Why couldn't we do this last year???

This summer, it looks like we could well be buying:

A new keeper, 3 or 4 new FBs, a CB, an AM and, if we are lucky, Mbappe.

That's about 7 players.

Last summer we bought 6 players, though Jesus wasn't available until January so I'm going to discount him from my discussion.

Why on earth couldn't we have bought 7 players last summer to include two good FBs? Not only would it likely have helped us to a slightly better season, but those players would have been far cheaper as well.

I think Pep wanted to see what we had, which you can understand.  Plus coming from the continent when defending was always an afterthought he probably wasn't that fussed.   Soon reared its ugly head though.

But pep has been watching our videos for months or even longer so he should have been able to see that they were wank at defending. Italian teams out defending from before anything else.

I guess it is like every new manager coming in they tell all players you are starting with a clean slate & its up to you to impress,coupled with lat arrivals after euros,copa America etc, etc Then you have the Pep factor that probably believed he could turn players into stars in other positions.

But he didn't do the same with the attackers. He got Sane and Jesus in. With the midfield, where we have lots of them, he got Gundogan in. We really didn't 'need' these players as much as we needed FBs.

My only real concern with the incoming fullbacks Mendy and Walker is that neither of them are actually great defensively,both great going forward but whether that added dimension of attacking width from the 2 fullbacks is going to make us into champions is open to question for me.
I think  we may need to play 2 DM in the big games to cope with the added defensive duties when they get isolated high up the pitch so would probably need to play 4-2-3-1 rather than a 4-3-3 which would be possible with more defensive minded fullbacks

Interesting season ahead

It certainly will be interesting Rich. I'm not sure we'll get the balance right this season. Maybe our back ups will be more defensive minded and we'll end up rotating for different games.

We certainly can't rely on steamrolling teams so that we don't have to defend properly. That didn't work out too well last season.

agreed dawg but we were short of attackers havin let dzeko & Jovetic go. we had aguero, sterling itchy & Bony. He clearly felt that wasn't good enough. sane & jesus were no brainers given their respective ages. Gundogan was probably brought in with the view that yaya wasn't going to be around much longer & also fernandinho's age is the wrong side of 30 . Stones was another young centre back should be the future of City.

The full backs were seasoned pros maybe he felt that he could get 1 more season out of them whilst integrating the midfield & wide players into the pep style of play. I don't know the answers, but I am sure that pep being as experienced as he is obviously had some sort of plan in mind.

His one mistake was clownio. I think he probably expected more from Nolito also. It would have been impossible to revamp the whole team & with Kompany's & Gundogans injury problems possibly put a spanner in the works.

I simply do not agree Oz. We were scoring fewer goals but our defence wasn't good enough. Pep decided to score more goals than to worry about the defence even though we were top goalscorers in the league in MP's last season I believe.

We, as fans, knew the FBs weren't good enough. That's why they've been jettisoned this summer. Pep took a risk by not getting FBs in last season and you live and die by your decisions.

FFS....'Clownio' didn't make one iota of difference last season. The 5/6 gaffs he made last season, made no impact on the result of the game, yet, you could look at 3/4 goals that were started by him immediately...but that still doesn't add to the debate.

We lost games last season because we had poor full backs and Kompany out. Far too many offensive plays without having an immediate response to an attack by the defenders.

Clownio is Clownio...he probably cost us less points than the previous season under Hart, who DID make mistakes that cost us actually POiNTS. 

Pep should have played Maffeo or brought in better full backs, as this is an area that is critical to his style of play, that's what his one big mistake was last season...not the keeper.

Add to that the chances that we missed up front was incredible...we should have been out of sight in many games, only to draw or lose games.

Walker is seriously quick...his pace gets him out of trouble...which isn't a negative, as the likes of Bonucci and Pique aren't quick. Let's hope Pep's defensive team can add some additional defensive qualities to Walker and Mendy....but Pep won't care, if they are bombing forward and assisting in goals.

I only got the dig in on clownio for you Blue you should know that by now...... I have to disagree Dawg If pep seriously thought our defense was so bad he would have altered that 1st. I am 100% certain that pep felt he could get by the season playing the way we did with the full backs & defense he had at his disposal. By adding a bit of mobility in Sane legs in midfield Gundogan & a poacher to assist Sergio, Jesus we were complete, For a 1st season spending. Gundogan & Kompany put a huge spanner in that works. Stones looked decidedly nervous playing alongside ota The full backs just did not have the legs to do the job pep asked of them hence trying something different by using Navas & Fernandinho as full backs at different times. Whilst we were not great & the flaws were there we still had enough about us to remain a top 4 side.

Gundogan came injured and we all know of Vinnie's injury problems. They were hardly unsurprising. If Pep thought he could get by with that defence......heaven help us!

Pep had never been at a team where defending was important though,  this is where he was caught short.

The injury to gundogan was totally different to the one he sustained during the season. The prognosis when he signed was that he would be available around September time. That turned out to be spot on. We know about vinnies problems granted but he was injured towards the back end of the season before & was missing the euros so just maybe pep thought he would be ok come the beginning of the season. In any case Stones was bought & he used Kolarov also as a central defender again not ideal but maybe enough to get by. As I said you can't change the whole team in one season & it appears rightly or wrongly the defense was the least of his worries.