Is left back really a problem?

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WRicko

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When we started the season I thought we might be stronger than last year. We had bought a left back who Whilst I was worried about how he would do in this league I thought his stats and performances where sufficient to make him able to manage most of the teams and the buy back made him a bargain romour we beat PSG to his signature also helped.

I figured that he would play early on in the season then Mendy would come back and play like he did in previous season and then he would rotate as back up with Zinchenko depending on opposition.

It’s not long ago I was raving about Mendys runs and crossing. Mostly before his injury but even after that he has had some good games at first tho I did think he was basically broken he seemed in capable of moving I trying to work out if he was broken mentally or physically or both or if it was tactical.

I use to love Zinchenko ability on the ball and his passings.

Surely in form and free of injury these left backs would get in most teams the problem is they are not in form or free of injury and we cannot play all three.

Surely we are also not making the most of them Angelino as we can see from Germany is better as a wing back in a three Mendy maybe the same. Zinchenko needs a winger like Sane in front to break down teams and could also play a role in the middle.

So are we too negative look at our previous defensive record. Look at the positives people have said in previous seasons about all three players look at what they have won. How many mistakes have we made this season ? On the one hand it seems like every shot is a goal and so must be a big individual mistake but How many are down to the left back ? How many are even mistakes it mostly just seems like we are missing someone in the middle to break up play and that’s it’s a team problem rather than a problem with anyone player.

Will we change our tactics to use them in a more efficient way ? 3 at the back maybe ? Zinchenko in the middle? Could save us a lot of money. Goal for our owner is to be efficient and it generates good publicity as well as profit.
 
Yes it is a huge problem -Mendy is nothing short of shocking defensively - he is a liability every time he plays. Loose passes, cnt defend, tackle, head a ball, lacks focus/concentration. He is awful.
Zinchenko is a midfielder converted to fullback. - he does ok but he aint no long term solution

Yes we do need a left back and sell Mendy to whomever will have him
 
Mendy's injuries have taken away the physicality on which he relied so heavily. I thought he could recover but the Chelsea game proved Mendy lacks confidence in his running power, he's clearly not confident even attempting to match someone's run, to the point he tries diving in when it was nonsensical. Otamendi does the same because he knows he's too slow to match runs on occasion, Gundogan doesn't make the same types of tackle he did at Dortmund because of the fears over his knee.
 
Yes.

Mendy's wank, Zinchenko's a decent second choice at the absolute best and even if we consider Cancelo to be able to play there see the aforementioned Mendy.
 
It's a problem while there are problems elsewhere.

We won league league with Delph and Zinchenko. If we sort out the centreback issue and get back to our intense pressing in the opponent's half then I don't see it as a priority.

That being said, it wouldn't harm us to get a top class left back. I don't think I've seen one in sky blue since the takeover but I also don't see any available.
 
Yes it is , for me it’s the same as when we had clichy and kolarov ,Both not good enough for the team or project.


zin isn’t a left back, I like he’s professionalism and he’s good passer of the ball but he can’t defend and is like snail in glue trying to get back ..

and well Mendy what can I say about him, he can’t pass it , can’t defend and is no better then kolarov was going forward.

File Mendy in the same file as nolito, Scott Sinclair and bony
 
Yes but not our main one.

Mendy is still not back in full form and shouldn't be first choice but he's definitely worth keeping. His defending isn't that bad on a regular basis, but he is, like Stones, quite error prone. Both should be kept as cover but both should probably be replaced. Ultimately though we won the league with delph and zinchenko at left back so clearly the main difference is centre back and up front, and that's where we should strengthen.
 
I will give Mendy at least another season to prove his worth...but he needs to be a ever present part of the team

Anymore long layoffs and hd will never return to what he was acquired from Monaco for
 
Like anything in life for things too flourish, they need maintenance from time to time.

The spine of our team has been neglected.
Gone are the days of quality in Goal, CB,DCM and Striker at the same time. The most important chain in our set up is the spine and it’s broke.

We’ve been blessed, Hart at his peak/ Eddy, kompany, Yaya/Fern, Aguero. The Spine of the team has been world class for the most part. With the little bits of glamour built around it, Silva, De Bruyne, Sterling, Sané.
The latter are still here (I know Sané is leaving) but the world class spine has been left too age and rot away.

We have a world class GK, no CB (although Laporte isn’t far away), No DCM or Box to box beast, and Aguero isn’t fit enough regular and ageing.

When The back is broken the arms and legs won’t work.

that’s my belief.
 
theres only one carlito said:
Like anything in life for things too flourish, they need maintenance from time to time.

The spine of our team has been neglected.
Gone are the days of quality in Goal, CB,DCM and Striker at the same time. The most important chain in our set up is the spine and it’s broke.

We’ve been blessed, Hart at his peak/ Eddy, kompany, Yaya/Fern, Aguero. The Spine of the team has been world class for the most part. With the little bits of glamour built around it, Silva, De Bruyne, Sterling, Sané.
The latter are still here (I know Sané is leaving) but the world class spine has been left too age and rot away.

We have a world class GK, no CB (although Laporte isn’t far away), No DCM or Box to box beast, and Aguero isn’t fit enough regular and ageing.

When The back is broken the arms and legs won’t work.

that’s my belief.
Click to expand...


Where’s the world class keeper at ??
 
In the 18/19 season, if you take the first 15 games before our first loss, and the 14 after our last loss, we won all bar two (and those were THOSE draws against Wolves and Liverpool) and conceded only 11. 11 goals in 29 games is an immense defensive record. We had that ugly period in December and January where we conceded half our goals for the season but that spell aside we were defensively immense.


During that run we used Mendy and Zinchenko at LB, and later Gundogan in DM. The thing we had then is we had Stones and Otamendi doing well in the first batch of games and then Kompany later, with Laporte throughout.


Having top quality CBs allows the rest of the team to attack and later press with more belief and assurance and it filters through to everyone else. Due to our weak press, our defensive players are isolated. No defender can handle that level of isolation on the consistent basis some of ours have had to deal with. The idea is supposed to be that we work well as a team so nobody is isolated and we can get away with playing a high line as a result.

Unfortunately Laporte has been injured, and none of Otamendi, Stones, and Fernandinho have been able to cut it this season. So shit's gone to bust. But like last season and the season before, as long as our CBs are good the rest of the team works great. Mendy is not THE problem.



On another note, I refute the idea Mendy is error prone. He's made what, 2 errors? How many has Walker made? Or Otamendi? Or Stones? Or Ederson? Or Delph? Or Zinchenko? Or Kompany? Kompany got sent off in at least 2 crucial games needlessly off the top of my head and also cost us the Charity Shield against United. Even Laporte cost us in the CL last season! What about our attackers? How many times have Jesus, Sterling, Aguero, De Bruyne, or Mahrez missed good chances in games only for it to bite us later?

He's arguably less error prone than any of our other defenders. The way we play is so high risk and high reward that when it goes wrong it really goes wrong. All those other players have rightly been given the benefit of the doubt, and so should Mendy. He's put in countless strong defensive performances for us since coming back (and in 18-19 too at the start of the season) and they shouldn't be discounted because he had a single supremely silly moment with Gundogan and then didn't get himself sent off afterwards.
 
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