Fernandinho

[Rammy Blue]

From someone who was sat in the "neutral" section I can confirm this is totally correct.

The City fans were immense last night.

Prawn sandwiches?

Beef Carpaccio (they'd ran out of tiger prawns) ; Fillet Steak and Profiteroles seeing as you asked ;-)

The filet steak was overcooked.

Bastards. Just can't get the staff nowadays. Take your own chef with you next time, lesson learnt.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

Prawn sandwiches?

Beef Carpaccio (they'd ran out of tiger prawns) ; Fillet Steak and Profiteroles seeing as you asked ;-)

The filet steak was overcooked.

Bastards. Just can't get the staff nowadays. Take your own chef with you next time, lesson learnt.

It's rude to complain when someone else is paying :-)

San Carlo do the food at the King Power believe it or not. It was very good, but still not as good as Villa Park, which is truly incredible.

 

[Gaylord du Bois]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gwYgcwh15o[/youtube]

Superb that, especially with the bouncing! Bet he loves it.

I didn't realise concrete could flex that much. If you bounced out of sync it met you on the way back down!

 

[kenzie115]

New favourite song, it's so simple but effective. Seemed to really build up last night and the 3rd goal gave it extra impetus.

 

[BlueDejong]

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/dec/18/question-holding-midfielders-changing-role?CMP=twt_gu

The Question: what does the changing role of holding midfielders tell us?
From the point of view of tactical evolution this has been the year of the holding midfielder, though the term seems outdated

The Manchester City partnership of Yaya Touré and Fernandinho shows how outmoded traditional footballing taxonomy has become.

Football is always evolving. It twists and turns, repeats and refines, its progression neither cyclical nor linear. Old traits that seemed forgotten, old ways of playing, crop up again, new contexts giving them new life. Roles divide and sub-divide, occasionally reunifying in startling way. Certain playing styles will remain seemingly inviolate for years, and then suddenly undergo change. From the point of view of tactical evolution, this has been the year of the holding midfielder.

At first the development from three-band into four-band formations – in England from a 4-4-2 default to a 4-2-3-1 default – led to the obvious splitting of the midfield role. The complete or box-to-box midfielders of the 80s found themselves consigned to a narrower role as midfield was divided into holders and creators. Over time, though, those roles have themselves become more specialised, in part because of the box-to-box players chafing against the restrictions imposed upon them.

The first development was that the two holding players in a 4-2-3-1 began to fall into one of two schools: the destroyer and the creator, the classic example of which was perhaps Javier Mascherano and Xabi Alonso at Liverpool. As Mascherano clattered about making tackles and collecting bookings, his role almost entirely of regaining possession and distributing it simply, Xabi Alonso, although capable of making tackles, focused on keeping the ball moving, occasionally raking long passes out to the flanks to change the angle of attack like an old-style regista.

Both types of player have always existed, of course – Nobby Stiles, Herbert Wimmer or Marco Tardelli being early examples of the Mascherano type, long before Claude Makelele gave the position a name; while Gérson, Glenn Hoddle or Sunday Oliseh could be seen as early incarnations of the Alonso type.

But as four-band systems have evolved to the point that the term midfielder seems hopelessly vague, so the taxonomy of the holders has expanded. Manchester City, this season, provide a fascinating example. Last season they had in Gareth Barry a destroyer-type and while Javi García could play in that role this season, Manuel Pellegrini has tended to pair Fernandinho with Yaya Touré.

Although both can certainly make tackles, and both are capable of regaining the ball, both spent most of last season playing as the more creative player alongside a destroyer. Fernandinho is a fine long passer, but he is not an Alonso or an Andrea Pirlo type; he is not a regista. Rather he likes to make forward surges, just as Touré does, and, as he showed against Arsenal on Saturday, is more than capable of scoring goals when chances present themselves. Whether the similarity with Touré is an advantage in giving City an extraordinary variety of possible angles of attack or a weakness in that it can leave the back four unprotected is arguable – although there are signs that the relationship between the two is developing – but the wider point is that neither fits comfortably into the template of either regista or destroyer.

This is a third way, neither entirely destructive nor creative, and more prone to advancing form a deep position than either a Mascherano or an Alonso type. The third way is to be a carrier or surger, a player capable of making late runs or carrying the ball at his feet. Bastian Schweinsteiger perhaps fits into the same category. Sami Khedira is a destroyer with carrying tendencies. Luka Modric is a carrier with a hint of regista.

