Your title challenging side

[leetotty]

GK. Gomes / Cudicini
RB. Corluka / Kaboul
LB. Bale/ Assou Ekotto
CB. King / Bassong / Dawson /
DM. Palacios / Sandro / Huddlestone
AM. Modric / Lennon / Bentley / Krancjar
ST. Defoe / Pav / Crouch

Naughton/Walker/Townsend/Rose are not quite good enough or ready for a team with title challenging aspirations, so I am ignoring their claims.

Therefore, the missing elements for me in our team are:-
1. Woodgate replacement if not fit.
2. Our attacking midfielders are light on pace
3. We also lack I think a good dead ball specialist.
4. We lack a striker who can truly bring midfield into play with intelligent movement.

Assuming we buy players with premiership experience the options would be
Richards / Bellamy or Young / Arteta / Forlan

I like the look of these players who have potential to do well:-
AM - Gervinho / Dembele / Wijnaldum / Hazard / Honda / Ozil / Hulk

Experienced players that could make a difference
VanDerVaart / Fabiano / Bastos

Therefore
Corluka Dawson King Bale
Hudd Modric
Lennon VDV Bastos
Fabiano

 

[nferno]

---------------Gomes---------------
Corluka-----King---Dawson------Bale
---------------Hudd----------------
-----------Özil------Modric----------
Lennon--------Dzeko---------Jovetic

more likely we'll sign no-one for Özil's place.. so switch for Palacios/Kranjcar, we won't sign Dzeko because of man fucking shitty but Suarez will do nicely, we won't sign Jovetic but Arda Turan would do nicely.

 

[Partizan]

Dzeko, Özil and Suarez.

I can't see us having a chance in hell of signing Dzeko

 

[Rackybear]

The thing is, adding 2 or 3 quality players - as man city have come to found out, doesnt automatically make the TEAM better. Yes, it increases the amount of match winners and individual talent, but it wont neccesarily make us player better collectively as a unit.

What was so good about our team last year was that there was a perfect balance between the defence, midfield and attack. Players like Lennon, Bale, Modric, Kranjcar could all be deployed in various positions, lots of flexibility - almost total football to some extent.

Adding 2 or 3 so called "better" players could potentially make us worse off in the short term, and perhaps even in the long if the players being mentioned fail to adjust at all to the league or to our style of play.

Im pretty satisfied with our team as it is, and at a stretch would probably go for two real quality signings that wont mess around with our dynamics too much.

Sandro is already here - very untested, some believe seem to think he'll walk into our team, I think he'll be a squad player, rarely a first team starter.

Then id go for the complete forward - someone in the mould of Berbatov - i.e Dzeko.

and finally a quality quality center back.

We dont need wholesale changes. One forward. One Defender. Job done.

Dont want to disrupt what we have at the moment too much, I have faith in the likes of Lennon, Bale, Modric, Bassong, BAE, Corluka, Hudd, Defoe etc.. this group of players deserves its first attempt in the CL - they are the ones that got us there afterall..

 

[blanchflower007]

Dzeko, Özil and Suarez.

This, although I'd also be happy with Forlan in place of Dzeko or Turan in place of Ozil.

 

[karennina]

25 man squad

Green = Players Bought
Blue = Players returning from loans/injury or promoted from youth
Red = Players Sold

GK: Gomes, Cudicini, Some other cheap fool to make up the 25 man squad

RB: Corluka, Hutton

CB: King, Dawson, Bassong, Kaboul

LB: Bale, Assou-Ekotto

RM: Lennon, Arda Turan, Giovanni Dos Santos

CM: Palacios, Thudd, Sandro, Jenas

LM: Modric, Kranjcar

CF: Defoe, Pavlyuchenko, Luis Suarez, Loic Remy

Final squad place: Woodgate or one of our youfs to suit


Sold: Bentley, Keane, Crouch


I think with Dawson, Bassong and Kaboul all needing game time to develop, if we're to keep up our squad building rather than feckless buying technique, now is not yet the time to buy another CB. We can, very cheaply, get up to the numbers required defensively to cope with King and Woodgate's vagaries by keeping Hutton around for the first half of the season, with an indication that we'll try to loan out/move him in Jan if it's too miserable.

Right mid was, along with striker, our weakest position last season, imo. We should prioritise some more pace, which Turan and Gio bring if, we're to add to midfield generally. Theoretically, with Turan also being right footed, he could add the game stretching width that Lennon does.

CF - I think we should persist with Levy's prioritisation of resale value, and the blending of a squad to grow together. If Crouch was to leave instead of Pav, I'd be massively joyful.

 

[kcmei]

------------gomes

--corluka---daw---king---bale

--------sandro-----modric

--lennon----ozil-----turan

-------------suarez

 

[onthetwo]

Gomes

corluka - king - dawson - bale

palacios - huddlestone

lennon - modric - robben

dzeko

Robben??mg:mg:mg:mg:
I think id prefer Joey Barton to RobbenEek

 

[Gassin's finest]

People keep mentioning players like Dzeko and Forlan, one who would cost at least £35m and is hlding out for AC Milan, the other has catagorically stated that he has zero desire to play in England ever again.

Face it, they are not viable targets or ever will be.

