Dzeko (Merged)

[forevermancity]

Dzeko

Liked everything about him last night. The people slating his touch have clearly never seen him play live. Great touch. Great vision and great finishing.

im glad he's finding his feet so quickly it took and proving people on here wrong, and i think mario was a lot better in his overall performance and effort last night too.

To be fair it is only 3 or 4 out of thousands who have doubted him

 

[g180aj]

Re: Dzeko

Dzeko will score more than torres over next few years, is younger two footed and at half the price. i believe over next few weeks with us fighting for top 4 he will be the difference with crucial goals 27 million very well spent:)

I dont think thats possiable, Torres record of first 50 goals is unfathomable, but theres hope now.

tevez has scored 50 for us quicker than torres did for liverpool, and if edin scores on sunday he will have scored 5 in 10 basicly 1 in 2 and thats good enough for me alongside tevez's 50 in 72 and mario to add to the mix too

 

[chris63]

Re: Dzeko

Hope he's coming good now wud love to see him score in epl looks like he really loves playing here , great to see

Epl?

English Premier League

 

[mackenzie]

Re: Dzeko

I love Dzeko. I think he is a great asset and will only get better.

 

[LoveCity]

Re: Dzeko

I can safely say - despite only being 1 year and 2 months into the decade - this will be the crappiest thread of this decade.

Nah, according to my foresight, September 16th, 2014 will bring the thread "Lionel Messi" by Bernabia, and will begin with, "8 goals in 12 games - we paid 120 million for this? Touch of a rapist."

 

[O'Clagija]

Re: Dzeko

Few years ago, when he just just signed with Wolfsburg, after just one practice with Bosnian national team Miroslav 'Ciro' Blazevic (former manager of Croatia and Bosnia) said "this boy will be better than Ibrahimovic!" everybody laughed, Dzeko was noone back then and Ciro really tends to tell bs...
Few years later... this is not so funny any more...
I don't think Edin will ever be as good ad Zlatan though, or like Henry from his best days, but I can easily see him being as good or even better of some of the world class, such as Anelka, Drogba, or Tores... He's perfect for the Premiership and Premiership i perfect for him, just wait and see...

In my opinion, reason for him not giving 100% already is not the pace or blending in as some said... Most of all it's the 'pressure of 27 million' henging over his head... he's aware that this is serious money and people looking at him will not satle for mediocre...

just take a look at 1 on 1 situations that he missed against Aris and Notts County... he would have packed 9 out of 10 of these back in Wolfsburg (just take a look of his goals against Villareal last year, and you'll see what I'm talking about)... but over there he knew that he could do no wrong, he had so much credit that a miss or two ment nothing... chances and goals were just comming...
here, with almost no credit (goals) to gamble with he can sometimes overtihink these situations, thus make some mistakes...

I'm really looking forward watching him next to such a world class players such as Carlos and Silva... hopefully in the next season if they stay together :o)

 

[Enjoying being a Blue]

Re: Dzeko

So if Tevez and Dzeko are scoring for fun what is happening with Mario? Only 5 goals in 9 games.

IMO Dzeko will be an outstanding goal scorer for us. Good business by Mancini.

 

[GOULDYBOBS]

Re: Dzeko

Anyone else think he's got the same mouth as Sven?

lol

HA HA! That would explain what sven was doin in bosnia 20 odd years ago!

 

[Freestyler]

Re: Dzeko

Before last week against Notts at Eastlands, he never really had a clear opportunity to work a goal for himself, he scored from a cross at county away, then a header in the replay, be should have scored when he went one on one and should have scored against aris for his hat-trick.

but when he does get time with the ball, he can score no problem, 2 great goals last night, made by himself both times, especially the second.

very tricky player who imo has not even settled in a quarter, of what he will do. he has bags of time and at the moment he's still a huge part of our team even after a handful of games.

after summer when he's properly settled, he'll be banging them in, even more so if Carlos goes.

 

[1.618034]

Re: Dzeko

lol

HA HA! That would explain what sven was doin in bosnia 20 odd years ago!

I almost started a thread about the similarity a few days ago... Thought it was just me.


Good article/interview with Diamant in the Mail...

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1360722/Edin-Dzeko-Amazing-story-27m-Manchester-City-striker.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... riker.html</a>

Dzeko: From dodging bombs in war-torn Sarajevo to joining the City revolution for £27m

By Ian Ladyman Northern Football Correspondent Last updated at 12:02 AM on 26th February 2011

A Bosnian and a Serb embrace in the car park at Manchester City's training ground. Two children of the Balkans enjoying a better life. Both Edin Dzeko and Aleksandar Kolarov have known bloody conflict in their short lifetimes.

