Matija Nastasic

He doesn't suit our new "attacking defending", if you know what I mean? Last year, if the other team came forwards, we backed off and made them try and play through us, which suited him perfectly. But this year, we defend much higher up the pitch and the CB's are asked to make a lot more aggressive, high risk, early tackles up the pitch to try and stop attacks before they even start, which he doens't look like he has the game for at all. He's not helped either by his lack of aggression in the air, he lets people bring it down far too easily for my liking.

Hopefully he can adapt, but I can't see how he can, as we're essentially asking him to completely change the way he defends, which seems unlikely
 
The way he lost the duel in which he fouled on the 1/2 way line was pathetic, his communication is poor and he is scared stiff of everyone atm. He is caught woefully short due to poor decision making, fook knows how he is considered better than Boyota on this seasons showing, at least he would win a header as would MDM in the same role last night, we can't play with two defenders against the top teams.
 
'As is' Nastasić is an accident waiting to happen, with his lost headers, fouls around the penalty box, pulling and hoping referees don't see it, but in a year or two, he might be the real deal. ATM, just does not deserve to start against any decent opposition. And that scene, Kompany yelling at him, was really ugly.
 
He was fine at defending in Mancini's system, but pretty useless in this one, where mobility and passing are so important. I thought he'd have a sophomore slump but this is probably worse than just a slump.
 
Sunny Coast Blue said:
The way he lost the duel in which he fouled on the 1/2 way line was pathetic, his communication is poor and he is scared stiff of everyone atm. He is caught woefully short due to poor decision making, fook knows how he is considered better than Boyota on this seasons showing, at least he would win a header as would MDM in the same role last night, we can't play with two defenders against the top teams.
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Don't know how much that cock-up at The Bridge has preyed on his mind. He's only a young lad, but he displays very little of the assurance he showed when he first arrived.
 
Its nothing to do with the way we play - he just isn't as good as people thought he would be. Watching games look around at defenders

liverpool - I have seen skirtle , Kolo and agger have great game
Chelsea - Cahill and terry both rugulary have great games
Arese - Again both CDs

etc etc

For city - You come out often saying Komps had a great game - When did you last say the same for Nastisic? He has OK games lots of times but it isn't good enough for were we want to be - he needs to be more proactive defending
 
I've never been and am still not convinced by Nastasic. I was constantly reminded that 'for fucks sake he's only a kid' by people on here who see no negative points with ANY City player. Ever heard the saying 'if your good enough your old enough'? It works both ways.
I think he's weak, and as mentioned earlier on in the thread his communication is non existent. Kompany bollocked him last night for generally getting in the way and not talking. When Chelsea beat us earlier this season I thought he was largely at fault for the goal, Hart came running out needlessly but he called for it and Nastasic played the ball anyway.
I think we've fucked up big time not getting a quality centre half in the window because Demichelis isn't up to the job, Lescott (much as I love him) has been left behind as the team moved on and see above for Nastasic.
Worth giving Rodwell a go against a so called inferior team?
 
I think he's still a good player and an even better prospect. He's not played to regularly, and with a variety of partners. I'd give him a few more games... And the back four were left exposed a lot yesterday.
 
He needs a run in the side and there's no better time than these next few games. Last season he played in a much tighter team and was allowed to grow. This year he's been in and out due to injuries and selection and whilst learning a new system it's been a tough time for him.

Still, those writing him off are foolish.
 
Nastasic has had an up and down season so far, hindered by injury and not being regularly picked. It could be that he needs a few games to get back to his form of last year. Maybe he lost a bit of confidence now that Demichelis seems to be 1st choice next to Kompany.
Btw, last night Kompany giving him vocal critisism after the two mixed up didn't do his confidence any good and he never seemed to recover from that incident.

However I can't take away the fact he seems more vulnerable within the style Pellegrini wantsw his team to play. More upfield for the defenders, so pace and reading the game is acquired. City did try and do business with Porto for Mangala and that's to me a clear sign.
 
The way we play puts a lot of pressure on our defenders, and I think he's struggled with that.

Doesnt mean he's a bad defender though, Cahill and Terry last night looked solid but neither could play in our system.

Still young but he does need to improve to have a role in an MP team.
 
marcus said:
I've never been and am still not convinced by Nastasic. I was constantly reminded that 'for fucks sake he's only a kid' by people on here who see no negative points with ANY City player. Ever heard the saying 'if your good enough your old enough'? It works both ways.
I think he's weak, and as mentioned earlier on in the thread his communication is non existent. Kompany bollocked him last night for generally getting in the way and not talking. When Chelsea beat us earlier this season I thought he was largely at fault for the goal, Hart came running out needlessly but he called for it and Nastasic played the ball anyway.
I think we've fucked up big time not getting a quality centre half in the window because Demichelis isn't up to the job, Lescott (much as I love him) has been left behind as the team moved on and see above for Nastasic.
Worth giving Rodwell a go against a so called inferior team?
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I've never been a huge fan, either - thought he was overrated by a lot of people last season, and still think Mancini was too quick to break up the Kompany-Lescott partnership. Sure, he has potential, but he needs to start improving quickly in key areas. The incident with Kompany early on was terrible - similar communication issues with Hart at Chelsea and Kompany at Villa, which he hasn't learnt from. His defending on the goal was abysmal - body shape all wrong, no idea where the man was running behind him (very similar to Villa's first goal against us), and then no effort to put any pressure on the ball. And the incident at the end with Oscar was embarrassing - routine ball that any centre half should be able to deal with in their sleep and he misjudges it/gets muscled out of it. By Oscar. Criminal.

Catch-22, of course - to improve, he needs games. But at the moment, for me, he'd be a fairly distant third choice to partner Vinny (and I suspect, were he to be brutally honest, Vinny would say the same).
 
I thought Kompany and Zabaleta were a lot worse than Nastasic and Kolarov last night.

Zaba just couldn't get the better of Hazard. He hasn't played that badly since the FA cup final.

Kompany was dithering on the ball, playing poor passes that put other players under pressure.

Nastasic made a few errors too, Kolarov was good again.
 
He isnt good enough for these big games, Lescott isnt good enough and Demichellis isnt good enough.

Thjis has been a problem since we won the title and despite four transfer windows since then we have still failed to address this and the lack of decent cover in CM.

Missing out again in Janaury could very well cost us this season like it did last season.
 
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