What's the problem(s)?

[Keeper!]

Our squad is on a very good level. It's not perfect. It's difficult to replace huge legends instantly. And it's natural to make mistakes in the transfer market. A combination of aging legends and bad injuries to key players makes the transition less smooth than initially hoped.

Ferguson had bad periods at Manure. They weren't even close to competing from 2003 and 2006. Many of their fans thought he was past it.

I disagree about our squad, very overrated in my opinion and very unbalanced.

The ageing issue is again down to poor planning by Tixki, you strengthen when your at your strongest, not wait until your weakening.

Twice we have won the title and twice the club failed to build on that, once ok, twice poor.

 

[r.soleofsalford]

Two seasons ago the spirit on that pitch and in the stands was magnificent.

The players would have run through a brick wall for the manager and club.

Do you seriously feel the same way today?

Pep looks a shadow of himself, and so does his team.

Absolutely bang on.

Now the question is how do we try to repair this team. We cant keep on using the same broken system and expect to get back to the top.

Will Pep want to try and build this team back and find a new system

Can Pep change his system.

We`ve all seen Mourinhos fall are we now seeing Peps fall.

How happy is he here, where`s his wife and kids.

 

[Eric Hitchmough]

'Same'. Van Dijk has played in all of their last 45 games or so, they started the season with their best forwards available. The circumstances are not being even remotely the same.

I was referring to the fact they and all clubs have been affected by Covid, had no pre-season and most of their players are pushing 30.
Agreed they have key players who always avoid injury (thanks in no small part to their 'magic asthma potion'!) but they still have issues and always find a way to win. We need to rediscover that habit.

 

[malg]

We're quite boring to watch a lot of the time, with short periods of absolute brilliance. The short periods of absolute brilliance are getting shorter.

 

[alexmcity]

I disagree about our squad, very overrated in my opinion and very unbalanced.

The ageing issue is again down to poor planning by Tixki, you strengthen when your at your strongest, not wait until your weakening.

Twice we have won the title and twice the club failed to build on that, once ok, twice poor.

Nah, you don't replace players like Kompany, Ferna, Silva and Aguero just like that. Who is at Silva's level and might have been signed? Who is guaranteed to successfuly replace Aguero?

If it was that easy, they wouldn't be legends in the first place.

Second, you are making a prediction about our season which I think is wrong. You are criticising the quality of the team on the basis of a dubious prediction.

 

[vasan]

Agree with most of that but "Pep is still the best bet for us and as for evolving, he himself says that he changed after going to germany and had to adapt.Still too early to make rash judgments."

Rash, these issues are 12 months in.

The contract issue is just that, a major, major issue.

IF he wants to rebuild this team, sign a contract, let the players know I am here, I am staying, either stick with me or see you later.

Lets not underestimate what pep has achieved and his influence, after his first season every talking head and loser like gary gary neville said you can't play this way and win the league.Pep proved them wrong we won and dominated the english league for 2 whole years while playing a technical midfield trio of silva, de bruyne and fernandinho.
Even klopp took and used of pep's methods like focus on build up play and has used to adapt his own game.
Without the success of this city team and vindication of pep's methods, do you think the liverpool board would have sanctioned that kind of money of a GK and CB.van dijk would probably gone to barca
and allison to juve or real.

 

[alexmcity]

I was referring to the fact they and all clubs have been affected by Covid, had no pre-season and most of their players are pushing 30.
Agreed they have key players who always avoid injury (thanks in no small part to their 'magic asthma potion'!) but they still have issues and always find a way to win. We need to rediscover that habit.

Actually, Liverpool had a (short) pre-season, played friendlies and the CS game. We started our preparation after their CS game. Besides, they didn't miss players due to covid in the first 2 games, we missed at least 3. Not the same at all.

 

[Blu1]

Did Arteta take anybody else with him ?

we look slow, disjointed & Disorganised all over the pitch. It’s like a different team the minute he left

 

[Semper aggressus]

Nah, you don't replace players like Kompany, Ferna, Silva and Aguero just like that. Who is at Silva's level and might have been signed? Who is guaranteed to successfuly replace Aguero?

If it was that easy, they wouldn't be legends in the first place.

Second, you are making a prediction about our season which I think is wrong. You are criticising the quality of the team on the basis of a dubious prediction.

Aouar, Sancho and Haaland? Havertz? Plenty out there if we'd shown enough ambition and desire to buy players as close to our legends as possible.

 

[SleepingBlueTiger]

Combination of multiple factors, therefore making it very difficult to fix quickly.

• Losing world class players and having only good players replacing them.
• Mental fatigue of Pep's system.
• Overpaying for players, therefore not able to improve in other needed positions.
• Injuries
• There is a clear antidote to our style of play, something the manager has not been able to counter whatever formation he has used (Lyon, Leicester etc games)
• Players who dont step up in tight games and would rather a 6-0 game against opposition 4 levels below them

Couple of more detailed squad planning issues:

• Lack of clinical finishers catching up to us - team is unbalanced towards more creative attackers. We've been able to get away with this by creating 3x more than opposition but we are creating equal amount these days. That leaves us always facing worse odds.
• Very little attacking threat from fullbacks makes us too easy to play against when sitting deep.

Individually each of these issues would not be a big deal but combine them together and there is quite a difficult situation.