Javi Garcia (continued)

[CatMan]

The fact he has learnt english better in less than 2 years to a better standard than most of us lot can speak it after a lifetime tells you all you need to know about the intelligence, professionalism and determination of this man.

Well done Javi. You have made many choke on their previous criticisms, and you thoroughly deserve your success this season.

 

[FantasyIreland]

He's done well recently,i'll go as far as to suggest we may not be Champs without his input..... definitely a better player than I believed he was,he must be given huge credit and respect for that improvement,both physically and mentally,lesser characters may have crumbled.

We still need to recruit better,whether that's his replacement,or his colleague,remains to be seen.

 

[Deleted member 58678]

We bought him for 16m, how much is he worth now ?

About £13m! as he was only worth about £10m but because it was deadline day and we had Marwood dealing with signings, and because we're City, we were ripped off!

Had a good few months recently and he looks a steady squad player now. He can't get anywhere near Fernandinho's quality when he's at his best but when Fern picked up that knock last month and lost form Javi has done well.

 

[Ray78]

If we did sell him we will recoup the money we have paid for him but will not make much profit on him. Still worth keeping though.

 

[taconinja]

He's done well recently,i'll go as far as to suggest we may not be Champs without his input..... definitely a better player than I believed he was,he must be given huge credit and respect for that improvement,both physically and mentally,lesser characters may have crumbled.

We still need to recruit better,whether that's his replacement,or his colleague,remains to be seen.

I would agree with that.

 

[Stoned Rose]

Some people are clearly still using last season's Garcia to underpin their opinion.

If he'd have signed last summer and played as consistently well as he has this season, you'd be ridiculous to say he hadn't been a success.

Does what it says on the tin and does it well.

Well done Javi :)

To use your words, what's on the tin would be: "average passer, average tackler, average (at best) speed, reasonable in the air, contributes nothing in defence". If that was the scouting report, I wouldn't want to sign that player. I'm not saying he can't be a serviceable Premier League player for a lower mid-table team like West Ham or Sunderland. But for a title-winning team that has big aspirations in Europe, he's not close to making the grade.

Now given we have him, we can use him as a reserve who can come on to shore up a game but that's about it. The fact that he is improved from last year doesn't mean a whole lot since there was such a low bar to cross from last year.

And btw, he was pretty poor yesterday. Made a couple of decent tackles early on, but gave the ball away on a few occasions and was generally pretty static. Probably our weakest player on the park.

If you genuinely believe he 'contributes nothing in defence' you undeniably can't read the game.

 

[NQCitizen]

He's done well recently,i'll go as far as to suggest we may not be Champs without his input..... definitely a better player than I believed he was,he must be given huge credit and respect for that improvement,both physically and mentally,lesser characters may have crumbled.

We still need to recruit better,whether that's his replacement,or his colleague,remains to be seen.

Very fair, that.

 

[dobobobo]

He's done well recently,i'll go as far as to suggest we may not be Champs without his input..... definitely a better player than I believed he was,he must be given huge credit and respect for that improvement,both physically and mentally,lesser characters may have crumbled.

We still need to recruit better,whether that's his replacement,or his colleague,remains to be seen.

I was part of the critiscm that expected this to happen (in bold - but I also agree with all of the above.) He did the opposite and I fucking salute him because of it!

 

[abellwillring]

If we keep him them I will happily cheer him on, but I wouldn't mind seeing him get shipped off this summer particularly if we do bring in Fernando. He's been a great member of the squad and has played much better this season but I'm constantly nervous when he has the ball. He's a good and accurate passer typically, but he's slow to get rid of the ball and can get caught when they're pressing. He doesn't really have the pace or agility to quickly get back when he's been dispossessed as well which results in some scary circumstances.

We'd definitely get at least 10m or so for him now though which is far better than I would have expected after he really struggled quite a bit late last season.

 

[kaz7]

#SOJ
Save our javi

 

[Andy Morrisons jock strap]

Hope I'm wrong but his lack of pace is a major concern and I think for a team wanting to win the Champions league he is not quite good enough, that said thanks for coming to our rescue when Ferna was carrying an injury, you deserve your medal

 

[yamcha]

Hope I'm wrong but his lack of pace is a major concern and I think for a team wanting to win the Champions league he is not quite good enough, that said thanks for coming to our rescue when Ferna was carrying an injury, you deserve your medal

I don't think he was carrying an injury.

