Fernandinho - 2018/19 Performances

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"Fernandinho's role, it's so difficult to find. He knows the Premier League, after three years together here, he knows everything and that's so important. But of course, for the next season, it's an important target to find. He'll be 34 and cannot play every few days."
 
Another imperious game, despite an early booking, and at no point looked like getting another, still improving, has another 2 or 3 years in him yet (but please lets get his understudy ready in this time).
 
Another imperious game, despite an early booking, and at no point looked like getting another, still improving, has another 2 or 3 years in him yet (but please lets get his understudy ready in this time).
I think Walker should Kane that yellow card...
 
The general orthodoxy is that Ferny cannot go on for ever, but the reality is that he appears to be doing just that. Our problem is that players like Ferny only exist once in a generation, and we might well have to settle for someone who is inferior and whose all round game just falls short of what Ferny brings to the team. I used to think Dicky Dunne was everywhere but Ferny is everywhere twice!
 
The general orthodoxy is that Ferny cannot go on for ever, but the reality is that he appears to be doing just that. Our problem is that players like Ferny only exist once in a generation, and we might well have to settle for someone who is inferior and whose all round game just falls short of what Ferny brings to the team. I used to think Dicky Dunne was everywhere but Ferny is everywhere twice!

He will cave in though & Pep knows it, & as you say, it's far from easy to know exactly what to do about it.

You can see, at the start of some games now, he can be caught out as he gets his engine running again. He needs more time off.

Imo, some on here get completely sidetracked with the idea of some ball playing smartarse taking over the job. But we have players already who can do that, if that's all it needs.

The team are showing no ability whatsoever, to adapt & cover the holes, when Fern isn't there, none. We are often flawed defensively even with Fern in the team. Without him, we can be there for the taking. Somebody has to step up & reorganise the team to cover it & nobody has. And a 21 year old Dutch kid won't do it.

It's the defensive side of Fern's game which can't be replicated by anyone else, even Stones so far, irrespective of the fact he's a defender, he can't position himself. Again people worry more that he isn't splitting defences open & doesn't move the ball quick enough etc; all that stuff is far easier to fix, as a team full of flair players, than having a gaping fucking hole in front of the defence, which Chelsea for example still have half the time, with Jorginho playing there, even though their boss knows him inside out & he has Kante in the same team.

If we can't replace Fern, it's 50/50 we are going to end up going less like Barca rather than moreso imo, because we might simply get beat too often, otherwise.
 
Our best player or our most important player if you’d argue that de Bruyne is our best.

But why the fuck did we ditch his decent chant for that stupid pop song one that 90 of the 92 league clubs sing for some player in their team?

Proper bobbins, that!
 
The general orthodoxy is that Ferny cannot go on for ever, but the reality is that he appears to be doing just that. Our problem is that players like Ferny only exist once in a generation, and we might well have to settle for someone who is inferior and whose all round game just falls short of what Ferny brings to the team. I used to think Dicky Dunne was everywhere but Ferny is everywhere twice!
Even that which appears so, isn't! Get the future now, please!!!!
 
The general orthodoxy is that Ferny cannot go on for ever, but the reality is that he appears to be doing just that. Our problem is that players like Ferny only exist once in a generation, and we might well have to settle for someone who is inferior and whose all round game just falls short of what Ferny brings to the team. I used to think Dicky Dunne was everywhere but Ferny is everywhere twice!

When he does decline it could happen quickly and would ruin us completely. His replacement is crucial and there are few options out there who would get anywhere near what he provides for us. A tough job, probably the hardest player we have had to replace.
 
When he does decline it could happen quickly and would ruin us completely. His replacement is crucial and there are few options out there who would get anywhere near what he provides for us. A tough job, probably the hardest player we have had to replace.

We may have to settle for a player that can provide 75-80% of what Ferny delivers. It'll take some swallowing, but we City fans have bitten enough bullets in the past!
 
We may have to settle for a player that can provide 75-80% of what Ferny delivers. It'll take some swallowing, but we City fans have bitten enough bullets in the past!

I agree. Pep will prioritise passing over the energy that Fernandinho has in my opinion. Personally I would rather we had a Kante type that just covered ground all day long and got in the right positions to defend. But we know Pep would prefer someone who can play the counter attacking pass or feed the attacking players and develop their reading of the game over time. You don't have to be the quickest if you read the situation well. But Fernandinho so often intercepts the ball and has that pass in him to cut out an entire oppositions midfield and get us into attacking areas.
 
We may have to settle for a player that can provide 75-80% of what Ferny delivers. It'll take some swallowing, but we City fans have bitten enough bullets in the past!

I just hope three or four players are currently under Txiki's microscope!

I agree. Pep will prioritise passing over the energy that Fernandinho has in my opinion. Personally I would rather we had a Kante type that just covered ground all day long and got in the right positions to defend. But we know Pep would prefer someone who can play the counter attacking pass or feed the attacking players and develop their reading of the game over time. You don't have to be the quickest if you read the situation well. But Fernandinho so often intercepts the ball and has that pass in him to cut out an entire oppositions midfield and get us into attacking areas.

We need to remember that even Fernandinho wasn't Fernandinho when we bought him. For a start he was playing next to proper defensive midfielders and acting much more as a box to box at Shakhtar so there's no way the club went after him expect g him to be this perfect midfield pivot 5 years later, and secondly he's improved some areas of his game a lot under Pep.

The other thing is we bought him at 28 when he'd had years of experience playing as a 10, as part of a defensive 2 and even in wide areas.

The kids we are looking to replace him with are 21/22 and there's obvious reasons For going after young players, but its impossible for them to have as well rounded a game as Fernandinho because he had 350 games worth of experience.

We could buy a 22 year old Fernandinho clone tomorrow and it would still take a couple of years before he was ready to replace the one we have now.
 
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Pep says City have seen 'three or four' potential Fernandinho replacements. "We need a guy who has physicality, can read where our spaces are to attack. As many things as he can do, the better. It’s not easy to find one player who can do everything."
 
Yeeeeeaahhhh, I'm now convinced there's no other player like him. There's just no one that's as good in so many facets of the game that he is. Closest maybe Ndombele atm.

Whatever happens, I think we should definitely lower expectations because it will be extremely difficult to bring in a like for like replacement. We should appreciate what we have whilst we still have it, and that is a brilliant, ultra-professional, criminally underrated midfielder.
 
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