#11 | Oleksandr Zinchenko - 2020/21 Performances

[cjn]

I can't say I agree. He wasn't a left back before he joined us, still wasn't when he went on loan, wasn't a left back when he came back, still isn't a left back for his national team and will more than likely not be a left back when he leaves.

I get what you're saying but the fact of the matter is that he has never been a left back outside of anything other than necessity.

He started playing there in December 2017 and we could have (and should've) bought someone for the position in any of the six windows since then. It's not by necessity anymore, it's because Pep and Txiki have clearly decided that's his position here. Therefore, for our purposes, he's actually just a leftback, not someone who's just filling in during an injury crisis.

 

[toffee balls]

He gives us a bit of balance.

Think that just about covers it.......

 

[oakiecokie]

He is not match sharp ffs

Sorry pet but I fail to see what that has to do with passing a ball and crossing a half decent chance one to a team mate.Invariably they ended up with an opponent.
Simply nowhere near good enough for this team I`m afraid.

 

[Colin Bells Boots]

He is not match sharp ffs

Nor is he a fullback .

 

[Tugay One Cup]

He started playing there in December 2017 and we could have (and should've) bought someone for the position in any of the six windows since then. It's not by necessity anymore, it's because Pep and Txiki have clearly decided that's his position here. Therefore, for our purposes, he's actually just a leftback, not someone who's just filling in during an injury crisis.

I'm not really sure what we're debating, to be honest. Is he literally a leftback when he plays at leftback? Yeah. Is that his natural game? Absolutely not.

If Pep wants to paint a horse in black and white stripes then that's cool and everything but don't expect me to call it a zebra. And that's not a criticism of Pep because it's worked a hell of a lot more than people care to remember. Dare I say that a big reason why he's been put there in the first place is because of his attributes as a midfielder rather than qualities in defence or attacking down the flank.

Like I said, I'm not sure what the arguing. My original comment you pulled up was simply me saying that he's not a natural leftback and I don't know how anyone could disagree with that.

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

Sadly I think Zin's time at City has come and gone. I have some sympathy for him because he has never played in his best midfield position but last night was possibly his worst game for us. At the level we are operating at these days we can't carry a player who is incapable of delivering simple crosses when he is not under pressure. It's bizarre that we still haven't found a quality left back.
In the PL we have players like Chilwell, Robertson, Creswell, Bertrand, Tierney, who would walk into our left back position.

 

[Mike N]

Never been anywhere near good enough. He’s been a lucky boy to pick up so many honours here.

 

[Bluster]

Complete absence of any kind of change of gear renders him totally ineffective both defensively and going forward. Decent enough tekkers, but that was mind rotting watching him gormlessly belt cross after cross into the opposition full back’s legs tonight, and all for want of the pace to buy himself half a yard

Yes, but it wasn’t just that. There were plenty of times where he had lots of space and time but couldn’t deliver. I sort of expect this from Walker who compensates for his technical deficiencies with supreme athleticism but Zinchenko is in the team because he is a midfielder and can play.

 

[samarasra]

Terrible last night but I think people are going overboard. He's usually a decent option for the inverted fullback role because he retains possession so well as opposed to Mendy who plays like his laces are tied together whenever he drifts into the centre. He's just crap at doing the traditional left back stuff like crossing and bombing down the wing.

That being said, whoever plays in that position for us is being given a thankless task of whipping the ball through five defenders to a dwarf or two. Mendy, despite what some on here will have you believe, has a really decent cross on him but it doesn't matter because spamming crosses into the box is a dog shit tactic for this team. It's one of the things we started doing more last season and I fucking hate it. Go out and buy Lukaku or Haaland if we're only going to leave one player to get on the end of it.

Anyway, back to Zinchenko. Shit performance.

A poor performance last night and he knew it as the harder he tried the worse it got. Bar substituting the word poor for shit I fully agree with the points you make. Imo when we had a tall striker too often we couldnt/wouldn't make decent crosses, now we make high crosses to one or two short forwards amongst 5 or 6 monsters and we have no one to pressure the defenders into errors for 2nd ball half chances. It is frustrating.

 

[samarasra]

I can't believe that a club that aspires to be a top club, still has this guy in our squad.

Yet we were "the" top club two years in a row with this guy in our squad and frequently playing, including a lengthy unbeaten run. Good work by the club.