Gazza M

LB was. People spent all of last season moaning about Zinchenko.

Likewise, LCM was a huge hole with Havertz not seizing the role and people flip flopping between whether Rice should stay there or move back to DM.

These two areas were far bigger problems than 17 goals Trossard, who showed just last week that he is the man. It astounds me that I am in the minority in having complete confidence in him being one of our main attackers. There's even people talking about selling him ffs, that's mental stuff.

      daredevil timber and kiwior would've been fine covering LB and LCB. there was no pressing need to dump 40m into that position

      and I don't see many people saying trossard isn't good or advocating for selling him, that's a strawman argument.

          Gazza M

          Calafiore is an upgrade on both as a LB, and Timber should play on the right imo.

          The point about Trossard is more that people want someone else in his position, as many have been clamouring for a new left winger for a long time now. I'm very happy with him and Martinelli rotating or coming off the bench which allows him time to recapture his old form which I'm confident will happen with Merino in the team.

          Personally, the left winger position has been one of the most competitive and healthiest roles we've had in the past year and half since Trossard arrived. I don't share the desperation for a new player there.

            Defence was a bit of an issue in both games against Spurs, Fulham, Villa, two of the three games with West Ham, against Chelsea, against Liverpool, against Lens, against Bayern... yeah. I don't really get people complaining about us signing Calafiori.

            Where you spend money on the team is not a simple calculus of where the squad is weakest (though I'd argue LB was a pretty significant weakness last season). Who is available, how they compare to the existing players etc should all factor in.

              Sicario2 - Tier 1 The league title challenge died tonight.

              Didn't it already die the moment City signed Gündogan?

                Pepe LeFrits I don't mind us signing Calafiori since he's also a CB, but not sure why people talk about last season's LB situation and ignore that our first choice was out all of it. It's not like if we didn't sign Calafiori then the situation would be the same as last season.

                    Glass half full view.

                    Calafiori: looks a player, will resolve some issues we've had with defensive fragility versus ability.

                    Merino: sucks he's injured but that's why we signed him. When he's back he'll give us the opportunity to protect our old men in midfield, and with any luck he'll do it before they get crocked themselves.

                    Sterling: if he's confirmed, he's a past matchwinner in this league and he's not ancient yet. He'll be motivated initially by the return to a competent club and might even recover great form here. If it's a loan it leaves us well placed for the further search.

                    Smith Rowe, Ramsdale, Nketiah: if all three transfers are confirmed that's £75m plus add-ons coming to the kitty which is a huge step forward.

                    Edit: glad to see Nketiah's exit confirmed.

                    RocktheCasbah

                    Bro that guy trolled me twice. First one in the deadloan thread which I ignored but couldn’t ignore the 2nd one. He deserved it.

                    Anyway, with Sterling the window is just about ok, I can live with it. Was seriously pissed off before when I thought we were done.

                    COYG

                      Pepe LeFrits I mean I'm all for this. And I'd rather he got the minutes than having people like Vieira, Elneny, etc in the squad ahead of him.

                          Was really looking forward to him playing, sounds like just a freak accident but just our luck right now! Hopefully won't miss too many games as there are a couple international breaks coming up.

                          I have a sneaky suspicion that its not going to be 6-8 weeks, and more like 4. I dont know why, but just a hunch

                          Sicario2 - Tier 1

                          Exactly, we're the third biggest club, have the third highest net spend in recent years and have the 3th largest wage bill.

                          We are currently overachieving.

                            QuincyAbeyie

                            Timber being out for an entire season is why there was even more reason to sign a proper LB option.

                              Fucking hell horrible but thankfully will only miss another 4 PL games as there is another international break mid October. Was really looking forward to see how he fitted in

                                This is a sign. We used our luck