Coates - 7M, Mertesacker - £8M, Savic - £7M

[The Fat el Hombre]

Agree good discussion, good to get away from all the transfer saga's. However i don't agree with the comments about Lescott on the floor, to me he alway's look ok as long as he doesn't try to go long, i think Mancini has stressed that point to him as now he never seems to give it more than 10 yds, we have enough quality going on in the team to come short for the ball.

Ive got to disagree mate, I don't think he looks ok on the ball at all. Any time any opposition player puts pressure on him he panics and you can gurantee that the ball will either be booted forward or played a long way backwards to Hart. Vinnie when under pressure will usually keep his cool and even dummy and beat a man on occasion which can start an attack. I saw David Luiz with the ball near the half way line a while back and he had a striker charging in on him putting him under pressure. Luiz feinted, the striker went the wrong way leaving Luiz with space to move forward and start a Chelsea attack. That's the difference. Kompany might have done similar but with Lescott it would have gone a long way backwards to Hart or a panicked hoof upfield. Not the end of the world but not ideal either, and at this stage in our development we are very much looking at ideal. I don't want to turn this into a Lescott bashing by the way, I think he's a good defender, but like I say, not ideal.

We already have a tall boy in defense, VK. To make the defense more versatile, a technically gifted, pacey defender would complement VK much better than a typical EPL snail paced Colossus with two left feet.

Personally I think Mertesacker could spell disaster for Arsenal, given his lack of pace. If Arsenal play the offside trap, Mertesacker will be a liability.

I didn't mean to emphasize the size of the players in question too much, thought it's fairly improtant for prem centre halves, I was just pointing out that Coates looks more physically suited to Savic at this point in time, who looks a little skinny.

Also, I think you have to be careful with the 'We already have a tall boy in defence' sort of argument. Hughes went for the partnership of Lescott and Kolo think that one would do the physical stuff and the other do the footballing stuff, but it left us with a glaring deficiencies because the fact of the matter is that for top teams both centre halves have to be able to do both. Look at the rags - Vidic and camelface, probably the best centre half pairing over the last few years. Some people say that camel is the footballing one and Vidic is the aggressive brute type, but although camel was more exceptional than most centre halves with the ball and Vidic tougher than most, Vidic is still very comfortable on the ball and camel is big, strong and aggressive. To give us even better tools to control games we need another centre half who can do all the defensive duties but play the ball as well. Vinnie qualifies, Lescott doesn't and neither does Kolo. Hoepfully Savic will but I don't think he's got the physical attributes at this point. What I'd say peteri is that we need a centre half to complement Vinnie who also has all necessary strings to his bow but may exceed in areas that Vinnie doesn't, as opposed to saying that we already have a tall boy in defence

 

[Barcon]

Mertesacker is a very good player but won't sit on the bench, which imo is what we need.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Pointless argument. Coates plays for Liverpool under King Kenny and is therefore the greatest player in the world in his position by default.

 

[cityboy1]

Pointless argument. Coates plays for Liverpool under King Kenny and is therefore the greatest player in the world in his position by default.

everybody knows that the best young players are from man ushited which means jones and smallings are better than him oh and dont forget zidane cleverly

 

[Ricster]

Hombre, all you need to know is that he was on Ricster's scouting list for FM2010 ;)

This is what i wrote in the Savic thread when he signed.

Page 3, although i haven't said much about the player, the fact i had him down for future potential last year is enough for me. Very Vidic like in the way he plays. He is physically strong. He played against Arsenal last December and apart from the odd mistake, take into account his age, and the players he was playing against, some world class, he did very well indeed. In that game he played at RB, and although CB is his preferred position he was able to keep Samir Nasri pretty quiet for most of the night.

If people are really interested in seeing him play, look for some torrents and make your own assessment. Im very happy that he's looking likely to sign for City.


Also because of financial fair play rules coming in Savic is more of one for the future, it is hard to say whether someone of this age will be better than a player who has played for years in the best league in the world, but what i could probably tell you is that Savic is a better player now, than when Lescott was at that age at Wolves.

