Aleksandar Kolarov - 2016/17 performances

[PZ1]

If you watch the second half again, you will see that he was passing better. And that is because midfield started playing better.

Who was he to pass in the first half? The midfield and forwards couldn't hold up the ball higher up the field even if their lives depended on it.

So defenders would get the ball, pass it to the midfield or forwards and they would lose it immediately. So it was constant pressure by Spurs. The only thing Kolarov and the rest of defence could do is to hoof it or dribble out of the trouble.

I played in both midfield and defence (now more of a defender) and there is nothing worse then being pressed hard and midfield and forwards not being able to hold the ball and pt some pressure on opposition's defence.

Maybe City needs an atypical Pep forward, a big unit who can hold up a ball to relieve pressure off midfield and defence in games where opposition is better at pressing.

 

[meeesh]

good to see the haters and blamemongers crawling out from under their rocks as soon as we lose a game.

the humble-pie must've tasted so bitter they couldn't wait to vomit it back up.

aleksandar kolarov has been instrumental in where we are in the league and champions league this season.
he's shed blood and at times was leaderlike.

maybe the definition of the word "support" needs changing in the dictionary,
because it doesn't equate to what is being vitriolically shouted on here by some.

he wears the blue of the team i am a fanatic of
and for me that is enough to give him my support when he (and others) don't have the best of games.

OK thanks for that

 

[mancity1]

Collectively off our game on Sunday.

Didn't press when we could have and the back four didn't link up well with DM so we couldn't press forward with pace.

If Kolorov goes from hero to zero on the back of a poor game as was Zabba and Oti for that matter then they all should.

We had chances to score and didn't take them.

Silva only needed a deft flick in the third minute and the game could have been played differently.

Spurs were industrious and pressed us hard for much of the game nothing more nothing less , nothing specatular just solid and it was enough for a fairly comfortable win in the end.

We all know if we play at our best for the vast majority of games we will collect enough points to win the league.

Our best is more entertaining than Spurs best as well but our players have to be switched on and they were not on Sunday.

 

[mertkbr]

Kolarov started to this season very good and i guess no one expect this performance to him.
But last two games he was very bad especially against Celtic.

I know he is not a stoper but he should have better performance when he play as a stoper.

 

[Aytoun]

So a bit of a mixed bag in the first half ? Even the poster flags up 14 ( fourteen ) items of bad play, including as pathetic an own goal as you are ever likely to see under no pressure. With 1 ( one ) piece of constructive play.

It certainly was a mixed bag, a mixed bag of shite.

Oh & if you need another example of his incompetence take a look at minute 62 which forced Fernandinho to take one for the team & give away a penalty that could possibly have led to a red card & the usual 3 match ban.

 

[Rolee]

So a bit of a mixed bag in the first half ? Even the poster flags up 14 ( fourteen ) items of bad play, including as pathetic an own goal as you are ever likely to see under no pressure. With 1 ( one ) piece of constructive play.

It certainly was a mixed bag, a mixed bag of shite.

Oh & if you need another example of his incompetence take a look at minute 62 which forced Fernandinho to take one for the team & give away a penalty that could possibly have led to a red card & the usual 3 match ban.

Doesn't the Spurs player clean him out in that instance? Unintentional from the spud but still a foul surely?

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

The back and forth was incredibly chaotic - to lay the blame for a turn over from anyone is very harsh IMO. Moreover, Kolarov moved quickly into excellent defensive position.

Fucking clueless Fernando was mostly at fault for the goal. Had Fernandinho been our 6, that goal never would have happened.

For that goal - Fernando and Otters as equally as shit as Kolarov- no fucking way. Kolarov did his best and moved into excellent defensive position. Not at all his fault that Fernando was clueless or that Otters failed as well (pretty much 85% plus this is Fernando's fault in my book though).

In this sequence, Fernando is jogging back at 85% full pace seemingly unsure of where best to move to cut off the attack. He wander's cluelessly towards the ball, completely missing the danger that Alli's run is posing.

Otters sees the danger, but he's about one half of a second too late. 15% of the blame to Otters.

I was talking more about his pass than his positioning.

He had a shit game let's face it. Two on the run now.

 

[Terra Passenger]

So a bit of a mixed bag in the first half ? Even the poster flags up 14 ( fourteen ) items of bad play, including as pathetic an own goal as you are ever likely to see under no pressure. With 1 ( one ) piece of constructive play.

It certainly was a mixed bag, a mixed bag of shite.

Oh & if you need another example of his incompetence take a look at minute 62 which forced Fernandinho to take one for the team & give away a penalty that could possibly have led to a red card & the usual 3 match ban.

You're clearly a Kolarov hater so anything less than a spotless performance is no good. Kolarov had a not so good first half - but he wasn't as bad as Fernando (not by a mile) or Zabba.

You're blaming the own goal on Kolarov? Just what do you want him to do? His view of the ball was blocked when Stones jumped for it - he had fractions of a second to do something before it was on him.

I suppose you blame Sterling for the own goal against Celtic as well.

Kolarov did his job in the first half - contributing to defense and helping to win the ball back, helping to shadow press and getting back into excellent defensive position when starting from behind play which should have helped stop the 2nd goal only for Fernando and Otters to blow it.

If there's thematic fault to Kolarov's first half performance it's that he lacks pace. One on one up the field with just about any of Spurs' attackers might go very wrong - if they round him, he's out of the play.

So 14 bad items and just one good item? Having only posted 13 sequences of play total, that's an amazing statistic.

Good stuff:
21:43 Kolarov makes nice cross into their box finding Kun who goes down after a fair challenge.
36:13 A bewildering back-and-forth struggle for the ball gets both sides of position. Eventually Spurs win the ball and both Kolarov and Fernando are behind the play. Kolarov makes it back into defense and takes up good position to block Son.

Some good some bad:
1:39 Beaten for pace by Sissoko. Stones provides cover. Kolarov helps recover ball off Sissoko.
28:25 Kolarov is helping to press after one of Fernandinho's traps is sprung. He's a bit slow though and Walker is able to pass it to Wanyama. Kolarov does continue the press nicely though on Wanyama.

Neither good nor bad (Kolarov intentionally kicked it out which was the right play):
1:50 Spurs press causes Kolarov to kick it out of touch.

The remaining 8 cited sequences were errors.

 

[Terra Passenger]

I was talking more about his pass than his positioning.

He had a shit game let's face it. Two on the run now.

Kolarov certainly didn't cover himself in glory for the first half. Yeah, it was a bad overall performance.

 

[Terra Passenger]

Doesn't the Spurs player clean him out in that instance? Unintentional from the spud but still a foul surely?

That was an interesting sequence of play. Agree that Wanyama (I think it was him) seemed to foul Fernandinho there. When I re-watch the second half I'll see if I can spot something definitive - but on my first watching I replayed that a couple of times and the NBC footage didn't seem to be good enough to assess whether or not there was a foul.