I mean City will never be good again until they can go get people that are actual threats in attack.
You have Savinho and Doku who are touchline beat 1 man dribble merchants with no scoring. Ok so let them beat guys 1v1 and have the help defender finish them off everytime makes them useless as hell.
Then you go from prime De Bruyne/Gundogan/Rodri/Silva to something much much less skilled this cycle so now you cannot even slice through teams anymore.
The last few years City is ass. But try to play like they did when they won the treble. That's all on Pep out there acting like Hansi Flick
That's the problem with Doku and Savinho as you say - they are touchline huggers who are better at beating a man and crossing. Savinho can sometimes come inside and shoot. But they're pretty one dimensional players.
I prefer Grealish to Doku, still. He isn't as explosive or 'sexy' to watch, but he kept the ball well and was a wide playmaker who linked up well with the more central players. He was great in the Jan-May period in their run to the treble. But people viewed him as a system player. You can argue he played in a better team, but part of why they were a better team is they had better players than Savinho and Doku.
I like Semenyo, but again, he seems the type of player suited to transitional non Pep football. Marmoush has ability but never gonna be close to KDB, Aguero, people like that. I don't know what is going on with Foden, Bernardo is in decline, and Cherki does look a player to be fair but been in and out with injury.
The common thread is none of these new guys are on the same level, or play in the same style, as geniuses like David Silva and KDB, or have the technique of Grealish, Mahrez, Aguero or goalscoring and energy of Gundogan.
I also think a factor people overlook is that City always had great full-backs who supplemented the play and helped the wingers when Walker was there and even Zinchenko and others did an admirable job at LB. Walker also the insurance policy with pace at the back.
Sterling was more direct but Pep got the absolute most out of him like noone else ever did.
Another huge factor is Donnarumma is nowhere near as good with his feet as Ederson. Ederson started so many moves for them.
Add in Rodri's injuries and there's clearly a personnel issue. These new guys they're signing all over the park are nowhere near the level of the past guys. Pep trying to change from possession football to a hybrid style that doesn't suit him too, to try to keep up with the times, is affecting them.
