At the end of the pre-season, I think we have improved a little even if our first 11 did not get many changes. How I see things, we had a few clear problems and we addressed some of them, and the transfer window is not done, so maybe thing will get even better.
Keeper: not a popular opinion, while Raya is not a liability or anything close...but we can still improve on this position. He is not at the lvl of the Allison or Ederson. Also if Ramsdale will leave, we need a strong back-up. So we made no changes here, yet. And I don't expect us to do any, bar back-up keeper.
Left-back: we had an issue here, but our defense was great anyway and I think we improved here. I don't want Zinchenko to start too many games, there are certain type of games that are made for him, at home, low block, teams that never attack us etc. But other then that, all teams, and I mean all of them will target him as he is not an elite defender, and his role sees him take a lot of risks. Add his regular brain farts and he is the one that will cost us the most goals.
Calafiori looks to be a good player, but injury prone. But we then have Timber and Tomyiasu, who no doubt, are even worse then Califiori when it comes to staying fit, but still....the 3 of them should be able to limit Zinchenkos time on the pitch, so that is a plus for us. Kiwior is still here, so yeah, we should be even better then last year.
Midfield: Strange one but here we improved the most without making any moves. We have 2 big IF'S here, but they might just go our way and it will be a huge improvement.
First thing that will improve us or sure, is Rice at 8 for good, not at 6 as he played for a long time last season & no more Havertz there, we are just a better team like this.
First big IF, Merino, don't know if we will close the deal but there are a lot of links. He looks to be a good player, and while not the perfect fit, he might just work out, so we go from Elneny -who let's be honest has not been a professional football player in about 3 years(even when he was not just a mascot, he was still a shit player)-to Merino, a guy you can count on, big improvement in my opinion.
Now the second IF, and the biggest in history probably. The prick Partey looked decent in pre-season, IF we can get 15 games from him as a starter, and 5-10 as a sub...that would help us a lot.
So I think our midfield will lvl up this season.
Left-wing:: just by fixing our left back and our left CM I hope our left side will improve, maybe I'm just day dreaming...
Martinelli looks lost, while more involved, I have to say, 90% of his actions finish with him fucking up the pass of the shot. It has now been 18 months since he had a decent run of games, don't know what is going on.
Trossard is our other winger, he is a solid player, that will always pop up with goals, but he goes on these runs where he will be good for 3-4 weeks and then will just turn to shit for a few weeks, and so on. We should not count on him to be a starter for a full season, no way, no how. But still, a great squad player, that seems to be ok with his role and is also great coming of the bench.
So here, the one to replace is Martinelli, we need a starter here, someone who is fast and gets goals
Someone said it during the game yesterday, imagine if we could create chances on the left like we do on the right, we would kill teams so fast...
So we have not improved here that much, maybe just the system will work a little better, again, there is still time to buy someone.
Striker: Another very unpopular opinion, as Havertz is loved by our fan base. But in my opinion, going in the season with him and Jesus as our striker is a huge mistake.
Jesus is pretty much done at this moment in time, he scores less goals Gabriel the defender and is injured all the time. We have not sold him just because nobody will buy him, no doubt in my mind, first offer that comes in, he is gone.
Havertz has looked good in patches...just like he did at Chelsea. He will have little runs when things click for him and he scores...but no doubt, even then he is not clinical enough, and that is a huge problem with this squad, we cannot have a striker like this. On paper he looks good, right attributes and all that, but on the pitch...I feel he will always let you down, long run.
No improvement here, and Eddie will leave...but we are not going to miss his 4 goals per season.
All in all, you add the experience of another title fight, Arteta is more experienced as well, on paper we look a little better then last year, with time still left to bring in players. So I'm excited for the new season. And maybe City will get bored for once.
