Just thought I'd summarise my interpretation on the changes this transfer window; Last seasonwe lacked; A goalkeeper = two keepers, one prospect one experienced wanting to resurrect his career Height in attack, we also lacked options = 6' plus striker with excellent pedigree and potential Defensive back up = two experienced defenders one who can cover across the back line Creative wing play = stunning prospect with a good scoring record to boot Midfield creative player = attempting to secure roko plus a.n.other All looking rather positive IMHO
Completely agree Johno, I thought we lacked back up keeper (Manonne was awesome when we finally got him), we were light in defence, lacked attacking width/players who understood Barmbys formation, and a decent partner for Fryatt. We now have two decent keepers (ok, one on loan), would of loved Manonne but guess Arsenal wanted too much, wouldnt be suprised if we are still in contact with Manonne for when his contract is up!. We now have two decent LB, two decent RB, a strong first choice pairing (ok, Hobbs is out) with good cover for them in Cooper, Faye and the vesitile Bruce. Plus the likes of East and Bradley......... oh and McShane Our centre midfield is strong with 5 quality players (plus supposedly another Man utd lad coming in), do think Oli will be off though. Reverting to 4-4-2 makes it easier for young players to come through (wing forward is a hard position), Aluko and Stewart will excile there, plus wingers are easy to pick up on loan, I expect King, Bradey, Sterling and a few others will have been asked about We now have two decent strikers, with Simpson (who with supply is a decent player) plus Cullen and McClean for depth. Very very tidy
Weakest area for me is middle of midfield adding someone like Ben Watson would improve it drastically though
although i agree, i wish we secured a proven goalkeeper like mannone. vito publicly stated he wants to stay at city and arsenal were willing to sell him for £1m... for the life of me i cant understand why we never got that deal sorted.. im sure Amos will do well and we'll have to wait and see about the other guy.... but the problem is next season, promoted or not.. we'll yet again need to sign another goalkeeper, possibly a no.1....
A lot of it depends on what Bruce is going to do with Koren. We're probably going to be a 4-4-2 team now so where will he fit in? If he is going to be a winger then we are probably sorted for the wings (maybe need one more for cover) and we need someone to play CM, but if he is going to be CM we'll need a winger or two. Also Tom Cairney could be the midfielder we need IMO but Bruce may or may not like him. If he wants to play Koren on the wing and doesn't rate Cairney then we definitely need another CM.
I agree, he'll probably be consigned to the wing. All this talk of Cariney is just annoying now, if he was that good he would already be playing week in week out. It's the same with Oli. The fact that Pearson and Barmby failed to play either of them has to show something.
I agree about Oli but not Cairney. I can't see why he isn't the key playmaker in our midfield week in week out, he has way more ability on the ball than anyone else in our squad in my opinion.
He isn't a defensive player but there are plenty of midfielders who can't defend, they just play alongside someone more defensive. We have a wealth of midfielders who can tackle and get stuck in but only Cairney can really pick a pass and produce bits of quality. With Evans and McKenna last season we could keep the ball well enough but couldn't create anything, and on the rare occasions that Evans got forward into the box he missed from 3 yards out.
Another way of looking at it: We have no proven keeper at this level. Will have lost one of our best players from last season. Amos, who would've been no.1 I reckon has now been stretchered off in a neck brace. Our great defence has lost it's leader (and team captain) until November. Our almost ever-present left-back is another year older and slower, will be 34 soon, and Dudgeon is yet to really convince. Faye is in his mid 30's and was never too quick. Bruce has been done to death, but there's obvious dangers to his signing. Not to mention the fact that even if he wasn't the bosses son, he's still not very good. In midfield; McKenna, who I believe is a great player, is older and will struggle to play as many games as he managed last season. It still wouldn't surprise me if we lost Koren to Reading, in which case, he would need replacing, and I doubt we could get anyone of his calibre back in. We only have 2 wingers, 1 of which still looks completely out of sorts, as he did for long periods of lost season. He appears to be completely void of confidence, scared to challenge everything or take anyone on. We are yet to see if Proschwitz can live up to his price tag and Mclean is still league one standard. And we have a very long injury list which we didn't last season. Only thought I'd take an extremely negative look at it, to even out the argument. Generally, I am quite positive going into this coming season. Although, if we lost Koren and Amos' injury is a bad one, I'd be a bit worried.
I feel the exact same, I really want to see Proschwitz play in a City shirt just so I know how well he plays, I can only make it to the Norwich friendly as my dad is busy so we can't go to the away friendlies, for 2.6M you would of liked to see him register a pre season goal against the likes of Rochdale and Doncaster
I saw him at Rochdale but didn't go tonight. To be fair, I quite liked what I saw, I was just making the point that he could still be a flop. He seems to have good contol for a big lad. More of a Crouch than a Drogba though. I was expecting a big powerful German who likes to bully defenders and put his body about. Instead, he was quite lanky, likes to try and turn defenders and keep the ball on the ground. Although he did miss an open goal from about 2 yards
Someone mentioned a Thomas Muller/Mario Gomez type of player, I seriously don't know anything about him
Didn't Fryatt come off the bench against Pompey and score on his City debut? I also believe Campbell got a brace on his Tigers debut.
I think Campbell's was on his 2nd game but yes point taken. Just seems like whenever we sign a promising striker they take ages to actually get going. I'm thinking Simpson, McLean, Folan, Altidore, McPhee, Duffy...
