Dave Ewing's Back 'eader said:
kenzie115 said:
Nastasic has out-performed an unusually inconsistent Kompany for me this season, thought Vinnie got bullied by Kone yesterday and I've had concerns for a few months now that he thinks he's a lot better than he actually is.
For me he tries to win the ball back too quickly, he seems desperate to get it back and often this results in him gambling on an interception and being caught out of position, or diving in and either putting himself out of the game as the attacker skips round him or giving away a free kick in a dangerous position.
I think he needs more serious competition than Kolo Toure.
He is better than he has shown for patches of this season. Last year he was imperious! But I wonder whether that was because Joleoninho was his partner or what. The pressure of captaincy, etc, might be taking its toll! Last year, de Jong, I think, shared a lot of the 'captaincy/leader' aspects on and off the pitch.
Possibly, my concern was that he let the hype go to his head; Barclays Player of the Season, being talked up as the best defender in Europe by many pundits etc.
However, there was always something that didn't add up with that theory, Kompany comes across as very level headed and mature and so although that was the train of thought I developed, it never really say comfortably with me.
With regards losing Lescott as a partner, you'd say that in the Kompany-Lescott partnership, Lescott was the aggressor and Kompany the sweeper and ball playing centre half whereas in the Kompany-Nastasic partnership, Kompany has to be the aggressor. I didn't think this would be too much of an issue as he's clearly physical enough for the role, but it's his decision making that worries me. Perhaps it's a lack of experience in playing that role in the partnership? Hopefully so and he'll improve next season.
With regards losing De Jong, I can see this being a valid argument too, if slightly less so than the above as this season he's had Zabba as a regular starter who clearly shares the leadership role. However, De Jong, Kompany, Richards and Lescott seemed to be quite a strong friendship group last year, and with Nige leaving and Lescott and Richards being out of the side, maybe it's had more of an effect on Kompany than we realise?