Javi Garcia (continued)

[Lancet Fluke]

Jesus, I never thought I'd read Bluemoon members wishing for Garcia back, what a turn around.

Granted, I think we could have done with him against Chelsea and I appreciate his, albeit slightly limited, role.

It would only have potentially helped if Pellegrini would have played one up front and Garcia next to MDM which I'm not convinced he would. If anyone thinks Garcia would have been better equipped to deal with that Chelsea midfield on his own than MDM was then they are sadly mistaken imo.

 

[kaz7]

Out tomorrow and wed,pellers hopeful for next weekend
come back javi all is forgiven

 

[bobmcfc]

Out tomorrow and wed,pellers hopeful for next weekend
come back javi all is forgiven

Forget Fernandinho, we are well and truly fudged with this news :(

 

[BlueTG]

Jesus, I never thought I'd read Bluemoon members wishing for Garcia back, what a turn around.

Granted, I think we could have done with him against Chelsea and I appreciate his, albeit slightly limited, role.

It would only have potentially helped if Pellegrini would have played one up front and Garcia next to MDM which I'm not convinced he would. If anyone thinks Garcia would have been better equipped to deal with that Chelsea midfield on his own than MDM was then they are sadly mistaken imo.

I personally think, given his recent good form he would have been slightly better at his duties in the middle. MDM's on the ball skills are much better, but the whole Chelsea team more often than not bypassed him time and time again. If's and but's I guess.

 

[Lancet Fluke]

Jesus, I never thought I'd read Bluemoon members wishing for Garcia back, what a turn around.

Granted, I think we could have done with him against Chelsea and I appreciate his, albeit slightly limited, role.

It would only have potentially helped if Pellegrini would have played one up front and Garcia next to MDM which I'm not convinced he would. If anyone thinks Garcia would have been better equipped to deal with that Chelsea midfield on his own than MDM was then they are sadly mistaken imo.

I personally think, given his recent good form he would have been slightly better at his duties in the middle. MDM's on the ball skills are much better, but the whole Chelsea team more often than not bypassed him time and time again. If's and but's I guess.

FWIW I thought MDM did pretty well in the circumstances. MDM's passing is better than Garcia's and his tackling is better than Garcia's. It's not as if you'd say that Garcia is much quicker at closing people down (in fact I'd say MDM shows greater urgency in terms of closing down) or has fantastically better energy levels than MDM so I'm not sure what people think Garcia would have done any better when outnumbered by a young midfield who were all having good games. Fernandinho would have been a different kettle of fish because apart from being a great footballer he is quick and has incredible energy levels but I really don't see how anyone thinks Garcia would have made a difference there instead of MDM. Even his staunchest supporters seem to think he can only function as part of a three.

 

[Worst Case Ontario]

MDM looked like schoolgirl out there against Chelsea. There is no doubt that Garcia would have done better, he couldn't do any worse

 

[Lancet Fluke]

MDM looked like schoolgirl out there against Chelsea. There is no doubt that Garcia would have done better, he couldn't do any worse

Alternatively he was outnumbered by younger, fitter players, generally given little or no support by others as we were caught on the break time and again. I think Garcia could definitely have done worse considering MDM's passing was decent (and generally in a forwards direction) and he made several great challenges. If you think Garcia trotting around slowly, not tackling (because by and large he can't, although I did notice he made two tackles against Cardiff which stood out due to his usual lack of tackles) would have successfully negated that Chelsea midfield, then I have to disagree. To be honest I think even Fernandinho would have had his work cut out not to get horribly overrun on Monday night and he is in a different league to Garcia or MDM in that position. I suspect Garcia would have looked every bit the school girl (as you put it) if he'd been unfortunate enough to have been confronted by that Chelsea team on Monday night.

 

[NQCitizen]

It would only have potentially helped if Pellegrini would have played one up front and Garcia next to MDM which I'm not convinced he would. If anyone thinks Garcia would have been better equipped to deal with that Chelsea midfield on his own than MDM was then they are sadly mistaken imo.

I personally think, given his recent good form he would have been slightly better at his duties in the middle. MDM's on the ball skills are much better, but the whole Chelsea team more often than not bypassed him time and time again. If's and but's I guess.

FWIW I thought MDM did pretty well in the circumstances. MDM's passing is better than Garcia's and his tackling is better than Garcia's. It's not as if you'd say that Garcia is much quicker at closing people down (in fact I'd say MDM shows greater urgency in terms of closing down) or has fantastically better energy levels than MDM so I'm not sure what people think Garcia would have done any better when outnumbered by a young midfield who were all having good games. Fernandinho would have been a different kettle of fish because apart from being a great footballer he is quick and has incredible energy levels but I really don't see how anyone thinks Garcia would have made a difference there instead of MDM. Even his staunchest supporters seem to think he can only function as part of a three.

There's some interesting points in there but here's my counter argument - Demichelis' urgency leaves him providing less cover to the back 4 than Garcia and Yaya seemed far more reluctant to get forward partnering Martin than Javi. I actually though Demichelis did as well as he could but that Garcia's more conservative style would have been of benefit to the team, with almost 5 defenders and a less restrained Yaya. Demichelis' passing may be more adventurous but "better" is debatable as Garcia is one of most effective players at passing to keep possession, even when under pressure. Again Demichelis tackling is more adventurous but once again "better" is up for debate.

One central player rushing to close down 3 attacking mids wasn't tactically right for the game, we'd have benefited from that extra body in front of the centre backs - unless it's Fernandinho who frequently does the work of two men.

Garcia is best in a 3 for sure, but I still think when the options are Rodwell and Milner who are inconsistent in possession and rash in the challenge, Demichelis who is slightly too impetuous and lacks mobility similar to Garcia and the ultra-safe (not a lauded characteristic, but a useful one) Garcia, Javi is our man for the job.

 

[Marvin]

MDM did OK against Chelsea. It's easy to break on City when we lose the ball in attack.

Chelsea's counter-attacks were not down to MDM's lack of mobility, but our open style. The style was fine, it was just that the forward play was poor

 

[BigOscar]

It surely must be pointed out that Javi has actually played very well in the big games and been very effective at neutralising counter attacks down the middle. In the first game against Chelsea he did not give them a sniff through the middle, all be it in a 3 man midfield with Fernandinho present.

People criticise Javi for not lunging in to tackles (and bizarrely praise MDM for it, despite him missing more than he succeeded) but it's an intentional ploy. He backs off and tries to stay between the man with the ball and the goal, forcing them to have to try and beat the defensive unit, rather than lunging in and taking himself out of the game. The number of times he stops counter attacks by simply doing that and making the attacker turn back and look for support is invaluable, even if it is the sort of thing you never get praise for. MDM's style of trying to single handedly stop counter attacks in an all or nothing lunge is just unnecessarily risky and I can guarantee any tricky dribbler would far rather an opponent lunged in on a counter attack as opposed to backing off and forcing them to play through a 3 man center.

Not to mention that he certainly wouldn't have let their wingers repeatedly bring the ball down on their chests from long balls forward like MDM and Nastasic did. Hopefully he's back for Barcelona, otherwise Neymar and Messi will have an absolute field day with MDM