The Squad planning thread

[richards30]

Poor from txiki in the summer imo, Rodri at some point was alway going to grab an injury unfortunately (although never thought this serious) Walker 34/35, KDB 33 heading to 34, Gundo looks his age and was probably as a dressing room influence and a look to maybe joining the coaching staff as much as the player. The club are just scared to spend it seems but have to in January

 

[nellyonthewing]

Poor from txiki in the summer imo, Rodri at some point was alway going to grab an injury unfortunately (although never thought this serious) Walker 34/35, KDB 33 heading to 34, Gundo looks his age and was probably as a dressing room influence and a look to maybe joining the coaching staff as much as the player. The club are just scared to spend it seems but have to in January

I agree but wonder if the Club were inhibited waving the cheque book because of the 115 witchhunt and the optics of spending big. I would have said fuck them and buy top quality to stay top.

 

[Pubteam Lomas]

Poor from txiki in the summer imo, Rodri at some point was alway going to grab an injury unfortunately (although never thought this serious) Walker 34/35, KDB 33 heading to 34, Gundo looks his age and was probably as a dressing room influence and a look to maybe joining the coaching staff as much as the player. The club are just scared to spend it seems but have to in January

Totally agree.
Rodri was never gonna be able to play 50 games plus, even without an injury.
Kova, Kev and Gundo are all in their 30s, so it was always going to be tough for them to play 2 games a week (hopefully!) for the entire season.

We have let so many kids go that we have to play senior players in the CC. I get the exchange is we've brought fortunes in, but it's putting extra pressure on a small squad.

Today we had 8 subs and two of them were keepers. Honestly. that's p**s poor planning.

 

[Paul1970]

Probably no one. We dont need anyone remember

The more you think about the more it’s a total fuck up not getting players into cover our main 2 players and now in feel we are gonna reap what we sow as we are that transfixed by net spend that we’ve actually forgot to pull the trigger and buy players to keep evolving in mean when you think about how can you keep going season after season with the same key players who are getting older and more injury prone and now we have a team of over 30 s who are getting slower and injury prone plus haven’t got the same hunger as players who haven’t won anything . Big season coming up and a big January aswell .

 

[VOOMER]

We can't buy everyone and we don't seem to do understudy recruitment well. That said we have produced Phil, Rico and Oscar. It's the Bellends, Vinicius, A Davies and Mbappe we haven't identified. It's easy to use the RM attraction to explain why when we buy one of the best center half out there in Josko and not follow it.up by buying at least 1 left back to match.

 

[Sir Joe Aguero]

Not only do we have quite a few players 30 or older (KDB, Gundogan, Bernie, Kovacic, Walker, Stones), we play a lot of football compared to most teams, cover a lot of ground, and have a smaller squad. Grealish and Akanji will be 30 soon too, and Rodri might not be the same after such a significant injury.

We’ve still got an unbelievable squad with a great young core, but we need a big refresh over the next 2 seasons.

 

[Dribble]

The last thing City will do is panic because we lost Rodri for the season, have drawn 3 matches in a week & because Cole Palmer scored 4 for the Chavs.

Our bench today was immense & I get why Guardiola went with the starting line-up he chose. But If there's one lesson to be learned, it's that Gundog is not up to speed yet & that we'd have been better off with Foden & Silva as No's 10 & 8, & with Savinho on the right.

We've got Kev, Aké & Bobb to return before Christmas which will give us even more options. Several of our senior players (Walker, KDB, Aké, Kovacic, Stones, Bernardo) must also seriously consider if their priorities lie with playing for City or their countries, as doing both in their 30s is too much of a stretch considering City's domestic, European & World Club Cup ambitions. ESPECIALLY because Pep likes to work with a smaller squad.

Rodri's a massive loss, but we knew the risks we were taking by not buying a player who could provide serious competition & rotate with him. The spotlight is also on Haaland, as he's now our only specialist striker. I know we played a false 9 for two seasons, but it doesn't detract from the risk of not having a top class, ready made replacement to rotate with our Viking.

Our current situation also puts Nunes & McAtee in the spotlight. It's now make or break for both imo. Thankfully Jack behaved professionally during the summer break, because we're gonna need him at his very best, as opposed to the player he was last season.

I still wouldn't swap our squad for anyone else's, but the bell is tolling for several players, as I have the feeling there will be BIG changes come next summer, regardless of how the season pans out.

 

[richards30]

I agree but wonder if the Club were inhibited waving the cheque book because of the 115 witchhunt and the optics of spending big. I would have said fuck them and buy top quality to stay top.

If we are innocent like we say we are then balls to the optics?

 

[Joe Donachie]

I understand how good a player Rodri is but I do feel it becomes an easy excuse for players and manger if we don’t win,

The media certainly don’t help as they magnify situations to hysterical levels, but we have won leauge titles and domestic cups before Rodri signed for the club,

I don’t believe we’re a one man team, although Rodri is an important cog in the wheel, despite his injury there are 10 others players on the pitch who are gonna have to step up to the challange, and not take the easy excuse of saying it’s because of Rodri why we did not win today,

If we do win the leauge this year then the 2 players who will get us over the line are grealish and Haaland, I say this because they are the 2 Players who have had the most rest, it’s as simple as that

 

[Jonas.shaffer]

Poor from txiki in the summer imo, Rodri at some point was alway going to grab an injury unfortunately (although never thought this serious) Walker 34/35, KDB 33 heading to 34, Gundo looks his age and was probably as a dressing room influence and a look to maybe joining the coaching staff as much as the player. The club are just scared to spend it seems but have to in January

I don't know what the result of the trial is going to be, but I hope the ownership is prepared to back whoever replaces Pep. I won't say the squad needs 'a lot' of work, but we undoubtedly need more top-shelf quality.