Martin Demichelis

[The Fat el Hombre]

Whilst I definitely think he's a good signing, the thing I think we were most in need of for when Kompany's out, is leadership. Can he organise a defence the way Kompany does? I'm not sure yet.

Can anyone?

He seems a pretty commanding centre half to me and with 170+ games for bayern and plenty of caps for argentina I'd probably expect him to be our best bet

 

[benno74]

Have been very impressed with him in his 2 games so far. yes he did a couple of wayward passes on Saturday, but he also did a couple of very good 30 yard passes to feet, quick and incisive that kick started an attack. Something we have been lacking.
his overall reading of the game looks to be good - so much so that his supposed lack of pace has not yet been noticed by myself. his tackling looks to be good also.

A genuine classy centre half, who I expect to see alongside Vinny when hes back. Then we can pick and chose the games to bring along Nastasic.

 

[EL APACHE TEVEZ]

Have been very impressed with him in his 2 games so far. yes he did a couple of wayward passes on Saturday, but he also did a couple of very good 30 yard passes to feet, quick and incisive that kick started an attack. Something we have been lacking.
his overall reading of the game looks to be good - so much so that his supposed lack of pace has not yet been noticed by myself. his tackling looks to be good also.

A genuine classy centre half, who I expect to see alongside Vinny when hes back. Then we can pick and chose the games to bring along Nastasic.

Agree with this.

 

[Matt the Giant]

Whilst I definitely think he's a good signing, the thing I think we were most in need of for when Kompany's out, is leadership. Can he organise a defence the way Kompany does? I'm not sure yet.

Can anyone?

He seems a pretty commanding centre half to me and with 170+ games for bayern and plenty of caps for argentina I'd probably expect him to be our best bet

And let's not forget he used to boss Malaga's defence under Pellegrini, doing so very well.

 

[Joycee Banercheck]

I like the look of this kid. Can time a tackle and looks comfortable on the ball. All this 'he's slow' talk means nothing if he can position himself well which he seems to. Good signing and probably more than a squad player.

 

[Lancet Fluke]

Why do people make comments like this?

MD attempted 72 forward passes and completed 64 of them. Please explain to me how that remotely equates to passing to the opposition more often than not?

He made 9 square passes and just 2 backwards.

Opinions are one thing but facts are another and its not hard to check such facts.

Fair play I did make a misleading comment.

Based on your stats of his 72 forward passes then about 10% went straight back to the opposition! ( one of which Elmander should have scored from) , that's a high percentage especially if you consider many of the 72 passes must have been fairly routine ( again no hard evidence, just from watching the game). Better teams will punish us if the 10% rate were to continue

He had 91% pass completion overall for the game. The best average for the season in the league so far is just over 94% for our very own Javi Garcia.

We don't know whether the match on Saturday was a bit of a one off for Demichelis in terms of giving the ball away like he did and as I have said earlier, I think he looks decent defensively which has been a pleasant surprise. So don't think I've got a downer on the guy, I haven't. But anyone who thinks his distribution was good on Saturday is nuts. I don't care if he plays lots of reasonable passes because for a centre half just one sloppy pass straight to opposition when under no pressure at all is too many and against a decent team could easily be disastrous. He did it 6 times on Saturday! A 99% success rate in a big game will mean fuck all if the 1% is him rolling the ball to the opposition striker who goes through and scores. As Joe found out against Chelsea, 1 bad error in a big game undermines all the other work you've done.

 

[Joycee Banercheck]

Fair play I did make a misleading comment.

Based on your stats of his 72 forward passes then about 10% went straight back to the opposition! ( one of which Elmander should have scored from) , that's a high percentage especially if you consider many of the 72 passes must have been fairly routine ( again no hard evidence, just from watching the game). Better teams will punish us if the 10% rate were to continue

He had 91% pass completion overall for the game. The best average for the season in the league so far is just over 94% for our very own Javi Garcia.

We don't know whether the match on Saturday was a bit of a one off for Demichelis in terms of giving the ball away like he did and as I have said earlier, I think he looks decent defensively which has been a pleasant surprise. So don't think I've got a downer on the guy, I haven't. But anyone who thinks his distribution was good on Saturday is nuts. I don't care if he plays lots of reasonable passes because for a centre half just one sloppy pass straight to opposition when under no pressure at all is too many and against a decent team could easily be disastrous. He did it 6 times on Saturday! A 99% success rate in a big game will mean fuck all if the 1% is him rolling the ball to the opposition striker who goes through and scores. As Joe found out against Chelsea, 1 bad error in a big game undermines all the other work you've done.

When he has given the ball away he's got it back. Takes time after an injury to get rid of the rust.

 

[Balti]

looks like a useful asset to me

 

[kunaguero10]

Nastasic is a good defender who will only get better, but right now I think I'd go with Kompany and Demichelis. These two will bully attackers no end

 

[Neville Kneville]

He had 91% pass completion overall for the game. The best average for the season in the league so far is just over 94% for our very own Javi Garcia.

We don't know whether the match on Saturday was a bit of a one off for Demichelis in terms of giving the ball away like he did and as I have said earlier, I think he looks decent defensively which has been a pleasant surprise. So don't think I've got a downer on the guy, I haven't. But anyone who thinks his distribution was good on Saturday is nuts. I don't care if he plays lots of reasonable passes because for a centre half just one sloppy pass straight to opposition when under no pressure at all is too many and against a decent team could easily be disastrous. He did it 6 times on Saturday! A 99% success rate in a big game will mean fuck all if the 1% is him rolling the ball to the opposition striker who goes through and scores. As Joe found out against Chelsea, 1 bad error in a big game undermines all the other work you've done.

When he has given the ball away he's got it back. Takes time after an injury to get rid of the rust.

Apart from the one where he didn't get it back, was too slow to recover & Elmander blazed it over the bar from 6 yards.

Defensively he was great. In possession he was nowhere near good enough & that was against a poor team who pressed badly.

Needs to stop giving the ball away, & he needs to stop it right now, or his career will be over before it starts.