There is significance too in that when Javi García has been used it has largely been as a central defender – even if that has been forced on Pellegrini by injury. He may not have excelled in the role, but the use of a destroyer-type in a central defensive role is becoming increasingly common, from Mascherano at Barcelona to Gary Medel with Chile. In fact, it could be argued that the use of a holding midfielder in defence is characteristically bielsista – Marcello Bielsa pioneered the practice with his use of Juan Manuel Llop at Newell's Old Boys and was still doing it with Javi Martínez – emphatically a regista rather than destroyer – at Athletic Bilbao.

That seems indicative of the broadest of all trends, which is initially counterintuitive. As positions become more specialised, as we divide the holder into destroyer, regista and carrier, and all points in between, so the importance of formations has diminished. Terms like 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1 are useful as a rough guide, but only that: the higher the level, the more teams are agglomerations of bundles of attributes; the key is balance rather than fitting to some abstract designation, even if that shape can be useful in the defensive phase.

Specialisation, paradoxically, enables universality as players are defined less by their positions than by what they can do. How new that is is debatable: Colin Todd, to take just one example, played for Brian Clough's Derby County both in midfield and in the back four, but that sort of versatility fell increasingly out of fashion in the 80s and 90s as squads grew in size and the increase in the number of substitutes made it less important for players to be able to play in multiple positions.

It's almost 20 years since Carlos Alberto Parreira prophesied the future of football as 4-6 – four defenders providing a platform for six creative players who would constantly interchange. The past year or so has seen the resurgence of the out-and-out centre-forward – Robert Lewandowski, Falcao, Gonzalo Higuaín, Asamoah Gyan, Olivier Giroud – but even then a number of those who play as nines have also played or have the capacity to play either wide or as 10s – Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Edinson Cavani, Luis Suárez, Robin van Persie, Mario Mandzukic, Sergio Agüero, Diego Costa: the trend still seems to be towards universality though specialism.

The question, then, is whether, given how modern full-backs play often as wide midfielders, Parreira's 4-6 vision of the future has been overtaken by a 3-7, either as three centre-backs or two centre-backs with a destroyer just in front of them. That is another discussion, but what is true is that to speak of a holding role is merely to describe a player's position on the pitch and not how he interprets it.

<br /><br />-- Wed Dec 18, 2013 10:14 am --<br /><br />

http://www.whoscored.com/Articles/4gdcsz-3ckcdduu2q5oela/Show/Player-Focus-Fernandinho-Breaker-and-Maker-of-Play

Player Focus: Fernandinho - Breaker and Maker of Play
by Jonathan Wilson

When Manchester City brought in Fernandinho to replace Gareth Barry, the instinct was to think that although they’d upgraded, his pairing with Yaya Toure might cause defensive issues. The classic modern midfield partnership, after all, tends to feature an out-and-out holder, a ball winner who sits deep to protect the central defenders, and alongside him somebody more progressive, a player adept at making runs from deep, of advancing with the ball and taking advantage of any space that may emerge. Toure and Fernandinho are both of the latter variety.

That means they either have to be incredibly disciplined as a pairing, with one pushing on and one sitting back, never committing both forward at once , or that City have to play with a high enough line that regaining the ball is done through the application of pressure rather than by tackling, that City become a radically proactive team.

The former is possible at club level – the endless Gerrard-Lampard discussions indicate how difficult it is at international level when players have limited time to work together – and there are signs that Toure and Fernandinho are developing an understanding, but it may be that the latter is the long-term plan, something that is being held up slightly by the need to use the less than rapid Martin Demichelis at centre-back.
Even if concerns remain over the pairing – and with Sergio Agüero absent over the next month, it’ll be fascinating to see whether Manuel Pellegrini starts using David Silva rather than a second striker, bolstering the centre of midfield, as he did in Munich – Fernandinho has emerged as one of the stars of City’s season, even if he was largely unsung until his double against Arsenal on Saturday. In fact, according to the WhoScored.com ratings, he has been City’s third-best player this season (7.68), behind only David Silva and Agüero. In fact, of players who have played 10 games or more, he is the fourth-best player in the Premier League.

However unnatural he may at times appear in the holding role, it can’t be denied that he performs the defensive part of his job with gusto. Fernanidnho averages 3.4 tackles per game, the eighth highest figure among midfielders (although of course players for teams that have a lesser share of the ball than City have more opportunities to make tackles), and 2.6 interceptions, the seventh highest figure among midfielders. Adding tackles and interceptions together, only Lucas Leiva and Mile Jedinak, among midfielders, have regained the ball more often per game than Fernandinho.

