If we had a left back who could actually defend or some proper cover in front of him then maybe he could actually get on with doing his job rather than having to overcome being sold down the river by his bone idle team mates?
No wonder the poor fucker is jumpy
Not sure that I'd give up on Mangala just yet... he clearly has phenomenal physical ability. Lee Dixon on the NBC feed observed that Mangala gets too tight to his attacker way too often and that Mangala often tries to do too much instead of just clearing the ball. I'd think that these problems can be addressed with training and with a veteran CB like Kompany on the pitch to mentor him.When Otamendi played to the left with the same leftback we looked stronger down that side; look at the derby.
Everyone is so eager to blame everyone else when it's clear that Mangala is the issue; 18 months down the line and he's still making the same naive mistakes and clearly lacks the footballing intelligence to ever develop into a steady, reliable player.
When Otamendi played to the left with the same leftback we looked stronger down that side; look at the derby.
Everyone is so eager to blame everyone else when it's clear that Mangala is the issue; 18 months down the line and he's still making the same naive mistakes and clearly lacks the footballing intelligence to ever develop into a steady, reliable player.
Agreed - would add, I thought he was fouled prior to the ball going out.Forget the price tag, the kid's a Human Being. He'll make his mistakes and his price tag is based on how he performed for Porto. What was the balance like in hat team, then or what were the league's strengths for that matter compared to ours? He's genuinely finding it tougher.
That said, none of Watford's strikers scored. Neither, so the back four did their jobs. No, it wasn't pretty and it can't always be so.
Igahlo has been scoring for fun and he came against a brick wall in Ela. As for the corner, he's tried shepherding it out in the past, only to have the ball nicked off his toes and he got slated for it. Today, he, inadvertently, touches it out (not convinced he got a touch anyway) and he gets slated for it. The kid can't win!!
He's had two tough games in different weather conditions and came up trumps against both in form strikers.
Give him a fooking break!
Then you are a fool. We've lost 3 of the 4 games in which Demichelis has started this season, letting in 11 goals. That's relegation stuff. Every game he's played has been an absolute trainwreckbang on,he as had enough chances and run in the team to prove himself yet still everyone gets so nervous when he is on the ball,another major fault he as he just seems to keep going of on his wanders and then is caught out of position in every game,he quite simply is just not good enough at this level, unbelievably is a French international as well.I would play Demichellis in front of him any day of the week,in summer get Deneyar back give him a go and get shot of Mangala
Good point re big Joe - boy did he take some stick initially!I think the issue really is whether the club have enough faith in him to continue giving him the opportunities to eliminate the weaknesses from his game.
I can remember when Joe Corrigan made the transition from being the butt of everyone's jokes to the safest goalkeeper in the league. He said that his career was turned round by having a run of 10 "quiet" games. A run at the end of the season when we were in mid table, playing other mid table teams in games that nobody was watching. He didn't keep clean sheets in all of those games, we lost 3 or 4, but all of the goals he conceded were clearly unstoppable. That run gave him the confidence he needed.
I think Mangala needs that sort of run and it seemed at the start of the season that he might get it. But it was over too soon. Unfortunately this month is make or break for Mangala. He faces losing his place if/when Kompany returns and, if he has more games like yesterday, the club must be tempted to bring in a new CB, especially because of the doubts over Kompany's fitness and DeMichellis's decline. Which piles immense pressure on Mangala.
To be honest I think the writing was on the wall for him when the club tried to offload him in the summer. That demonstrated a lack of faith in him. He's had a few good games this season but he needed to be error free to restore the club's faith in him. He was the first five games, but not since. And he's 25 now. Not an age when a centre back would be in his prime, but he should still be experienced enough to have developed his game further than he has.