Will we win the league this season?

Pep's record speaks for itself. You can never write us off. Not one team is standing out this season, even Arsenal look pretty functional, narrow wins and heavily reliant on set piece goals. And we know how much they struggle under pressure at the business end of the season. We really do need to spread the goals around more, the return of Marmoush and Cherki should help with that. But Doku and Savinho need to step up, they get into some great positions but their finishing is powder-puff.
 
bridgeno1 said:
Arsenal have Saka, Eze, Madueke, Odegaard, Martinelli. Which one of those is Cherki getting in ahead of?

City have an astonishing striker, the best midfielder in the world, Foden is world class at his best and Donnarumma is also top class. But I don't think Arsenal's issue is creativity, nor is that City's strength. For me the reason I see City as a genuine shout is that in some key areas you have the best players in the world in those positions. Plus the best manager
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Weren’t you slagging Martinelli not so long ago?

(may have confused you with other gooners)
 
ActonBlue said:
Pep's record speaks for itself. You can never write us off. Not one team is standing out this season, even Arsenal look pretty functional, narrow wins and heavily reliant on set piece goals. And we know how much they struggle under pressure at the business end of the season. We really do need to spread the goals around more, the return of Marmoush and Cherki should help with that. But Doku and Savinho need to step up, they get into some great positions but their finishing is powder-puff.
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Think it's misleading, players are getting in good positions like Savinho did for the second goal but instead of beating his player and shooting he waited ,drew a second defender and Halland found the space for his pass. In other words they worked to get a chance for the best goalscorer in Europe.That's how we set up now, if Haaland wasn't playing players might be more inclined to take it on themselves. Makes sense to make best use of Haaland and his goal scoring.
 
blueparrot said:
Think it's misleading, players are getting in good positions like Savinho did for the second goal but instead of beating his player and shooting he waited ,drew a second defender and Halland found the space for his pass. In other words they worked to get a chance for the best goalscorer in Europe.That's how we set up now, if Haaland wasn't playing players might be more inclined to take it on themselves. Makes sense to make best use of Haaland and his goal scoring.
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I think that's true but we do need to add goals from all other areas.

If you think about the City man of the match, there is a small pool of players who are the star performers every week. It's usually O'Reilly, Foden, Doku and Haaland.

To win titles, we need another couple of players to develop into match-winners. When City were winning 4 back to back titles, there was a big group of players, one of which who would do something special when required so that it would be very difficult to beat City or keep us out. We need to grow the group of match-winners.

Marmoush is a player who has just recovered his fitness. He is a potential goal scorer but can he play with Haaland. Do we change to a split striker system, play 2 up top, or play Marmoush as a wide forward? We've played him on the left, and I don't think it's really worked. I think Pep is going to have another got at this now that Marmoush is back.
 
Marvin. said:
I think that's true but we do need to add goals from all other areas.

If you think about the City man of the match, there is a small pool of players who are the star performers every week. It's usually O'Reilly, Foden, Doku and Haaland.

To win titles, we need another couple of players to develop into match-winners. When City were winning 4 back to back titles, there was a big group of players, one of which who would do something special when required so that it would be very difficult to beat City or keep us out. We need to grow the group of match-winners.

Marmoush is a player who has just recovered his fitness. He is a potential goal scorer but can he play with Haaland. Do we change to a split striker system, play 2 up top, or play Marmoush as a wide forward? We've played him on the left, and I don't think it's really worked. I think Pep is going to have another got at this now that Marmoush is back.
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Wouldn't mind seeing Doku on the right Marmoush left,Cherki will be another difference maker.
 
If Cherki is this soon to be revealed genius that his fanboys claim, why did he cost peanuts ?

How many times can you possibly have seen him play a full game ?
 
Axel Freed said:
If Cherki is this soon to be revealed genius that his fanboys claim, why did he cost peanuts ?

How many times can you possibly have seen him play a full game ?
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Fans often overrate players of the team they support. So it's natural to be sceptical and push back against overblown expectations.

But... sometimes you don't need to see much to get that a given player has special skills. Also, there are facts corroborating what you see. Cherki has been discussed as an extraordinary talent since he was 16. Pep himself characterised him as a *huge* talent. And having managed the best players in the world, he knows a talent when he sees one.

