Meanwhile gilmour has an assist and Lamptey scored against arsenal as they beat them 3-1 

7 minutes ago, big blue said:

I think some of the attacking players couldve flourished had we built the squad better after the transfer ban. 

Sterling, Werner, Lukaku, Havertz, all had great scoring records at previous clubs. 

We have had 5 different managers in 6 seasons. The squad has been rebuilt. The problem is we have no identity, and instead of bringing in a core of players that fit a philosophy and style the club want to play. We sign in vogue players with no system or style for them to thrive in. 

We have just spent £300m again, and the spine of the team is not good enough. 

Surely as a club you look at the most successful systems across the last 20 years, and it's all 433, or an incarnation of, yet we seem hell bent on spunking hundreds of millions on players to force them into a 3atb setup. 

We need a solid centre back pairing, and we need 2 centre midfielders of the highest quality. All 4 of which need to technically excellent, physically capable of playing a possession based, high press, high line system, then maybe the attackers we bring in have something to actually fit into.

Until we fix the spine, the best we can hope for is decent cup runs, and maybe squeeze into top 4, which is looking harder with teams around catching up.

Hopefully Fofana will be one of the 2 center backs. But we definitely need another. I think most of us have seen midfield as a big issue now for several seasons. Kante will likely be leaving in the next year even if he stays fit. Jorginho should probably be moved on, perhaps we keep Kova. But that still means we need to sign 2 quality central midfielders. All of this won't happen in 1 window. Could take a couple of years of patient rebuilding, and patience is probably the key here. As you point out the continual managerial changes hasn't helped one bit.

39 minutes ago, Richard P said:

I think I will watch the warm up on the 27th instead of sitting in Dixon’s so I see some goals when we practice our shooting!!

You’re pretty optimistic they score in warm up, or even shoot in warm up. I’d expect strict sideway passing drills 

10 minutes ago, forbzy said:

Hopefully Fofana will be one of the 2 center backs. But we definitely need another. I think most of us have seen midfield as a big issue now for several seasons. Kante will likely be leaving in the next year even if he stays fit. Jorginho should probably be moved on, perhaps we keep Kova. But that still means we need to sign 2 quality central midfielders. All of this won't happen in 1 window. Could take a couple of years of patient rebuilding, and patience is probably the key here. As you point out the continual managerial changes hasn't helped one bit.

I'm hopeful on Fofana too. It's crazy City bought Akanji for relative peanuts, but because he is coming into a well oiled machine, he looks a world beater. You can guarantee if we signed him, he would look shaky. 

Centre midfield is just a shambles. Kovacic I wouldve said definitely keep, but he has been woeful this season. Kante and Jorginho, I would let both leave. Kante misses too many games, and while I rate Jorginho, if Fabregas couldnt cope with the physicality at 30, theres no way I would be extending Jorginho. 

Rip it up and start again. We probably shouldve just paid the money we were quoted for Rice when it was £90m. Enzo Fernandez, Bellingham, I'm sure theres plenty of others out there for a club that can afford £62m on a sub left back.

Never thought it would feel so good to miss the match. Potter been sacked yet?

55 minutes ago, azpi28 said:

Meanwhile gilmour has an assist and Lamptey scored against arsenal as they beat them 3-1 

Arsenal set up to lose that game. Secretly I bet Arteta is delighted to not be back early from the world cup break.

43 minutes ago, big blue said:

I'm hopeful on Fofana too. It's crazy City bought Akanji for relative peanuts, but because he is coming into a well oiled machine, he looks a world beater. You can guarantee if we signed him, he would look shaky. 

Centre midfield is just a shambles. Kovacic I wouldve said definitely keep, but he has been woeful this season. Kante and Jorginho, I would let both leave. Kante misses too many games, and while I rate Jorginho, if Fabregas couldnt cope with the physicality at 30, theres no way I would be extending Jorginho. 

Rip it up and start again. We probably shouldve just paid the money we were quoted for Rice when it was £90m. Enzo Fernandez, Bellingham, I'm sure theres plenty of others out there for a club that can afford £62m on a sub left back.

Either Bellingham or Rice would be great options. It is good to have a few English players in the backbone for the Premier League. We are also being linked with Caicedo from Brighton among others. 

The sub left back will likely be our main left back for most of this season. Maybe Hall can become the backup, on tonight's showing.

10 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Arsenal set up to lose that game. Secretly I bet Arteta is delighted to not be back early from the world cup break.

I actually didn't realise that the next round was before Christmas. In that case might be a good thing for us that we are not involved too. Judging by our record with injuries, we will need all the time available to get players fit and ready for the next game after the World Cup. 

Lewis Hall the one bright light.

Now we have people coming up with "trust in the process".

Hutchinson didn't play. 

10 hours ago, carrickblue said:

I like to keep the sock chat from her. She might get the wrong idea 😂

I had to work and only had an occasional look at the match. I did get to see the run on goal and subsequent lame shot straight to the keeper from Pulisic, and thought of @Mod...

Just be grateful we got out of a competition we didn't want be in, no fresh injuries ( as far as I'm aware), and the Lewis kid had a good game ( probably never play him again or on onloan based on recent selections). It's depressing how easily City put us away with their B team, and the weekend could get worse.

Agree for once given our injury situation crashing out of the League Cup is not a disaster and should give us a bit of space in a congested season.

Wasn't expecting anything last night, even with City resting some of their big guns, so it wasn't too bad a game to watch. At least we competed and had a number of good chances. The City keeper played a blinder and again our finishing was not great, but at least we caused them problems and Hall in particular had a great game. Though Pulisic, Broja and even Ziyech all had good moments too, but faded a bit.

What is undeniable is how easy it was for City to carve us open. At times they took the piss - especially Grealish. All of our defence struggled and I think we can be thankful Haaland, KDB and Foden did not feature. So annoying to see where City currently are in terms of football quality and where we are right now.

 

 

8 hours ago, JM7 said:

Knew his face was familiar:

Every one of our attackers/midfielders suffer from final third syndrome.