The Squad planning thread

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

If we keep buying average players then we will end up with an average team.

 

[mattcity5]

He’s so predictable and gives the ball away a lot. Has one good game in 10 and doesn’t score anywhere near enough goals

Predictable, yet none of our other attacking players seem to know when/where to make runs because they haven't a clue what he's going to do.

 

[Mad 4 It]

Predictable, yet none of our other attacking players seem to know when/where to make runs because they haven't a clue what he's going to do.

He jumps around like some cat with a toy loses it or passes back, the benchmark for me is peak Sane and he will never be that and that’s the level we need

 

[mattcity5]

He jumps around like some cat with a toy loses it or passes back, the benchmark for me is peak Sane and he will never be that and that’s the level we need

Every team who played against peak Sane was wide open in comparison to the teams Doku faces. He's supposed to beat 2 or 3 and then hit a perfect pass into a crowded goalmouth.

I'm not even saying Doku is great or the answer, but it's far harder now for a winger than it was back then.

 

[Mad 4 It]

Every team who played against peak Sane was wide open in comparison to the teams Doku faces. He's supposed to beat 2 or 3 and then hit a perfect pass into a crowded goalmouth.

I'm not even saying Doku is great or the answer, but it's far harder now for a winger than it was back then.

Fair enough, seems that when we counter he actually slows the play down eventually and we lose the advantage. Just what I notice with him. For me he’s had long enough to show more

 

[NQCitizen]

Too many players who are great at being the supporting cast, not enough leaders and gamechangers/able to turn and win a game on their own.

Doku, Reijnders, Marmoush, Semenyo, Savinho, Foden, Haaland - all great but not good enough to win games on their own.

Cherki and Rodri are probably the only ones who have the drive and ability to take games by the scruff of the neck and make a solid difference. Rodri by driving the side forward and Cherki by moments of genius.

Showed last night. Nobody out there willing to take a risk and make a substantial difference. Cherki tried when he came on but couldn't do it. But at least he tried.

We should be shopping at the likes of Olise, Dembele, Doue, Vitinha - players who make a difference and put the team on their backs when the going gets tough. Not just players who hide behind the system and play like robots.

We should've gone for Kimmich, I stand by that. He was there for the taking and I bet Pep being here would've made the 'sell' to him a lot easier.

The world's biggest clubs aren't selling their best players.

I don't get why people think we're going to be taking major players off PSG, Bayern, Real Madrid, Barcelona that they don't want to sell. Donnarumma had to be forced out of PSG to leave.

Buy Musiala, buy Pedri, buy Vitinha - this can't be the answer. We had a hard enough time trying for Wirtz, Rodrygo wanted to stay in Madrid and we weren't in for Isak or Gyokeres who are worse players coming from worse clubs.

We'll be looking at the likes of Anderson, Wharton, Livramento, and guys at Dortmund, Atletico, Inter, Benfica. If we can't make that work and find some high potential players outside the biggest 5 clubs on the planet we've got bigger issues.

 

[ALDN_Ko]

He’s so predictable and gives the ball away a lot. Has one good game in 10 and doesn’t score anywhere near enough goals

We have Marmoush, Haaland and Semenyo to score the goals. We no longer have KDB to be our main creative threat on his own so we need two players to step up in that department. This season it has been Doku and Cherki

 

[K-Bo]

It feels like the squad building has got away from us a bit, we're loaded with lesser players now and many of them recently signed.

 

[richards30]

It feels like the squad building has got away from us a bit, we're loaded with lesser players now and many of them recently signed.

We cant pay the prices now of the top players though? £60m was a fortune when we signed KDB, similar level players even early days Kev would be £100-120m? Let alone close to peak KDB would be £200m plus?

 

[K-Bo]

We cant pay the prices now of the top players though? £60m was a fortune when we signed KDB, similar level players even early days Kev would be £100-120m? Let alone close to peak KDB would be £200m plus?

I think it all comes back to letting our treble winning squad get old at the same time - sort of Pep's fault as I think he's on record for wanting to keep that team together past its sell by date - which meant we've had to spend 500 mil on ten players rather than 6, say. If we had phased out players more gradually, we could have replaced them with better and perhaps more expensive replacements.

Running that old squad into the 24/25 season might be a mistake it takes 3 years to recover from.

That said, if you spend 100 mil on a top class player and the deliver at KDB rates, its worth it.

