De Jong, it pains me

[schumey04]

Just think of our midfield as ship gliding here and there with ease, free flowing.


Now think of De Jong as a bloody big anchor nuff said.

 

[sweep]

To be honest the whole midfield needed to work both defensive and attacking wise yesterday. To leave it to De Jong to do it on his own is a huge ask. Yaya , Milner and De Jong should of when Napoli had the ball they should of been pressing the ball getting tighter than what they were at times.

He wasnt poor last night he just couldnt do the job of closing down there attacks on his own. Put it this way I would rather have De Jong in the midfield for the European games than Barry or Milner. Barry has been found out in the European games this season. We attack as a team week in week out. But the whole team doesnt defend as a team in the bigger games.

That pretty much sums it up for me.
Last season we defended as a unit but didnt attack as one.
This season we attack together but don't defend together.

Is it possible for a team to do both to an exceptionally high standard? No, because the pace and constant ebb and flow of the game means you cannot just magic a player from an advanced position back to a defensive role in an instant.
Playing as we are is working ten-fold in the Premier League. In Europe however I'd like us to revert back to last year's solidity.

Agree with that LT, totally different game from the prem.

Nige didn't have a great game last night but had little help when they broke, which they're supremely good at TBF.

 

[Arthur '2 Sheds' Jackson]

Fred Eyre spotted it 20mins before 'Bobby'.. and he was watchin' Sky Sports 2' at 'Media City'.. Barry everytime for me, win it.. give it Silva.. Simples !

 

[ryan1985]

Its absolultely Mancini fault why were prob going out of CL, the reason why we didn't beat Napoli at home was because of the full backs and thought he might of learned by picking Richards and Clichy last night, it was really bad management by making that decision but wouldnt swap the manager for any other!

 

[bluethai]

Mancini just got the selection wrong, that's it, just move on. De Jong is still essential in the squad imo.

 

[Deleted member 14625]

Its absolultely Mancini fault why were prob going out of CL, the reason why we didn't beat Napoli at home was because of the full backs and thought he might of learned by picking Richards and Clichy last night, it was really bad management by making that decision but wouldnt swap the manager for any other!

Picking Kolo the clown and ALL of Aguero Dzeko Nasri and Silva at Bayern. We had what seemed like an unfit Yaya and the slowest man in the squad up against quick passing and quick running midfielders all game and at times we were overrun.

But it's all about learning from mistakes and Roberto seems able to adapt from where he's gone wrong and improve immensely.

The posts about de Jong are wrong!

 

[blueprint]

If I remember rightly, I and a guy called Lucas North got absolutely murdered for sharing these sentiments eighteen months ago :)

We are significantly less quicker at shifting the ball around, and far less potent on attack with NDJ in the team.

Nothing has changed in that department.

The one thing that he was always good at was protecting the back four but that's gone out of the window now. Obviously the full backs didn't help matters but the back four were offered virtually no protection.

Maybe now people will listen when I say that Gareth Barry offers far more in that role. He might not look as hard but he is a more effective player in a team that wants to add attacking football to defensive solidity.

I have been saying this for ages and been routinely dismissed.

Against a counter attacking team, he simply does not have the athleticism to keep up.

'tis. Arteta went around NDJ who was covering him like a 'pylon' to score a goal.

Yaya with the English duo(Barry & Milner) working in tandem would have been the right choice.

 

[blueonblue]

While it may sound strange I am not that bothered about the CL this year because I dont think we are yet good enough to win it.

We are still a team under construction, and painfull as it may be to face, some players have not stepped up their game to the next level, DJ may just be still suffering the afters from injury, but if not then who else have we at the moment ?.
Because of that and Ya ya having a poor game by his standards the fullbacks got murdered last night, and while I could still justify hanging on to Zab as a utillity player, Kolarov is not up to the job at the highest level.

Nobody has yet dared to mention VK, who has looked shaky for the last few games, again our options are limited even if he is just having a run of bad form.

And yes,I think Roberto got the team selection wrong last night, but then he is trying to juggle players for the tilt at the title, and from what he has said is well aware that we need to bring in players to be up to going after everything, and that takes time.

Its still early days, and good as we can look now battering teams, we are going to get a lot better ;0)

 

[Asa's left peg]

While it may sound strange I am not that bothered about the CL this year because I dont think we are yet good enough to win it.

We are still a team under construction, and painfull as it may be to face, some players have not stepped up their game to the next level, DJ may just be still suffering the afters from injury, but if not then who else have we at the moment ?.
Because of that and Ya ya having a poor game by his standards the fullbacks got murdered last night, and while I could still justify hanging on to Zab as a utillity player, Kolarov is not up to the job at the highest level.

Nobody has yet dared to mention VK, who has looked shaky for the last few games, again our options are limited even if he is just having a run of bad form.

And yes,I think Roberto got the team selection wrong last night, but then he is trying to juggle players for the tilt at the title, and from what he has said is well aware that we need to bring in players to be up to going after everything, and that takes time.

Its still early days, and good as we can look now battering teams, we are going to get a lot better ;0)

Just shows its all about opinionsbut I agree - when Yaya was loosing posession constantly and appearing not to be really arsed when competing for the ball - it was'nt Niges fault but he had to clear up the mess usually on his own - but neither are bad players and have different strengths we need.

I believe Bobby put this game second place in his priorites this week and wants to beat Liverpool on Sunday. If he wanted to win he would have made the changes earlier (particularly Sergio) as we produced more chances in ten minutes than we had all game.

 

[john blue]

We dont need him for a lot of the games. is that being arrogant, dont mean to be.