Matija Nastasic

[Bluesiam]

If you are going to apportion blame, I'm afraid Joe has to take at least 90% of it. Maybe next time Nasty will anticipate Joe thinking he's a sweeper and head it our for a corner! No doubt he's get pilloried for that too!

 

[Chi-town blues]

Cocky or lacks confident ....he has to take some blame too

For controlling the situation and heading the ball back to where his keeper should have been?

Nasty's got his eyes on the ball so once Hart comes, not that he should have ever decided to rush 25 yeards out of his goal, he should be yelling for Nastasic to leave it, which either didn't happen or Nastasic is unbelievably stupid.

Hart's fault entirely.

Hart messed up and there is no denying .Maybe Hart lost confidence with Nasty after the first goal .As a last defender he should've cleared the ball to row Z without any second thought.

 

[i've got that terry phelan]

...is playing like savic this season & look at the abuse he took. Not a dig, with hart's form, kompany's injuries, a poor clichy , managerial decisions, the defence is looking dodgy & nastasic is apart of that.

 

[forevermancity]

Lescott is needed to settle the defence. Nastasic should play only when kompany does

 

[01cravend]

He is playing well atm..But he is sorely missing Vinny, who is a leader and instructs him etc, he's not yet experienced(and doesn't seem the type to yell instructions at his back-line) enough to run our defence.

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

Lescott is needed to settle the defence. Nastasic should play only when kompany does

Tackles per game:

Nastasic 1.7
Lescott 1.5
Kompany 1.5

Interceptions per game:

Lescott 1.5
Kompany 1.3
Nastasic 0.7

Fouls per game:

Nastasic 2
Lescott 0.5
Kompany 0.5

Clearances per game:

Nastasic 6.6
Lescott 5.3
Kompany 4.8

Players Dribbled past per game:

Lescott 1
Kompany 0.5
Nastasic 0.4

Blocked shots per game:

Nastasic 0.6
Lescott 0.5
Kompany 0.5

Average passes per game:

Lescott 58.8
Nastasic 46.9
Kompany 32.3

Pass completion per game:

Kompany 93.8%
Nastasic 91.5%
Lescott 89.4%

Accurate long passes per game:

Kompany 4.3
Nastasic 2.7
Lescott 2.3

So actually Lescott comes out better than Nastasic so far this season, though he has played 3 games less. So I guess you can really either say it's down to the perceived nervyness of Lescott on the ball (in other words his lack of conviction with the ball, as seen in the Everton game, as well as his lack of confidence due to lack of regular playing time) as the stats show he's doing well, but obviously they don't reflect game moments such as Nastasic at Chelsea and Villa and Lescott v Everton, or we can look at last season and see if that has had a noticeable bearing on this season's selections:

Apps

Kompany 26
Nastasic 21
Lescott 17(9)

Tackles per game

Kompany 2.1
Nastasic 1.5
Lescott 0.8

Interceptions per game

Kompany 1.7
Nastasic 1.2
Lescott 1

Fouls per game

Kompany 1.3
Nastasic 1.1
Lescott 0.3

Clearances per game

Kompany 6.8
Nastasic 6.1
Lescott 4.8

Players dribbled past per game

Nastasic 0.4
Lescott 0.3
Kompany 0.2

Blocked shots per game

Lescott 0.8
Nastasic 0.5
Kompany 0.5

Dispossessed per game

Kompany 0.1
Lescott 0.1
Nastasic 0.4

Average passes per game

Kompany 49.9
Nastasic 46.1
Lescott 31.7

Pass completion rate

Lescott 89.6%
Kompany 89.2%
Nastasic 86.9%

Successful long passes per game

Kompany 5
Nastasic 4
Lescott 1.1

So I think we can see that it was Nastasic's tendency to get stuck in a bit more and his passing range that gave him the edge last season, Noticeably however Nastasic's percentage of successful long balls has dropped while Lescott's has improved, and Nastasic's foul count has gone up, whilst Lescott is getting stuck in more. So they're actually a lot closer in terms of performance this season, but there are also mitigating factors like in the Everton game Everton set up so that Lescott kept being given the ball as they perceived being weaker with it, so he obviously made a higher amount of passes than normal. Up against Kompany though they're clearly secondary. Obviously Kompany's stats are weakened this season through his spells on the sideline but you can still tell his influence.

Ultimately I think to play Lescott you need 3 in midfield so he has enough short range options available to suit his passing range. With the move to 2 it's meant Pelle hasn't felt confident enough in playing him, especially when he makes a mistake like v Everton. Yesterday he could have done a fair job I think but he's now in the mind of the manager second fiddle to Nasty, who's underperforming but still has that greater range Lescott doesn't.

I think it would require the formation from yesterday on a regular basis for Lescott to feature more regularly in the side.

 

[cccc]

I think he could have done better with the 1st goal, the attempted block wasn't really successful. Though if it weren't for Clichy completely being bypassed the goal wouldn't have happened.

As for the second he is definitely not to blame. He gets ahead of the striker, and then plays a simple header back which if Hart didn't have a brain fart, he would have caught it with ease.

Still think he needs to be more authoritative when it comes to headers though.

 

[kenzie115]

Cocky or lacks confident ....he has to take some blame too

For controlling the situation and heading the ball back to where his keeper should have been?

Nasty's got his eyes on the ball so once Hart comes, not that he should have ever decided to rush 25 yeards out of his goal, he should be yelling for Nastasic to leave it, which either didn't happen or Nastasic is unbelievably stupid.

Hart's fault entirely.

Hart messed up and there is no denying .Maybe Hart lost confidence with Nasty after the first goal .As a last defender he should've cleared the ball to row Z without any second thought.

Except we're not Stoke and we don't give the ball away when there's another option. Why would he give Chelsea a throw in our half, allowing them to possibly create a chance, when he could nod the ball back to his keeper so we retain possession and at worst, allow a big kick upfield which gives Chelsea possession in their own half?

 

[the originalkippaxman]

For controlling the situation and heading the ball back to where his keeper should have been?

Nasty's got his eyes on the ball so once Hart comes, not that he should have ever decided to rush 25 yeards out of his goal, he should be yelling for Nastasic to leave it, which either didn't happen or Nastasic is unbelievably stupid.

Hart's fault entirely.

Hart messed up and there is no denying .Maybe Hart lost confidence with Nasty after the first goal .As a last defender he should've cleared the ball to row Z without any second thought.

Except we're not Stoke and we don't give the ball away when there's another option. Why would he give Chelsea a throw in our half, allowing them to possibly create a chance, when he could nod the ball back to his keeper so we retain possession and at worst, allow a big kick upfield which gives Chelsea possession in their own half?

Agree and can not understand why people are saying he should have leathered it into Row Z/Corner/Throw In. There was no pressure a simple defender goalkeeper passage of play that happens every game. Just the fact it was to a goalkeeper that looked as if he was an extra in one flew over the cuckoos nest in the way he came charging out.

 

[johnmc]

He's another player we have just overhyped. Still a good young player learning the ropes but far too much hyperbole that has got us to this point.