Kolarov

[Comrade Buka]

Good post but be careful as some posters will be sharpening the pitchforks as we speak

Bring it on I say. I am up for a good argument any time. The facts about the Napoli game are there for everyone to see. Download the game and watch it. There is no denying our fullbacks offered little to nothing going forward. "He did a good job" is not a fact based argument. It's an opinion, unless you substantiate that opinion with facts.

There is also no denying the changes were made too late. I thought Mancini would make a sub in half time after hearing Platt's comment. But alas...

Looks like The Cabal has a new member. Welcome to Blue Moon mate. Free thinkers always welcome.

Cheers mate. :)

 

[Eastlands90]

Did well last night. Could have been better, but not gonna complain since he saved our asses in the game. Needs to up his performances though, as Clichy is proving to be a much better choice.

 

[Danamy]

Bring it on I say. I am up for a good argument any time. The facts about the Napoli game are there for everyone to see. Download the game and watch it. There is no denying our fullbacks offered little to nothing going forward. "He did a good job" is not a fact based argument. It's an opinion, unless you substantiate that opinion with facts.

There is also no denying the changes were made too late. I thought Mancini would make a sub in half time after hearing Platt's comment. But alas...

Looks like The Cabal has a new member. Welcome to Blue Moon mate. Free thinkers always welcome.

Cheers mate. :)

Your membership form and badge is in the post ;-)

 

[Eastlands90]

The 2 times he did get in a cross during the entire match? Yes, I counted.

2 crosses in 75 minutes is a joke. In a team with no wingers. If you can't see that, then Kolarov is probably one of the best left backs in the world.

Zabaletas wing play was equally shite.

Yes, I'd agree the selection of both second choice fullbacks was a mistake . I also felt the addition oftevez and withdrawal of dzeko was an error too. We finally had some width and were getting balls into the box. Why take off the target man?

Damn straight about Dzeko. Why put on two wingers, Clichy and Johnson and have them aim for the giant dwarf Tevez?

Zabaleta did not challenge his counter part even once. Yes, I watched the whole thing with that in mind - he didn't challenge a single time. Anyone seeing Richards being equally timid? I doubt it. Richards is like a fucking force of nature, equally terrifying as Toure when he gets his speed up.

If I could only replace ONE of the fullbacks yesterday, it would be Zabaleta for Richards. Zab's attacking play was atrocious. While Kolarov's attacking play was non-existent. Not sure which is worse.

Spot on people. Don't know what Mancini was playing at but i thought he wanted a draw.

 

[ecviper]

lighten up people ffs. too much negative moaning on here and it's starting to annoy. Support the team and players 100% whoever plays. We didn't lose and we didn't play rubbish. It was a tight game against a very well organised Italian team playing on the counter.

Kolarov didn't play too badly. there was no space to do overlap as Napoli parked the bus with 10 men behind the ball.

First game, didn't lose. Good experience and much to learn. Looking forward to next game. The past is past. Move ON!!

 

[taconinja]

Good post but be careful as some posters will be sharpening the pitchforks as we speak

Bring it on I say. I am up for a good argument any time. The facts about the Napoli game are there for everyone to see. Download the game and watch it. There is no denying our fullbacks offered little to nothing going forward. "He did a good job" is not a fact based argument. It's an opinion, unless you substantiate that opinion with facts.

There is also no denying the changes were made too late. I thought Mancini would make a sub in half time after hearing Platt's comment. But alas...

Looks like The Cabal has a new member. Welcome to Blue Moon mate. Free thinkers always welcome.

There's an inherent contradiction in your statement.

Anyways as I've stated, you could have started any fullbacks you wanted and it wouldn't have sorted out our weakness in the match, which was Barry-Kompany-Lescott. None of the three had a good enough performance.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Have to disagree with you strongly there, taco.

Barry had a good game, so did Lescott. Both were excellent in my opinion. Kompany had a poorish game but in all honestly the problem was we could translate posession into clear cut chances and goals. We only conceded one, weren't under masses of pressure and to a degree it was one of those days.

But we are talking at cross purposes. I'm not talkign about "the problem" but "the solution". Our first choice left backs would have given us much better penetration. When a team defend as tightly as that you have to get round the back of them. That's what Man Utd have done for years,

Whilst I disagree with your assesment on the three players you gave, there is surely no manager in world football who wouldn't have picked those three given the available players.

 

[taconinja]

Have to disagree with you strongly there, taco.

Barry had a good game, so did Lescott. Both were excellent in my opinion. Kompany had a poorish game but in all honestly the problem was we could translate posession into clear cut chances and goals. We only conceded one, weren't under masses of pressure and to a degree it was one of those days.

But we are talking at cross purposes. I'm not talkign about "the problem" but "the solution". Our first choice left backs would have given us much better penetration. When a team defend as tightly as that you have to get round the back of them. That's what Man Utd have done for years,

Whilst I disagree with your assesment on the three players you gave, there is surely no manager in world football who wouldn't have picked those three given the available players.

Of course. I might have picked Kolo over Lescott as he's a better passer, but that's also why I would have picked Clichy for this match over Kolarov.

In my mind, the problem and the solution are intertwined. Our CB partnership didn't do the job passing forward they needed to do against a parked bus, and none of the three did a great job recovering into defense once possession was lost, which gave their counters more of an edge than I think they should have had.

Please note I'm not saying they are bad players, nor that they played a bad game. I think that two of them had significant lapses in concentration while doing very good jobs otherwise and one did a very good job defending, but his passing was a significant issue when it came to breaking down their defense. It isn't just about wide play. I think Napoli were organized well enough to snuff out Clichy/Richards, too, if that had been our formation choices.

 

[Matty]

Have to disagree with you strongly there, taco.

Barry had a good game, so did Lescott. Both were excellent in my opinion. Kompany had a poorish game but in all honestly the problem was we could translate posession into clear cut chances and goals. We only conceded one, weren't under masses of pressure and to a degree it was one of those days.

But we are talking at cross purposes. I'm not talkign about "the problem" but "the solution". Our first choice left backs would have given us much better penetration. When a team defend as tightly as that you have to get round the back of them. That's what Man Utd have done for years,

Whilst I disagree with your assesment on the three players you gave, there is surely no manager in world football who wouldn't have picked those three given the available players.

Of course. I might have picked Kolo over Lescott as he's a better passer, but that's also why I would have picked Clichy for this match over Kolarov.

In my mind, the problem and the solution are intertwined. Our CB partnership didn't do the job passing forward they needed to do against a parked bus, and none of the three did a great job recovering into defense once possession was lost, which gave their counters more of an edge than I think they should have had.

Please note I'm not saying they are bad players, nor that they played a bad game. I think that two of them had significant lapses in concentration while doing very good jobs otherwise and one did a very good job defending, but his passing was a significant issue when it came to breaking down their defense. It isn't just about wide play. I think Napoli were organized well enough to snuff out Clichy/Richards, too, if that had been our formation choices.

Selecting Kolo over Lescott would have been a monumental mistake. He hasn't played any football for over 6 months so would be completely off the pace, plus the message it would have given to Lescott would have destroyed the confidence he's built up since Toure became unavailable. The perfect time to give Kolo a game is Wednesday against Birmingham.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

It isn't just about wide play. I think Napoli were organized well enough to snuff out Clichy/Richards, too, if that had been our formation choices.

I think the fact that we took control of the game immediately as soon as AJ and Clichy came on makes this statement untrue. It was the silly replacement of Dzeko with Tevez which lost us that attacking momentum.

Oh, and Kolo's a liability in my opinion and should be reserved for the carling cup only, until his contract runs out.