The Squad planning thread

[Zenmanc]

One Pep signing out of all you've named

You can't make sweeping generalistic comments amidst a tantrum then try to apply the "they weren't Pep signings" card and claim impunity.

Just admit you were having a tantrum and move on. Let's not get into intellectualizing... you will not come out with the long straw.

 

[TheBlueCat]

Is that the same U18 team that have been absolutely brilliant this season? A bit strange to bring up one result for the EDS to back up your argument.

The U18s lost to Villa twice.. Same tactics, same result.
It’s been a feature of our play all season. It’s not an argument, it’s plain to see, nothing strange about pointing it out

 

[bugsyblue]

One Pep signing out of all you've named

You didn’t say anything about Pep. Sounded like you were talking about the club and given you said “always” forgive me for including players before our present manager. Maybe you need to be clearer when you are talking crap?

 

[Kinkladze 1]

Target elite players , players that Madrid,Bayern,PSG would target not the shit we’ve been targeting. Sign mediocrity you become mediocre.

Exactly. No regular fan had heard of Doku, savinho, khuzanov reis, mubama and i dare say gonzalez before they signed and there’s probably a good reason for that…

 

[bugsyblue]

Width ? What’s stones doing lol

Rodyrgo and Doku give us width. With Wesley bombing down the right wing.

Stones is playing CB mate.

 

[Manchester_lalala]

The U18s lost to Villa twice.. Same tactics, same result.
It’s been a feature of our play all season. It’s not an argument, it’s plain to see, nothing strange about pointing it out

Again, the U18 have been brilliant all year. The “City” way has worked for them for years and it will stay that way for many years to come. To suggest it’s outdated is laughable as you’re basing that off one bad season for City.

 

[King Jay]

Exactly. No regular fan had heard of Doku, savinho, khuzanov reis, mubama and i dare say gonzalez before they signed and there’s probably a good reason for that…

Everyone knew about Doku and Savinho they were one of the best players of their league. Doku dominated Italy during the Euros 2020 when hazard was injured and made a name for himself. Savinho was the 2nd best winger of La Liga. People knew.

 

[sh249]

It's simply not true that smaller technicians are being beaten by big brutes. Psg and barca who's weakness is their defense have plenty of small technicians and doing fantastic. Obviously if the bigger player is close in technicality then his size can close the gap but technical big brutes or super athletic technical players aren't that common. At the top level a balance is required because you simply don't say no to players like joao neves because someone like Bellingham can do a Zidane turn and runs all day.

Agree. I don‘t think it remotely true that physicality now trumps technical ability, certainly not in any way that has made Pep‘s trademark style obsolete.
Our issue is that we‘ve stopped playing Pep football almost completely - no movement, no purpose, no cohesion, no discernible patterns of build up or attacking play (except giving the ball to Doku or Savinho and praying they can do something).
Pretty much ever since Pep arrived, other teams have, generally, been bigger, stronger, quicker. But we‘ve spent years wiping the floor with them. And our better sides under Pep would have done exactly the same to the teams we‘ve struggled against this year.
Of course we need some more energy, particularly through midfield. But more than that, I’d hope we go back to prioritising proper, top class footballers, who are also excellent decision-makers on the ball.
A settled system would also be nice.

 

[Kinkladze 1]

Everyone knew about Doku and Savinho they were one of the best players of their league. Doku dominated Italy during the Euros 2020 when hazard was injured and made a name for himself. Savinho was the 2nd best winger of La Liga. People knew.

That makes it even worse then. They’re both nowhere near good enough.

 

[Delphinho]

Livramento, Nathaniel Brown (LB), Baleba and Wirtz/El Khannouss for me. Add Joan Garcia (£21m release clause) on top if Ederson goes

 

[citeh94]

James fucking Garner? You haven’t just scraped the bottom of the barrel there you fell right through it!

I said a player who plays in his role not his quality!!!

 

[Gabriel]

James fucking Garner? You haven’t just scraped the bottom of the barrel there you fell right through it!

One for those of a certain vintage.

 

[richards30]

Costa
Wesley
Cambiaso
Reijnders

all likely it seems and Wirtz hopefully?

 

[Bluearmy]

Huge part of the problem. Either Pep fixes it directly or believes that midfielders running from deep will aid with fixing it. Either way, needs sorting.

View attachment 156715

For me we have bigger issues wide than central… Not that the centre is perfect, we lack creativity there. However, we have zero threat from out wide, teams know this and set up accordingly nullifying Haaland. Doku / Savinho should be 3rd and 4th choice at best but are our starting wingers. Its killing us!!

 

[Gaz (FMwkdsoul)]

Fascinated to see what they do with Stones over the summer, clearly broken as fuck. Guehi has a year on his deal and doesn't look close to a new one, long standing interest in Branthwaite etc.

Reis and Bah clearly not ready. wonder if its on the 'get all the priority work done' and address it if we can/need to end of the plan.

 

[shevtheblue]

The words from Pep about the club having a view on squad planning suggests to me they have taken it out of his hands. He clearly said earlier in the season that it was his idea to have a small squad and not make improvements, Viana seems to be taking this on his own shoulders. You get the feeling that players need to be physically ripped from Pep's hands at this point, and that's why the club have refused to renew KDB and will prob be looking to send out a few others, where possible. We have a big issue on the foreign player limit at the club if we are looking to get in the players we've been linked to, that's why i'm pretty shocked we haven't been really linked with Frimpong at all - he's not only association trained, he's fucking club trained..it just makes no sense to me.

 

[Gabriel]

Fascinated to see what they do with Stones over the summer, clearly broken as fuck. Guehi has a year on his deal and doesn't look close to a new one, long standing interest in Branthwaite etc.

Reis and Bah clearly not ready. wonder if its on the 'get all the priority work done' and address it if we can/need to end of the plan.

One of the reasons it would make more sense to go for the likes of Savona and Hato is that they can play fullback but also cover in the centre if needed. Stacking more central defenders who are less comfortable at fullback just leaves us imbalanced.

 

[Gaz (FMwkdsoul)]

One of the reasons it would make more sense to go for the likes of Savona and Hato is that they can play fullback but also cover in the centre if needed. Stacking more central defenders who are less comfortable at fullback just leaves us imbalanced.

Savona is about to sign a new deal. We've no interest in Hato yet, think it'll have to be HG option for Stones

 

[richards30]

The words from Pep about the club having a view on squad planning suggests to me they have taken it out of his hands. He clearly said earlier in the season that it was his idea to have a small squad and not make improvements, Viana seems to be taking this on his own shoulders. You get the feeling that players need to be physically ripped from Pep's hands at this point, and that's why the club have refused to renew KDB and will prob be looking to send out a few others, where possible. We have a big issue on the foreign player limit at the club if we are looking to get in the players we've been linked to, that's why i'm pretty shocked we haven't been really linked with Frimpong at all - he's not only association trained, he's fucking club trained..it just makes no sense to me.

Good! Txiki and Pep are too close imo, Viana needs to do his job and tell Pep to do his.

 

[Bluemoon has risen]

Good! Txiki and Pep are too close imo, Viana needs to do his job and tell Pep to do his.

Good to a point as it'll free us of the sentimentality of some squad players, but Pep is the one that picks the team not Viana. He will want players he can work with and to what he envisions the team to be, otherwise we'll end up with expensive players sat on the bench or in the stands all season. We're already seeing that a little bit with Reis, who has barely played and at the moment feels like £30m not well spent. I also wonder how much the signings of Gonzales and Khusanov were Viana signings rather than Pep's.