Player Watch Player Watch: Timo Werner

[fishhhandaricecake]

Not only that but at least twice he put excellent crosses in which went completely across the face of the goal begging to be tapped in. Personally, I think getting him in at the price touted wouldn't be the worst piece of business this club has ever done.

And despite the reaction from the match thread hive about our performance, had we taken our chances the margin of victory could easily have been wider.

Totally agree.

If anything Werner’s contributions are being underrated by our fans.

Would be a sensible squad upgrade signing at £15mil!

Then add a truely top class striker or RW and we are rocking and rolling next season.

 

[shelflife_73]

I was at the game today too and I’d certainly sign him for 15m, not sure where else you’d get pace like his and experience for that money. As others have said, I thought his movement off the ball was very good today but first half, he seemed reluctant to go on the outside. He looked much better when he started doing that second half. But why we’re not placing it for him into space behind the fullback, I don’t know.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

Crap is a strong word, I would probably say it in the heat of the moment during a match or after a game but it’s not true.

None of them are top quality and that’s the real issue, along with the fact they all have similar and/or severe limitations. The fact that none of them can beat people, none of them have explosive 1v1 ability allied with technical quality etc, that’s what makes them all standout out so much and frustrates us.

For that reason, I wouldn’t sign Werner. I’d spend the money on a real game changer who offers a lot more on the ball and something more than our other wide players.

Hopefully his goal today gives him more confidence and he can improve until the end of the season.

I think we need Werner AND a ‘game changer’ type winger on the right.

We will be in Europe next season and will need good squad players like Werner.

Fwiw I’m pretty sure we will take up the option to sign him, it just makes a lot of sense at that price. Solid 7/10 player, suits the system we play, can cover all 3 front positions, good character and wants a fresh start and only £15mil taken from the budget.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

His performance second and first half was night and day. He combined well with Johnson as well.

I’d like to see a front line of Werner Son Johnson from the start.

For me that’s our best front 3 however against a deep low block we’d need more creativity in those wide areas rather than out and out pace so a mix of options would be good.

 

[dontcallme]

I think we need Werner AND a ‘game changer’ type winger on the right.

We will be in Europe next season and will need good squad players like Werner.

Fwiw I’m pretty sure we will take up the option to sign him, it just makes a lot of sense at that price. Solid 7/10 player, suits the system we play, can cover all 3 front positions, good character and wants a fresh start and only £15mil taken from the budget.

To do that we'd need to sell a few.

I'm not convinced Werner is better than Johnson or Kulusevski. I'm guessing we're not planning on selling Richarlison.

Gil will likely go if we get a suitable offer and I'm not sure if we'll look to sell Solomon so soon after signing him.

Trying to find places for Son, Werner, Kulusevski, Richarlison, Johnson, Solomon and this game changing signing will be challenging.

My feeling is we have space for one more attacker.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

To do that we'd need to sell a few.

I'm not convinced Werner is better than Johnson or Kulusevski. I'm guessing we're not planning on selling Richarlison.

Gil will likely go if we get a suitable offer and I'm not sure if we'll look to sell Solomon so soon after signing him.

Trying to find places for Son, Werner, Kulusevski, Richarlison, Johnson, Solomon and this game changing signing will be challenging.

My feeling is we have space for one more attacker.

I’d say Gil is almost certainly off mate.

Then if we need to sell another it would likely be Solomon or Richy. I think with the intensity that we play at being in CL and the amount of injuries we will get and the need to rotate tbh i can see us having 6 or even 7 attacking players going into next season.

ST: Son/Richy
RW: new signing + Kulu
LW: Werner, Johnson, Solomon

Loan Veliz out again for one more season.

Thinking about it I think 7 options would be good and worst case Solomon gets a bit unhappy next season, best case we need and use all 7 of them.

City have 7-8 options so if we want to aspire to be at that level challenging on all 4 fronts under Ange then I think us having 7 attacking option next season would be absolutely fine and there would be more than enough minutes to go round.
Haaland, J.Alvarez, Doku, Grealish, Foden, B.Silva, Bobb, Nunes (sometimes plays wide)

Either way at £15mil I see adding Werner as a no brainer tbh.

 

[bubble07]

I've said I'd be shocked if we didn't sign him permanently plus I think we could even get him for less than 15m and RB will will want him and his wages gone. But if Solomon comes back and plays well I think having both is a bit of an overkill when we are supposedly looking for another wide man

 

[Kirito]

We aren’t doing better than Timo until you start going above 50-60m and even that’s a gamble. Quality player and has made a good start for us. People expect far too much.

 

[mdharris]

Thought he was good today. The way he stretches teams high and wide. He’s not afraid to run at folks. Yes his finishing could be better, but still a great option to have in the squad. No brainer to exercise his option, we’ll need depth in the squad with Europe of some form next year.

 

[ajspurs]

To do that we'd need to sell a few.

I'm not convinced Werner is better than Johnson or Kulusevski. I'm guessing we're not planning on selling Richarlison.

Gil will likely go if we get a suitable offer and I'm not sure if we'll look to sell Solomon so soon after signing him.

