Centre Backs

[hutton who blue]

Kompany's heart is indisputable but he has made too many clangers for too long and moments of indecision to warrant a place in the first eleven for a team fighting for honours and trophies. We have talented centre halves to replace him, I hope Pellegrini has the wisdom to realise this along with his extended contract.

 

[NQCitizen]

It may have been our best partnership but it wasnt good enough. None of our partnerships were good enough, none of our centre backs were good enough.

Unless Denayer takes the PL by storm, or we sign another centre back, then the question shouldnt be which pairing was the best last season but which partnership can improve the most. Mangala should improve on last season, Kompany clearly as the ability to play far better. MDM is the least likely to improve. His reading of the game his very good but sometimes his legs let him down. That's more likely to be the case this season.

If we start the season pairing MDM and Mangala we will not win the league. we would be playing for a CL place.

it was good enough to be a large part of Hart's golden glove.

I think statistically MD and Mangala could have put us up with Chelsea. It was Vinnie's inclusion that cost us points mostly as sad as it to say.

Mangala and Demichelis on Monday for me, the end of last season with their sustained run is as good as we've looked under Pellegrini

 

[cibaman]

it was good enough to be a large part of Hart's golden glove.

I think statistically MD and Mangala could have put us up with Chelsea. It was Vinnie's inclusion that cost us points mostly as sad as it to say.

Mangala and Demichelis on Monday for me, the end of last season with their sustained run is as good as we've looked under Pellegrini

I thought our defending suffered last season from too much rotation. Some of that was beyond Pellegrini's control, but if we are to improve our defending we need a settled centre back pairing. We should be expecting our first choice pairing to play 90% of PL games and all CL games apart from dead rubbers. Injuries and suspensions will reduce that but the expectation at the start of the season should be that they will play around 40 games.

Mangala clearly can cope physically with that workload, the question is only whether his form will be good enough. Kompany has had his injury problems but still averages 39 games per season at City. Demichellis played 28 games for us last season. Can we expect him, a year older, to play an additional 10-12 games, an increased workload of over 40%, without it affecting his form? His biggest weakness is his lack of pace. He often, but not always, makes up for that by reading the game well. But how will his form hold up over the course of a long season if we make him a regular starter?

Both Kompany and Managala need to play much better next season than last, individually and as a partnership. But I cant see us improving on last season unless they can make that improvement. I just dont see a Mangala & Demichellis partenership carrying us to a title win or geatly improving on our CL performance. Its a gamble either way but I'd go with the partnership which has the greater potential.

 

[hutton who blue]

I agree with what you've stated but perhaps Denayer can step up to the plate. I know he's young but he's had experience in the Scottish league and impressed, Pellegrini could give him a chance to progress with City this season.

 

[Sergio Picasso Aguero]

Otamendi - Demichelis would be quality

 

[backforCity]

All our centre halves would be better if our full backs were as reliable as Zabaletta has been. All too often they are pulled out of position and retreat too deep to compensate/cover for the likes of Sagna, Koralov and even Cliché

Thought I read a comment from our Manager about Delph being the balance on the left, which has been missing since Barry departed. This then would have a good knock on effect to the defence. I hope!

 

[Silva_Spell]

The problem with our CBs has been the lack of protection in front of them. Whoever played there has had to close down opposition players in positions of the pitch that a Matic would have done.
The change in formation may help (with first team CMs there rather than Evans and 2 AMs like Silva/Nasri), we didn't concede too many in the last 6 games last year which has lead some to think Mangala and Demi are our best partnership. I think it was more to do with having Dinho holding behind Yaya and Lampard

 

[Lancet Fluke]

The problem with our CBs has been the lack of protection in front of them. Whoever played there has had to close down opposition players in positions of the pitch that a Matic would have done.
The change in formation may help (with first team CMs there rather than Evans and 2 AMs like Silva/Nasri), we didn't concede too many in the last 6 games last year which has lead some to think Mangala and Demi are our best partnership. I think it was more to do with having Dinho holding behind Yaya and Lampard

It will certainly help if we have more midfielders who are able and prepared to press the ball when we are repeatedly stepping up for offside but I still don't understand the point of buying expensive defenders with great physical attributes and then using them in a way where we're relying on incompetent linesmen to get tight offside decisions right, over and over again, rather than trusting the defensive abilities of the players we've signed.

 

[Deleted member 58678]

Last season Demichelis and Mangala played together about 20 times and only lost about a couple of games out of the 20.

Demi was always talking to Mangala (what language it was in a don't know but it was noticeable), much more than Kompany did (who bollocked Mangala twice - West Ham away, Moscow away - like he did Nastasić a few years ago).

But that was last season. This is a new season and Kompany is the club captain so I'd imagine he will play and hopefully he's put last season behind him.

As for Deneayer he played in a low Chanpionship/Lg1 standard league and I don't think a great deal should be judged from that league. FL Cup will be coming up soon so let's play him in that and see how he does and go from there (I'd play him whether we play Chelsea or Chesterfield, let's get him in and see how he does in that comp, Wenger would).

 

[Mike D]

Mangala and Kompany this is a perfect game for the them to get their sh*t together and make it work. For Mangala it's sh*t or bust season, personally I think he'll turn it around this season and have all the pundits who written him off grovelling.