So your saying that Taki is actually worth £120M?
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Mr Makthoum , I need another 150M for a pair of full backs and 150M for a striker.
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Hoping that Brighton makes them slip up.
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Pep after 10 years at Cheaty
“But what do you mean there are no fullbacks left as I have already bought all of them?”
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Which managers would’ve sidestepped the question?
Which managers have the reigns at a club where there’s a question to sidestep?
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Let’s put it this way if the players needed anymore incentive to go out and smash them making noise during the minute silence won’t have helped them.
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They are an odd kind of “One Man Team” in that they have fantastic quality all over the pitch - Ederson is good, Cancelo has been excellent this season, the two starting CBs are mostly great (just not when they get turned), their midfield and wide forward options are deep and high level but with De Bruyne it just doesn’t feel like a world class line up.
They don’t exactly rely on him the way Liverpool used to with Gerrard but without him they’re a shadow of the team.
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They had a lot of periods without Bruyne (he missed half of their domestic treble winning 18/19 + his usual niggles) when they were still superb, so I don’t feel that way.
This and last season though, yeah, I certainly didn’t expect them to spend that kind of money on Grealish. A bit fat in some areas, a bit skinny in others.
This summer they’ll probably eye one player per line, say a LB, a CM of some sort and a striker. Same as last summer actually, when they surprised me.
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That was a long time ago and not really relevant to now. Back then they had D.Silva to rely on, Aguero and Sane banging in the goals. They don’t quite have that level of quality now.
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I think our press killed their game plan from the previous week which was targeting the high line. It wasn’t as effective as the week before. They basically stopped it in the second but the way we played nullified their danger.
We won’t face a better team this season than we have in these last two domestic games (unless we both reach the CL final).
All games are tough but they are the toughest, it’s about how we apply ourselves in every other game.
If they are writing it off as their secondary team that’s fair enough but I don’t think they are, I think that first half scared the hell out of them, the fact they didn’t get a second til the 90th minute probably meant Pep wouldn’t go for it. Another day we would have been out of sight and if Salah scores he will net a hattrick.
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I didn’t want to say it in the game thread but fuck me Grealish is so so bad. He’s just lazy. The drop from De Bruyne to him is a Grand Canyon chasm.
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When he was having that photo op with Pep, and Pep was explaining tactics and how he wants him to fit into the team, all Grealish was hearing ….
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I think it really shows the difference between the clubs, we could never spend 100m on a player like that.
Not sure what Man City thought they were buying but one 20 minute performance for England and the crowds would scream for him to come on. He was good for Villa but not a 100m good.
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I thought pep would atart mahrez. He does not seem to rely on him for anything more than a backup despite the goals he scores
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Yes, he missed a good chunk of that season, but that was a side that still had Silva, Kompany and a 20 goal a season Aguero. He also missed a good chunk of last season, a season they won the title at a canter, but even with that superiority they were well off what they had previously been…they were just less bad than everyone else.
I concede there is not a great data driven argument for the position, but I think this current team is full of players who would have thrived in the 18-19 vintage (many of whom did), but with the exception of De Bryne have not responded to the challenge of replacing those 3 iconic players. The vast majority of times what is left is still good enough to win, often comfortably, but I think it leaves them lacking when their back is against the wall.
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Grealish reckons had City scored the third to take it to ET they would have won the tie.
Fighting talk after the fact
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If….
If we had scored one of the three or four chances we had we would have won the tie… oh we did.
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Actually , their backline not having the height is what killed them. Imagine their set pieces when we have players like Virgil , Konate , Fabinho in there KDB would have had an impact but we basically did to them what they did to us at the ethihad. Press their midfield and won the battle there , this was where Keita over Henderson argument is made. Not against the more physical sides , but against sides like City and Chelsea (The gifted teams with not so much height in midfield)
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If there was a player who had the attributes of both Henderson and Keita (More of Keita’s) , That for me would be a #8 who would be a perfect fit.