Aleksandar Kolarov - 2016/17 performances

[OrigamiNinja]

I thought him & Stones had almost nothing to do, & still managed to create several openings for Sunderland due to negligence & sometimes quite hopeless passing. A couple of moments of good defending but that's what they are there for. Good defending should be the norm, not something they get a pat on the back for. They had 3 free headers from corners. It isn't Aguero's job to stop that, but it is someone's & normally, right in the middle of our box, you'd guess it's a centre back who is detailed to stop it.

Not convinced by either, but at least Stones is young.

In the 1st half I was amazed and furious at how much time and space they gave Defoe (a dwarf) to win long punts forward. One of them should have been tight to him at every opportunity. I thought they were much better in the 2nd half as was the team as a whole.

 

[Neville Kneville]

In the 1st half I was amazed and furious at how much time and space they gave Defoe (a dwarf) to win long punts forward. One of them should have been tight to him at every opportunity. I thought they were much better in the 2nd half as was the team as a whole.

Yes I agree second half was better but the first half problems were identical to the Leicester game, which was excused as being down to a back 3 but it wasn't, it was just pure & simple piss poor defending against simple direct ball & if we'd been playing Leicester we could easily have had a similar catastrophic start. It's negligence.

If they do that against a decent attack, we will be well behind by half time & these threads will be somewhat different. We got away with it & we need to wake up, especially the centre backs.

 

[peter.evans]

Yes I agree second half was better but the first half problems were identical to the Leicester game, which was excused as being down to a back 3 but it wasn't, it was just pure & simple piss poor defending against simple direct ball & if we'd been playing Leicester we could easily have had a similar catastrophic start. It's negligence.

If they do that against a decent attack, we will be well behind by half time & these threads will be somewhat different. We got away with it & we need to wake up, especially the centre backs.

We can't go through every game without the opposition creating chances or even, god forbid, scoring the odd goal against us ? Football is about two teams and despite the money we have spent on our squad the opposition are not mugs, even Sunderland. Every game in the Prem is a toughie, even against the bottom teams and sometimes even more so. Other teams will cause us problems we are not going to roll teams over 5 nil every week ! Even when captain fantastic was playing every week we did concede goals and lose every now and again ! Give the guy some credit he's been one of our best players this season.

 

[Phil1]

Whisper it quietly because many are loath to give him any credit but he's been in our top 5 performers overall this season.

 

[Neville Kneville]

We can't go through every game without the opposition creating chances or even, god forbid, scoring the odd goal against us ? Football is about two teams and despite the money we have spent on our squad the opposition are not mugs, even Sunderland. Every game in the Prem is a toughie, even against the bottom teams and sometimes even more so. Other teams will cause us problems we are not going to roll teams over 5 nil every week ! Even when captain fantastic was playing every week we did concede goals and lose every now and again ! Give the guy some credit he's been one of our best players this season.

A hopeful punt down the middle of the pitch to a five foot cf who has time to control it & turn & leather a shot against the post, is below Alan Kernaghan level defending.

I said after the Celric game, the defence played like shite, especially Kolarov & got the same kind of blasé responses. We got battered by Spurs & couldn't defend shit for weeks afterwards, chucking away our advantage in the league.

A few decent results do not polish a turd & 1st half was a turd.

Repeat it in the coming weeks & the season is over.

 

[jared]

Whisper it quietly because many are loath to give him any credit but he's been in our top 5 performers overall this season.

There are reasons why pep is so keen on him and played him so many minutes. He fits in pep's plans. I'm surprised though sometimes pep still alternate playing him in CB and LB. I guess pep still see him as being versatile.

 

[jared]

We can't go through every game without the opposition creating chances or even, god forbid, scoring the odd goal against us ? Football is about two teams and despite the money we have spent on our squad the opposition are not mugs, even Sunderland. Every game in the Prem is a toughie, even against the bottom teams and sometimes even more so. Other teams will cause us problems we are not going to roll teams over 5 nil every week ! Even when captain fantastic was playing every week we did concede goals and lose every now and again ! Give the guy some credit he's been one of our best players this season.

Kola attracts a lot of different kind of negative posters. Same with Dzeko, Balo, Yaya etc. I say trying to convert some of them is long gone. Just let them be.

 

[eversince 76]

A hopeful punt down the middle of the pitch to a five foot cf who has time to control it & turn & leather a shot against the post, is below Alan Kernaghan level defending.

I said after the Celric game, the defence played like shite, especially Kolarov & got the same kind of blasé responses. We got battered by Spurs & couldn't defend shit for weeks afterwards, chucking away our advantage in the league.

A few decent results do not polish a turd & 1st half was a turd.

Repeat it in the coming weeks & the season is over.

So Sunderland gets one chance, half a chance to be honest, and manage to hit the post from distance. You go on and blame both CBs. They had 3 headers, 2 off target. But who was to blame for that, unless you expect a CB to cover 4 or 5 men and take out the ones who put in the crosses? I've been watching highlights of the other PL-games, and watched the ones from Bayern, Barcelona and Real. Any idea how many mistakes their defenders made?
No, you rather have a go at our CB's for giving away chances and forget the style of play makes us create many more. Maybe you are moaning in the other players' threads, as Fernandinho and Yaya did let slip through a Sunderland midfielder at least twice. Or blame Sterling for not controlling the ball 4 times within the first quarter of an hour, and even his assist got a lucky deflection. Or the tame shots by Aguero, Yaya and KdB in the last 10 minutes. A totaly misplaced pass by Silva midway through for which he apologized, you would be labelling that as Djemba-Djemba level. Sane crossing to Silva but gave too much power to the ball and gone was another chance. Any idea how many sloppy passes we produces in the first half yet none of them came from Stones and Kolarov with the latter producing deep and accurate passes over the 90 minutes for fun?

Why are you actually watching football, because the game has never ever produceds a faultless player over 90plus minutes. Kolarov played a blinder yesterday and he has been fantastic this season. Did he have a few poor games? Oh yes he has. As has any player on the planet.
Happy we have a manager who actually recognize his class. Yes he will make his mistakes, but the same manager actually says it's ok as it's part of the game. Funny that the best manager in the world, according to many on here, keeps putting Kolarov in time and again. He probably sees something you don't wanna see? If you can't accept Kolarov being one of a few players that has actually been great this season compared to last, than don't comment. This way you are being the turd mate.

 

[MarsLlama]

Of the 9 times we have conceded 2 or more goals this season, only in 2 of them (Celtic away and Tottenham at home) was Kolarov playing as a CB in a back 2. The Celtic game was a disaster all round with both poor and unlucky defending.

 

[Manc in London]

Whisper it quietly because many are loath to give him any credit but he's been in our top 5 performers overall this season.

Far from controversial. Based on selections for the big games (I haven't checked the line-ups, only going on memory), I would say Pep regards him as a key player.