He's strong and physical for his age, i wouldn't worry to much about his height, as he can easily use his strength to stand his ground. There wouldn't be many that'll push him about to easily.

The most impressive thing about Savic's performance at the Emirates was how he kept Nasri quiet for the duration of the game, and he played at RB, not his strongest position.

<a class="postlink-local" href="http://forums.bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=224749&p=4562740&hilit=Savic#p4562740" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">viewtopic.php?f=10&t=224749&p=4562740&hilit=Savic#p4562740</a>

 

[The Fat el Hombre]

Mertesacker is a very good player but won't sit on the bench, which imo is what we need.

Do we? Would he not have replaces Lescott?

Again Ricster pleased to see that he's strong and aggressive, as I didn't think he was. But how do you think he compares to Coates?

 

[simmers]

A good discussion, Lescott has improved but although he's good in the air, with his feet he is lacking in control and confidence. He is not the "world class" standard we need to be challenging for the CL. Personally I like Neven Subotic 6' 4" 22 years old part of the most successful defense in the Bundesliga. I would like us to get him at some point. I havent seen enough of Savic yet.

Subotic is one of those players that has been highly rated for a while and considered one of the best defensive prospects about, as was Smion Kjaer a couple of years back. I think we were linked with kjaer undeer hughes but not sure if he's really progressed too much or not?

He's just signed for Roma on a season loan

 

[Barcon]

Mertesacker is a very good player but won't sit on the bench, which imo is what we need.

Do we? Would he not have replaces Lescott?
quote]

I don't think we need to replace Lescott. Sure he's made a couple of mistakes this year (but so has Vinny), but I think he will have a good season for us.

Sorry, I always screw up the quoting, plus, it's half six in the morning here.

 

[Peteri]

I didn't mean to emphasize the size of the players in question too much, thought it's fairly improtant for prem centre halves, I was just pointing out that Coates looks more physically suited to Savic at this point in time, who looks a little skinny.

Also, I think you have to be careful with the 'We already have a tall boy in defence' sort of argument. Hughes went for the partnership of Lescott and Kolo think that one would do the physical stuff and the other do the footballing stuff, but it left us with a glaring deficiencies because the fact of the matter is that for top teams both centre halves have to be able to do both. Look at the rags - Vidic and camelface, probably the best centre half pairing over the last few years. Some people say that camel is the footballing one and Vidic is the aggressive brute type, but although camel was more exceptional than most centre halves with the ball and Vidic tougher than most, Vidic is still very comfortable on the ball and camel is big, strong and aggressive. To give us even better tools to control games we need another centre half who can do all the defensive duties but play the ball as well. Vinnie qualifies, Lescott doesn't and neither does Kolo. Hoepfully Savic will but I don't think he's got the physical attributes at this point. What I'd say peteri is that we need a centre half to complement Vinnie who also has all necessary strings to his bow but may exceed in areas that Vinnie doesn't, as opposed to saying that we already have a tall boy in defence

A defensive player with pace and skill on the ball, does not equate a short player. I used the term to illustrate that height is not an absolute requisite for a good defender. What I am saying is that to similar players might not be the ideal for the central defenders. As for Savic not being strong enough, he has time to bulk up.

About needing a CB that is comfortable on the ball, I absolutely agree. The more options to build an attack the better.

Personally I am looking forward to seeing Savic in low risk games, lower half EPL or cup games against inferior opponents. Be nice to see the lad and what he can do.

Didn't Smalling play a few games in central defense? As far as I can tell he is far from a beast physically speaking. And from what I saw, he could definitely handle his own as a CB.

 

[Arsene]

Mertesacker is a very good player but won't sit on the bench, which imo is what we need.

Do we? Would he not have replaces Lescott?

Again Ricster pleased to see that he's strong and aggressive, as I didn't think he was. But how do you think he compares to Coates?

Mertesacker is very good. Yes he's not the quickest, but he has very good positioning and reads the game very well. He has 19 yellow cards in something like 250 games. He will complement Vermaelen well.

Lescott is not the prettiest on the ball, but he has done really well. But people will never be pleased as he's not the most fashionable names out there