21 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

It's why I want us to go after Gabriel Jesus or Gnabry. 

Jesus is laughed at which I find astonishing considering the value he brings to City. Played 2nd fiddle to Aguero and still managed two 20+ goal a seasons whilst contributing in the build up and off the ball press. 

He doesn't score enough goals for me. He may well have two 20+ goal seasons, but that should be the bare minimum at City, and it's not like he was 2nd fiddle to Aguero that much with the amount of injuries Aguero was picking up towards the end of his time at City. 6 seasons in England, only 2 of those seasons he has managed to score more than 10 league goals and is still yet to get close to 20.

Jesus would just add to the problems we already have. A player who's overall game is good, but struggles to put the ball in the net.

4 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

He doesn't score enough goals for me. He may well have two 20+ goal seasons, but that should be the bare minimum at City, and it's not like he was 2nd fiddle to Aguero that much with the amount of injuries Aguero was picking up towards the end of his time at City. 6 seasons in England, only 2 of those seasons he has managed to score more than 10 league goals and is still yet to get close to 20.

Jesus would just add to the problems we already have. A player who's overall game is good, but struggles to put the ball in the net.

If a player like Gabriel Jesus who is genuinely perfect for our set up would add on to the pre existing problems, what's the best solution in your opinion? 

Never taken a liking to Gabriel Jesus, never seems to score enough goals suggesting he does not read the play well.

Since being at City never reaching even 15 in season in the league, last year reached 9 in the league and 7 so far. 

Can't recall him scoring with his head either.

6 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

You've got a different season (last year) for Firmino ... plus he's bound to be more green in absolute numbers when his pitch time is 2852 minutes vs 1623. These comparisons are better on a "per 90" basis.

For good reason as he's not played/started much this season. The per 90 metrics are easily calculated from the data shown.

6 hours ago, strider6004 said:

Never taken a liking to Gabriel Jesus, never seems to score enough goals suggesting he does not read the play well.

Since being at City never reaching even 15 in season in the league, last year reached 9 in the league and 7 so far. 

Can't recall him scoring with his head either.

He has a similar goals/90 record to Drogba I think and played on the flank quite a bit. 25, used to the league, fits the system, and coming into his peak years. Obviously we'd want better, but I don't think we'd find many better signings at his price. 

I like him a lot, I was actually really surprised to see that he’s never scored 15 in a season. You could probably make an argument that he’s overrated. 

If he’s only scored 9 last season and 7 this season, why is he talked as such an exciting potential signing? (Not on here, in general).

27 minutes ago, dansubrosa said:

If he’s only scored 9 last season and 7 this season, why is he talked as such an exciting potential signing? (Not on here, in general).

You'd pretty much have to ignore the 'glory' stats on offer to see it. It's not quite the same, but I'd liken it to opposition fans looking at Hazard's goal stats and saying what's the fuss? 

He's very good technically (control, touch), works hard off the ball, and seems to be improving year-on-year in terms of his impact on games. Not a bad stopgap if Lukaku leaves. 

17 hours ago, strider6004 said:

Never taken a liking to Gabriel Jesus, never seems to score enough goals suggesting he does not read the play well.

Since being at City never reaching even 15 in season in the league, last year reached 9 in the league and 7 so far. 

Can't recall him scoring with his head either.

He scored one last week against Watford and I remember one header he scored against Liverpool when they won 5-0 few years back. Both KDB assists (no surprise). But yeah, too inconsistent to me.

Mina destroyed him. Hopefully it's a hard learned lesson for Kai.

1 minute ago, Gol15 said:

Mina destroyed him. Hopefully it's a hard learned lesson for Kai.

Should never lead the line.

Worst performance from him in a Chelsea shirt, and not just because his game was awful. His flopping all over the place was embarrassing.

2 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Worst performance from him in a Chelsea shirt, and not just because his game was awful. His flopping all over the place was embarrassing.

Mina showed him some fighting mentality and he simply couldn't respond to it in the right way. He's still not experienced enough in order to be the striker.

Still a boy in a man's body. 

Remember when our fanbase said Havertz and Werner made us more fluid and play better. I never believed it.

Lukaku was used as a scapegoat. We have no creativity, thats the biggest problem. 

On 08/04/2022 at 16:44, Mana said:

I'm not writing off Havertz. I'm just saying he's an attacking midfielder, not a striker. He should be a very good assistant to the main striker, who has striker instincts.

