Milner and width

[Rolee]

Milner is best when he fires low crosses across the front of goal - Take the assists at the swamp last year, the one to Nasri at Spurs for example.

This was one of my first thoughts. His passes to Balotelli, Aguero etc, put them on a plate.

He actually put both them balls slightly behind the players, it was Mario and Nasri adjusting brilliantly that saw both efforts go in.

I agree that he gets into brilliant positions but his final ball is lacking all too often. His main strength whilst playing on the wing is giving the full back behind the platform to attack.

 

[simon23]

Firstly this is not an anti milner thread. For the record he has been very good for us this season and especially in the last few games (i think the loss of milner had a huge negative effect vs spurs and was pone of the reasons we lost control of the midfield)

Milners best attributes are his work rate, defending and short passing game.

The biggest negative about him is his crossing ability..its very average at best (if im being honest its pretty woeful imho). He gets himself into some fantastic positions but all too often his final ball is poor.

Now not for one second do I think we should sell him.

But i do think that we need to bring in a player(s) this summer that has the same work ethic as JM but has a better final delivery and is more of an effective attacking player (Milner is extremely good defensively but is average in an attacking sense)......

The type of player(s) that we need is of the Ronaldo mould (not saying we are going to get someone of his level, but what I do mean is that we need someone who is of the same mould.....strong (not a walcott/sinclair type) quick with good delivery and can make a consistent contribution going forward.

I think milner will eventually succeed Barry at some point

Lack of real pace is his downfall, crossing a ball can be coached but pace cant

Robben last night was frighteningly quick

yet despite his lack of pace he gets into some great positions......

and crossing ability can be coached but only to a certain extent to where the flexibilty of your hip and in particualr your ankle joints allow you to put certain amounts of spin etc on the ball.....look at beckham....average footballer but there are very few who could cross a ball like him at his peak.....down to the way he can wrap his foot around the ball.....milner cannt deliver a curling ball at pace regularly...straight or slightly curled yes but nothing more.....this is why i said his crossing ability is average at best...nothing really to do with accuracy but the types of crosses he is able to deliver

So what players could we go for that would be able to offer us something in that positionas its clear that Sinclair is just not of the level required

 

[flb]

Firstly this is not an anti milner thread. For the record he has been very good for us this season and especially in the last few games (i think the loss of milner had a huge negative effect vs spurs and was pone of the reasons we lost control of the midfield)

Milners best attributes are his work rate, defending and short passing game.

The biggest negative about him is his crossing ability..its very average at best (if im being honest its pretty woeful imho). He gets himself into some fantastic positions but all too often his final ball is poor.

Now not for one second do I think we should sell him.

But i do think that we need to bring in a player(s) this summer that has the same work ethic as JM but has a better final delivery and is more of an effective attacking player (Milner is extremely good defensively but is average in an attacking sense)......

The type of player(s) that we need is of the Ronaldo mould (not saying we are going to get someone of his level, but what I do mean is that we need someone who is of the same mould.....strong (not a walcott/sinclair type) quick with good delivery and can make a consistent contribution going forward.

I think milner will eventually succeed Barry at some point

Lack of real pace is his downfall, crossing a ball can be coached but pace cant

Robben last night was frighteningly quick

yet despite his lack of pace he gets into some great positions......

and crossing ability can be coached but only to a certain extent to where the flexibilty of your hip and in particualr your ankle joints allow you to put certain amounts of spin etc on the ball.....look at beckham....average footballer but there are very few who could cross a ball like him at his peak.....down to the way he can wrap his foot around the ball.....milner cannt deliver a curling ball at pace regularly...straight or slightly curled yes but nothing more.....this is why i said his crossing ability is average at best...nothing really to do with accuracy but the types of crosses he is able to deliver

You need blistering pace these days especially on the counter attack, which City play often especially away from home.Milners crossing isnt actually that bad-and yes you can coach crossing, Gary Neville was Uniteds best crosser of a ball season after season-he openly admitted he used to be gash, if you put the effort in training it gives rewards and Jimmy certainly is one who likes his training.

 

[Any1aBlue]

Firstly this is not an anti milner thread. For the record he has been very good for us this season and especially in the last few games (i think the loss of milner had a huge negative effect vs spurs and was pone of the reasons we lost control of the midfield)

Milners best attributes are his work rate, defending and short passing game.

The biggest negative about him is his crossing ability..its very average at best (if im being honest its pretty woeful imho). He gets himself into some fantastic positions but all too often his final ball is poor.

Now not for one second do I think we should sell him.

But i do think that we need to bring in a player(s) this summer that has the same work ethic as JM but has a better final delivery and is more of an effective attacking player (Milner is extremely good defensively but is average in an attacking sense)......

The type of player(s) that we need is of the Ronaldo mould (not saying we are going to get someone of his level, but what I do mean is that we need someone who is of the same mould.....strong (not a walcott/sinclair type) quick with good delivery and can make a consistent contribution going forward.

I think milner will eventually succeed Barry at some point

Always thought that he needed to be cultivated into a wingback (in a three man defence) but he lacks pace. Therefore ideally suited to play alongside Yaya infront of back two. Bale can play further forward when he arrives on the left.........

