Mangala playing today, does that say anything about this rumour? Surely if the deal was agreed to then they would not risk messing it up with an injury?
Nicolas Otamendi | City Player
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If City get Otamendi then I'd probably make them favourites for the title.
Yeah I think so. Can't remember the last time I was so gutted about a potential rivals transfer.
Actually I can, ironically it was Aguero....
He's no Blind that's for sure.
Pay his buyout clause? They can still loan him out
Absolutely ridiculous that we're not in for him. Gutted.
Mangala is no rookie at age 24 and they splurged a crazy £42 million on him. Now they could loan him out.
In my opinion, despite what would likely be a somewhat excessive fee, we should be in for Otamendi. He's a fantastic defender. He's strong in the air, reads the game well and is a real warrior. He'd be a very good partner for Smalling. Just because our midfield has been strengthened is no reason to accept inadequacies in our back four. We should strengthen all areas that require it. We've looked solid defensively in the first couple of games, for sure. Still, it's a very small sample size and there will be many more challenges - increasingly difficult ones at that - ahead. Going into the season with the same group of centre halves, given their injury histories and the questions over their actual abilities, is risky. Van Gaal likes to say that the club will bring in players if they improve "the selection". Would Otamendi do that? For me, the answer is obviously yes (more obviously than Stones would, I think). Who would you trust up against Aguero or Costa? Otamendi or Blind? It's an easy answer. The "Ramos or nothing" philosophy (or perhaps it was Hummels, Ramos or nothing), baffles me. I think Blind is a very valuable player to have in the squad, and still have faith that Jones can develop into a quality defender, but Otamendi is clearly better than both of them. Evans and Rojo really don't compare to him at all. I fear we'll regret not adding another central defender as the season progresses.
He's no Jones
ie he won't spend most of his career in the treatment room
ie he won't spend most of his career in the treatment room
Well he is not left footed and our right footed defender currently is pretty strong. So it makes sense that we aren't in for him if LvG insist on playing a left footed defender on the left.
Our lack of shots on goal far more concerning than our defense currently. I'd have a goal scorer all day over Otamendi. I'd be far more gutted if we didnt bring in someone who can put the ball in the back of the net.
Jones has already returned to his favourite spot at our club. Its only a matter of time before Smalling and Evans will follow him
It's inevitable that we'll drop Blind at some point imo.
Yeah, for Rojo.
Having Otamendi would change that.
Not too worried really. He had a great season last year but he wasn't rated highly before that... We'll see how he fits in with the others and in the prem. Ridiculous fee though. Obviously I would have taken him at United, but the fee was always crazy and I wasn't too thrilled about spending 40m+ on a center back
Hazard? We were the frontrunners for ages until they won the champions league, and it was hard not to see past his potential.
I'm not sure if City made the right deal. Mangala is looking very good.
Only if he could change his preferred foot somehow.
We had Jones and Smalling playing last season even when rojo was fit.
Don't think people on here got the. We are not Interested bit. Good luck for him at City. Lets hope we get our attackers that we need.
Wasn't he supposed to be 40 mln euro?
Tokd you all summer he isn't even on our radar. We want Ramos and if we do not get him then it is noone.
07/08 - Corluka
08/09 - Ben-Haim, Kompany
09/10 - Lescott, Toure
10/11 - Boateng
11/12 - Savic
12/13 - Nastasic
13/14 - Demichelis
14/15 - Mangala
15/16 - Otamendi?
A new CB every season for 9 seasons running, an impressive record they would be keeping up.
08/09 - Ben-Haim, Kompany
09/10 - Lescott, Toure
10/11 - Boateng
11/12 - Savic
12/13 - Nastasic
13/14 - Demichelis
14/15 - Mangala
15/16 - Otamendi?
A new CB every season for 9 seasons running, an impressive record they would be keeping up.
Don't get me wrong I'm not getting his obsession with playing a left-footed CB at all but if he says, and he repeated this at the start of the season, that he always wants to play with a left footed CB I don't see us going for another right footed CB unless he is very good at passing with his left foot as well.
Of course this discussion seems useless since we aren't interested in Otamendi anyways.
Would be very disappointed if he goes to City
This. it takes time to settle into the english game. Mangala looks to have settled nicely. Otamendi will probably hit the ground running though
Don't worry mate, Evans will come good and prove his doubters wrong. Believe
Yes, he does want to play with a left footer. I don't think the blind experiment will last too long though and it'd have been great to have a top CB in the squad. Not going for him makes sense though as you can't really buy someone because of the reason I mentioned.
I reckon he'll become the best CB in the world this year. Am I doing this right?
Mangala looks solid this far this season TBF.
Slightly surprised that City aren't giving him another season.
Slightly surprised that City aren't giving him another season.
You're probably right, but then again what if Ramos had ended up joining United? Would he have replaced Smalling and played alongside Blind? For some reason I doubt that. As for Otamendi, like with any player - I can't be too disappointed as he's only really had one stand out season as well as the probability that we have decided not to pursue him any further.
The funny thing is that the things being said about Otamendi now are more or less exactly what people said about Mangala last summer. People just like to moan and indulge in hysterics.
Last year our defence wasn't a big issue. Less than 1 goal a game in the league is fine. We were one goal off having the 2nd best defensive record in the league. City won the league with the exact same defensive record as us in 13/14 (37 goals conceded) and we had an even worse defensive record when we last won it in 12/13. Last season Chelsea conceded just 5 more goals.
Our defensive record will inevitably improve with Darmian, a fully fit Shaw and Schneiderlin and it's entirely possible that alone will close that 5 goal gap, so it's pretty clear we don't need another CB. If we want to compete in the CL then maybe we do, but that's something to think about next season. Our problem is our goalscoring.
Only two teams have won the PL by scoring less than 70 goals - United in 08/09, and Arsenal in 97/98, both with 68 goals. We managed just 62 last season and realistically need to find another 10 goals to have any real chance of competing. We should be competing with City for De Bruyne and Arsenal for Benzema, not City for Otamendi.
Last year our defence wasn't a big issue. Less than 1 goal a game in the league is fine. We were one goal off having the 2nd best defensive record in the league. City won the league with the exact same defensive record as us in 13/14 (37 goals conceded) and we had an even worse defensive record when we last won it in 12/13. Last season Chelsea conceded just 5 more goals.
Our defensive record will inevitably improve with Darmian, a fully fit Shaw and Schneiderlin and it's entirely possible that alone will close that 5 goal gap, so it's pretty clear we don't need another CB. If we want to compete in the CL then maybe we do, but that's something to think about next season. Our problem is our goalscoring.
Only two teams have won the PL by scoring less than 70 goals - United in 08/09, and Arsenal in 97/98, both with 68 goals. We managed just 62 last season and realistically need to find another 10 goals to have any real chance of competing. We should be competing with City for De Bruyne and Arsenal for Benzema, not City for Otamendi.
Too much sense in this post. Quoting before it gets lost in stream of moaning and panic.
I wanted him but when he proclaimed his new club via Twitter I realised he was the type of player I hate
not as a footballer obviously.LvG said we buy to improve positions, Otamendi is a much better defnder than Blind, Jones and Rojo, ergo the only reason we haven't bought him is LvG's daft foot fetish and because Blind can pass it better.
As the poster above said too much sense in one post but you can expect people quickly saying that DDG alone was the reason for our rather good defensive record...
I really do not think he will be the big miss people think he will be.
He was an enormous part of it, that isn't fiction.
Enormous yes but our defenders didnt just stand there, let opposing players through and watched DDG what will he do.
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