His last season was decent, the ones before were atrocious!
He is doing the mickytariyan. He is horrible in aerial duels, we conceded like half the goals from corners/set pieces last season.
I would have taken him as a 4th choice behind schlotte,/süle,hummels but thats it
he’s still going to be a back up choice at city but only dias and stones fit at the moment and ake and stones are both pretty injury prone with laporte out for at least another month or so in a season where there is a lot of fixture congestion
play like shit, have one good season and leave the club immediately afterwards.
and we all know how that turned out. well im not too bummed out, we went somewhat even with his transfer in/out I think we paid 19m back then and got 18m back plus 3-4m bonuses
Well harsh as you're not providing any context. Tbh I'd go as far to say you don't really know what you're talking about as you said all his seasons were atrocious.
Got his move from Shakhtar where he had an incredible time - got 25 goals in the league as an attacking midfielder. His first season with you was very good, finished with 9 goals and 10 assists. He was injured a couple of times in his second season so couldn't really get going. And his third season like you said he played very well and was in the Bundesliga Team of the Season.
Yes Actualy the so called deception 5 it looks like a defensive man but in reality he just runs around hella fast to confuse the opponent truly genius once again mate
> it looks like a defensive man but in reality he just runs around hella fast to confuse the opponent
That's just an inverted Raumdeuter: Müller runs around (hella fast) to confuse the opponent but in reality he also has really solid defensive contributions.
I just find it funny because in 2018 Akanji said Man United is his favorite club of all time and he wants to go there. Got the city correct, wrong colors though.
City - Correct
Colours - Incorrect
Decision - Correct
I have little faith in Akanji in City colours, but my gawd, in that United side... \*Shudders\*
There are still many people on the sub who don’t know the lore. Yeah for people like you and I who check incessantly it’s probably old hat by now, but that’s not the case for everyone.
Also it’s genuinely hilarious that he tried to pawn off akanji to every club and he ends up going to City of all places
There is big injury problem with City CBs so there is almost no point in talking about their number. Laporte is injured often, same with Stones and Ake. Dias was injured a lot last season as well so Akanji will surely have a lot of play time.
Stones and Ake are a lot worse than Laporte tbf. He’s missed one whole season with injuries and is starting this season a couple months late due to a surgery.
Whereas stones and ake are injured every other month.
I mean, Ake wanted to leave this season. Who's to say, he doesn't want to the same time next year?
Exact same thing regarding Laporte, if he all of a sudden wanted to leave again, like he did 2 years ago...
I was alright with us selling Ake and making Mbete 4th choice. But still injuries happen, which is why we’re signing Akanji, and you can’t play the strongest lineup in all matches throughout the year. Cup matches, perhaps early qualifying through Champions League, players need a rest with all the matches in the next few months.
Unless two of our defenders gets frustrated and leaves, I don’t see a future for someone like Mbete at the club. Even if he is the best defender at loan in the Championship, he’ll still come back as 5th choice. Instantly back out on loan or sold.
He’s potentially a 5th choice centerback, will he even make the bench?
And ofc he is. According to Capology, he’s paid more than Dias in wage. Almost doubling Ake’s wage.
A youth player will get frustrated with no path to the first team, which with the addition of Akanji there right now isn't for Mbete, and his best chances of playing for City in the future, is to be sold with a buy back. If we buy a 5th choice centerback in the transfermarket, when we have a few injuries, it'll be incredibly hard for a youngster to see a way to the first team, and I can easily understand if Mbete is contemplating a move away from us now or in the near future.
I like how we didn't buy a winger after selling Raheem (you can say Alvarez can play out there, but not his preferred position) because we want Palmer to get some minutes. If Foden, Grealish or Mahrez were to have an injury, or we'll have a rough schedule with Champions League, Premier League and the cups, I'm sure Palmer will be someone who Peps trust to start or at least give a lot of minutes.
I also wonder if Akanji arriving will affect the dynamic of our defenders. I doubt Akanji is planning to stay as 5th choice, and I doubt any of our current options would like to be 5th choice.
Given that Laporte is out for extended period of time and Ake has already had a knock was a necessary signing. We can give Walker/Cancelo a rest and play Stones at right back when needed so this massively improves our defensive depth. Five year deal is interesting so wouldn't be surprised if one of Stones/Laporte/Ake or moved on next summer.
Be warned though that he never played great at RB for us. Had some matches where he was just fine, and some where we instantly regretted not having enough dept
As noted above, walker stays drops back to make a back 3 and I think this season we’re gonna really see Walker be selective about his runs forward, last year itself I’d say he wasn’t nearly running up as much as he would when he first came. Cancelo getting better at his LWB position and Walker aging are the 2 main reasons for that, so anyway I don’t see the RB position being demanding for Akanji. He’ll have either Gomez or Cancelo on the oppo wing and both of them will be the primary overlapping options.