Trying to find places for Son, Werner, Kulusevski, Richarlison, Johnson, Solomon and this game changing signing will be challenging.

My feeling is we have space for one more attacker.

That's my concern too. Me being unsure on whether we should sign Werner at the moment more so lies on where we are with squad personal. I'm also not convinced he's better than Johnson, Kulusevski or Solomon, and although I don't think he's necessarily worse or that much worse either, I think we need better than those forementioned players. We don't want to be overstocked with sort of mid-range wingers, with little capacity to improve those positions as sufficiently as we need to.

That being said, I'm certainly not going to be mad if we do sign him as I quite like him to be honest. But I am very wary of the need for higher quality in the wide areas, and we only have so much space.

 

[DiamondLites]

A constant threat today, yes he should have scored when clean through but he didn’t let it weigh him down and in the end he got his just reward. Looked like he had won a penalty as well from where I was sat but shock horror it wasn’t given

15m to make it a permanent deal is a no brainer for me

 

[DannyNZ]

Not only that but at least twice he put excellent crosses in which went completely across the face of the goal begging to be tapped in. Personally, I think getting him in at the price touted wouldn't be the worst piece of business this club has ever done.

And despite the reaction from the match thread hive about our performance, had we taken our chances the margin of victory could easily have been wider.

Agree a couple of those crosses were crying out for a Johnson type run at the far post, something for Kulu to work on.

 

[TheVoiceofReason]

In terms of playing more balls over the top to Werner, would love to see Gio in the 8, don’t know if there’s anybody at the club better at those kinds of passes than Gio.

 

[allatsea]

If we get the passes to him early enough he can look so exciting as he moves forward with the ball but, IMO, too often fails to do much with it. Seems an incomplete player who needs intensive training in several aspects of his game. But surely he has had that training at his earlier clubs ?

 

[Thenewcat]

Jenas’ analysis on MOTD was spot on. Very good game overall, some great balls into the box and got his goal, but the 1:1 was typical of his flaws. It’s not just that he is indecisive (like Richy) when he has time, but his approach was all wrong. His run was too straight and he never got the ball out of his feet so he had no angle. Contrast it with Sonny with an almost identical chance, and he approaches at a wider angle and has the ball on his right foot with all options available. I have to think that’s coachable

 

[Styopa]

15m to make it a permanent deal is a no brainer for me

For me, I keep on coming back to the question of whether we will all be happy going into next season with: Werner/Son/Richarlison/Johnson/ Kulusevski/Solomon as our main first team attacking options.

Because it’s all very well talking about us buying Werner, selling Richy, and buying a game changing forward etc but we know how difficult it can be to sell players and we’ve all heard a million times about not having space in the squad until we sell.

So if we buy Werner it maybe makes it less likely we buy this potentially “game changing” forward. And that’s why I come back to the question of whether I would be happy with these same options next season. Because I think the Werner signing could have deeper implications for squad than just him being a good option at the price.

Just to add I might also ask the same questions of most of the other forwards here if they were on loan and we were deciding whether to exercise an option on them.

 

[ljinko888]

Hopefully that goal will give him new confidence now he is off the mark. He plays well in build up play with his runs that the other players don't utilise enough. The glaring issue is he is not natural in front of goal and it looks like to be in the mind. There's no other player in the world I'd want running in behind than Son as his goal has been seen countless times over the years. Low hard shots into the corner of the net. Very simple but brutally efficient. Werner's chance was pretty much the same but he didn't have the confidence to fire it past the keeper. And it's harder to round the keeper and score in that scenario because generally rounding the keeper is a split second movement but here Werner had to carry the ball wider and wider and just allows the keeper to read him like a book and close the angle.

 

[gavspur]

I think he’s decent, obv has his flaws too. And £15million sounds like a great deal, but, that takes £15million out of the pot that could potentially get us something better. I wouldn’t be biting RB’s hand off just yet. The option is there, but there’s no need to panic. Wait it out and see what else is available.

 

[easley91]

Jenas’ analysis on MOTD was spot on. Very good game overall, some great balls into the box and got his goal, but the 1:1 was typical of his flaws. It’s not just that he is indecisive (like Richy) when he has time, but his approach was all wrong. His run was too straight and he never got the ball out of his feet so he had no angle. Contrast it with Sonny with an almost identical chance, and he approaches at a wider angle and has the ball on his right foot with all options available. I have to think that’s coachable

I thought his first touch was first class to set him away from the defender. The final shot wasn't great, but what he did to generate the chance was brilliant.

 

[Styopa]

I think he’s decent, obv has his flaws too. And £15million sounds like a great deal, but, that takes £15million out of the pot that could potentially get us something better. I wouldn’t be biting RB’s hand off just yet. The option is there, but there’s no need to panic. Wait it out and see what else is available.

And it’s not just about the £15m, it’s about him taking up a space in the squad.

It’s not necessarily a choice between spending e.g £60m on one new wing forward, or spending £15m on Werner and having £45m left to spend on another wing forward. It may be the case that buying Werner means him taking up that one space.

Then you also have to take into account salaries.