But it's also true that Cherki has a weakness that stops him from being a guaranteed starter: he lacks the physicality to press and run like a top PL player. He needs to improve a lot in order to be useful in defence at the required level.
 
alexmcity said:
Fans often overrate players of the team they support. So it's natural to be sceptical and push back against overblown expectations.

But... sometimes you don't need to see much to get that a given player has special skills. Also, there are facts corroborating what you see. Cherki has been discussed as an extraordinary talent since he was 16. Pep himself characterised him as a *huge* talent. And having managed the best players in the world, he knows a talent when he sees one.

But it's also true that Cherki has a weakness that stops him from being a guaranteed starter: he lacks the physicality to press and run like a top PL player. He needs to improve a lot in order to be useful in defence at the required level.
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I hope you’re right obvs but it just seems a bit of a stretch to me. Physicality is a huge part of the game, there must be many many players with extraordinary skills who fall by the wayside due to a lack of physicality / mentality etc. Savinho looks like he may be one of those, let’s hope Cherki isn’t
 
Axel Freed said:
I hope you’re right obvs but it just seems a bit of a stretch to me. Physicality is a huge part of the game, there must be many many players with extraordinary skills who fall by the wayside due to a lack of physicality / mentality etc. Savinho looks like he may be one of those, let’s hope Cherki isn’t
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Physicality is very important against top teams. Against low blocks we can afford to play him, as he is supposed to be one of the best at unlocking defences.

Also, he seems determined to get to the top. So, he is willing to work on his fitness. It may take months, but if he wants to succeed then he can improve a lot fitness wise.

One way to accommodate him is to play defensively strong players behind him, such as Rodri and Khusanov. When those two can start games, Cherki is likely to get starts in the PL against good teams. As of now it's a bit risky. I was surprised that Pep started him against Spurs. It was a bit premature, but it also shows Pep rates him highly.
 
Axel Freed said:
If Cherki is this soon to be revealed genius that his fanboys claim, why did he cost peanuts ?

How many times can you possibly have seen him play a full game ?
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Because Lyon were in financial difficulties.

Lyon also played Man Utd twice in the Europa League last season. I watched both legs. His goals (8) and assists (11) in Ligue 1 alone were very impressive.
 
Same as most years, if we're within touching distance on New Years Day, I'll be confident. Even last years blip we still outperformed other teams in the league the second half of the season.
 
Opta have it:
1000028563.jpg

Obviously these things change fairly regularly. Probably how I would view it at the moment. Arsenal are strong favourites for me.

The upcoming league games are pivotal. I need to see how we handle:
Villa (A)
Bournemouth (H)
Liverpool (H)
Newcastle (A).

That's 4 difficult games against good sides.

10 points+ we're title contenders.
8 or 9 and we'll be thereabouts but wont get it done.
5-7, top 4.
<5, prepare for a tough winter.
 
Said at the start of the season that Arsenal’s squad had the most strength in depth, and still stand by that. I still think they’ll pick up too many draws, partly because they struggle to break teams down, but mainly because their manager lacks balls when the chips are down.
 
blueparrot said:
Think it's misleading, players are getting in good positions like Savinho did for the second goal but instead of beating his player and shooting he waited ,drew a second defender and Halland found the space for his pass. In other words they worked to get a chance for the best goalscorer in Europe.That's how we set up now, if Haaland wasn't playing players might be more inclined to take it on themselves. Makes sense to make best use of Haaland and his goal scoring.
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If you watched Peps Barcelona, you could see "Find Messi, is better than shooting ", was drilled into those guys. And it was.
I believe we seeing the same thing with Haaland.
 
Axel Freed said:
If Cherki is this soon to be revealed genius that his fanboys claim, why did he cost peanuts ?

How many times can you possibly have seen him play a full game ?
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This is nothing. Less than 18 months ago, Celtic's reserve striker came from nowhere and was heralded on here as the second coming of Ronaldo (the original, Brazilian one) merely by being linked to City and the desperation of some to sign another striker. He's now at Birmingham and has yet to score a goal for them.

My point - football players often get hyped up beyond comprehension on football forums.

But if you can't see that Cherki has "it" then you soon will. Where that "it" will take him, who knows, but he's clearly a quality player regardless of how much he cost.
 
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