Yet that really isn’t the major strength of his game. A pass success rate of 87.2% isn’t sensational, but it is very good for somebody who completes as many as 3.6 accurate long-balls per game. By comparison, Jedinak plays 3.9 accurate long-balls but has a pass success rate of only 74.2%, while Lucas, although he has a pass success rate of 91.1% completes only 2.4 accurate long passes per game. Equally two assists may not seem like many, but the only player categorised as a holding midfielder with more this season is Yaya Toure, while only four players in that position can better his 1.3 key passes per game.

That level of completeness – as a breaker of play and a maker of play - is exceptional and Saturday’s performance suggested he is growing in confidence. The danger is that too many forward surges leave City’s back four exposed, but given Toure is a player of similar attributes, if they can continue to develop their relationship, or if the overall structure becomes more geared to the high press, the result is that City will have even more angles of attack, that they will be – and the thought is staggering for a side that has scored almost 4.5 goals per game at home this season – even more devastating going forwards.

 

[cibaman]

Great song for Ferna,first heard the tune used by Lille fans about 16 years ago.....Lille OSC at the end.

Silva looked disgusted. Could see him thinking "How many more players are going to get a song before me? Zabas got two!"

 

[aguero93:20]

Great song for Ferna,first heard the tune used by Lille fans about 16 years ago.....Lille OSC at the end.

Silva looked disgusted. Could see him thinking "How many more players are going to get a song before me? Zabas got two!"

He doesn't care, he knows he's got the highest selling jersey in the club shop.

 

[Richard]

I have been singing this in work all morning, getting quite a few puzzled looks from other colleagues.

 

[unexpected item]

Great song for Ferna,first heard the tune used by Lille fans about 16 years ago.....Lille OSC at the end.

Silva looked disgusted. Could see him thinking "How many more players are going to get a song before me? Zabas got two!"

He doesn't care, he knows he's got the highest selling jersey in the club shop.

Silva's problem is he hasn't enough syllables in his name to make a decent song.

 

[aguero93:20]

Silva looked disgusted. Could see him thinking "How many more players are going to get a song before me? Zabas got two!"

He doesn't care, he knows he's got the highest selling jersey in the club shop.

Silva's problem is he hasn't enough syllables in his name to make a decent song.

Pelle has too many according to a couple on here...

 

[alberto0292]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gwYgcwh15o[/youtube]

Tra la la la la or Whoa whoa woah ?

 

[cheddar404]

I have been singing this in work all morning, getting quite a few puzzled looks from other colleagues.

I hope you're not funeral director

 

[Didsbury Dave]

From someone who was sat in the "neutral" section I can confirm this is totally correct.

The City fans were immense last night.

Prawn sandwiches?

Beef Carpaccio (they'd ran out of tiger prawns) ; Fillet Steak and Profiteroles seeing as you asked ;-)

The filet steak was overcooked.

Carpaccio and fillet steak in the same meal?

I hope you complained. That's piss poor menu design.

 

[ell]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gwYgcwh15o[/youtube]

Tra la la la la or Whoa whoa woah ?

Trololololo Fits Fernadinho better shirley?

 

[JamesMCFC]

Whoohooohoo Fernandinho!

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

Prawn sandwiches?

Beef Carpaccio (they'd ran out of tiger prawns) ; Fillet Steak and Profiteroles seeing as you asked ;-)

The filet steak was overcooked.

Carpaccio and fillet steak in the same meal?

I hope you complained. That's piss poor menu design.

I know DD, but I'm far too polite to complain :-)

I suspect the Carpaccio was on there because it's easy to bang out in large quantities.

 

[br62]

Great song for Ferna,first heard the tune used by Lille fans about 16 years ago.....Lille OSC at the end.

Silva looked disgusted. Could see him thinking "How many more players are going to get a song before me? Zabas got two!"

I have heard that he is going to ask for a transfer in January because of this.....we have basically a couple of weeks to come up with something......any good songwriters out there.

 

[Ducado]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gwYgcwh15o[/youtube]

Tra la la la la or Whoa whoa woah ?

Got everything to make it that one

 

[davymcfc]

Proper European tune that is.

 

[n_mcfc]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7NZUFHENaE[/youtube]

This should be the Silva chant!

Ole Ole.
Ole Ole Ole.
David Silva Ole
David Silva Ole
David Silva Oleeee

Sing it once. Stick in YouTube. Viral. Done.