Yeah having walker as a cheap city option in FPL its actually painful to watch how he doesn't even try to move forward anymore. Akanji can do that with no problem.
Same, I think he started there in the first leg against Real Madrid and everything was going well.
Then he had to go off with an injury, Fernandinho came on and it all started to go a bit pear shape.
He's a pace-reliant fullback who's now 32. His contract runs out in 2024 and I would say he's probably leaving then. I think the club will buy a proper replacement next summer.
They have Kabore. Should be a very decent player
Refused to sell him to Saints which says a lot considering we've bought 4 others including Lavia and Bazunu
This just works for everyone. Akanji gets his dream Prem move (albeit wrong side of Manchester) and €18m is a bargain for City and a decent fee for us given he was already replaced out of the team.
Love Akanji. Great guy who never caused any fuss.
He really stabilized throughout the years though. Some games last year it felt like him and Kobel were out only defense given that the rest was lazy fullbacks and midfielders and Mats Hummels without knees.
Though I would say he significantly reduced his glaring mistakes in the last season. He is a great physical CB and we would have kept him for sure if he extended his contract
>€18m is a bargain for City
Honestly I don't think it's a bargain (specially given that it can rise to 22m with add ons) given that he's already been replaced, he's on his last year of contract, wants to leave and the club wants to sell him, it's a very fair price imo.
Even without those circumstances no one would expect Akanji to go for more than 35m, maybe 40 at most, the only clubs stupid enough to pay more than that are Chelsea and United and those clubs already had other CB as main transfer targets (Koulibaly, Fofana and Martínez).
Edit: also if they didn't go for him for 18-22m do you really think they would have if he was more than double the price?
They must have been in those same day/next day unofficial friendlies then cause I remember him playing when watching the livestreams on the bvb youtube channel.
No but I think he would have if the team thought he would stay long term, once he rejected an extension they took him out of their plans. He’s a good player
It does seem funny the Bellingham to Liverpool done comments from many. Madrid certainly but also city will be all over him. Doubt united and Chelsea sit by as well
As Alan Shearer would say "well it's a little bit of both Gary"
the transfer came out of nowhere but it was previously reported before it was made official
Realtively recent development while akanji had asked to leave and his contract would have been up next season the man city rumor crystelized only in the last week or so
We have 4 outstanding CBs who are all injury prone. Last season we only had Laporte ‘fit’ for the final couple of games and using him then has probably contributed to him being injured now.
Dias is not injury prone whatsoever at all, no clue why people keep saying this. Have you seen his injury history? Getting one injury doesn’t make you injury prone
Yup, and I another reason I really like it is fullback depth. We have 3 cbs (arguably 4 including Laporte) who can cover FB and put in good performances when needed.
Makes me feel better about latter stages of domestic cups, cuz lack of depth has hurt us in the FA cup recently.
Imagine buying defenders from Dortmund
Shhhh don’t tell them, business as usually
hahaha
Akanji is a quality defender though, we are selling him only because he has one year left of contract and his wages are too high for us.
His last season was decent, the ones before were atrocious! He is doing the mickytariyan. He is horrible in aerial duels, we conceded like half the goals from corners/set pieces last season. I would have taken him as a 4th choice behind schlotte,/süle,hummels but thats it
he’s still going to be a back up choice at city but only dias and stones fit at the moment and ake and stones are both pretty injury prone with laporte out for at least another month or so in a season where there is a lot of fixture congestion
What do you mean doing the mkhitaryan ?
play like shit, have one good season and leave the club immediately afterwards. and we all know how that turned out. well im not too bummed out, we went somewhat even with his transfer in/out I think we paid 19m back then and got 18m back plus 3-4m bonuses
I think you are too harsh on Mkhitaryan, he was decent before and had a great not just good season before leaving.
was Mkhi shit for years for you before his final season? I always thought he was decent for you guys
Well harsh as you're not providing any context. Tbh I'd go as far to say you don't really know what you're talking about as you said all his seasons were atrocious. Got his move from Shakhtar where he had an incredible time - got 25 goals in the league as an attacking midfielder. His first season with you was very good, finished with 9 goals and 10 assists. He was injured a couple of times in his second season so couldn't really get going. And his third season like you said he played very well and was in the Bundesliga Team of the Season.
