Eric Garcia 2018/19 performances

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mccity said:
I think to start with it's worth saying that any defensive position is a tough one for a manager as unlike with midfielders or forwards you can't just casually bring on a player for a few minutes here and there for experience.

If the player himself has a particular desire to stay or go out on loan I think we should respect it. Assuming he were wanting to go out on loan I'd say he needs to go somewhere he definitely play, regardless of style or standard. Normally I wouldn't suggest that; I'd say go somewhere he can learn the right way. But he's so young, talented and adept for the way we play already (more than any youth player I've seen yet) that I honestly think he can afford to lose time playing the 'wrong' way and gain that necessary experience in the more universally practical side of the game. That is, learning how to defend against actually grown men. Or at least getting the experience in facing it enough he has an idea of what it takes to develop. He'd easily be able to come back and get back up to speed with the way Guardiola sets up his teams.

If he's happy to be patient, then so am I. The time spent training under Guardiola and with our squad will have it's major upsides and he'll have a great opportunity to develop as a footballer, if not as a defender. He'll definitely get some games under his belt. But the major positive would be that he'd develop the kind of skillset that would mean if he can't crack it at CB he can easily move to either fullback or DM and retrain himself.

I'd say when he's about 20/21, if he hasn't been integrated into the first team squad properly (I think that could easily be the case), then that'd be the point he has to go on loan. But unlike before I think we'd need to be a bit picky about where goes. He'd be too far into his development to just be able to go somewhere and play a completely different way and then come back again. He'd benefit in the same way any loan would but it would probably unsettle him a bit too as far as his playing style is concerned.

Typing this out helps me understand why Pep gets so upset about the lack of B teams. Because if we had the option then we'd have a really obvious and practical means of solving this issue. Same with every youth player now that I think about it.
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I agree he doesn't really need to learn the 'right' way as regards to possession. He already knows it.

It could be that Pep will want to teach him stuff about when to come out & try to pinch the ball, when to drop off etc, but the main thing he needs now as regards playing cb, is to turn into a defensive monster, & he can't really discover his weaknesses & solve them, without playing senior football.

But we can't afford to have a weak link at cb in important games so it will be very difficult for him to improve that in a hurry, at City, unless he suddenly changes physically.

Be interesting to see how they approach it.
 
Neville Kneville said:
I agree he doesn't really need to learn the 'right' way as regards to possession. He already knows it.

It could be that Pep will want to teach him stuff about when to come out & try to pinch the ball, when to drop off etc, but the main thing he needs now as regards playing cb, is to turn into a defensive monster, & he can't really discover his weaknesses & solve them, without playing senior football.

But we can't afford to have a weak link at cb in important games so it will be very difficult for him to improve that in a hurry, at City, unless he suddenly changes physically.

Be interesting to see how they approach it.
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Agree, and I'm really keen to see how we deal with him too as it might set a precedent on top of other things. I'm glad he's got Pep as a coach, I think I remember hearing about Moyes showing the United defenders footage of Jagielka when he was in charge and it's made me appreciate how bad some coaches can be.
 
Neville Kneville said:
The thing with Ronaldo though, as with Richards; sprinters legs. They had that pace & power in their legs which could get them off the ground.

I don't see that with Garcia. It might be possible for him to aquire the ability to dominate the centre of a penalty area, I don't know for sure, but I know it's unlikely to happen in time that we could ditch Otamendi & have Garcia at cb in many games. Otamendi himself struggles against the real aerial specialists & he is miles away from where Garcia currently is.

I think we should look at other positions for Garcia, in case he can't get round this, as he is better on the ball than pretty much any defenders are. He can really spot a pass.

We don't want him to end up a player we can only use in a back 3.
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Really don't understand this fixation with him jumping. If all the characteristics that make a great CB, he seems to have them all, apart from some physical ones, and strength, explosiveness, etc are surely easier to train than authority, positioning, anticipation, calmness, eye for a pass, all of which he has in spades.
 
bobom said:
Really don't understand this fixation with him jumping. If all the characteristics that make a great CB, he seems to have them all, apart from some physical ones, and strength, explosiveness, etc are surely easier to train than authority, positioning, anticipation, calmness, eye for a pass, all of which he has in spades.
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He hasn't played against anybody yet, can we just calm down a bit ? He is very promising.

'Somebody' in City's team, has to dominate the centre of our penalty area.

If it isn't the centre backs, who is it ?

If one of the centre backs can't get off the ground, how wide & strong would he have to be, to stop Harry Kane from having free headers ? Or any of the other 20 odd players teams would put on him ?

Surely we are not going to claim it doesn't matter after all these years & even Pep, now talking about the importance of aerial ability from Fernandinho etc ?

It wouldn't even be slightly difficult, for any half decent crossing team, to create chances against Garcia currently.

So he absolutely has to gain that ability, to be a cb in the Premier League.

I can't see, so far, how he will aquire it, but imo it doesn't matter so long as we use his talents to their capability. He can play somewhere else other than cb, so long as we help him learn it.
 
Neville Kneville said:
He hasn't played against anybody yet, can we just calm down a bit ? He is very promising.

'Somebody' in City's team, has to dominate the centre of our penalty area.

If it isn't the centre backs, who is it ?

If one of the centre backs can't get off the ground, how wide & strong would he have to be, to stop Harry Kane from having free headers ? Or any of the other 20 odd players teams would put on him ?

Surely we are not going to claim it doesn't matter after all these years & even Pep, now talking about the importance of aerial ability from Fernandinho etc ?

It wouldn't even be slightly difficult, for any half decent crossing team, to create chances against Garcia currently.

So he absolutely has to gain that ability, to be a cb in the Premier League.

I can't see, so far, how he will aquire it, but imo it doesn't matter so long as we use his talents to their capability. He can play somewhere else other than cb, so long as we help him learn it.
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Is it not a wee bit hypocritical to suggest that it's early days and we shouldn't judge him yet, but go on at length about his weaknesses?
 
I know we shouldn’t get excited by YouTube clips of players but I swear I saw evidence of Garcia getting off the ground and head the ball on a few occasions.

Zinchenko is 1.75m and Garcia is 1.82m tall and yet Zinchenko competes really well in the air, so the idea Garcia is too small for a CB is untrue. I think it is a myth that Garcia can’t head the ball. He may not be in the mould of Kompany but to be honest there are not many of this type in the elite leagues. Further down the lower levels they still exist but elite football now has changed and there is less importance on being a dominant Centre Back in the air.
 
Blue Bogey said:
I know we shouldn’t get excited by YouTube clips of players but I swear I saw evidence of Garcia getting off the ground and head the ball on a few occasions.

Zinchenko is 1.75m and Garcia is 1.82m tall and yet Zinchenko competes really well in the air, so the idea Garcia is too small for a CB is untrue. I think it is a myth that Garcia can’t head the ball. He may not be in the mould of Kompany but to be honest there are not many of this type in the elite leagues. Further down the lower levels they still exist but elite football now has changed and there is less importance on being a dominant Centre Back in the air.
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No there isn't, it's absolutely essential in this league & we have had our arse spanked every single time we tried to be smart about it. Which is why we have fucking enormous central defenders as first choice rather than small ones.

Zinchenko is shite in the air even for a fullback. As a cb, he'd be eaten alive. Recently one of the teams whole tactic was putting a big shit no mark bloke on Zinchenko & leathering the ball at him. They created several goalscoring opportunities from it.


We had about two years of this nonsense re Fernandinho "we've read Pep's book & he doesn't want a player like that" Pep picked John Stones to play def mid recently because of his physique & aerial ability.

But it's not important to have cbs who can do it; of course it is.
 
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