City v Arsenal post match thread

[Neville Kneville]

I'm just assuming he is seeing if Kolarov can play there because there's a chance we might not be able to offload him this summer and he might have to find a use for him.

Well you would imagine if that was the case, he would try him at left back, or left midfield.

He played Kolarov and Fernando, at cb. He has a bunch of other players, who could have played there. He is trying something out.

That 'something' was not 'let's try deperately hard to beat Arsenal'. It was something else.

 

[flb]

I'm just assuming he is seeing if Kolarov can play there because there's a chance we might not be able to offload him this summer and he might have to find a use for him.

Just cant understand why Denayer isn't being given any minutes, if he doesn't fancy him then fair enough but for the life of me I cant see what hes doing playing Kolorov there.

If he doesn't fancy either Denayer or Mangala then buying Stones alone wont be enough with Vinnys problems.

 

[domalino]

Well you would imagine if that was the case, he would try him at left back, or left midfield.

He played Kolarov and Fernando, at cb. He has a bunch of other players, who could have played there. He is trying something out.

That 'something' was not 'let's try deperately hard to beat Arsenal'. It was something else.

But I think Pep knows that he's not going to be able to play in those positions for him. He's not fast enough or capable of beating anyone on his own - so LW is a no go, and I don't think he's got the positional awareness, speed or energy to do the fullback role.

 

[Neville Kneville]

Just cant understand why Denayer isn't being given any minutes, if he doesn't fancy him then fair enough but for the life of me I cant see what hes doing playing Kolorov there.

If he doesn't fancy either Denayer or Mangala then buying Stones alone wont be enough with Vinnys problems.

It could be as simple as Kolarov has a particular characteristic in his play which is similar to someone else, who will play that position, but is injured or not yet signed. Or just the fact he's left footed.

Or perhaps he sees Kolarov's long ball abilities as a potential weapon in a back 3, so is testing him out under pressure, to see if he can be trusted or taught to play there.

 

[Neville Kneville]

But I think Pep knows that he's not going to be able to play in those positions for him. He's not fast enough or capable of beating anyone on his own - so LW is a no go, and I don't think he's got the positional awareness, speed or energy to do the fullback role.

Yes but he's not going to base the pre season on just purely finding out how shit Kolarov is. Testing him out for sure but there is a reason behind what he's doing. Either because he sees something in Kolarov which can be used, or there is a tactical significance which is good for practice purposes.

 

[Scaring Europe to Death]

Despite all the negativity bordering on hysteria, I didn’t think Kolarov was that bad last night, and certainly no worse than Clichy or Zabaleta. Collectively a dodgy first 20 minutes, but then it calmed down.

In contrast, we seemed to lose our way further up the pitch, particularly for Arsenal’s first goal, when we suddenly appeared outnumbered on the counter attack.

 

[Len Rum]

Yeah it was all over after 5 games last season!

For Chelsea yes.
Good observation.

 

[Father Paul]

If you don't see any issues I don't think I can take anything else you ever say seriously.

Agree.Surely its the weakest aspect of his game regardless of whatever team or manager he plays for

 

[Burtonblue]

The thing is, Pep knows that Kolarov isn't a cb, but he's up to something. There are a whole bunch of players who could have played there instead of Kolarov, even with the current injuries etc, who would be better at cb.

There is a reason Guardiola has been using Kolarov. Whether it's because he's teaching him something & sees more to him than we do, or he's teaching the others something or if it's just to keep the team under pressure to teach them to cover, it's not because Pep is either a fucking idiot, or has no other choice, as seems to be the suggestion by at least half the flappers on here.

He didn't have to use Kolarov & Fernando at cb, he is experimenting with something. I can't fucking stand Kolarov, but I know Pep Guardiola knows his fucking stuff, so if he wants to try something with Kolarov, he can jolly well do so.

Pep is clearly up to something with Kolarov.
I recall him making some comment around how impressed he was with Kolarov's condition when training commenced and used him as a shining example when commenting on fitness.
All I can say is that based on what I have seen with my own eyes yesterday's experimenting did not appear a glowing success.
Like you I am not an admirer of Kolarov but I would be happy to be proved wrong if Pep can turn him into a world class CD.
I thought it was a shame not to see what our recognised defenders could do yesterday in our last warm up game but I guess it was far more reasonable to experiment yesterday than v the mackens...

 

[Gorton_Tubster]

What I saw yesterday was the same old City from last year. But the most most annoying thing was out total inability to hoof the ball up field when the defence are under pressure. Last few games we have played it out of defence easliy and confidently, yesterday that confidence dissapeared and we got to learn that isnt the time to do tippy tappy at the back.