I actually envisage Christian Gross-like days if this happens.
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Our attacking output is actually a bit of a joke really. It’s why I sometimes forget about that robot at City.
Everyone barring Ramsdale has scored a goal in our first team. In the PL, Odegaard has 15 goals and 7 assists. Saka has 13 goals and 11 assists, Martinelli has 15 and 5 assists and somehow Jesus after missing 3-4 months of PL football, has 10 goals and 5 assists.
Not a fan of his but Tuchel hit the nail on the head:
If we build on this pffft, we’re going places.
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Yups, those numbers are crazy and that’s partly why I’m not worried one-iota about our attack.
Though having a different option to Saka & Jesus will be needed; cause we’re likely to have one main person out injured due to the number of games we’re scheduled for next year.
If we can sort out our defence, I’m certain we’ll come much closer to City next season.
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I’ll go a step further and say it’s not been as much down to squad depth, more mentality. Mikel tends to stick with the same 11 for as long as poss in a game unless we’re winning comfortably or trailing poorly. It can be a little arrogant at times though. We weren’t capable of managing a game like city (after world cup). Using the Liverpool and west ham games as case study, I wish mikel could change from trying to play ‘perfectly’ to winning stubbornly. And silly individual mistakes came from it
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I get what you’re saying but I think this narrative is overstated in some aspects. Guys like Vieira, Tierney, and Nelson have all seen minutes between the league and Europe and it’s been pretty underwhelming.
Now you could make arguments that Kiwior, Jorginho and Trossard should all have featured a lot more in the last few weeks, and you can use St James Park performance to back that up and then you can equally and immediately discredit it by looking at yesterday’s game where we were fucking as bad as we’ve been in a long time.
Our depth simply isn’t on the levels of City’s so it’s not stubbornness as much as wanting to put our strongest foot forward.
The only tactical misstep I can really lay at Mikels feet was not trying White at CB but even then you can acknowledge he’s hamstrung by the Tomiyasu injury.
We simply need to reinforce our depth and then Mikel can move away from being so reliant on Xhaka, and a front 3 of Martinelli- Jesus- Saka. It’s why I think so many are in favour of someone like Vlahovic because it opens up our forward depth in a number of different ways.
I’m still personally not convinced we should be looking at Jesus as a number 9 every single game of next season
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Or the balls to try Kiwior a game or two sooner.
I get why he didn’t but still, was an option.
In fairness I do mention him although after watching the Pole yesterday I can understand why Mikel wouldn’t have been keen. Let’s be real if Holding put in that performance he’d be catching all kinds of hell.
I don’t want to be too hard on the Polish lad because he obviously one for the future but I do wonder where our heads are at with recruitment, we need a seasoned EPL pro like Ake who can just step in and make shit look easy.
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Fair point I’d forgotten about your rotation comment by the time I got to white/holding 
Memory game is strong
In fairness I wish I could forget the entire last two months of this campaign. I do just wish we would fucking simplify life a little for ourselves with defense though.
Like we need the equivalent of Trossard in defense. Someone reasonably cheap and experienced. People probably laugh because they think he’s a shitter but I’d actually like someone like Mings for depth. I think he was hard done by when Villa were trash and he’s steadily improved in form. Wouldnt shit himself at the prospect of Liverpool away or Brighton at home FFS.
Smalling was another half decent shout if he could acclimate to the pace of the roll
EPL again.
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I actually like the suggestion of Smalling, keeps getting thrown about. Always thought he was a bit of a joke at United but had looked very good at Fulham (I think it was?) beforehand.
Seems to have improved with age and fits the profile, decent pace and alright on the ball. Wouldn’t mind being backup here I don’t think.
Yeh I agree someone with a bit of experience without their body being entirely shot. Like a big issue I have with Holding is he hasn’t really had much of career and we keep throwing in to these crunch moments expecting him to actually be good. It’s just stupid at this point
City is also just a finely tuned machine that has been developed over many, many years.
Ake is actually a good example. They bought him three years ago and he has been a minor piece for multiple years while getting more and more comfortable with Pep’s system and then when they really needed him this year he was ready and stepped up big.
Its hard to chase down a team like that if you’re bringing in 4-5 new players each year and hoping they all adapt seamlessly and make an instant impact.
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I will politely disagree and say if they wanted ‘depth’ they should have bought it in Jan. They were nice names that should have added quality but weren’t used enough, (on which we agree) so what is the point of having depth to mikel. You cut your cloth accordingly. His stubbornness was in tactics and not recognising mistakes from last season. Despite the errors I’m pleased with every squad member - I can’t point to one person and say “you’ve not been good enough this season”
BS! if you think gaining 15 - 21 points (depending on final tally) is miniscule, show me who else managed that from last season
We did no such thing - we lost games for whatever reason, but I can guarantee you no one at the club wanted to go out of any competition
Yup same as we wouldn’t make CL this year cos last year was our best chance…blah blah blah
Why cos other teams will have a much better summer than us? Pool have an aging squad and need new players. Spurs too have an aging squad and don’t have more funds than us. Chelsea have so much to sort out, couldn’t perform under Tuchel/Potter but suddenly will be brilliant under Poch. Man Utd have improved from last season but need a lot of upgrades on players to be anything special. Newcastle will improve but will they be title contenders?
Arsenal have a young squad and we can expect our players to develop - adding additional players should help improve us further, there is nothing to think that we should not be able to be even better next season and challenge City again.
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That reads like the worst erotic fan fiction I’ve ever read.
Damn we collapsed so hard. When the season is said and done the underlying numbers will have us as being a champions league place contending team and not much more.
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Is this your 2023 pitch for us to sign Johnny Evans?
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Evans would have been an excellent piece of business instead of shitters like Mustafi, Sokratis, Holding
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but you have to realise that holding only cost a couple of million…sorry he didnt cost more.
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