 

[klinsmannsbeetle]

---------------Gomes---------------

Corluka-----Dawson-----King-----Bale

Lennon-----Palacios-----Modric-----CHUNG YONG LEE

----------------HONDA--------------

----------------DZEKO--------------

 

[Peters]

The thing is, adding 2 or 3 quality players - as man city have come to found out, doesnt automatically make the TEAM better. Yes, it increases the amount of match winners and individual talent, but it wont neccesarily make us player better collectively as a unit.

What was so good about our team last year was that there was a perfect balance between the defence, midfield and attack. Players like Lennon, Bale, Modric, Kranjcar could all be deployed in various positions, lots of flexibility - almost total football to some extent.

Adding 2 or 3 so called "better" players could potentially make us worse off in the short term, and perhaps even in the long if the players being mentioned fail to adjust at all to the league or to our style of play.

Im pretty satisfied with our team as it is, and at a stretch would probably go for two real quality signings that wont mess around with our dynamics too much.

Sandro is already here - very untested, some believe seem to think he'll walk into our team, I think he'll be a squad player, rarely a first team starter.

Then id go for the complete forward - someone in the mould of Berbatov - i.e Dzeko.

and finally a quality quality center back.

We dont need wholesale changes. One forward. One Defender. Job done.

Dont want to disrupt what we have at the moment too much, I have faith in the likes of Lennon, Bale, Modric, Bassong, BAE, Corluka, Hudd, Defoe etc.. this group of players deserves its first attempt in the CL - they are the ones that got us there afterall..

Good points.

The fact is that we have a developing team who could probably play total football- but how many times did Lennon, Modric, Kranjcar and Bale start a pl game together last season? The answer is none! They only made 20,21,19,18 starts respectively - about half a season each. Dawson and Bassong made only 25 pl starts each. It is amazing that we could reach 4th with such a young squad, and so many team changes, but they have the potential to improve individually and collectively for several years.

To challenge at the top we need to make 2 top notch signings for the first eleven, a "Berbatov" - and a top class central defender.

 

[Jules77]

As much as 'who', for this season it is as much 'when'. I would like any new signings to be available for the first home friendly. I don't think Levy should haggle to the last minute this time round.

 

[Yiddo1982]

I'm surprised by the amount of people that are omitting Palacios.

Yes, we won a couple of big games without him, but he is still integral.

 

[blanchflower007]

People keep mentioning players like Dzeko and Forlan, one who would cost at least £35m and is hlding out for AC Milan, the other has catagorically stated that he has zero desire to play in England ever again.

Face it, they are not viable targets or ever will be.

Dzeko is a pipe dream but they will reduce that £35m fee as I don't think City are even going to pay that, Milan can't aford him so they is a slim chance. Forlan said he was happy in madrid when the world cup was going on then after it finished he said that you never know whats round the corner.

 

[ShelfSide18]

I'm surprised by the amount of people that are omitting Palacios.

Yes, we won a couple of big games without him, but he is still integral.

It's mad isn't it, ludicrous in fact.

For me Palacios, Modric and Gomes are the first names on the team sheet. The fact we won some vital games without him show we have an excellent squad that isn't too reliant on anyone, but Palacios is still, as you say, integral to future success.

 

[EAspur1976]

This is my 1st post, and this seems like the best thread to make a start.

My 25 would be.

Gomes/Cudicini/Pletikosa
Corluka/Hutton/Dawson/Marquez Or Woody(if fit)/King/Bassong/Bale/BAE

Palacios/Huddlestone/Sandro

Lennon/Bentley/VDV/Modric/Kranjcar/JOH/GDS/Bellamy
Pav/Fabiano/Defoe

Would wait and see on Big Jon if he's knackered then go for experience, i believe Marquez is realistic, same with the other signings, Fabiano being the possible stumbling block, I would look to nick Dzeko or Suarez if Fab stays in Spain.
​

 

[smudger]

This is my 1st post, and this seems like the best thread to make a start.

My 25 would be.

Gomes/Cudicini/Pletikosa
Corluka/Hutton/Dawson/Marquez Or Woody(if fit)/King/Bassong/Bale/BAE

Palacios/Huddlestone/Sandro​

Lennon/Bentley/VDV/Modric/Kranjcar/JOH/GDS/Bellamy


Pav/Fabiano/Defoe​

Would wait and see on Big Jon if he's knackered then go for experience, i believe Marquez is realistic, same with the other signings, Fabiano being the possible stumbling block, I would look to nick Dzeko or Suarez if Fab stays in Spain.​

welcome and i agree with your squad

A+ ;-)

 

[rabbikeane]

This would be able to compete with anyone:

Dzeko
Bellamy Ozil Lennon
Huddlestone Modric
Bale King Dawson Corluka
Gomes

______________________________________

Crouch
Rose Kranjcar Giovani
Sandro Palacios
Ekotto Bassong Kaboul Walker
Pletikosa

+ Cudicini
+ O'Hara
+ Townsend
+ Gudjohnsen
+ Defoe

... do we have the money for Ozil and Dzeko though .. ?
​

 

[Teemu]

Robben??mg:mg:mg:mg:
I think id prefer Joey Barton to RobbenEek

???????????

So you'd prefer a mediocre psychopath to debatably the best winger in the world? SAY WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?

 

[brett.spurs]

... do we have the money for Ozil and Dzeko though .. ?
​

Possibly, after sales.

Would they sign for us? Probably not.