De Bruyne?

[aguero93:20]

Not always, love the guy but he is guilty on occasion of neglecting his defensive responsibility.

Not really, he's guilty of getting it wrong when played on the wing as it's not his natural game. His workrate is never the problem.

 

[BigOscar]

He didn't have a great season by his standards but stop exaggerating. If you want him to play no.10 then more fool you. That'd be akin to playing Pirlo or Xavi at 10.

a) Xavi was an incredibly mobile midfield player who did easily enough defending, covering a lot of ground, nothing like current Yaya.
b) Pirlo always played alongside two energetic central midfield players to make up for him.

It's not about where Yaya plays, it's about having two central midfielders who actually defend alongside him, as he simply does not do enough. Using Silva as a box to box midfielder does not sound either sensible or plausible. Playing Yaya as part of the deep two does not work, I don't know how many times we have to see him getting completely bypassed for that to become obvious to everyone.

 

[City_Sean]

a) Xavi was an incredibly mobile midfield player who did easily enough defending, covering a lot of ground, nothing like current Yaya.
b) Pirlo always played alongside two energetic central midfield players to make up for him.

It's not about where Yaya plays, it's about having two central midfielders who actually defend alongside him, as he simply does not do enough. Using Silva as a box to box midfielder does not sound either sensible or plausible. Playing Yaya as part of the deep two does not work, I don't know how many times we have to see him getting completely bypassed for that to become obvious to everyone.

At the very least you need a grafter next to Yaya, but even last year it wasn't enough. Yaya is simply uninterested in defending. Therein lies the problem. Look at the Bayern game last year, he was awful and left Fernandinho to do the job of two men.

 

[Rolee]

a) Xavi was an incredibly mobile midfield player who did easily enough defending, covering a lot of ground, nothing like current Yaya.
b) Pirlo always played alongside two energetic central midfield players to make up for him.

It's not about where Yaya plays, it's about having two central midfielders who actually defend alongside him, as he simply does not do enough. Using Silva as a box to box midfielder does not sound either sensible or plausible. Playing Yaya as part of the deep two does not work, I don't know how many times we have to see him getting completely bypassed for that to become obvious to everyone.

If there's one in front who will press then Yaya can play that role. The problem stems from a lack of press in that central area, Yaya then stepping up from deep and getting exposed.

Even when Yaya wasn't in the team we were exposed in this manner last season, take the Barca home game as an example. Busquets had the freedom of the park because no one was putting the squeeze on him, this meant we were constantly outnumbered when one of our two deep players ( Milner and Fernando ) stepped up.

 

[mosssideblue]

Pages and pages of non KDB stuff. Come on chaps, do the right thing and take these discussions elsewhere :)

 

[domalino]

Pages and pages of non KDB stuff. Come on chaps, do the right thing and take these discussions elsewhere :)

This is all discussion about how KDB fits into the team if he arrives :)

 

[Jim Tolmie's Underpants]

Pages and pages of non KDB stuff. Come on chaps, do the right thing and take these discussions elsewhere :)

THIS!

 

[aguero93:20]

THIS!

NOT THIS! THAT!

 

[Dave S]

Pages and pages of non KDB stuff. Come on chaps, do the right thing and take these discussions elsewhere :)

Absolutely this!

 

[Dax777]

So you think he's too bad at defending to play number 10, so instead he should play deeper, like this year, so he can do his impression of the worlds largest traffic cone again all year? A midfield 3 of anyone, Yaya and Silva isn't a midfield 3. It's barely a midfield 2.

Yaya-Pogba or Yaya-Delph or Yaya-Dihno will be the back of the 3-2 in the middle 5 behind the striker. That anyone doubts that is silly.

Sure Yaya is not a tackling machine. But he will be supremely wonderful running the play from deep. And with the added hustle of Debruyne and Sterling, and having 5 in the middle, we'll be fine defensively. Many don't see it now, but the best part of defense is control.