Dzeko survived the siege of Sarajevo as a young boy in the mid-1990s, spending three years in a one-bedroom basement flat with a dozen members of his family. As a teenager, Kolarov endured the NATO attack on Belgrade at the end of that same decade. For his part, Dzeko – a Muslim – now preaches unity and tolerance as Bosnia's first UNICEF ambassador.
Edin Dzeko

Diamond geezer: Edin Dzeko celebrates his strike against Aris Thessalonika

He doesn't like to talk about his past, about the dark days when shells flattened the family home outside the city. He carries it with him, though.

'I try to do something to make change,' Dzeko told Sportsmail this week. 'I tend to go into schools in Bosnia, where there is still much to do.

'Many of the schools are divided. It's like two schools in one, with the Bosnians on one side and the Croats on the other.

'I go there to try to persuade them to come together and mix, because the war led to mistrust and hate, so things are difficult.

'I try to show the children that it's not important what their name is or my name is or whether we are Muslim, Christian or Catholic.

'I want to show them that the most important thing is that you're a good man or a good woman.

'Look at Aleksandar. What is important to me is that somebody is a good man, and he is a good man.

'It's not important if he comes from Serbia, despite what happened between the countries. It doesn't matter if he is from Croatia or Ghana or Bosnia or England. All I care about is the individual.'


Edin Dzeko is known as Diamant - the Diamond - back home in Bosnia. In Manchester, he is merely Robert Mancini's latest signing. But at £27million, he was an expensive jewel.

Signed in January to give Manchester City's season an adrenaline shot, the 24-year-old's English career began in earnest with two superbly taken goals in the Europa League at Eastlands on Thursday.

'I am not just a big player who has come to head the ball,' stressed Dzeko. 'Earlier in my career, I played behind the strikers and in midfield. I can play left and right or a little bit behind - it's up to the coach. I know my game, and I know what I can do.'

Against Aris FC on Thursday, Dzeko looked every inch the complete forward.
Dzeko (front row, fourth from left) in his school team

Long journey: Dzeko (front row, fourth from left) in his school team

One goal came from his right foot, the other with his left, and both were impressive in different ways. To City supporters, however, Dzeko became one of them the moment he walked through the door at Eastlands.

Within seconds of his introductory press conference starting, the former Wolfsburg player said he had come to City because he knew it was Manchester's real club, the one the locals support.

It was Dzeko's personal 'Welcome to Manchester ' moment , a pre-planned nod towards Old Trafford and he doesn't regret it.

'I said at my first press conference that I saw something else in this city, something that I liked,' he explained. 'That was one of the reasons I came.

'I was told before I came that this town is more about Manchester City, and that is what I have found.

'That is why I said what I said and I have no regrets. I have not said anything wrong, only the truth.

'I have had a good reaction from the City fans - but I am not sure what United fans think. I did not mean to upset them or offend them, and I still believe it is the truth.

'The game at Old Trafford [when City lost 2-1] showed how close the two teams are. There was not much between us at all and I never thought at any stage we would lose the game.

'I think we were the better team, especially after we scored. When it was 1-1 we had chances to score and win - but that's football. Sometimes you lose when you play well, and that's what happened.'
Dzeko always has time for fans

True blue: Dzeko always has time for fans

Dzeko was a substitute at Old Trafford, his misdirected shot flying in off David Silva's backside for the equaliser. It is the closest he has come to a goal of his own in the Barclays Premier League and he knows he must contribute soon.

Mancini has already expressed public concerns about his new centre forward's struggle to adapt to the frenetic and physical nature of the English domestic game. Dzeko is not worried, though. He has been here before.

'When I first went to Germany I didn't play very well,' he recalled.

'For about a half a year I didn't do what I can, and I think people must have thought I was hopeless. But then I got used to the league and to the team and then I began to do what I can do.

'I know that I have to do that quicker here, but playing for a big club in the best league in Europe has always been my big ambition - and it's come true.

'It's different and harder than the Bundesliga. You have to always be strong and fight for every ball.

'The referees are different too. They don't whistle as they do in Germany, where every small contact is a foul.

'Here [he punches his fist into his palm] it's no foul.

'Away at Notts County [in the FA Cup] it was hard because the pitch was small and it was like a fight for 90 minutes.

'There was no football there, but I know I can play football and I want to show that.'

At Dzeko's first club, Zeljeznicar in Bosnia, Dzeko also struggled, scoring just five goals in 40 games.

He had another nickname back then: 'Cloc'. It is slang for a big wooden stick and was not meant as a compliment.