In no way I want Havertz on the bench for the future, but I'm sorry he cannot hold that striker position. He's not clinical enough. Maybe we can revisit this when he starts being more clinical, but at the moment he is not.

On 08/04/2022 at 14:28, Mana said:

While Havertz is on form, he still isn't good enough to be that clinical striker we need. We need more from Havertz and I'm not sure if he can go further.

He can be a very good assistant though to our next goalscorer.

This is what I said in another thread and many people disagree. But in the end I was right??

Havertz is simply not good enough to be our false 9 right now. Today against Everton he was rattled, and performed worse. He couldn't handle Yina their CB.

We need to build and start again. The last 3 summer transfer windows has ended up being ABYSMAL.

2 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

Worst performance from him in a Chelsea shirt, and not just because his game was awful. His flopping all over the place was embarrassing.

Wouldn't disagree Scott. I like Havertz a lot. But he isn't a lone centre-forward IMO and didn't have a good game. Mina got under his skin and Havertz got too involved.

Hopefully next season Lukaku and Werner are both gone and we partner him with someone who has technical ability, work rate and some aggression. Broja should also get a look in based on what he has shown so far.

He would be much better if we had competent attackers either side of him. If we had Salah and Mane types working the channels, with him being the link-up man and drifting around, it would be much better. But we have Werner who can't do anything, Ziyech who stopped being interested months ago, Pulisic who pops up with the odd goal, but can';t dribble to save his life, and Mount who is really more of a midfielder than wide attacker.

2 hours ago, jack_super_class said:

Remember when our fanbase said Havertz and Werner made us more fluid and play better. 

It's still true, something we saw as recently as last Thursday when we created numerous chances at Old Trafford something which stopped the minute Lukaku came on btw.

25 minutes ago, Argo said:

It's still true, something we saw as recently as last Thursday when we created numerous chances at Old Trafford something which stopped the minute Lukaku came on btw.

Didn't we score with him on the pitch and he won us a penalty? There's an issue with a lack of creativity in the squad no matter who plays where it seems

Havertz is the most broken by our exit to Real. He clearly took his missed chances in that game hard and has come back and been sh*t ever since.

No goals and I don't think any assists since then either. I don't count his attempt to head at goal that miscued to Alonso at OT as an assist btw.

He looks exhausted to me. 

Should be dropped.  Not in the game at all, and was poor vs. United.  Not a popular opinion, and I rate him highly, but I'd start Lukaku over him next time.

14 hours ago, jack_super_class said:

Remember when our fanbase said Havertz and Werner made us more fluid and play better. I never believed it.

Lukaku was used as a scapegoat. We have no creativity, thats the biggest problem. 

I disagree. I have supported Lukaku but we do look more fluid with werner n Havertz but the people who said just play mount, werner, havertz n our offense will be good is talking nonsense. 

Havertz is a better no 9 for us than Lukaku but it is so obvious that he won't last playing as no 9 in pl week in week out. Plus Lukaku is not the biggest  problem, it is just one problem. 

Our biggest problem is exactly what you said. Our lack of creative player. Except our wb, our best creator are probably cho n ziyech. Both are just riddiculously inconsistent. Of course if you believe that timo is a creator then it is whole another discussion. 

 

 

14 hours ago, PhilH930 said:

Should be dropped.  Not in the game at all, and was poor vs. United.  Not a popular opinion, and I rate him highly, but I'd start Lukaku over him next time.

Lukaku’s worse mate. He does very little on the pitch. It’s not going to be good for my mental health (lol) seeing Lukaku play for 90 minutes.

I’d rather look in to our academy and get in a forward then play Lukaku. Can’t get any worse.

I think we started playing system type football because it masked over cracks in the quality of the players.

Not saying all our players are second tier players yet a fair number are.

This season we are more exposed due to injuries and sheer volume of matches wearing down the players.

If we go for the more creative m/f it suggests we need to go to a back 4.  Creative midfielders are rarely good defensive ones, Eriksen and Fibreglass being examples.

That is a major rebuild for me and not sure of we will do it.

Currently I see us threatening down the flanks or a Kova or Kante running thru the middle and giving the ball to the inside forwards who either, cross, shoot or try to work the ball forwards. 

Not always easy on the eye especially with injuries to key personnel in the WB roles. 

We have a rebuild and it looks like priority will be defence with re-development of SB to happen.