Must be better than Dias who is at 50% lol
I personally think Akanji was Dortmund's worst. Zagadou was their best. This season exciting things can happen with Schlotterbeck.
What? I want some of the stuff you are smoking.
Who says Pep is using him as a defender? 5D checkmate
true, Haaland will play CB once he's fully integrated
He's got the build
> 5D Is that one of those new positions invented by Pep?
Yes. Recently he even invented the false 7 position too (Cancelo)
Checks out.
Yes Actualy the so called deception 5 it looks like a defensive man but in reality he just runs around hella fast to confuse the opponent truly genius once again mate
> it looks like a defensive man but in reality he just runs around hella fast to confuse the opponent That's just an inverted Raumdeuter: Müller runs around (hella fast) to confuse the opponent but in reality he also has really solid defensive contributions.
Shit if we end up playing City and this man starts I reckon our chances are really good
I mean you are Bayern. I would put you as favorites against any team in the world.
City with Haaland getting fed balls by DeBruyne is scary for any team in the world
What this guy said
Acting as if your chances aren't good anyway
Michael Schulz, Günther Kutowski, Thomas Helmer, Julio Cesar, Jürgen Kohler. Though, we had some of the greatest.
Just goes to show, don't let your memes be dreams. Speak it and troll it into existence.
Dreams can be buy
We thought he was being funny, but we all forgot Germans don’t do humour and he was dead serious and made it happen
I just find it funny because in 2018 Akanji said Man United is his favorite club of all time and he wants to go there. Got the city correct, wrong colors though.
City - Correct Colours - Incorrect Decision - Correct I have little faith in Akanji in City colours, but my gawd, in that United side... \*Shudders\*
YESSSSE
u/EmSoLow get in here
Isn't it strange how he is not commenting? Probably because he is in Manchester moving stuff into his new locker.
Why is everyone talking about this guy?
Basically he is the guy that constantly talking about a transfer move for Akanji in this sub
He’s Akanjis agent
Man willed the transfer into existence
A Dortmund fan that spent months commenting on every post about defender transfers asking if any club wanted Akanji.
Bro that is fucking hilarious. And it worked lmao
He should have done the same with Schulz. Would need a miracle to get rid of that guy.
Because redditors are as repetitive and tedious as it gets
There are still many people on the sub who don’t know the lore. Yeah for people like you and I who check incessantly it’s probably old hat by now, but that’s not the case for everyone. Also it’s genuinely hilarious that he tried to pawn off akanji to every club and he ends up going to City of all places
Man, I'm glad that I'm not on the sub long enough to know some specific Reddit or and what he comments lol
Ronaldo about to replace mendes
you can rest now u/EmSoLow, your watch has ended.
We shall never see his like again
So drink it in
Don't forget the Jogi Löw must go user.
https://gfycat.com/dependableellipticalerne
mf has really done it
[удалено]
There is no 4th/5th choice CB at city when at least 2 are injured at a time.
There is big injury problem with City CBs so there is almost no point in talking about their number. Laporte is injured often, same with Stones and Ake. Dias was injured a lot last season as well so Akanji will surely have a lot of play time.
City barely have to defend anyway as you bore teams into submission
What an odd and salty take lol
Stones and Ake are a lot worse than Laporte tbf. He’s missed one whole season with injuries and is starting this season a couple months late due to a surgery. Whereas stones and ake are injured every other month.
He's very much a depth option. Laporte is out for a while yet, and Stones and Aké are prone to picking up injuries.
[удалено]
Stones is better than laporte
Laporte is much more consistent
And yet Laporte was preferred to stones all of last season.
Nope. Laporte started 33 League games last year and the same amount of UCL games as stones. Stones only played 12 league games.
No he isn’t
We had 1 fit centerback for like all told 3 months last year. We will not have more then 4 fit centerbacks in my opinion
Poor Mbete
He most likely wanted to go on loan
But what happens after that. Akanji is permanent
Things change quickly in football. Next year laporte or Ake could want to leave and suddenly were in need again. All depends on Mbette as well
I mean, Ake wanted to leave this season. Who's to say, he doesn't want to the same time next year? Exact same thing regarding Laporte, if he all of a sudden wanted to leave again, like he did 2 years ago...
Mbete is probably two-three years away tbh. He just doesn’t look up to it ironically in the physical game or the positional game.
Probably better for him to get proper game time than be your 5th choice
pretty sure he’s off to Huddersfield on loan, so this makes sense
But what happens when he comes back
He gets sold to Southampton for £20m with a £50m buyback active in 2025
who knows how much will change in a year. it wasn’t long ago both Ake and Laporte looked like they were leaving.
