Zack Steffen.
2. Ake is done.
3. Can't argue now Garcia has told us he wants to leave.
4. Very little chance, we've got more than enough cover with Mendy, Cancelo and Zinchenko. Unless someone falls into our lap with a cracking deal then I don't think we'll go for a left back.
5. No chance, Rodri and Gundogan are the two #6's.
6. I think we'll bring in Aouar to compete for the #8 roles alongside KDB, Bernardo and Foden.
7. Torres is done.
8. No chance, we have Sterling, Mahrez and Torres as well as Bernardo and Foden who can all play wide, maybe even Jesus.

So your squad would be:

Ederson, Zack Steffen (don't know Steffen so I can't say if he's a good option)
Walker, Cancelo (all good!)
Koulibaly (?), Stones (great)
Laporte, Aké (great)
Mendy, Zinchenko (a permanently injured player and a midfielder?)
Rodri, Fernandinho, Gundogan (Rodri will be great, Fernandinho is 83 yo and Gundogan is inconsequential)
Kevin, Aouar (great!)
Bernardo, Foden (awesome!)
Mahrez, Torres (great!)
Sterling (I feel like we should get another option here)
Aguero, Jesus (good enough this season)

Not a bad squad by all means but in that case we don't have the right to be disappointed when we get eliminated in CL quarter finals again next year.

I really feel like we should at least try to invest in another winger and another LB. Next season we'd sign the much needed DM and Striker I guess...

 

[WRicko]

Based on this season I think we should face this transfer market with everything we've got:

Ederson/ NEW GK (another sweeper keeper like Eddie, who's willing to only play in cup games for now but who can keep the brazilian on his toes)

Walker/ Cancelo (we're all set here, but should start to look for options next season)
UPAMECANO/ Stones / Harwood-Bellis (I'd rather spend 80M on Upamecano than 70M on Koulibaly, Stones would be a decent back-up)
Laporte/ Aké (all set here)
ALABA/ Mendy/ Zinchenko (Alaba is a must, Mendy is great when fit and Zinchenko is a great utility player that never causes trouble in the dressing room and can play in 3 or 4 different roles)

Rodri/ RUBEN NEVES / Tommy Doyle (Fernandinho should be moved either now or in January to Brazil, a De Jong-type DM should be signed; Kimmich would be perfect, but rather improbable)
De Bruyne/ THIAGO (Gundogan out, a new one is needed; I don't know if Aouar is the best option, I'd rather sign Thiago in the meantime)
Bernardo/ Foden (all set on left-footed CMs, David Silva is out as we know)

Mahrez / Sterling/ Torres / NEW WINGER (I have no clue who else we could sign, but it'd always be expensive: Sancho, Coman, Gnabry, Bailey...)

Aguero/ Jesus/ MBAPPÉ (Aguero should play his last season this year, Jesus is great in more ways than one, Mbappé is also a must; spend big on this kid, plus he can play on the wings)

We should spend big if needed, but not stupidly. I think we can all agree that players like van Dijk, Jorginho and De Jong (all of which we failed to sign) would've been quite useful this season.
I honestly hope Pep stays since the only other coach I could imagine replacing him is Naggelsman, who might be too unexperienced (outside of Germany) for us.
I think should, every three years, spend big money. Last two seasons we only signed Mahrez, Cancelo and Rodri and the aging squad is starting to show. Waiting until now to replace Bravo, Kompany, Fernandinho, David Silva and Aguero has proven to be a big mistake.

We do not have an unlimited budget and we do not need that many players let alone to spend that amount on certain ones

 

[willipp]

So your squad would be:

Ederson, Zack Steffen (don't know Steffen so I can't say if he's a good option)
Walker, Cancelo (all good!)
Koulibaly (?), Stones (great)
Laporte, Aké (great)
Mendy, Zinchenko (a permanently injured player and a midfielder?)
Rodri, Fernandinho, Gundogan (Rodri will be great, Fernandinho is 83 yo and Gundogan is inconsequential)
Kevin, Aouar (great!)
Bernardo, Foden (awesome!)
Mahrez, Torres (great!)
Sterling (I feel like we should get another option here)
Aguero, Jesus (good enough this season)

Not a bad squad by all means but in that case we don't have the right to be disappointed when we get eliminated in CL quarter finals again next year.

I really feel like we should at least try to invest in another winger and another LB. Next season we'd sign the much needed DM and Striker I guess...

