The Squad planning thread

Blue_Lightsaber said:
Easy. Bye Kova, Akanji and Ortega!

Was close between Ake and Akanji but a fit Ake is miles above Akanji.

Kova has a half million a week offer.
Ortega wants to be #1 somewhere.

As easy as the decision can be without moving Pep's favorites Gundo and Bernardo on who are both on higher salaries.
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We'd then need an English back up goalkeeper, good enough to be a #2, not too good to be a #1. Trafford maybe if he'll wait for Eddie? That person would then take Grealish's spot, well Trafford is actually a bad example of that as he's club trained, another English goalkeeper would though.

If you signed another English goalkeeper and then you still wanted MGW/Livramento, you're dropping Bettinelli (probably doable for the CL) or selling 1 of Stones/Ake.

All good fun either way. I feel like I need to see how Hugo's whiteboard of how the squad is looking.
 
BringBackSwales said:
I can only assume you don’t watch the games cos if you did you’d have seen that Bernardo’s more ineffective games were on the right mid/wing which is not his position but he played there cos Pep wanted him to for more ball possession and control. Tail end of the season where he played deeper and more central mid he was excellent
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No I don’t watch any of the games
 
MCFC1993 said:
We'd then need an English back up goalkeeper, good enough to be a #2, not too good to be a #1. Trafford maybe if he'll wait for Eddie? That person would then take Grealish's spot.

So all that is fair but if you then want to sign MGW/Livramento, you're dropping Bettinelli (probably doable for the CL) or selling 1 of Stones/Ake.

All good fun either way. I feel like I need to see how Hugo's whiteboard of the squad is looking.
Click to expand...
I'd be trying to sell the project to Trafford in that way tbh.
Say to him, Eddie is our number one and has been for years now, but his head is in and out, as is his form. Your job is to push him aside and take the spot, you're clearly confident you can, so show us.

Second choice goal-keeper, right back and a utility midfielder are the only real spaces for a home-grown player to join and get some solid minutes, in my opinion.
 
MCFC1993 said:
We'd then need an English back up goalkeeper, good enough to be a #2, not too good to be a #1. Trafford maybe if he'll wait for Eddie? That person would then take Grealish's spot.

So all that is fair but if you then want to sign MGW/Livramento, you're dropping Bettinelli (probably doable for the CL) or selling 1 of Stones/Ake.

All good fun either way. I feel like I need to see how Hugo's whiteboard of the squad is looking.
Click to expand...

I don't think Stones sticks around.. he always prioritizes England and his health/ availability means we can't carry him anymore sadly.

BTW I don't think any of the calculations so far have counted Divine Mukasa (sp?) into the mix but he's about ready for the first team.. like Nico O'Reilly was!
 
Blue_Lightsaber said:
I don't think Stones sticks around.. he always prioritizes England and his health/ availability means we can't carry him anymore sadly.
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Just realised that Trafford is a bad example, he'd be in the club section where we have a free spot and not the nation section, so we could still replace Grealish with MGW or Livramento, can't keep up.
 
MCFC1993 said:
Just realised that Trafford is a bad example, he'd be in the club section where we have a free spot and not the nation section, so we could still replace Grealish with MGW or Livramento, can't keep up.
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You can fill all 8 slots with club players.. they don't have to be from other english clubs.

I believe there's an age limit on 4 slots though.
 
MCFC1993 said:
Just realised that Trafford is a bad example, he'd be in the club section where we have a free spot and not the nation section, so we could still replace Grealish with MGW or Livramento, can't keep up.
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surely you can be both in the club and nation section?
 
Anyway in terms of next season this will tell us a bit:
1749570482049.png
Although Fifa's rules do say squads have to be a minimum of 26 players.

No Grealish or Kovacic of course.
 
strudelslol said:
I'd be trying to sell the project to Trafford in that way tbh.
Say to him, Eddie is our number one and has been for years now, but his head is in and out, as is his form. Your job is to push him aside and take the spot, you're clearly confident you can, so show us.

Second choice goal-keeper, right back and a utility midfielder are the only real spaces for a home-grown player to join and get some solid minutes, in my opinion.
Click to expand...
What about selling it to Pep, doubt he’d want Trafford as either a number one or two.
 
MCFC1993 said:
8 homegrown but can be made up of only 4 homegrown from other clubs if you wish, before you have to include them in the non-HG.
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You know.. I wish Viana would just understand that we get overcharged by English clubs for English players.

So if we have to fill up the numbers.. just fill them up with academy graduates.

It'll also incentivize the academy to make the levels as there are slots opening up.
 
MCFC1993 said:
Anyway in terms of next season this will tell us a bit:
View attachment 159657
Although Fifa's rules do say squads have to be a minimum of 26 players.

No Grealish or Kovacic of course.
Click to expand...
mcatee confirmed not there as well, going to U21 euros. No word on stones fitness either, so will assume he's not going too.

