As the title says, I think these two players will be crucial to our success, and are excellent players to have in any squad.
Against the top teams, we won't have a problem. I don't doubt that when United come to Manchester, we'll turn them over. But United are better than us at breaking down the lesser teams. They get the ball wide, lump it into the box and wait for the double deflection which allows them to score.
We are more precise about our build up play, which allows us to be better than the top teams (because if you lose the ball easily from firing in crosses, you don't get it back), but occasionally means we struggle against the lesser teams, as we found out against West Brom, Sunderland and Everton.
The solution to this difficulty comes in Kolarov and Johnson, two players able to make something happen when retaining the ball is getting us nowhere.
When we play Clichy, it should be against the top sides. He's a top player, a better defender than Kolarov, but not a better attacker. For us to break down the teams which are content with 10 men behind the ball, we have to sacrifice the additional defensive security that he brings for Kolarov's superior attacking, crossing, and set-piece ability. Clichy's a fit player, but when we switch the play and get him in, he doesn't have Kolarov's capacity to harm the opposition. It's great that we have him, and he's an excellent signing, but Kolarov should play against the lesser teams.
(I know Kolarov started against Sunderland, but was just returning from injury at the time).
As for Johnson, he should play ahead of Nasri against the lesser teams for the following reasons:
He plays further wide than Nasri which stretches the opposition defence, creating more gaps for Dave and Serge to exploit.
When Nasri plays, he holds onto the ball too long, allowing teams to get back behind the ball. It's good that he can do this which makes him a great player to have as a substitute or against the better teams when we need to take the sting out of the game. But against the lesser teams, Johnson makes things happen. He can beat a man, he has a great shot. And when we can recover the ball easily from a wearied opposition should we lose it, we can deal with him trying to beat the defender.
Given that they both played against Fulham, Villa and Blackburn, hopefully Bobby Manc is starting to see it the same way.
They get far too much abuse from City fans (if BM's anything to go by) which will hopefully change once they realise their importance in breaking down the lesser teams, which will be the key to us winning the league.
