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.
If we were a a team that set up defensively like say Huddersfield, maybe a case could be made for having a dominant CB but we defend on the halfway line. The main time we need a dominant CB is from corners but being an attack minded team we do not usually give away many corners so the benefit is less obvious to a CB player that can actually play a very good technical game.
It is important to have CB’s who can head the ball and Garcia does, but it is not why we bought Stones nor is it why we bought Laporte.
If we were a defensive team who sat back and had a back 10, which we don’t.So we would only have aerial problems in the box, if we defended like Huddersfield ?
He saying that a CB who can't pass is more of a liability for City than one who loses some aerial duels. And he's right.So we would only have aerial problems in the box, if we defended like Huddersfield ?
He saying that a CB who can't pass is more of a liability for City than one who loses since aerial duels. And he's right.
All of which is totally academic as there is no reason why Garcia, who is already the same size as Otamendi, should not be able to win headers
If we were a defensive team who sat back and had a back 10, which we don’t.
Makes you wonder why we have defenders at all.
We have full backs who are practically wingers, a goalkeeper who is a sweeper and CB’s who like to pass the ball around in Midfield. This is why Ederson is so important at what he does, any ball over the top he just sweeps up at the edge of the box. There is no doubt we are vulnerable to this type of attack but as Pep has stated it is a small price to pay for entertaining.
Just for the record how many dominating in the air defenders do you think we should have in the team. Is one not enough?We would win fuck all, without having dominating central defenders, as was shown conclusively by Pep's experiment with Kolarov.
Stick him in the gym doing squats, he'll improve.It will be academic if he develops an ability in the air.
Otherwise, he won't be cb at City.