Now we are almost half-way through the (official) transfer window and City
have made several signings, it seems a good time to assess the changes made.
There is a good assessment here,
although it does lose some credibility by suggesting that Kolorov would start
at right back if the season started today. Here are my thoughts.
Firstly, there have been the following transfers out
- Wayne Bridge, Kolo Toure, Carlos Tevez, Roque Santa Cruz, Maicon
Along with the release or sale of some academy players who hadn't made the
first team (e.g. Ryan McGivern, Jeremy Helan), the departures of Wayne Bridge
and Roque Santa Cruz are not significant from a first team point of view. Both
were clearly not wanted having not played a league game for City in more than
two years, The main impact of their departure is to reduce the wage bill.
Kolo Toure's departure may be in a similar category. It is likely that he was earning
large wages and as fourth choice centre back there is probably better value to
be gained from replacing him.
The only two players sold so far are Maicon and Tevez. Maicon was always a
puzzling signing. I was never sure why we'd signed another right-back when we
already had two excellent ones in Micah Richards and Pablo Zabeleta. He was
possibly bought for Mancini with a view to using him as a wing-back in the
back-3 system that was tried early last season. A combination of the excellent
form of Zabeleta, injuries and the fact that the back-3 was largely unsuccessful,
meant Maicon didn't have a successful season and so this sale makes sense.
The sale of Carlos Tevez makes sense from a financial perspective, although
it would have been good to keep him in the team as he's a genuinely world-class
player. Unfortunately in football today, once a player enters the final year of
their contract their value diminishes rapidly. Most clubs don't let players
enter the final year of their contract without either trying to negotiate a new
contract or attempting to sell the player. Given the high wages Tevez was on,
selling him was a sensible move financially.
The net result of the above is that we have reduced the wage bill
significantly, but need to replace a central defender and a striker (I don't
believe Maicon needs replacing as we have two right backs in the squad already).
Added to the above should probably be Mario Ballotelli. While he was sold in
January, he wasn't replaced. So if we were to keep a similar balance to the
squad we should be looking for a central defender and two strikers.
The transfers in so far are
- Jesus Navas, Fernandinho, Stefan Jovetic, Alvaro Negredo
All of the above are excellent players, and all are internationals.
Individually they look good signings. But I'm more interested in how they fit
into the first team squad. Firstly, we have signed two strikers, a winger and a
midfielder. Given the needs based on who was sold, we still need a central
defender and didn't need the winger or midfielder. However, that ignores a couple of
basic questions: what were the existing weaknesses in the squad, and how does
the squad need to evolve in order to play the tactics the new manager will use?
One of the most glaring weaknesses in the team last season was a lack of
width. The nominal wide players such as Silva and Nasri like to drift inside and
get involved in central areas. Overlapping full-backs were supposed to provide
some width, but the majority of the team was very narrow. During the
Championship winning 2011-12 season, Adam Johnson often came off the bench to
change things and provide width. Last season he was replaced with Scott
Sinclair, but he had a poor season making little impact. The signing of Jesus
Navas, a winger with genuine pace, should address this weakness.
Fernandinho may address another weakness in the squad, the lack of cover for
Yaya Toure. The other midfielders are just not the same type of player as Yaya
and we have missed him when he's been absent. But I'm not sure we are wise
paying £30million for a back-up midfielder. This transfer, and the absence of a
new centre back, may be a clue as to how the team will evolve tactically.
It has been widely rumoured that the director of football, Txiki Begiristan,
wishes to implement a 4-3-3 system similar to that used when he was at
Barcelona. If this were the case, then by playing with 3 midfielders instead of
2 (in the 4-2-3-1 system used last season) means more players are needed in this
area. However, another feature of the Barcelona team in recent years has been
defensive midfielders playing as a ball-playing centre back. This has usually
been Mascherano, although others have played there as well. Could Javier Garcia
starting the first pre-season friendly at centre-back be a sign of this? If so,
then it wasn't a centre back that was needed to replace Kolo Toure, it was a
midfielder.
Of course, all the above could be missing key information, and ignores any academy players who may join the squad. There could well
be further transfers in and out. Manuel Pellegrini hasn't been at the club
long and so may want to make further changes when he has assessed the squad.
But if this turns out to be all the transfers we do then it looks to have been
a good transfer window. Players leaving have been replaced, obvious weaknesses
in the squad have been addressed and it is likely the overall wage bill will
have been reduced as well.
