Tonight's Football

[BWFC_Insane]

Think Trafford is getting bumped one up the list

They can keep this one!

Scary isn’t it?

[Worthy4England]

Not an unentertaining watch...

[TANGODANCER]

Not an unentertaining watch...

Indeed not. Liverpool just steamrollered City first half (with a little help goal-wise). I'm a confirmed Grealish fan; he just gets better as he goes, but neither he nor De Bruen could so much against the Scouse pressure game. Too little too late, the cry.

[Bruce Rioja]

Yeesh the mad bastards. Was really hoping Everton would go down.

What have Everton done to offend you?!

If you had to put up with bleating, badly-done-to Scouce 'victims' every time you turned your television on, you wouldn't need to ask.

[Worthy4England]

Yay, I've worked out when xG is useful. When you use it to show how shit United are on 0.00....That was some half of football from Thiago.

[Gooner Girl]

Woke up this morning buzzing. We scored 4 goals! Against Chelsea! Makes my back to work blues a bit better. Particularly as some of the kids I teach support Chelsea!

[Gary the Enfield]

Yeesh the mad bastards. Was really hoping Everton would go down.

What have Everton done to offend you?!

If you had to put up with bleating, badly-done-to Scouce 'victims' every time you turned your television on, you wouldn't need to ask.

Not too late....... Come on Burrrrrrrnli

Everton have a terrible run in

[Prufrock]

If Liverpool win all four I'm moving to the moon.

[Worthy4England]

If Liverpool win all four I'm moving to the moon.

I can see some upsides...

[BWFC_Insane]

Last night shows that for all the football and modern football nonsense that is spoken about, load the box two hopeful high balls and it’s good night Vienna if you can’t deal with that.

It was a masterclass from City in how to control a game. Until they were asked right at the end whether they could do the basics and defend their box from crosses. They couldn’t. It’s a lesson to an extent for Bolton and Evatt. We will be asked those questions next season. Set pieces and crosses. You need the right players to deal with those.

[GhostoftheBok]

So you're saying we can win the league 3 times and reach a CL semi final without bothering to sort out defending our box?

Awesome.

[BWFC_Insane]

So you're saying we can win the league 3 times and reach a CL semi final without bothering to sort out defending our box?

Awesome.

If we spend the money city have and assemble a squad of their quality then yes. But they have vulnerabilities that given the money they’ve spent really should be addressed. Instead of wasting money on Grealish they could have bought a really solid centre half better equipped to deal with that threat.

[GhostoftheBok]

They didn't waste money on Grealish. City's transfer business last summer wasn't about this season, it was about next season and the ones after that. Grealish was bought because he was available and he was given a 6 year deal so they don't need to look at that role again. His fee works out at just over 16m a year, which they will see as tidy business.

It looks like this summer they will target Haaland and a midfielder. Again, younger players on long deals.

The summer after that, other positions.

FFP means they can't do everything all at once and sometimes they pick up a player who they don't vitally need now, but they will need the next time.

[BWFC_Insane]

They didn't waste money on Grealish. City's transfer business last summer wasn't about this season, it was about next season and the ones after that. Grealish was bought because he was available and he was given a 6 year deal so they don't need to look at that role again. His fee works out at just over 16m a year, which they will see as tidy business.

It looks like this summer they will target Haaland and a midfielder. Again, younger players on long deals.

The summer after that, other positions.

FFP means they can't do everything all at once and sometimes they pick up a player who they don't vitally need now, but they will need the next time.

Grealish is 26, the peak of his playing career. The absolute peak. They paid money for him suggesting that he was the missing piece to get them over the line in the champions league. They paid Ronaldo, Messi money for a player who at 26 should be the real deal, the world class ready to transform the team now player.

What they’ve got is a massively overrated mid table premiership at best player who will very likely never be any more than that. He’s being savaged by all and sundry for his performance last night and rightly so. £50M would have been way over the odds for him. Way over. He’s vastly inferior to Foden who is younger, better, works harder and was already there.

Grealish was a massive mistake, I said so at the time and it’s played out exactly as I knew it would.

He’s not even the best player on city’s bloody bench. £100m what a joke. And the fact they are stuck with him for 6 years is worse.

[GhostoftheBok]

Grealish is 26, the peak of his playing career. The absolute peak. They paid money for him suggesting that he was the missing piece to get them over the line in the champions league. They paid Ronaldo, Messi money for a player who at 26 should be the real deal, the world class ready to transform the team now player.

What they’ve got is a massively overrated mid table premiership at best player who will very likely never be any more than that. He’s being savaged by all and sundry for his performance last night and rightly so. £50M would have been way over the odds for him. Way over. He’s vastly inferior to Foden who is younger, better, works harder and was already there.

