Players not good enough to take us forward under any manager.

[cityfanlee23]

Can't help but think we have a massive amount of players on the books who regardless of manager simply are not good enough. 

Morgan - So inconsistent and any other manager would be trying to retire or sell him, he's lucky Puel is so loyal to him, disgraceful to hear he ran past puel to celebrate with others for his goal, Puel is the only manager that would still be playing him week in week out. 
Simpson - Really one dimensional and his defensive solidness really is not what it used to be. 
Mendy - Great first few games and has had his moments but generally he's just average at best, him and Ndidi together just do not compliment eachother. 
Iheanacho - Too many chances now, 10 mins left, you're a CF and you're losing the game, you should be up and down the touchline making sure the manager sees you, instead he's sat on the bench in his coat without his boots tied up or pads on. Just get rid. 

Okazaki - Past it

Silva - Probably needs more chances as he's proven quality, but everytime he has played he's generally been off the pace, so unless we have a new manager with a master plan, can't see him doing much at this level. 

Fuchs - Past it, been below average when he's had a chance this season, either his passing or his defending lets him down every game he's played. 

King - Time has come. 

James - Time has come. 

Jakupovic - Waste of a wage 

 

Inconsistent players

Gray - Did well today for his goal, but can't help but wish he did it more often, shows flashes of brilliance but often just gets marked out of the game.

Chilwell - He's decent enough but massively overrated IMO, i'd take 50m for him if city offered it, his defending is OK and his attacking is OK. Very rarely does a cross connect and more often than not he turns and passes backwards. 

 

The last 2 and possibly Silva could be good under a new manager, but generally speaking I really think the problem goes deeper than this. Our bench is piss poor and many of our first team players just cannot adapt any other style of play than hoofball. 

 

 

EDIT ---------------------------------

Just to add to this post and to reflect on the last 18 months or so, here is a list of players that Puel inherited that he's had to offload whilst trying to progress the squad.

 

Huth

Wasilewski

Hamers

Musa

Slimani

Ulloa

Kapustka???

Benalouane

Zieler

Lawrence

 

Lists combined thats 20 players that have been or need to be moved on, he did not take on a small job. 

 

Edited 19 January 2019 by cityfanlee23

[KFS]

You’re right Lee, we have a shit squad quite frankly. Taken me a while to really notice this given some of the performances we’ve been capable of. 

[Bezzanator89]

Agreed with all of those apart from Chilwell, think he has been one of our better performers on the pitch this season, and he is continuing to improve his whole game.

 

That being said, this squad does need its deadwood removing pretty sharpish. Some are likely to leave between now and end of the season anyway so you are likely to get your wish where the likes of Okazaki, Fuchs, Silva, King etc are concerned. Whereas the likes of Iheanacho and Gray are likely to stay put for better or worse because no-one wants them based on their inconsistent forms and poor attitudes.

[Hanan96]

Do not kick chilwell away. We can't just replace too many player in the same time without team balance disruption. 

 

With 3-5 additional first teamers still needed, adding more is too risky 

[Tielemans63]

I'll be honest, I think it's more of an effort issue than a talent issue. We've got a good squad, capable of a lot more.

[egg_fried_rice]

Quality wise, I'd think our squad is worthy of 7th - 11th place. 

 

Puel got some of his selections wrong today. Personally I thought our midfield two were wank and it's been clear that combo has not been working for some time. But if you replace one with Hamza who else can you bring in after that? None of our other midfielders have shown they possess the quality to play there.

 

If we get an injury up front, we start with Nacho and have Shinji has back up. That's not a top half forward line.

 

Imagine if Ricardo got injured - we'd have to persist with Simpson at full back and would be praying for Amartey to get well soon. That's a bottom half pairing at best.

 

We've got some good players but I really don't think our squad is that strong. Puel made mistakes today no doubt, but he is certainly limited with what he has to work with. Could someone else do better with this bunch? Possibly. Probably. But we could also be doing much worse - we must be careful what we wish for!

 

 

[lgfualol]

It is a mainly average squad with poor attitudes and form which drags us down to a shit squad.

[Kitchandro]

I bet most teams would say that. Our squad is as good as any outside the top 6. Our squad was 'weak' when we won the league remember - we had very little outside of our first 11.

 

Most if not all of those players you mention should not expect to start matches so it doesn't excuse our performances.

 

Frankly, I think we would be fine with 1 quality striking addition and another centre back. We've got an overload of midfielders, plenty of talent there if used properly. 3-5-2 would suit us so we don't need more full backs at the moment.

Edited 19 January 2019 by Kitchandro

[STUHILL]

You have a point in terms of our squad as a whole but I think the starting 11 we can put out most weeks, is on paper the 8th best in the league, with a mixture of talented youth players on top of some more experienced quality.

