Has the Full Back Problem returned?

[malg]

Is he? As others have said he always look a bit of a liability defensively when he has played as he goes marauding forward leaving all sorts of gaps at the back. Obviously as an attacking force he's something else but I worry about him as a defender.

I think we look a better side with him in it. The manager puts a lot of weight behind his use of the full backs, and he likes Mendy in the side.

As for the fans opinions.........I tend not to listen, especially on here.

 

[Damanino]

does the Mendy-Sane left side works?Remember start of the season we had some concerns about them together leaving that wide open. Then Mendy got injured for 6 months again.
I also have doubts on Mendy's defensive skills.

While Walker simply lost form , at least with him we saw some great performances last season and is form was quite good for long periods. This season he just cannot get it right, makes stupid mistakes, under pressure seems to struggle more. Like he won the league and that is enough for him its time to sit back and enjoy football without really winning anything more...

To think Pep had Dani Alves and Philippe Lahm in that position in their prime thats quite a dropdown in quality.
we invested a lot of money in Mendy, Danilo, Walker and it was like we solved fullback problems for next 5 years wasnt it.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

I do think walker is suffering big time from having pretty much no time off in the summer. He looks completely burnt out and his head just doesn’t look in it. Give him a full summer break and hopefully he regains the form of last season.

He had New Year and half of January off.

 

[Blueside]

I'm a Kyle Walker fan - so not really understanding why City fans are having so much of a go at him. A 'go,' = yes, so much of a 'go' = no.

Do I think he is perfect - no? Have I seen him make a mistake that gave away a goal - yes. Have I seen him go in a bit rash and give something away - yes.

Have I seen Vincent Kompany do all of these things - Yes.

There are some players who bring a certain territory with them and Walker, like Zabba and Vinny, brings himself to every game, and I'm glad he 's our right back.

I love that Walker places his game 100% on the front foot - always looking to push it; never hiding; always there for the fight. Always looking to make a show in the last third and taking a ton of risks in his wake, seeing if his pace can dig him out. It doesn't always work and for me that's the game that City as a whole are playing - always looking to play on the front toes of our opponents, when to some extent a '1-nil-to-the-arsenal' defensive wall approach might be wiser.

I think he can still improve tons, provided we don't give him too much unnecessary stick; just saying.

 

[shemnel]

I'm a Kyle Walker fan - so not really understanding why City fans are having so much of a go at him. A 'go,' = yes, so much of a 'go' = no.

Do I think he is perfect - no? Have I seen him make a mistake that gave away a goal - yes. Have I seen him go in a bit rash and give something away - yes.

Have I seen Vincent Kompany do all of these things - Yes.

There are some players who bring a certain territory with them and Walker, like Zabba and Vinny, brings himself to every game, and I'm glad he 's our right back.

I love that Walker places his game 100% on the front foot - always looking to push it; never hiding; always there for the fight. Always looking to make a show in the last third and taking a ton of risks in his wake, seeing if his pace can dig him out. It doesn't always work and for me that's the game that City as a whole are playing - always looking to play on the front toes of our opponents, when to some extent a '1-nil-to-the-arsenal' defensive wall approach might be wiser.

I think he can still improve tons, provided we don't give him too much unnecessary stick; just saying.

Thanks Mrs Walker

 

[Chi-town blues]

Why only full backs? The whole team has a problem when you fight on all four fronts . It’s just that full backs position gets magnified for obvious reasons and the worst part is ignoring and going full on cup competitions . Fucking madness

 

[Jacob Smith]

Why only full backs? The whole team has a problem when you fight on all four fronts . It’s just that full backs position gets magnified for obvious reasons and the worst part is ignoring and going full on cup competitions . Fucking madness

Because they're the positions costing us most of our goals through errors this season. In our bad run in December most of the opposition goals came from our left back going missing

 

[RandomJ]

Sorry I don't buy the Walker just needs a rest argument. If the guy has one thing going for him it's that he's an incredible athlete. His problems are not tired legs it's his decision making. He's regressed badly in that area and is making stupid decisions game after game. And I don't see Danilo as being the answer either. I know how much we spent on Walker so there is not a chance we will be spending big on a RB anytime soon, especially with FFP looming over us. A LB is all we will sign and we will have to hope Walker shapes up.

 

[Tricky_Trev]

Sorry I don't buy the Walker just needs a rest argument. If the guy has one thing going for him it's that he's an incredible athlete. His problems are not tired legs it's his decision making. He's regressed badly in that area and is making stupid decisions game after game. And I don't see Danilo as being the answer either. I know how much we spent on Walker so there is not a chance we will be spending big on a RB anytime soon, especially with FFP looming over us. A LB is all we will sign and we will have to hope Walker shapes up.

I think his lack of a break was part of the problem, but mostly it just looks like a guy that hasn’t responded well to success. He was craving something big all his career. Then he wins a double and his focus has gone. He’s made it.

 

[TueartsOHK]

I think full backs are integral to Pep’s style of play. If you look at the goals conceded it’s more often than not due to a mistake by a full back rather than a centre back.
I’m not giving up on Walker just yet - as many have said too many games hasn’t helped. If we had decent cover on the left I think Danilo is a better prospect at right back at the moment. I worry that Mendy isn’t ever going to be the player we want him to be. We can’t go another season with him missing this many games and not having adequate cover.
Chilwell looks ok but we would get ripped off by Leceister who don’t need to sell. I think a left back is the priority - particularly if It looks like Mendy is never getting a decent number of games. It’s a question of who we can sign in the summer now - in the meantime we have to make do. To answer the op I think we do have a problem and it’s a combination of long term injuries, having to play players out of position and also poor form.