Grealish was a massive mistake, I said so at the time and it’s played out exactly as I knew it would.

He’s not even the best player on city’s bloody bench. £100m what a joke. And the fact they are stuck with him for 6 years is worse.

Yeah, you don't like Jack Grealish. I understand that. That's not what we are talking about.

City's transfer policy relies on them buying once per position over a longer period of time to maximise value of the deal over the length of the contract.

That is why they bought Grealish rather than spending £30m on three other players - because regardless of your view of him as a player, Pep wanted him as a longer term investment.

You can see it as a bad buy, that's fine. It doesn't change City's transfer strategy.

[Prufrock]

Dias in particular and Laporte are both right in the conversation for second best centre back in the world.

City are on track to have one of the top five best defensive records in Premier League history, and have conceded fewer goals than Liverpool.

The idea that they "can't defend their box" is laughable. There are two teams on a pitch. it was a semi with Real throwing caution to the wind. Sometimes you concede goals.

[BWFC_Insane]

Grealish is 26, the peak of his playing career. The absolute peak. They paid money for him suggesting that he was the missing piece to get them over the line in the champions league. They paid Ronaldo, Messi money for a player who at 26 should be the real deal, the world class ready to transform the team now player.

What they’ve got is a massively overrated mid table premiership at best player who will very likely never be any more than that. He’s being savaged by all and sundry for his performance last night and rightly so. £50M would have been way over the odds for him. Way over. He’s vastly inferior to Foden who is younger, better, works harder and was already there.

Grealish was a massive mistake, I said so at the time and it’s played out exactly as I knew it would.

He’s not even the best player on city’s bloody bench. £100m what a joke. And the fact they are stuck with him for 6 years is worse.

Yeah, you don't like Jack Grealish. I understand that. That's not what we are talking about.

City's transfer policy relies on them buying once per position over a longer period of time to maximise value of the deal over the length of the contract.

That is why they bought Grealish rather than spending £30m on three other players - because regardless of your view of him as a player, Pep wanted him as a longer term investment.

You can see it as a bad buy, that's fine. It doesn't change City's transfer strategy.

City wanted Kane. And he’d have been a far better bet. They’d probably have been in the final at the very least with a striker who can take those chances.

They have only two weaknesses. Lack of a clinical striker and a centre back in the Kompany mould.

I don’t rate Grealish. That’s different from not liking him. He’s abundantly never been a top level player and Southgate clearly rumbled him.

A transfer policy that spends 100M on a player who isn’t worth half that isn’t a good one. City’s policy relies on them finding the right player. And Grealish wasn’t. Pep’s sole goal was to win the champions league and if you are spending that sort of money it ought to be a player who carries you there. And Grealish never was and never is that. He can’t get in their side in the peak age of his career.

However you want to justify it Pep got it wrong and bought into a cult and image rather than the actual player. The rabid England fans screaming for him to play look a bit silly now.

If I was a city fan I’d be pretty annoyed. One quality striker away from winning it all, yet spent their money on a bang average player who has added nothing to their squad.

[GhostoftheBok]

Not really sure where to start on that, to be honest.

They could have bought Kane if they'd wanted him. They didn't want to pay the asking price when Haaland was available a year later.

You're trying to make a point in your favour, but it's actually an example of what I'm talking about - transfer strategy over years and not months.

Your point about Grealish gets kind of muddled. You said they didn't need him and then say he's flopped because he's not played as much as you might expect - but those two things are related. Guardiola takes time to get players used to how City play and Grealish was signed to facilitate a striker who isn't yet in being. He's currently behind forwards who have already been fully integrated into Pep's system. It's precisely the same thing Pep has been saying about Foden. Not that he isn't good enough, but that he needs to get used to the tactical expectations at City.

With Haaland likely to rock up, that will be different. They do need him and his integration will therefore be much quicker. Grealish and Haaland have been bought to play together. If they don't, then people can start talking about them wasting money on Grealish.

As things stand City are in pole to win the league one only fell short of a CL final by 2 minutes. Apparently that's a disaster and reveals a fatal flaw in their whole approach.

If your entire thing is that Grealish was too expensive. Yes. He's English. Teams have to have English players to meet the regs, so they pay way more than they might if they were foreign.

[Worthy4England]

Pep’s sole goal was to win the champions league

I'm not sure about this bit! I think they might have been pretty pleased if they won it, maybe even in isolation, but I doubt anyone set the sole goal of "win the CL"....

[BWFC_Insane]

Pep’s sole goal was to win the champions league

I'm not sure about this bit! I think they might have been pretty pleased if they won it, maybe even in isolation, but I doubt anyone set the sole goal of "win the CL"....

I think personally it’s clearly what he’s desperate to do over and above everything else to prove he can do it beyond Barca.