 

The squad needs work no doubt, but Puel has enough quality to work with IMO and should be getting more out of them than he is. 

 

The problem he has, he is trying to force a system/style on to them, rather than also considering a number of the player's key strengths AND weaknesses. 

 

I think there are managers that definitely could be getting better from at least a handful of our players, but I also think Puel deserves more time to become more flexible himself and realise this. 

[Captain...]

These are good players being exposed by a shit system. They are following this ridiculous game plan of overloading the flanks leaving us massively exposed at the back. It is so predictable. Chilwell is so often caught out of position because too much attacking burden is on him. The full backs have to attack otherwise we have no numbers going forwards but every time we lose the ball we leave ourselves wide open to the counter.

 

The same mistakes week after week and Puel has had long enough to sort it out. 

[foxes_rule1978]

I think we have some very good young players, with experience which they are getting under Puel they can turn out to be brilliant for us. We aren’t far away from being a very good side 

[Langston]

1 hour ago, cityfanlee23 said:

Fuchs - Past it, been below average when he's had a chance this season, either his passing or his defending lets him down every game he's played. 

 

While I agree it's time for Fuchs to move on, this is incorrect. He was great when we played Man City in the League Cup.

[TeamRocket]

LMAO

[AylestoneRaider]

My biggest gripe with Puel is that he’s not getting the best from the players we have. We have some of the best and most exciting players I’ve seen at City in Vardy, Chill, Ric, Harry, Maddison etc. I think we have a team that should be putting in consistently strong performances and leading the mid-table bunch below the top 6.

 

i really don’t understand playing 3x defensive mf at home v saints then going more attacking away at Wolves. I was also furious that Hamza was left out and Mendy kept his place after what happened in the last game.

 

I’m fully aware of the positives that Puel offers, but these are far outweighed by the  growing list of negatives.

[peach0000]

We’ve got plenty of top players, schmeichel, maguire, chilwell, Ricardo, Vardy could fit into almost any team. Then there’s the likes of ndidi and Maddison who are young and have potential. Further to that we have a proven top class creative midfielder in silva who isn’t even given a chance. 

Maybe im being overly positive but for me we’re only a player or two and manager away from properly pushing into the top 6.

[l444ry]

Squad is easily good enough. Cutting out the bad decision making and playing in the wrong areas would improve us immediately. 

[TeamRocket]

Sooo.....

 

 

What happend to... we are 7th.... 

 

 

[Monsell1976]

Agree to a point, we have players that have potential but are not reaching it yet, we have far to many over payed and over rated players, and we have players who are not playing, and which I think with a run of games, and a chance to gain some form, could improve us.

 

 Overall we have a average squad for me, and players that wouldn’t get what they are getting paid here anywhere else, and are to comfortable, and consequently we are stuck with as they have contracts, for example James.

 

 We are now paying the consequences of poor scouting, poor negotiation, and generally piss poor recruitment since we won the league in my opinion.

[Nuge]

quite simply, we don't have a midfield. can't complete a pass forwards between them. zero creativity. how can he not see it. 

[lozzyblue fox]

1 minute ago, TeamRocket said:

Sooo.....

 

 

What happend to... we are 7th.... 

 

 

3 points separate 6 teams so we could yo yo between 7th and 12th. Back to being a yo yo side again.

[foxes_rule1978]

3 minutes ago, lozzyblue fox said:

3 points separate 6 teams so we could yo yo between 7th and 12th. Back to being a yo yo side again.

Rather that than relegation and promotion 

Edited 19 January 2019 by foxes_rule1978

[peterborofox]

Definitely do need a big clear out and rebuild process

 

Bit like when Pearson came the second time and it took a while to get it right 

[foxes_rule1978]

4 minutes ago, peterborofox said:

Definitely do need a big clear out and rebuild process

 

Bit like when Pearson came the second time and it took a while to get it right 

You would think we were 18th and finished 17th last season 

[coolhandfox]

Couple week ago people were say Man U squad wasn't good enough.......................

 

 

[funkyrobot]

52 minutes ago, Kitchandro said:

I bet most teams would say that. Our squad is as good as any outside the top 6. Our squad was 'weak' when we won the league remember - we had very little outside of our first 11.

 

Most if not all of those players you mention should not expect to start matches so it doesn't excuse our performances.

 

Frankly, I think we would be fine with 1 quality striking addition and another centre back. We've got an overload of midfielders, plenty of talent there if used properly. 3-5-2 would suit us so we don't need more full backs at the moment.

Seriously? Another centre back? How many do you want ffs.