So squad could be

GKS: ederson, Ortega, Bettinelli (3)

DEFS: Lewis, Nunes, Dias, akanji, Ake, khusanov, gvardiol, Reis, Ait Nouri, O Reilly (10)

MID: Bernardo, Gundogan, Reijnders, Nico G, Cherki, Foden, Doku, Savio, Bobb, Rodri (10)

ST: Haaland, Marmoush (2)

That's 25, and assumes Stones is injured and takes 0 academy players other than those established in 1st team already
 
MCFC1993 said:
That's interesting. Think I'd probably have them about 10 goals back from there, 80-85 which is why I think we probably need 1 more attacking player.

Probably a couple of overestimations on there I wouldnt rely on, wouldnt expect Haaland to score 28 for example (although hes more than capable). It's probably the 6 combined goals of Savinho/Doku being the issue as 1 will start most weeks. So 6 goals in let's say 30-33 games isn't enough.
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The rationale is there
There isn’t that much hope in other players but I know Haaland can go back to his debut form. Better environment, system etc. maybe his movement improves.

the numbers for certain players is actually pathetic when you deep it. I too would love a forward who’s a consistent numbers guy but that’s why we got Marmoush and if Foden gets back to his back I think we will be fine. Until we get rid of Savio, Doku, Bobb it can’t really happen
 
DMA's said:
I honestly think we are fine as we are now:

Ederson

Nunes Dias gvardiol ait Nouri

Rodri rudolph

Cherki

Foden haaland marmoush

2nd

Ortega

Khusanov akanji ake Nico o’reily

Kovacic Bernardo nico g

Savinho Bobb doku

Summary
22 players there with many who can play in different positions.

Would mean grealish, mcatee, stones, walker, Phillips and gundogan would leave. I’d keep rico Lewis as a Swiss Army knife type.

Non hg
1)ederson
2) Ortega
3) nunes
4) dias
5) akanji
6) kovacic
7) Bernardo
8) rodri
9) Nico g
10) Rudolph
11) cherki
12) doku
13) marmoush
14) haaland
15) gvardiol
16) ait Nouri
17) kovacic

Home grown
1) foden
2) Nico o
3) bobb
4) ake
5) Lewis
6)bettelini

U21 (don’t count against prem list)
1) savinho
2) khusanov
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Not a chance we leave players like Savinho and Kushanov out of the CL squad.

The squad will be trimmed accordingly (to the 21 limit plus any CT/B-list), and that will be the squad. As had always been the case.

Every year, people argued otherwise. And every year they were wrong.
 
MCFC1993 said:
Do we have enough goals in the team?

I've just looked back at our last 5 years:

2020/21 - PL winners, LC winners, CL runner up - 61 games, 131 goals (2 own goals) - 2.15 goals per game.
7 goalscorers over 10 goals.
View attachment 159632

2021/22 - PL winners - 58 games, 150 goals (4 own goals) - 2.59 goals per game.
1 goalscorer over 20 goals.
6 goalscorers over 10 goals.
View attachment 159633

2022/23 - Treble winners - 61 games, 151 goals (3 own goals) - 2.48 goals per game.
1 goalscorer over 50 goals.
5 goalscorers over 10 goals.
View attachment 159634

2023/24 - PL, CWC, SC winners, FA Cup runners up - 59 games, 149 goals (5 own goals) - 2.53 goals per game.
1 goalscorer over 30 goals.
1 goalscorer over 20 goals.
2 goalscorers over 10 goals.
View attachment 159635

2024/25 - CS winners - 57 games, 114 goals (2 own goals) - 2 goals per game.
1 goalscorer over 30 goals.
1 goalscorer over 10 goals. (technically 2 with 1 on course pro-rata)
View attachment 159637

So I think we need to find nearly 40 goals from somewhere:
- Haaland gets you 30+.
- Marmoush can probably get 20+, conservatively 10+.
- Foden 10+.
- Cherki 10+. First season though, so big ask.
Hitting those numbers and everyone else gets their estimated 1-9 goals a season probably leaves us about 20 goals short, or 1 good attacker.
I don't see Doku, Savinho or any other midfielder doing it.

So I suppose I'm asking if people think this squad has enough goals in it?
Players who will step up and score more than 10 or if we need 1 more for next season?


I'm almost certain we should bring a goalscoring wide player in.
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I think the Haaland estimate is low. He should be targeting 45+ goals again if we're now building the team around him. That's the tradeoff with playing him vs for example our 20/21 or even 21/22 sides. I'm not wild about having so many goals tied up in one person but it is what it is. Mbappe this season finished on 43, first season in a pretty shit RM side.

That said, it should be, IMO, Doku. I don't see why or how it's beyond him to have a 15+ goal season at *least*. If he doesn't kick on this season he should be out. He's had the settling in season, and he's had the 'we were all shit' season. Now he needs to provide results.
 
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