Artorias said:

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City has to figure out how to improve the defensive side

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Dias was awful yesterday, no two ways about it. Brobbey completely manhandled him.

But I've seen other City fans make this point: it appears we're just too open with Enzo F and Cherki both in the midfield.

Cherki obviously isn't going to do any of the defensive work that a nominal midfielder should, which isn't a super big deal if he's going to create chances and score goals as he's been doing.

But Enzo F playing the 8 has to do more work defensively, or Anderson is going to get completely left on an island in the middle of the pitch in defensive transition. He does decent defensive work, it just happens in advanced areas and he's not keen on sprinting back in transition, which he'll have to do if he's sharing the midfield with Cherki.

On top of that, Gvardiol gets forward from the LB spot and he has decent pace, but he's not a typical LB so his tracking back happens slower than typical. That basically leaves your 2 CBs, hopefully Anderson busting his a$$, and possibly Nunes as your only defensive transition help. Not ideal.

Going to be really interesting to see how Maresca figures it out over the international break and if he sticks with the same midfield against Liverpool and PSG, or if he slots Bouaddi in next to Anderson for a little more midfield control.

Apparently Doku wasn't named in the Belgium squad for the international break, which is really good news.

Get him fully healthy because we'll need him for the upcoming stretch.

Appreciate the detailed breakdown of the defensive side. I am admittedly a bit noobish when it comes to soccer.

I am also wondering about Donnarumma. While he has the occasional good save like late vs UTD, his decision making seems questionable. He was caught way out against Sunderland multiple times, lucky not to result in goals

Donnarumma may be the best pure shot stopper in the world. However, you're correct that everything else about his game is completely average, if not poor. And this was all known while he was at Milan and at PSG.

He's so questionable when coming out to claim crosses, his positioning and decision making on coming out to be a sweeper seems extremely questionable, and he's truly abysmal at playing the ball with his feet. He's been a terrible passer his entire career and it made no sense that Pep wanted him or that Maresca wanted to keep him. Both managers love using the GK in buildup play and having them play long passes out of the back. Going from Ederson to Donnarumma is about at large a drop off in one particular skill (ball control/passing) as you can possibly fathom lol.

I've been saying it since last season, our players are clearly terrified to pass the ball back to Donnarumma because you just never know what is going to happen next. I think it's forced them to play extremely tentative and poor passes back to him that have led to high danger turnovers.

Texaggie7nine and I have been saying we'll regret letting James Trafford walk in favor of Donnarumma. Trafford is so great with the ball at his feet and makes so much more sense for a Pep/Maresca team. I don't think it's a coincidence that we looked so much better in the cup matches and won 2 trophies in games Trafford was playing.

This is me to fellow City fans today after being a life long Astros fan.

Everyone is going to keep talking about us, as if all the information is out. Meanwhile, we've heard nothing official from the League, or the team other than it's still a process. I don't see any point in speculating on punishments or anything really, until we know what is what.

I agree it's just reporting and then Kaldoon released the statement that was pretty confident there was still a lot to play out.

Other people are dancing on City's grave far too early.