The thing is the less you’d have to talk to Pep the better; I can’t imagine the language thing is an attraction when it means more Pep weirdness.
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Darwin can help him 
Yes, help him with missing the target.
Zubimendi to City makes no sense for any party. There is no formation Pep has ever come close to that could utilize both him and Rodri in ways that suit their natural game and so for City you are looking at spending 60 million for a player who will fill a hole that will be naturally filled by the start of next season, and after that it will mean having the best back up #6 in the world (whichever of the two is named on the bench). Is that how they want to spend their money now when probably every single department in their side needs addressing by the end of this summer?
And for the player, he may back himself to outcompete Rodri if he has the opportunity for the manager to see them both on a daily basis, but why would he take that chance when there are plenty of other moves that will be available to him.
This shit is often illogical though, so put your money on it happening
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…Unless they gauge Rodri is more or less finished, or at best, will be less effective than he ever was
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Screw Zubimendi.
Had his chance. Chose mountains, paella and a bunch of flagrant false promises.
If you don’t jump at the chance to come here then you’ve got to question his ambition. Not like he went somewhere else and it didn’t work out.
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To err is human. To forgive, divine!
I would happily sign him, but it has to be decisive. Any faffing about and I would move on. He was on the cusp of a move in summer and they put a bit of pressure on, and he decided to stay put. I can forgive it, home club, home town, etc.
He is a very good player indeed, although arguably Gravenberch, the revelation, might have changed the calculus. We’ll see.
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Reitz and Cardoso are 2 up and coming players to keep an eye out for, the types that’ll fly under the radar of journo’s and end up being a surprise signing.
Reality is he fucked us around in the summer and now he’s finding out.
I don’t think you reward Gravenberch stepping up by then going out and signing the bloke you originally planned to play in his place.
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I’m ambivalent on Zubimendi joining. It is what it is.
I think the management team just didn’t realise what a gem they had in Gravenberch who was ready to get unlocked.
I’ll put the blame on a combination of grav arriving later in the window , Jurgen’s playing style and then the horrible injury by Caicedo.
Jurgen wanted to make it so that Grav played more of a Gini role. Slot has shown more nous there in identifying the type of player that Grav is , not surprising considering both are Dutch.
If Zubi does join , it is as a backup to Grav. He better be happy with that. If he doesn’t , we have other options within the club.
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If there’s a prominent role for both Zubimendi and Gravenberch, bring it on.
If the potential signing of Zubimendi relegates Gravenberch to more of a squad man, I definitely do not want that. Gravenberch has been one of the biggest success stories of the season so far, and the last thing I want to do is shackle that.
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Slot views Gravenberch as a number 8. If Zubimendi joins us, Mac is the one who needs to worry. Gravenberch’s best attribute is always driving the ball forward; when someone like Zubimendi covers behind him, it’s a good thing for him. I always think Mac needs to be more involved in the build-up phase, but currently, his performance isn’t at the same level as Gravenberch and Szoboszlai.
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Source?
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In Gravenberch’s interview, he said Slot told him to focus on number 8, but he needs to do both number 8 and number 6.
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I just looked up that interview, it was from August. I think a lot of things can have changed since.
Slot might have CB in mind for Grav alongside Virg… If so, we need a number 6 first - just saying
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Adding Zubimendi would solve a lot of problems. He can play as a lone 6 and push Gravenberch forward (or just rest) or in a double pivot with Grav, Jones, or Mac. Most importantly we wouldn’t be fucked anymore if Grav goes down with an extended injury. No brainer in my opinion and easily the most needed in January. Everything else can wait.
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And if Grav doesn’t go down we could have an expensive whiney player who can’t wait to go back to Spain and disrupts the team?
He isn’t easily the most needed. We have plenty of depth in midfield albeit of a different style.
A backup left CB is probably much more needed “so saying easily the most needed” is way off. At LCB, we lack both numbers and quality.
We have be cautious about overplaying Grav though. I think I read until Newcastle, he hadn’t missed a PL or CL minute?
I can see Grav, Zubi, Mac and Jones rotating around the two deeper positions, Szoboslai and Elliot as the two advanced. Loads of flexibility to do other stuff as well, like playing Jones and Mac further up.
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I think we don’t have to read too much into some of those details.
Different people can also use different words.
You can have Curtis Jones in pre-season saying how we’ve changed massively under Slot and then a bunch of other players and Slot himself saying that we haven’t changed that much. So…
We’ve flipped the midfield shape to more of a double pivot one.
Although I did notice when we play for example Jones a bit deeper and Szoboszlai in the #10, against quality opponents, in some phases of the game, it can still look like a 4-3-3 shape.
Gravenberch is obviously playing deeper than before, but of course, he’s not a single pivot and bang in front of the defence, “between our CB’s” all the time.
I think I’ve watched that interview where he said like even if he’s playing deeper, Slot doesn’t want him to forget about the natural skills he has to also get forward.
It also depends on the partnership in midfield, who does what and in which moment. There are rotations, opposition managers have already commented on it. Even if we’re a more “positional” side now in possession that we were (although we were always looking to add more layers).
Real countered our pressing in Kiev by simply moving Casemiro away from Firmino in their build-up phase, then Kroos dropped and took over that “orchestrating”. Modric pushed higher.
If we played Endo in midfield out of necessity with any of the other, naturally more offensive midfielders apart from Gravenberch, it’s probably that player who would drop deeper than Endo when we’re trying to build from deep.
And we really do have a few midfielders who have the ability to be a #6, #8 and #10 in a matter of seconds. Very well rounded.
Obviously transfer activity next summer depends also on what happens with the 3 players with their contracts expiring, we’ll have to decide our priorities and what can be done, but yeah I do think we might still do something in midfield.
In January though, I don’t expect anything. If we do something, it will be more opportunistic. But Zubimendi, nah, I don’t think so. Maybe not even to City in January.
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