I think you need to get back to playing champ man. You have spent the bast part of half a billion there and that just isnt happening.

 

[zepenedo]

We do not have an unlimited budget and we do not need that many players let alone to spend that amount on certain ones

5M on a GK
80M on Upamecano (I'm sure he'd never be this expensive, especially if we throw Angeliño into the deal
50M on Alaba (contract expires next year)
Have no idea who'd be a good option for DM, maybe Neves is expensive, maybe Tommy Doyle could step up for now
30M on Thiago (contract expires next year)
90M-100M on a new winger

5+80+50+30+100 = 265M
We spent more in 2017 to bring 5 players: Bernardo, Mendy, Danilo, Ederson and Walker.

 

[WRicko]

So your squad would be:

Ederson, Zack Steffen (don't know Steffen so I can't say if he's a good option)
Walker, Cancelo (all good!)
Koulibaly (?), Stones (great)
Laporte, Aké (great)
Mendy, Zinchenko (a permanently injured player and a midfielder?)
Rodri, Fernandinho, Gundogan (Rodri will be great, Fernandinho is 83 yo and Gundogan is inconsequential)
Kevin, Aouar (great!)
Bernardo, Foden (awesome!)
Mahrez, Torres (great!)
Sterling (I feel like we should get another option here)
Aguero, Jesus (good enough this season)

Not a bad squad by all means but in that case we don't have the right to be disappointed when we get eliminated in CL quarter finals again next year.

I really feel like we should at least try to invest in another winger and another LB. Next season we'd sign the much needed DM and Striker I guess...

We did not need a winger last year and we would not have needed one this year had Sané played and we have replaced him so why do we need one now ? Plus we can now use Jesus and Foden there more than the previous years as they have been tried there and grown as players

 

[ctid1894]

So your squad would be:

Ederson, Zack Steffen (don't know Steffen so I can't say if he's a good option)
Walker, Cancelo (all good!)
Koulibaly (?), Stones (great)
Laporte, Aké (great)
Mendy, Zinchenko (a permanently injured player and a midfielder?)
Rodri, Fernandinho, Gundogan (Rodri will be great, Fernandinho is 83 yo and Gundogan is inconsequential)
Kevin, Aouar (great!)
Bernardo, Foden (awesome!)
Mahrez, Torres (great!)
Sterling (I feel like we should get another option here)
Aguero, Jesus (good enough this season)

Not a bad squad by all means but in that case we don't have the right to be disappointed when we get eliminated in CL quarter finals again next year.

I really feel like we should at least try to invest in another winger and another LB. Next season we'd sign the much needed DM and Striker I guess...

You could buy 22 new players and still get knocked out of the Champions League in the quarter finals again, it's a knockout competition at that stage and anything can happen. It's impossible to keep two top players for each position happy, you need to reign in the expectation levels.

Equally it's impossible to have a team guaranteed to beat everyone, it's always going to be risk vs rewards. We play a high risk strategy in the league which has worked very well in previous seasons, this season we've not been quite at it and we've had 9 defeats, shit happens. Whoever you bring in it's still going to be exactly the same risk vs reward. You might win a few more and lose a few less but in a knockout competition you only need to get beat once and you're out.

 

[zepenedo]

We did not need a winger last year and we would not have needed one this year had Sané played and we have replaced him so why do we need one now ? Plus we can now use Jesus and Foden there more than the previous years as they have been tried there and grown as players

Because Bernardo should be deployed as a midfielder this year.
Sure, Foden and Jesus can play as wingers. We can also use Fernandinho as a CB and KDB as a winger like we did against Lyon. The question is: do we want to? Do we really want to have a squad without 2 good players for every position? Because that's what we did this year.

 

[zepenedo]

You could buy 22 new players and still get knocked out of the Champions League in the quarter finals again, it's a knockout competition at that stage and anything can happen. It's impossible to keep two top players for each position happy, you need to reign in the expectation levels.

Equally it's impossible to have a team guaranteed to beat everyone, it's always going to be risk vs rewards. We play a high risk strategy in the league which has worked very well in previous seasons, this season we've not been quite at it and we've had 9 defeats, shit happens. Whoever you bring in it's still going to be exactly the same risk vs reward. You might win a few more and lose a few less but in a knockout competition you only need to get beat once and you're out.

True, I agree. Especially if Pep decides to use suicidal tactics in key games. But don't you agree that we 2 good players for each position your possibilities are exponentially better?