I think MP preferred to have an anchorman on the pitch in these last few games.

Fernandinho is more of a destroyer, not an anchorman.

 

[CitizenTID]

Hope I'm wrong but his lack of pace is a major concern and I think for a team wanting to win the Champions league he is not quite good enough, that said thanks for coming to our rescue when Ferna was carrying an injury, you deserve your medal

He started playing well from the game in Munich. He seemed really shy last year with a dented confidence - our crowd should learn not to get on a bandwagon scapegoating as he said he could hear groans when not playing well and if it doesn't help him it doesn't help us. Seems like a top bloke from his interviews in english as well and he hasn't put a foot wrong last third of the season he's played (apart from maybe 2 dodgy passes if your being picky)

 

[Blue Is the Opposite of Blue]

I think Garcia has been solid since just before the turn of the year. He was thrown into the lion's pit at St. James Park to protect a 1-0 lead and we didn't look close to conceding with him on the pitch. In fact, we rarely do whenever he's around.

His role in the team is crucial. He might not cover a lot of ground in a short space of time, and high profile moments such as his feeble attempt to keep within 2 yards of Ross Barkley make it look even worse, but he does more for the team than people realise.

He wins every header, protects Kompany and Demichelis without lifting a finger, pushes Yaya forward to support our strikers and keeps our shape superbly. He's the yardstick in the team.

A useful, solid and now ultimately reliable defensive midfielder that may be slow and a little soft in the tackle, but vital in the air and crucial to the balancing act we have to play at all times.

An upgrade on Barry? Not in all departments, but I know who I'd rather have now. Glad the fans have stuck by him enough. He had a difficult first few months with injuries and poor form, but he's happier now. He's settled and he's producing results. Well done, big man.

 

[Hungarian blue]

Unfortunately I only watched the final game of the season from the 55th minute and I thought that he must have been an embarrassment in the first as people were constantly slagging him here, yet I didn't notice anything like this. Well, I don't know what some people are on but as I rewatched the game I think he played absolutely fine through the whole game.

Once he got caught up in possession, that does not mean he was shit.

EDIT: breaking news are that he didn't make the Spain squad [not even the 30 squad], which is hardly a big surprise, still sad for him though

 

[aguero93:20]

Missed out on the Spain squad unfortunately although it wasn't unexpected.

 

[BlueTG]

I think Garcia has been solid since just before the turn of the year. He was thrown into the lion's pit at St. James Park to protect a 1-0 lead and we didn't look close to conceding with him on the pitch. In fact, we rarely do whenever he's around.

His role in the team is crucial. He might not cover a lot of ground in a short space of time, and high profile moments such as his feeble attempt to keep within 2 yards of Ross Barkley make it look even worse, but he does more for the team than people realise.

He wins every header, protects Kompany and Demichelis without lifting a finger, pushes Yaya forward to support our strikers and keeps our shape superbly. He's the yardstick in the team.

A useful, solid and now ultimately reliable defensive midfielder that may be slow and a little soft in the tackle, but vital in the air and crucial to the balancing act we have to play at all times.

An upgrade on Barry? Not in all departments, but I know who I'd rather have now. Glad the fans have stuck by him enough. He had a difficult first few months with injuries and poor form, but he's happier now. He's settled and he's producing results. Well done, big man.

I disagree now, he's put in a lot of hard, crunching and ball winning tackles this year.

 

[The Fat el Hombre]

Hope I'm wrong but his lack of pace is a major concern and I think for a team wanting to win the Champions league he is not quite good enough, that said thanks for coming to our rescue when Ferna was carrying an injury, you deserve your medal

I don't think he was carrying an injury.

I think MP preferred to have an anchorman on the pitch in these last few games.

Fernandinho is more of a destroyer, not an anchorman.

Nah he was carrying an injury. No one in their right mind would play Garcia over Fernandinho, in any part of the midfield

Think a lot of you are going OTT with the praise of him to be honest. Garcia needs to be replaced

 

[Blue Theatre]

For various reasons, our run-in to the title came to rely on the likes of Garcia, Kolarov and Demichelis ...

... not many people would have expected that at the start of the season, but I'm not sure we'd have got over the line without them - they all played their part when we really needed them.

That said, wouldn't surprise me if Pellegrini sold some/all of them this Summer, as City set their sights very very high these days.

 

[Joburg Hero]

He's improved a lot in 2014 and I think he'll be excellent cover for Fernando next season.