Centre Back... Who do we go for?

Getting a top top defender will be difficult as their price will be astonishing, having said that i'd go with on of the top tier:

Koulibaly, Skriniar, DeLigt

and another with huge potential or tier 2

Milenkovic, Romagnoli, Maguire, Ake

Sell: Rojo, Jones
 
beingshe7don said:
You clearly haven't watched many games in which Smalling has featured for United. It's not just ONE mistake. It's this sort of mediocre mindset is why the club is in such a situation. Since when did Smalling become the benchmark for level of CBs at United?
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Agree. He’s possibly not as bad as he looked yesterday but overall not a world class CB. Hate to say it but Southgate called it right.
 
westmeath said:
Agree. He’s possibly not as bad as he looked yesterday but overall not a world class CB. Hate to say it but Southgate called it right.
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No he isnt a world class CB. But good teams are rarely made from world class players in every position. You have some and then other hard workers next to them making them look even better.

England's defense the world cup was woeful against Croatia and Belgium, the only 2 good sides they played. The only thing Southgate got right was abandoning it against Spain and playing long balls from the keeper instead. Still conceded 2 against Spain but it was better.
 
Personally I would go for experience over potential this time. We have tried potential and it takes time. What sleep seriously pack in this depatdepar is a bit of experience and intelligence. Smalling is our most experienced and intelligent CB (sink knocks at the door) and while he's not terrible, he should be a competent back up, rotation option, not our defensive leader.

Trouble is, there's not many around who are available or reasonably affordable.
 
Could Kostas Manolas be the answer?
Good in the air, can play out from the back & should be experienced enough by now to be a leader in our defence.

Probably more attainable than Koulibaly, Skriniar, Romagnoli, Rugani, Caldara & De Vrij too...
 
Watched Ake on Saturday. Against Fulham, yes, but still had plenty to do. He was unreal. He’s not the biggest but his reading of the game etc is something else. Makes defending look so easy. Could prob double as a left back as cover for Shaw if needed too.
 
Ekeke said:
No he isnt a world class CB. But good teams are rarely made from world class players in every position. You have some and then other hard workers next to them making them look even better.

England's defense the world cup was woeful against Croatia and Belgium, the only 2 good sides they played. The only thing Southgate got right was abandoning it against Spain and playing long balls from the keeper instead. Still conceded 2 against Spain but it was better.
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I think this is outdated thinking. Standards have improved, I believe City have world class players in every position now and that is what we have to aim at if we want to compete.
 
red4ever 79 said:
I am not pinning that on Smalling yesterday. Pogba lost the ball through his carelessness and allowed the attack to build.
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I'm not Pogba's biggest fan, but to be fair Midfielders (careless or not) will lose the ball on times, its the nature of the position. Pogba letting the ball go on the halfway line does not cause the goal (its not ideal of course, but we still could have prevented a goal)

Smalling's abysmal decision / attempted tackle does.
 
I'd go for Alderweireld again in the January window if he's gettable for £25m or less, which is still overpriced given he'll be free in the summer. Spurs don't look like they'll be adding to the trophy cabinet significantly again this year so we may be able to pry him away from them. Or maybe Ramos from Madrid as he seems to be falling out of favour over there (even though he is a bit of a nugget). Some experience would work wonders in our defence.

I don't think Jose should still be here after the summer, so it makes little sense to be spending top dollar on anybody whilst he's still here. Keep the serious cash for the next manager. We do have some centre halves who may be of some interest to Madrid & Spurs as part of a swap deal.
 
westmeath said:
I think this is outdated thinking. Standards have improved, I believe City have world class players in every position now and that is what we have to aim at if we want to compete.
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I dont agree at all.

If you had the ability to choose a squad full of players from every team in the world and money is no object, you just had to pick who was going to perform the best for a season, I'd pick maybe one of Laporte and Otamendi, maybe Mendy as a squad option, Fernandinho as a squad option maybe Silva starting. Aguero maybe starting up front.

So a fair few City players in the squad but only a couple starting. Definitely not every single player even in the squad.

If your definition of "World Class" isnt that they are within the top 20-30 (squad) or so players in the world, then your standards are far too low and the phrase doesn't mean anything.
 
De Ligt should be priority. In an absolute ideal world Skriniar alongside him and we would have potentially the best partnership in the world for years with De Gea behind them. But, De Ligt is a must buy!!
 
Regulus Arcturus Black said:
He won’t be free in the Summer @RedNed77, he’ll cost £25m.
I’d imagine we’d need to throw at least another £10-15m on to convince Spurs to sell in Jan.
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Ah, thought he was completely free in the summer, as I mis-remembered. In which case £40m would probably be too expensive to my eye for a player of his age and recent injury record. As you were :nervous:.
 
Ekeke said:
I dont agree at all.

If you had the ability to choose a squad full of players from every team in the world and money is no object, you just had to pick who was going to perform the best for a season, I'd pick maybe one of Laporte and Otamendi, maybe Mendy as a squad option, Fernandinho as a squad option maybe Silva starting. Aguero maybe starting up front.

So a fair few City players in the squad but only a couple starting. Definitely not every single player even in the squad.

If your definition of "World Class" isnt that they are within the top 20-30 (squad) or so players in the world, then your standards are far too low and the phrase doesn't mean anything.
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Ok, so KDB, Stones, Walker, Ederson, Mahrez and one of the Silvas are not world class players. Lol.
 
westmeath said:
Ok, so KDB, Stones, Walker, Ederson, Mahrez and one of the Silvas are not world class players. Lol.
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I would define world class as being at least top 10 (preferably top 5) in your position i.e. You would be a core player in at least one big club.
 
Regulus Arcturus Black said:
He won’t be free in the Summer @RedNed77, he’ll cost £25m.
I’d imagine we’d need to throw at least another £10-15m on to convince Spurs to sell in Jan.
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I would take alderweireld at that price. He is probably the best value we can get in the current market.

Whoever we buy should be a defensive leader who can organize the defence. Alderweireld should settle in faster than a foreign league import. Only concern would be his injury record.

Hummels too is an option but same injury concern.
 
Option 1 Skriniar, Koulibaly, DeLigt, Varane right footed - would be the best options to replace Jones, Smalling

Option 2 Romagnoli, Maguire,Alderweireld left footed - would be the best options to replace Rojo

I would love to one each from option 1 & 2.

We should keep Bailly(hopefully he can get his confidence back), Lindelof, Tuanzebe.
 
cheeky_backheel said:
I would take alderweireld at that price. He is probably the best value we can get in the current market.

Whoever we buy should be a defensive leader who can organize the defence. Alderweireld should settle in faster than a foreign league import. Only concern would be his injury record.

Hummels too is an option but same injury concern.
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Hummels is far too slow and is past his best.
 
londonredmaniac said:
I think the fact that Chris Smalling is (correctly by the way) considered our best centreback is definitely part of the issue though.
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Why is it an issue if he’s genuinely brilliant every week? Do we just keep saying ‘he was great today, but he’s shit really’ until something like Sunday happens and the prophecy fulfils itself?
 
Mylock said:
We have wasted enough money on players who are on a downward spiral when we sign them.
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He is still good enough to start for Bayern, who are probably the only club currently with 3 quality and experienced CBs.

ignoring his injury record, at 29, Hummels is the type of player we need who can bring the needed leadership to the defence.

we are not going to get a quality CB in his prime for cheap in january
 
Alderweireld is our man.

Proven. Experienced with a good few years left in him. Good with the ball at his feet.

This is a position that's screwing us so badly that we can't gamble on a promising young CB (Lindelof) or a old timer. We need to go for a proven ball-playing CB in his prime.
 
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