 

[richards30]

I think it all comes back to letting our treble winning squad get old at the same time - sort of Pep's fault as I think he's on record for wanting to keep that team together past its sell by date - which meant we've had to spend 500 mil on ten players rather than 6, say. If we had phased out players more gradually, we could have replaced them with better and perhaps more expensive replacements.

Running that old squad into the 24/25 season might be a mistake it takes 3 years to recover from.

That said, if you spend 100 mil on a top class player and the deliver at KDB rates, its worth it.

I think though like you said we had so much work to do in one go we couldnt sign 10 x £100m players due to FFP and PSR?

 

[blueparrot]

I think it all comes back to letting our treble winning squad get old at the same time - sort of Pep's fault as I think he's on record for wanting to keep that team together past its sell by date - which meant we've had to spend 500 mil on ten players rather than 6, say. If we had phased out players more gradually, we could have replaced them with better and perhaps more expensive replacements.

Running that old squad into the 24/25 season might be a mistake it takes 3 years to recover from.

That said, if you spend 100 mil on a top class player and the deliver at KDB rates, its worth it.

Not in the real world dealing with real people under real contracts we couldn't May be a great theory but the reason we won the treble was the same reasons it was dificult to suddenly disband that squad. We are now well on the way to building a good new squad , one more window will do it, then lets watch this new team grow. It will win trophies
Will it win a treble probably not that's an extraordinary acheivment which is under appreciated. Does that matter,not really.

 

[K-Bo]

Not in the real world dealing with real people under real contracts we couldn't May be a great theory but the reason we won the treble was the same reasons it was dificult to suddenly disband that squad. We are now well on the way to building a good new squad , one more window will do it, then lets watch this new team grow. It will win trophies
Will it win a treble probably not that's an extraordinary acheivment which is under appreciated. Does that matter,not really.

We're miles away from building a good new squad, we have average players everywhere.

City could absolutely have moved players on faster. Walker wanted to go in 2023 and we blocked and gave him an insane new deal because we were afraid to move on. Think there's a few players we did that with (Gundo/Stones/bernardo the obvious ones) and I think now there's too much to do.

 

[K-Bo]

I think though like you said we had so much work to do in one go we couldnt sign 10 x £100m players due to FFP and PSR?

Yeah 100 percent, but if those old players had left on a drip feed instead of all over about 2 years, then we could have been in a better position. Keeping Walker/Stones well past sell by date, bringing back Gundo past his. There's just a lot of indecision in that period and you can feel the way its cost us.

 

[blueparrot]

We're miles away from building a good new squad, we have average players everywhere.

City could absolutely have moved players on faster. Walker wanted to go in 2023 and we blocked and gave him an insane new deal because we were afraid to move on. Think there's a few players we did that with (Gundo/Stones/bernardo the obvious ones) and I think now there's too much to do.

That's obvious bollocks,we are a new younger team improving all the time, average teams don't get to this point of the season in the position we are in,maybe Arsenal are better nobody else and that's debateable..Next season 2 or 3 new players we'll be better than this.

 

[richards30]

Yeah 100 percent, but if those old players had left on a drip feed instead of all over about 2 years, then we could have been in a better position. Keeping Walker/Stones well past sell by date, bringing back Gundo past his. There's just a lot of indecision in that period and you can feel the way its cost us.

This group i think will grow over the next year though mate and maybe no team ever again hits the record heights that group did? Two records in 3 years that had never been done before in English top flight history?

 

[K-Bo]

That's obvious bollocks,we are a new younger team improving all the time, average teams don't get to this point of the season in the position we are in,maybe Arsenal are better nobody else and that's debateable..Next season 2 or 3 new players we'll be better than this.

you chat obvious bollocks because you can't handle the club getting things wrong

 

[richards30]

That's obvious bollocks,we are a new younger team improving all the time, average teams don't get to this point of the season in the position we are in,maybe Arsenal are better nobody else and that's debateable..Next season 2 or 3 new players we'll be better than this.

Agreed, this group in 12 months time will understand the club more and like you say, 2-3 top class additions will have us even better.

 

[K-Bo]

This group i think will grow over the next year though mate and maybe no team ever again hits the record heights that group did? Two records in 3 years that had never been done before in English top flight history?

I just don't think there's evidence this group will grow, we look so much more chaotic and we're in march and pep doesn't know what his best team is. I don't think it's been like this before in pep era city. He doesn't trust so many players.

 

[blueparrot]

you chat obvious bollocks because you can't handle the club getting things wrong

Yes right.2nd in the league, cup final, cup quarter final, maybe maybe not still in C/L .Distinctly average team.