 

[simon23]

Lack of real pace is his downfall, crossing a ball can be coached but pace cant

Robben last night was frighteningly quick

yet despite his lack of pace he gets into some great positions......

and crossing ability can be coached but only to a certain extent to where the flexibilty of your hip and in particualr your ankle joints allow you to put certain amounts of spin etc on the ball.....look at beckham....average footballer but there are very few who could cross a ball like him at his peak.....down to the way he can wrap his foot around the ball.....milner cannt deliver a curling ball at pace regularly...straight or slightly curled yes but nothing more.....this is why i said his crossing ability is average at best...nothing really to do with accuracy but the types of crosses he is able to deliver

You need blistering pace these days especially on the counter attack, which City play often especially away from home.Milners crossing isnt actually that bad-and yes you can coach crossing, Gary Neville was Uniteds best crosser of a ball season after season-he openly admitted he used to be gash, if you put the effort in training it gives rewards and Jimmy certainly is one who likes his training.

you can coach it as i said.....but only to a certain level...yes neville wasnt bad at crossing and improved but no way was he anywhere near as good as beckham in his prime

Milner for the amount of times he gets in good positions should provide more and he doesnt.

 

[Any1aBlue]

Firstly this is not an anti milner thread. For the record he has been very good for us this season and especially in the last few games (i think the loss of milner had a huge negative effect vs spurs and was pone of the reasons we lost control of the midfield)

Milners best attributes are his work rate, defending and short passing game.

The biggest negative about him is his crossing ability..its very average at best (if im being honest its pretty woeful imho). He gets himself into some fantastic positions but all too often his final ball is poor.

Now not for one second do I think we should sell him.

But i do think that we need to bring in a player(s) this summer that has the same work ethic as JM but has a better final delivery and is more of an effective attacking player (Milner is extremely good defensively but is average in an attacking sense)......

The type of player(s) that we need is of the Ronaldo mould (not saying we are going to get someone of his level, but what I do mean is that we need someone who is of the same mould.....strong (not a walcott/sinclair type) quick with good delivery and can make a consistent contribution going forward.

I think milner will eventually succeed Barry at some point

Lack of real pace is his downfall, crossing a ball can be coached but pace cant

Robben last night was frighteningly quick

yet despite his lack of pace he gets into some great positions......

and crossing ability can be coached but only to a certain extent to where the flexibilty of your hip and in particualr your ankle joints allow you to put certain amounts of spin etc on the ball.....look at beckham....average footballer but there are very few who could cross a ball like him at his peak.....down to the way he can wrap his foot around the ball.....milner cannt deliver a curling ball at pace regularly...straight or slightly curled yes but nothing more.....this is why i said his crossing ability is average at best...nothing really to do with accuracy but the types of crosses he is able to deliver

So what players could we go for that would be able to offer us something in that positionas its clear that Sinclair is just not of the level required

Thats easy - bale...........

 

[flb]

yet despite his lack of pace he gets into some great positions......

and crossing ability can be coached but only to a certain extent to where the flexibilty of your hip and in particualr your ankle joints allow you to put certain amounts of spin etc on the ball.....look at beckham....average footballer but there are very few who could cross a ball like him at his peak.....down to the way he can wrap his foot around the ball.....milner cannt deliver a curling ball at pace regularly...straight or slightly curled yes but nothing more.....this is why i said his crossing ability is average at best...nothing really to do with accuracy but the types of crosses he is able to deliver

You need blistering pace these days especially on the counter attack, which City play often especially away from home.Milners crossing isnt actually that bad-and yes you can coach crossing, Gary Neville was Uniteds best crosser of a ball season after season-he openly admitted he used to be gash, if you put the effort in training it gives rewards and Jimmy certainly is one who likes his training.

you can coach it as i said.....but only to a certain level...yes neville wasnt bad at crossing and improved but no way was he anywhere near as good as beckham in his prime

Milner for the amount of times he gets in good positions should provide more and he doesnt.

Luckily then we dont rely on crosses into the box as much as united-they are a stock 442 and play the numbers game, Beckham could cross a ball but he was very very slow.

 

[TueartsOHK]

Thats easy - bale...........

I was really hoping that we were going to buy him last summer before he signed a new contract and they were looking for a new manger. If Spuds make the top 4 I can't see us tempting him away even with a huge wad of cash - perhaps Madrid, Bayern could but I think we lost our chance. I think he would have made a big difference to us this season with some pace, accurate crossing and his free kicks.

 

[Dubai Blue]

Milner is best when he fires low crosses across the front of goal - Take the assists at the swamp last year, the one to Nasri at Spurs for example.

I love Milner and I'm loath to knock him, but I thought that cross against Spurs was a perfect example of what the OP is talking about. Nasri did incredibly well to convert that cross. It wasn't one of Jimmy's finest to be honest.

However, he does smash some great low balls into the box on occasions, only for our strikers/midfielders not to have anticipated it. Very frustrating, because if we got more players into the box more often, him and Zab would create plenty of goals for us.

 

[nice neil]

Milner is the type of player all teams need a couple of, but not as a winger. He's good at everything, but outstanding at nothing - workrate excepted. I agree that the quality of our crosses, when we've worked
a good crossing position, has cost us this season. Milner, zabba and , to a lesser extent, clichy, have a low cross completion rate, I'd imagine. (not one for stat-digging, that's just how it seems). You don't necessarily have to be quick, but it helps. The main thing is the ability to put crosses in the right area , regularly, and most importantly, the strikers knowing that the ball is going into that area more often than not. Our strikers sometimes look surprised when a cross flashes across the 6 yard box, actually beating the man on the near post.