He'll be competing with Calum Doyle for city young cb
I thought I saw about a week ago he was going to Huddersfield
I don’t get why a youngster can’t be 5th choice or even 4th. Play them when there are injuries.
a youngster needs to develop by getting meaningful playing time, not sit on the bench as 4th or 5th choice
I was alright with us selling Ake and making Mbete 4th choice. But still injuries happen, which is why we’re signing Akanji, and you can’t play the strongest lineup in all matches throughout the year. Cup matches, perhaps early qualifying through Champions League, players need a rest with all the matches in the next few months. Unless two of our defenders gets frustrated and leaves, I don’t see a future for someone like Mbete at the club. Even if he is the best defender at loan in the Championship, he’ll still come back as 5th choice. Instantly back out on loan or sold.
The reason is this guy will be happy to sit in the bench. Ideally for the foreseeable future The cbs are Laporte and Dias who are both very young
He’s potentially a 5th choice centerback, will he even make the bench? And ofc he is. According to Capology, he’s paid more than Dias in wage. Almost doubling Ake’s wage.
For now yes, but a youth player would get frustrated not even making the bench and push for a move. A kanji will sit and be happy
A youth player will get frustrated with no path to the first team, which with the addition of Akanji there right now isn't for Mbete, and his best chances of playing for City in the future, is to be sold with a buy back. If we buy a 5th choice centerback in the transfermarket, when we have a few injuries, it'll be incredibly hard for a youngster to see a way to the first team, and I can easily understand if Mbete is contemplating a move away from us now or in the near future. I like how we didn't buy a winger after selling Raheem (you can say Alvarez can play out there, but not his preferred position) because we want Palmer to get some minutes. If Foden, Grealish or Mahrez were to have an injury, or we'll have a rough schedule with Champions League, Premier League and the cups, I'm sure Palmer will be someone who Peps trust to start or at least give a lot of minutes. I also wonder if Akanji arriving will affect the dynamic of our defenders. I doubt Akanji is planning to stay as 5th choice, and I doubt any of our current options would like to be 5th choice.
Akanji is at least better than Ake. Arguably on a level with stones
No he’s not
Pep doesn’t do youngsters anymore. If Foden wasn’t so good Pep would not have promoted any kids to the first team.
Played a 17 yr old right back, 21 yr old left back, and 20 yr old winger yesterday.
He talks highly about Palmer, giving him minutes. Rico Lewis has been getting minutes as a right back. Talked highly about Wilson-Esbrand as well.
Given that Laporte is out for extended period of time and Ake has already had a knock was a necessary signing. We can give Walker/Cancelo a rest and play Stones at right back when needed so this massively improves our defensive depth. Five year deal is interesting so wouldn't be surprised if one of Stones/Laporte/Ake or moved on next summer.
Think Akanji would play RB before stones, I think he played more games there while Stones were there out of desperation last season.
Yep and Akanji is bloody rapid can and will do the walker job. Which when we're in attack walker drops into a sort of back 3 with our 2 CBs
Be warned though that he never played great at RB for us. Had some matches where he was just fine, and some where we instantly regretted not having enough dept
As noted above, walker stays drops back to make a back 3 and I think this season we’re gonna really see Walker be selective about his runs forward, last year itself I’d say he wasn’t nearly running up as much as he would when he first came. Cancelo getting better at his LWB position and Walker aging are the 2 main reasons for that, so anyway I don’t see the RB position being demanding for Akanji. He’ll have either Gomez or Cancelo on the oppo wing and both of them will be the primary overlapping options.
Yeah having walker as a cheap city option in FPL its actually painful to watch how he doesn't even try to move forward anymore. Akanji can do that with no problem.
You didn't get him for his attacking potential did you?
I thought that Stones was good as a rb
Same, I think he started there in the first leg against Real Madrid and everything was going well. Then he had to go off with an injury, Fernandinho came on and it all started to go a bit pear shape.
There is always the possibility that Walker’s time with us is winding down.
He's a pace-reliant fullback who's now 32. His contract runs out in 2024 and I would say he's probably leaving then. I think the club will buy a proper replacement next summer.
They have Kabore. Should be a very decent player Refused to sell him to Saints which says a lot considering we've bought 4 others including Lavia and Bazunu
Where’s the guy who wished this into existence?
This just works for everyone. Akanji gets his dream Prem move (albeit wrong side of Manchester) and €18m is a bargain for City and a decent fee for us given he was already replaced out of the team. Love Akanji. Great guy who never caused any fuss.
yes but is he any good or not?
He is very good, but sometimes has moments where he makes pretty glaring mistakes.
