Javi Garcia (continued)

[taconinja]

Indeed, pace is lovely but lack of it doesn't have to stop a player being effective. Garcia has closed people down with more urgency recently and has read the game better generally, I doubt he can run any quicker now than he could two months ago but he has been much more effective. Of course he will still get caught out by rapid players occasionally but that's the just way it goes.

I agree. I'm simply glad to see improvement.

And for all this talk of fans needing scapegoats etc, I don't think fans like to have scapegoats at all, they would much prefer all the players to be good and are happy to rethink their opinions if a player turns his performances round. As Garcia will find out if he maintains his current form for a sustained period because the fans will stop criticising him, in fact people are already showing how pleased they are that he seems to be playing better after only a handful of decent games. I hate this idea that players can be disappointing for long periods of time but fans are somehow cunts for being critical, the same fans who by and large love the players who try their best and who play well. Footballers get plenty of praise when they do well, nowt wrong with getting criticism when they consistently don't do well. They have to earn the supporters' love and respect.

To an extent I agree, but too many preemptively look for a player to blame for our loss in an upcoming game. Sometimes, the other squad had a better day overall. Sometimes, that squad might just be better than ours as a matter of fact. We love our club and we like to think we've the best squad in the world. Most fans of most top clubs do.

As an addendum, I don't believe being critical makes one a ****. The frustration I occasionally have is when a player has a good game and certain fans refuse to give credit. Of course, I also have the same frustration in reverse when a player has a poor game, but fans insist it doesn't matter because they scored a goal three years ago.

 

[bluemc1]

i find it always seems to be our worst players who get singled out, anyone else notice this ?

 

[taconinja]

i find it always seems to be our worst players who get singled out, anyone else notice this ?

No because we have a couple who fans resist criticizing despite evidence.

 

[bluemc1]

i find it always seems to be our worst players who get singled out, anyone else notice this ?

No because we have a couple who fans resist criticizing despite evidence.

not me i slag em all off, Vinny and Silva got it both barrels saturday and they are 2 of the best i have seen play for City, im firm but im fair

 

[NQCitizen]

i find it always seems to be our worst players who get singled out, anyone else notice this ?

Richards, Rodwell, Lescott.

Vs.

Dzeko, Garcia, Kolarov.

 

[Lancet Fluke]

"There have been times when it hasn't been easy. Sometimes, in the quieter moments of the game, you can hear that the fans maybe aren't happy with you but things have been different recently and I know and have heard them really getting behind me which helps me even more."

"It hadn't happened that often but against Cardiff and Chelsea things felt much better and I put that down to playing more regularly and in turn, the fact I've played well in those matches."

Don't think this has been posted before. Feel for the poor guy when he gets signaled out EVEN if he hasn't had the best of games. Lets just please fucking get behind our players, our support does matter !

I'm not saying it is ok to single City players out for abuse at the match (I was more talking about players being singled out for criticism on here) but have to say, I think City players get a pretty good ride these days. In the dark days some of our players used to get proper abuse. These days, if a player isn't doing so well then you tend to get a mass groan and maybe the odd fan being out of order which you're bound to get in any crowd of 47000. As far as I am aware that pretty much happens everywhere that a crowd groans when a player is fucking up. It's quite simple though because even if you aren't playing well, if you work your bollocks off to try to turn it round, the fans will be very forgiving. If, ultimately you aren't good enough then yes the fans won't cheer your name from the roof tops but then I'm surprised any footballer would be surprised by that. As for "feeling for the poor guy," really?

 

[Bodicoteblue]

Garcia is patently not a bad player , but someone said he was " disappointing" - but disappointment is only relative to where you pitch your expectations.
He was disappointing if you expected a player from the fairly second rate Portuguese league to step straight into the boots of Gareth Barry , a player with huge experience of the PL without a period of adjustment in terms of the pace and physicality of the game here.
Having been played out of position and fairly intermittently , he seems to have come to terms with what is expected of him and I for one, think he will get better .

 

[Lancet Fluke]

I agree. I'm simply glad to see improvement.

And for all this talk of fans needing scapegoats etc, I don't think fans like to have scapegoats at all, they would much prefer all the players to be good and are happy to rethink their opinions if a player turns his performances round. As Garcia will find out if he maintains his current form for a sustained period because the fans will stop criticising him, in fact people are already showing how pleased they are that he seems to be playing better after only a handful of decent games. I hate this idea that players can be disappointing for long periods of time but fans are somehow cunts for being critical, the same fans who by and large love the players who try their best and who play well. Footballers get plenty of praise when they do well, nowt wrong with getting criticism when they consistently don't do well. They have to earn the supporters' love and respect.

To an extent I agree, but too many preemptively look for a player to blame for our loss in an upcoming game. Sometimes, the other squad had a better day overall. Sometimes, that squad might just be better than ours as a matter of fact. We love our club and we like to think we've the best squad in the world. Most fans of most top clubs do.

As an addendum, I don't believe being critical makes one a ****. The frustration I occasionally have is when a player has a good game and certain fans refuse to give credit. Of course, I also have the same frustration in reverse when a player has a poor game, but fans insist it doesn't matter because they scored a goal three years ago.

That's an extreme example, I don't think most fans would overlook long spells of poor form just because one important goal has been scored in the past. It's more usual that you get players who have generally been consistently very good being given more leeway when form dips but I'd say that is reasonable.

 

[Lancet Fluke]

Garcia is patently not a bad player , but someone said he was " disappointing" - but disappointment is only relative to where you pitch your expectations.
He was disappointing if you expected a player from the fairly second rate Portuguese league to step straight into the boots of Gareth Barry , a player with huge experience of the PL without a period of adjustment in terms of the pace and physicality of the game here.
Having been played out of position and fairly intermittently , he seems to have come to terms with what is expected of him and I for one, think he will get better .

I don't think he is a bad player now because I have seen very recently what he can do. I now know that he can tackle with a bit of bite, he can close players down with some urgency and he can shift the ball a bit quicker without dallying on the ball. In a sense it makes the previous 18 months more frustrating because whether he is in a new league or not, whether he has been asked to play centre back a handful of times in those 18 months or not, the two things he could always have done is show a bit of aggression in his tackling and closed down with a bit of urgency. As for expectations, I expect every player to be good enough to justify his particular role in what is a title challenging squad. Garcia's role in the squad is basically first stand in for Fernandinho. The way Garcia was playing in the first half of the season, he wasn't playing well enough to be the first stand in, the drop off was too big and he wasn't meeting expectations. I'm thinking that's probably why we tried to sign a replacement in January. The last couple of games he has looked a different player entirely to me and he is now doing what should be expected of him as a fairly prominent member of a top Prem squad.

 

[Thenumber1blue]

i find it always seems to be our worst players who get singled out, anyone else notice this ?

Richards, Rodwell, Lescott.

Vs.

Dzeko, Garcia, Kolarov.

I'd keep the second 3 out of them two lists !