Said it before and I'll keep saying it about Garcia, he needs time to adapt to the way we play. Admittedly he's not had the best season but lets look at this a bit differently shall we?
He came here from Benfica and was immediately thrown in to the team away at Stoke (not the easiest of games and he even played quite well) - then he had a bit of a run in the team before that Arsenal game at home when he was in midfield with Toure. We were shit and so was Toure. Garcia was asked to run the midfield alone against Arsenal, even though he'd only been here about 2-3 months. No matter how good a player is or cynical you want to be, that's not an easy task.
The way we play, our midfield is essential. More so than any other part of the pitch. Gareth Barry is absolutely crucial for us. We move the ball in the middle quickly, efficiently and from the back to front, across the middle, constantly. And Barry's 'role' is essentially an active one for 90 mins. Garcia's been brought in to do that too. He obviously needs to learn this role. At Benfica, do you think he was ever as active for long periods of a game like he is at City? I know we paid a lot, possibly overpaid, but we haven't bought another Ged Brannan here. Some players, pardon the overused cliche, DO need time to adapt the English game.
Anyway, I think he got injured shortly after that Arsenal game, hampering any progress he could make in terms of; settling in to the team, getting match fit, adapting to the league, adapting to our system, our players etc. Again, he came back against Wigan and had a poor game like 4-5 other players that night.
He came back in to the team and I recall him hitting a bit of form around January near the Newcastle game away. He was playing well and looked to be settling in. We hit a bit of form before that Sunderland game away and Garcia was going relatively unnoticed, going his job unspectacularly. Fair enough.
Then, why I do not know, we started to play him at centre half?! Eh? This came to a head away at S'hampton and QPR away when we looked shite. Again, Garcia came out of the team.
It's been very stop-start for Garcia and as I said before, given the importance of 'that' role he needs to adapt to, he's been a bit overwhelmed and unfortunate in my opinion. I've no doubts that he offers more than De Jong did. Fair enough, De Jong broke up the play when needed, but when, last year, did we actually need that? When was our midfield over-run? Garcia offers that bit more which we've only seen in glimpses (especially an aerial threat and presence) - Garcia was brought in to replace De Jong and give us that bit extra in the middle. Unfortunately, he's not really played enough to adapt to our style, he's had a few injuries and even been played at centre (still don't get that). Obviously there have been a few poor performances along the way but this has only lowered his confidence which, again, given the circumstances and frustrations of this season (and the fact that his name crops up when ever ANYONE talks about the 'failings' of this season) hasn't helped.
As I said, he's replaced De Jong and, eventually, will give us that extra bit of threat and presence in the middle. He's not shit. If you don't rate him, fair enough. But the idea that we've bought an average player and let a world class one go is a bit daft. He'll be alright, no doubts.
