Eliaquim Mangala

[Joburg Hero]

Mangala is extremely adept at covering the space vacated by his CB partner whenever his CB partner goes to meet the ball. Perfect for Kompany, as good as I think Kompany is, he's not the best defender when he's forced to stray too far from the penalty area, quite often gets stranded.

 

[FrancoisToure]

Not a kick in the teeth for Rekik as he is young and would accept his place.

Personally if we signed him I would sell Nastasic whilst we can still expect a good fee for him......no where near good enough with his decision making.

Rekik is 19, Nasty 20, and Mangala 22. One of them will stagnate and not get a chance to develop and it wont be Mangala.

 

[BigOscar]

What Mangala has that Rekik and Nastasic lack(as does Lescott), is that he is a proactive and physically dominant CB. He attacks everything and tries to dominate strikers, rather than being happier sitting back and letting things develop. We miss that when Kompany isn't playing. Obviously as a result of that aggression, he does make a few mistakes and get caught out, but so does Kompany tbh, as long as they both don't do it at the same time then we'd be fine. He is also probably better in the air than anyone I've ever seen, he leaps and attacks the ball like Micah, but is also massive.

 

[Joburg Hero]

I don't think Rekik will ever develop into a CB of the required standard. He'll be a good CB for someone, and he's very good technically for a defender, but I don't think he'll ever be half as good as Nastasic and Magala.

 

[Bruun]

Forget how he would partner with Kompany for a minute, equally as important for us is will he be able to form good partnerships with our other central defenders? In other words can we make good combinations?

Demichellis has helped this problem no end, because he's experienced. Previously any combination of central defenders had to include Kompany, because no-one else could lead the defence. Martin has helped here.

This lad is young, so what's his game like from a leadership/responsibility point of view? Does he step up?

One single red card out of 9714 minutes played. Leadership could be improved, don't really seem to be the leader on the field.

 

[FrancoisToure]

Earlier in the thread someone said the lad can play RCB. Is there any evidence to support this? Seems to play almost exclusively LCB for Porto and from what I can tell is very left footed.

If this comes off its a big kick in the nuts for Rekik and Nasastic. Don't understand it personally. Its the right side of the defense where we need to be investing big money in world class young talent.

With Lescott leaving we claerly need a left sided centre half to provide Nastasic with competition, Mangala and nastasic could rotate quite well I'd have thought. Rekik isn't really ready to be playing regularly in the heart of our defence, he only turn 19 a month ago.

Agreed that if Lescott goes we need a LCB this season and Mangala is a HUGE upgrade on Lescott. I don't necessarily agree with your take on Rekik. Nastastic was also 19 when he debuted for us in Madrid. Three young CB's (all with the potential to be world class) is one too many.

 

[supercity88]

Nastasic has so much experience for a young lad, 2 years at that age is a long time. Give Nastasic two more seasons at the top level playing with those he has around him at City and in the big games he will have over those years and he will most definitely learn the skills he is lacking. It would have been good if we had have signed Pepe because in terms of getting in the oppositions faces, there aren't many better. Kompany has the mentality to destroy opposition attackers but Pepe uses the little tricks of the trade that make sure they know he is there. Nastasic could do with learning some of the physical side of things - but as I said in 2 years time if you were to compare Mangala now with Nastasic I doubt there will be much in it. Nastasic has the capability to be a brilliant centre back for a long long time.

 

[Neville Kneville]

I don't think Rekik will ever develop into a CB of the required standard. He'll be a good CB for someone, and he's very good technically for a defender, but I don't think he'll ever be half as good as Nastasic and Magala.

Neither do I & I'm not even convinced about Nastasic, but I doubt Rekik will even reach the level Nastasic is at now, never mind in the future.

I can't see anything in his game which suggests he would even make a good Championship centre back. Decent on the ball & would be ok at tackling if he was marking Rick Holden or Fat Bob Taylor every week. Most Prem strikers will have his balls for breakfast.

I'm more concerned that we don't block the futures of people like Denayer etc rather than Nastasic & certainly not Rekik.

If he becomes good enough, he will get games & I truly hope he does & that I end up being wrong, but he looks absolutely nowhere near it to me, & I'm totally baffled why his name keeps coming up .

 

[Plain Speaking]

Earlier in the thread someone said the lad can play RCB. Is there any evidence to support this? Seems to play almost exclusively LCB for Porto and from what I can tell is very left footed.

If this comes off its a big kick in the nuts for Rekik and Nasastic. Don't understand it personally. Its the right side of the defense where we need to be investing big money in world class young talent.

I was comparing Mangala to Van Dijk on transfermarkt.

Mangala can use either foot and can play right and left centre back as his main positions his secondary position is left fullback.
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/eliaquim-mangala/profil/spieler_90681.html?from=direktErgebnis" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/eliaq ... ktErgebnis</a>
Van Dijk is right footed and can also play either CB position with right fullback as his secondary position.
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/virgil-van-dijk/profil/spieler_139208.html?from=direktErgebnis" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/virgi ... ktErgebnis</a>

 

[FrancoisToure]

Earlier in the thread someone said the lad can play RCB. Is there any evidence to support this? Seems to play almost exclusively LCB for Porto and from what I can tell is very left footed.

If this comes off its a big kick in the nuts for Rekik and Nasastic. Don't understand it personally. Its the right side of the defense where we need to be investing big money in world class young talent.

I was comparing Mangala to Van Dijk on transfermarkt.

Mangala can use either foot and can play right and left centre back as his main positions his secondary position is left fullback.
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/eliaquim-mangala/profil/spieler_90681.html?from=direktErgebnis" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/eliaq ... ktErgebnis</a>
Van Dijk is right footed and can also play either CB position with right fullback as his secondary position.
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/virgil-van-dijk/profil/spieler_139208.html?from=direktErgebnis" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/virgi ... ktErgebnis</a>

Hmm...I don't see it in his play though. I have no doubt he can play RCB but I guess what I am wondering is can he be world class at RCB. From what I have seen the answer is no which means he is going to primarily play LCB.

If some of the folks on here are right and Rekik doesn't have the chops then this makes more sense. Especially if we make sure we have a young RCB in the works in the mold of Nastastic and Mangala. We can get by this season without strengthening there but we need to address it in the summer. Kompany with Demi backing him up is only going to last for so long.