Mehdi Benatia

[Le Havre Oswald]

Ray and Marvin remind me of the chuckle brothers.

 

[Rammy Blue]

We'll be 20 points clear having not conceded a goal in the League by then.

He is that good.

Can't say I recall ever seeing this guy play. Have you seen a lot of him or just having a guess?

I've watched a fair bit of Roma this year as BT have the Italian games on at times when there is literally fuckall to watch. The guy is Vincent Kompany in a Roma shirt basically. That is the highest compliment I can pay to a defender. He plays on the front foot, aggressive but fair in the tackle, so will suit our style, he's really confident on the ball and distributes it well. He has enough pace, he's tall and powerful. He can even give it a good hit from 30 yards !

Not saying he's never made a fuck up, but in the games I watched he has barely made a noticeable error. I made it my prerogative to watch Porto in the latter stages of the Europa League this season and Mangala made at least 3 catastrophic fuck ups in the 4 games I watched him play. He did have one great game where he scored a header, but looked shaky in the other 3.

If we sign him, nobody will be disappointed, put it that way.

Is he left footed? Does he play left centre back at Roma?

 

[Kladze]

Can't say I recall ever seeing this guy play. Have you seen a lot of him or just having a guess?

I've watched a fair bit of Roma this year as BT have the Italian games on at times when there is literally fuckall to watch. The guy is Vincent Kompany in a Roma shirt basically. That is the highest compliment I can pay to a defender. He plays on the front foot, aggressive but fair in the tackle, so will suit our style, he's really confident on the ball and distributes it well. He has enough pace, he's tall and powerful. He can even give it a good hit from 30 yards !

Not saying he's never made a fuck up, but in the games I watched he has barely made a noticeable error. I made it my prerogative to watch Porto in the latter stages of the Europa League this season and Mangala made at least 3 catastrophic fuck ups in the 4 games I watched him play. He did have one great game where he scored a header, but looked shaky in the other 3.

If we sign him, nobody will be disappointed, put it that way.

Is he left footed? Does he play left centre back at Roma?

Right footed and plays right centre back.

 

[Kippax Street 1880]

Can't say I recall ever seeing this guy play. Have you seen a lot of him or just having a guess?

I've watched a fair bit of Roma this year as BT have the Italian games on at times when there is literally fuckall to watch. The guy is Vincent Kompany in a Roma shirt basically. That is the highest compliment I can pay to a defender. He plays on the front foot, aggressive but fair in the tackle, so will suit our style, he's really confident on the ball and distributes it well. He has enough pace, he's tall and powerful. He can even give it a good hit from 30 yards !

Not saying he's never made a fuck up, but in the games I watched he has barely made a noticeable error. I made it my prerogative to watch Porto in the latter stages of the Europa League this season and Mangala made at least 3 catastrophic fuck ups in the 4 games I watched him play. He did have one great game where he scored a header, but looked shaky in the other 3.

If we sign him, nobody will be disappointed, put it that way.

Is he left footed? Does he play left centre back at Roma?

No he is a right footer and plays on the right side of the central defenders at Roma, but it isn't so important to have the left/right balance in my opinion. If you look at the best central defensive partnerships in world football recently (Puyol & Pique, Pepe/Varane & Ramos, Hummels & Subotic, Thiago Silva & Alex, Terry & Cahill) all are right footed. I can't see it being an issue, both Benatia & Kompany are tactically disciplined and intelligent enough to play in the LCB role no problems. With the growing trend for left wingers to play on the right and cut inside, it can even be an advantage.

City are relatively unique in over the past 3 seasons, out of the 3 regular CB pairings 2 (Kompany/Lescott & Kompany Nastasic) have had a right & left footer in there, but Kompany/Demichelis has worked fine so I don't think its something we plan for when looking to sign centre backs, just a coincidence. Mangala is left footed though, if you were wondering.

 

[Mad_fer_it]

How times change. A year ago we were saying Nastasic was a future world class player. Now he's a possible makeweight for a new kit man.

We changed our style of play . Sadly Nastasic doesn't fit in anymore.

He's just had a bad season with injuries, i don't think it's a case of him not fitting the system anymore...

 

[Ray78]

Ray and Marvin remind me of the chuckle brothers.

Arf!

 

[Kladze]

City are relatively unique in over the past 3 seasons, out of the 3 regular CB pairings 2 (Kompany/Lescott & Kompany Nastasic) have had a right & left footer in there, but Kompany/Demichelis has worked fine so I don't think its something we plan for when looking to sign centre backs, just a coincidence. Mangala is left footed though, if you were wondering.

Pretty sure it was Mancini who was obsessed with using a lefty on the left and a righty on the right. Demichelis has played LCB all season under Pellegrini, and he's right footed.

 

[Kippax Street 1880]

City are relatively unique in over the past 3 seasons, out of the 3 regular CB pairings 2 (Kompany/Lescott & Kompany Nastasic) have had a right & left footer in there, but Kompany/Demichelis has worked fine so I don't think its something we plan for when looking to sign centre backs, just a coincidence. Mangala is left footed though, if you were wondering.

Pretty sure it was Mancini who was obsessed with using a lefty on the left and a righty on the right. Demichelis has played LCB all season under Pellegrini, and he's right footed.

Don't even think it was that, he signed Savic who was a right footer, and didn't seem to have a problem dropping Kolo in alongside another right footer. Just a case of our best options happening to be a mix imo.

 

[Kladze]

City are relatively unique in over the past 3 seasons, out of the 3 regular CB pairings 2 (Kompany/Lescott & Kompany Nastasic) have had a right & left footer in there, but Kompany/Demichelis has worked fine so I don't think its something we plan for when looking to sign centre backs, just a coincidence. Mangala is left footed though, if you were wondering.

Pretty sure it was Mancini who was obsessed with using a lefty on the left and a righty on the right. Demichelis has played LCB all season under Pellegrini, and he's right footed.

Don't even think it was that, he signed Savic who was a right footer, and didn't seem to have a problem dropping Kolo in alongside another right footer. Just a case of our best options happening to be a mix imo.

Fair point.

 

[LoveCity]

France Football says his preference is Barca, so if they make an offer he'll go there. If not, sounds like he'd like to come here.

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