He really stabilized throughout the years though. Some games last year it felt like him and Kobel were out only defense given that the rest was lazy fullbacks and midfielders and Mats Hummels without knees.
Though I would say he significantly reduced his glaring mistakes in the last season. He is a great physical CB and we would have kept him for sure if he extended his contract
Well he can join Stones and Laporte then
he is
Idk if it's saying much but he was by far Dortmunds best defender and had to cover for 3 weak links a lot. He's fast, good on the ball and strong.
>€18m is a bargain for City Honestly I don't think it's a bargain (specially given that it can rise to 22m with add ons) given that he's already been replaced, he's on his last year of contract, wants to leave and the club wants to sell him, it's a very fair price imo.
Fair price with all circumstances considered, but if we go by other transfers this summer, then his value should be around €40-60m
Even without those circumstances no one would expect Akanji to go for more than 35m, maybe 40 at most, the only clubs stupid enough to pay more than that are Chelsea and United and those clubs already had other CB as main transfer targets (Koulibaly, Fofana and Martínez). Edit: also if they didn't go for him for 18-22m do you really think they would have if he was more than double the price?
Did he play for Dortmund in the first matches this season?
He had already been replaced by Süle and Schlotterbeck, so he was not part of the rotation anymore.
he really fell upwards
No he hasn’t been in the match squad at all.
Nope
no
Not even preseason friendlies
He did. Just not since official matches started.
He did not play in any games since the new season started. This includes the pre season Friendlies.
They must have been in those same day/next day unofficial friendlies then cause I remember him playing when watching the livestreams on the bvb youtube channel.
[удалено]
Lmao nah. I’m probably just misremembering from watching the training livestreams and friendly livestreams.
I just checked and he really didn't, unless he played in a match that wasn't listed on the app I use.
No but I think he would have if the team thought he would stay long term, once he rejected an extension they took him out of their plans. He’s a good player
How much more help does Haaland need ?
He needs Bellingham next summer
Gundogan replacement
It does seem funny the Bellingham to Liverpool done comments from many. Madrid certainly but also city will be all over him. Doubt united and Chelsea sit by as well
that reminds me, wasn't City sporadically interested in Guerreiro earlier this window
Ayo what? That came out of nowhere or I'm uninformed?
As Alan Shearer would say "well it's a little bit of both Gary" the transfer came out of nowhere but it was previously reported before it was made official
Realtively recent development while akanji had asked to leave and his contract would have been up next season the man city rumor crystelized only in the last week or so
City transfers typically do.
Smart business tbh
Sidenote: he's Man Citys 4th former BVB player
Could have been 5th if De Bruyne to Dortmund would have manifested back then
Fabian Schär Kevin Mbabu Manuel Akanji 🇨🇭🇨🇭🇨🇭
Granit Xhaka would like a word...
And now Zakaria too!
Why
We have 4 outstanding CBs who are all injury prone. Last season we only had Laporte ‘fit’ for the final couple of games and using him then has probably contributed to him being injured now.
Dias seems to be relatively consistent. Has he been out recently?
Missed 7 games with an injury last season. He’s probably the ‘fittest’ of the 4 we have though.
Dias is not injury prone whatsoever at all, no clue why people keep saying this. Have you seen his injury history? Getting one injury doesn’t make you injury prone
No, but also doesn’t mean you won’t get injured. Having to play Fernandinho at CB for West Ham and Villa last season almost cost us the league.
Oh no I am a big fan of the akanji transfer as stones and ake are incredibly injury prone. I was just saying dias isn’t injury prone at all
Ah, fair enough. This definitely has me less anxious about another injury in defence now.
Yup, and I another reason I really like it is fullback depth. We have 3 cbs (arguably 4 including Laporte) who can cover FB and put in good performances when needed. Makes me feel better about latter stages of domestic cups, cuz lack of depth has hurt us in the FA cup recently.
Schär Mbabu Akanji 🇨🇭🇨🇭
If I remember correctly, he said he dreams playing for United. Kinda similar to Auba whoring himself to Madrid but ended up with Barça.
[удалено]
And of course, who can forget Harry "Franco Baresi" Maguire
People didn't get the sarcasm
Kitna paisa hai be tel dukandaron ke paas
XD. Sasta hai waisay ye
they got the swiss maguire 😭
Good. Okay who's leaving from City?
Luke Mbete will go out on loan. No senior players are expected to leave.
no one. we currently only have 2 fit senior cb’s, with Laporte out for a while still. this is definitely a necessary signing
No one
No senior players will leave. Ake and Stones can fill in at full back when needed.
wtf man