When the club received £21,000 for 18-year-old Dzeko from Czech side Teplice in 2005, one director confessed that 'we thought we had won the lottery'.
Dzeko (right) and Aleksandar Kolarov

One cause: Team-mates Dzeko (right) and Aleksandar Kolarov

It did not faze Dzeko. 'My whole career has been step by step, so I am used to this process,' he said. 'First it was the Bosnian league and then the Czech second league and first league and then Germany and now the best league in the world.

'It has all been gradual, and it seems that it must be step by step for me here too.

'There are a lot of great players here like [Carlos] Tevez, who are doing great things, and I am the new one, so I have to get used to it.

'At home they call me the Diamant.

'They don't call me Edin or Dzeko. It's just Diamant and that is very special to me.

'It started two years ago when I scored one of the best goals of my career for Bosnia in Belgium and the commentator called me it.

'Now when someone sees me in the street that's what they call out. I know that I have done something good for my country and it makes me proud.

'But it hasn't always been like that and that means nothing over here in England. Football is never easy, especially when you are the new person.

'At Zeljeznicar, for example, I was very young. I was 16 or 17 when I first played for the first team and I would only get about 20 minutes, so it was hard.

'Then I moved to the Czech Republic and it got a bit easier. My trainer there helped me more and taught me how to play the No 10 role.

'My goals will come here. They didn't give me the one against United and that's a shame, but there will be goals. I know that.'

Dzeko supports the Guide Dog charity

Leading light: Dzeko supports the Guide Dog charity

On the day that we meet, Dzeko and his team-mate Kolarov spend two hours at a Guide Dogs Training School in Greater Manchester. As part of their City in the Community project, the club have donated £25,000 to sponsor five new puppies.

The two players meet young City fans who have won a competition to name the dogs. One is suitably called Nelly, in honour of City's 1969 FA Cup hero Neil Young.

Dzeko and Kolarov pose happily for pictures and both agree to wear a blindfold and be guided through an obstacle course by fully trained dogs. Dzeko appears to be more comfortable. He sits one youngster on his lap and ruffles another child's hair throughout a 15-minute demonstration.

'With children it's always easy,' he said. 'They are very important and we have to show them that. If somebody wants to take my photo or have an autograph then I will always try to do it.'

Dzeko's own childhood was fraught. His family fled their home in the Sarajevo suburb of Brijesce when it came under attack in 1992. For the remainder of the war, home was his grand-parents' basement flat in the city.

He has told horrific stories before, such as one about his mother Belma calling him in just moments before a bomb landed on the waste ground where he and his friends were having a kickabout.

'My gut feeling saved my son's life,' Belma is on record as saying. These days, Dzeko has tried to close the memories off.

'My childhood is in the past now,' he said. 'It was hard but I was not the only one to go through it.

'In Bosnia it was war between the ages of 6 and 10 for me, so it was hard to go out and do anything or live a normal life.

'But I was young, it's over now and I don't want to speak too much about it.

'After war was finished I was able to play football again.

'My father Midhat took me to the club [Zeljeznicar] every day for weeks as we didn't have enough money for constant taxis.

'I am close to my parents, of course, as everything I have done is because of them. They went through a lot for me and they are most important for me.

'They were here last week and came to the Notts County game, so they saw me score and that made me happy. The war years were hard but they always tried to make a good life for me and my sister.'

Now he has moved into a suburban house in Cheshire, and is part of Mancini's squad for the foreseeable future, Dzeko's world has turned full circle.

The first part of this football year was not the most enjoyable. Wolfsburg refused to sell him to City last summer and Dzeko and his team - managed by former England coach Steve McClaren - began to struggle.

McClaren was sacked soon after Dzeko left, something the centre forward regrets.

'I liked Steve McClaren and I think he is a very good coach,' he said. 'Why we didn't have success with him is difficult to say. Perhaps he was too nice - I don't know.

'I don't want to say too much about him but we had a good relationship. I am not surprised he was sacked as we were not having good results, but it's sad.

'It got a bit too much in Germany. Every day there was something new said or written about my future or my situation, and I had to blank it out otherwise it would just have hurt my head and messed me up.

'Now I am here I can relax and look forward.'

Like many of his new team-mates, Dzeko does have Champions League experience, scoring home and away against Manchester United as Wolfsburg went out at the group stage last season.

Since arriving at Eastlands, he has heard Mancini talk about the need for a better mentality and he doesn't disagree.

'The coach talks about the mentality and he is right,' he added. 'We have not won anything for 34 years and we must win something to move forward.

'I have played in only six games in the Champions League, but it is something special . Nothing compares with the Champions League.

'It's so different from the Europa League - that can only compare when you get to the semi-final or final, because it only becomes special at that stage. For us the Champions League is everything.'

Dzeko says that final sentence as though he means it. The chances are, though, that he has it in exactly the right perspective.