My opinion about Kolarov

[shootmeifipost10k]

Re: The truth about Kolarov

It was a tagline put on him by the press and built up by the fans having watched a few youtube clips. Mancini is sensible enough not to buy a player for that one quality.

Incidentally he has four assists and two goals in 14 starts this season. You expected more? From a leftback? If that is the case you will be disappointed with whoever plays there. Like many that criticise Kolarov they use a different benchmark for him than too others. With some even claiming he is rubbish going forward, but rarely is Clichy criticised for his forward play yet he has contributed next to nothing offensively in twice the number of games.

I agree. Though the way we play, essentially the leftback and rightback play as wingbacks so its imperative that their crossing or their ability to beat their man is good which kolarov lacks due to his speed. But he has come up big for us this year despite not having much gametime.

Youre right pal Kolarov does lack pace and I wont dispute that fact at all, infact in many games I would choose Clichy to play over him. But I find is frustrating when fans criticise his contribution going forward continuously even though he has contributed much more than the other full backs (Richards excepted). Its laughable his crossing is consistently criticised yet regularly produces chances, even at Sunderland (where he had a poor game) the best cross of the match was from Kolarov, where it hit the keepers legs and Dzeko didnt connect. That in a game where we had an out and out winger.

I agree with you Frank and I see people are ignoring some of the stats in the other thread about our fullbacks played and results such as when playing with Richards it's 100%.

I think alot is missed what he does as it's nearly always any mistake that is picked up on.
One thing I've noticed when we keep 2 up from corners is the amount of times he's one of the first breaking out of our box and flying down the wing to support the attacks we sometimes get. He might not get directly involved but he takes the attention of the defenders and he gets up there quicker than most which isn't bad from someone who supposed to be so slow.

The bit about his crosses as no arguement to it either because if you asked just about every club what there full backs lack then mostly it's a decent cross into the box. I'd even go so far as to say the same applies to most wingers the complaint is the same the crosses into the box are not any good. Yet Kolarov is slated for generally being about the same as every other full back out there and a bit hit and miss.

The same applies to dead balls, you see just as many fly high and wide from every other player who takes one, I'd guess the goal scroing rate is probably around 10% for everyone,but yet again he's expected to plant one in the top corner every time.

He gets way to much stick on this forum and and unjustly seeing as his good games by far outway his bad ones and he just gets overlooked when he's played really well, with most of the people that dont like him simply saying he did ok but put Clichy back in.

I'm just as happy seeing him start as he played 31 games last season after injury in what was equal best defence in the league.

 

[franksinatra]

Re: The truth about Kolarov

I agree. Though the way we play, essentially the leftback and rightback play as wingbacks so its imperative that their crossing or their ability to beat their man is good which kolarov lacks due to his speed. But he has come up big for us this year despite not having much gametime.

Youre right pal Kolarov does lack pace and I wont dispute that fact at all, infact in many games I would choose Clichy to play over him. But I find is frustrating when fans criticise his contribution going forward continuously even though he has contributed much more than the other full backs (Richards excepted). Its laughable his crossing is consistently criticised yet regularly produces chances, even at Sunderland (where he had a poor game) the best cross of the match was from Kolarov, where it hit the keepers legs and Dzeko didnt connect. That in a game where we had an out and out winger.

I agree with you Frank and I see people are ignoring some of the stats in the other thread about our fullbacks played and results such as when playing with Richards it's 100%.

I think alot is missed what he does as it's nearly always any mistake that is picked up on.
One thing I've noticed when we keep 2 up from corners is the amount of times he's one of the first breaking out of our box and flying down the wing to support the attacks we sometimes get. He might not get directly involved but he takes the attention of the defenders and he gets up there quicker than most which isn't bad from someone who supposed to be so slow.

The bit about his crosses as no arguement to it either because if you asked just about every club what there full backs lack then mostly it's a decent cross into the box. I'd even go so far as to say the same applies to most wingers the complaint is the same the crosses into the box are not any good. Yet Kolarov is slated for generally being about the same as every other full back out there and a bit hit and miss.

The same applies to dead balls, you see just as many fly high and wide from every other player who takes one, I'd guess the goal scroing rate is probably around 10% for everyone,but yet again he's expected to plant one in the top corner every time.

He gets way to much stick on this forum and and unjustly seeing as his good games by far outway his bad ones and he just gets overlooked when he's played really well, with most of the people that dont like him simply saying he did ok but put Clichy back in.

I'm just as happy seeing him start as he played 31 games last season after injury in what was equal best defence in the league.

His energy levels are phenomenal, he continually bombs forward throughout the game and supports the attacking players much more than Clichy will ever do.

The dead ball situations at City have been an achiles heel for many a year. Pre Kolarov we rarely scored from set pieces and this has continued. Micah for his aerial process has scored very infrequently for City as has Kompany or Yaya from set pieces. So to tblame the taker all the time is far too simplistic. Particularly as Kolarov is criticised for this yet he is rarely on the pitch to take them.

As you noted we had the best defensive record in the country with Kolarov and he was an integral part of that, including two games at Wembley against Pennant and Valencia where neither of them hardly got a sniff, in contrast to many peoples view that he was going to get tore apart.

Personally I think he does have a number of faults but he does help offensively and create width which the team often lacks. Particularly in home games where teams park the bus he is more effective than Clichy as the stats prove he is more likely to create or score a goal.

A balanced debate on Kolarov, weighing his positives against his negatives would be nice on bluemoon as opposed to he is useless and rubbish, without giving credence to the positives he brings to the team.

 

[grego the blue]

Re: The truth about Kolarov

Whenever zabba an kolarov play full back ( away from home ) we struggle kolarov never hits the line an often when he misses the first man hit the edge of the area !!! Leaving the striker very little chance to hit the target with power. I say like many other top players the prem has proved to tough for him to crack also his pace rules out his best asset as he cant get back quick enough, but while he pulls on the blue shirt il call him in a forum rather than at the ground.

 

[remoh]

Re: The truth about Kolarov

It was a tagline put on him by the press and built up by the fans having watched a few youtube clips. Mancini is sensible enough not to buy a player for that one quality.

Incidentally he has four assists and two goals in 14 starts this season. You expected more? From a leftback? If that is the case you will be disappointed with whoever plays there. Like many that criticise Kolarov they use a different benchmark for him than too others. With some even claiming he is rubbish going forward, but rarely is Clichy criticised for his forward play yet he has contributed next to nothing offensively in twice the number of games.

I agree. Though the way we play, essentially the leftback and rightback play as wingbacks so its imperative that their crossing or their ability to beat their man is good which kolarov lacks due to his speed. But he has come up big for us this year despite not having much gametime.

Youre right pal Kolarov does lack pace and I wont dispute that fact at all, infact in many games I would choose Clichy to play over him. But I find is frustrating when fans criticise his contribution going forward continuously even though he has contributed much more than the other full backs (Richards excepted). Its laughable his crossing is consistently criticised yet regularly produces chances, even at Sunderland (where he had a poor game) the best cross of the match was from Kolarov, where it hit the keepers legs and Dzeko didnt connect. That in a game where we had an out and out winger.

What winger? What we have is a player who could be a winger if played on his proper side. He's just a wide mid-fielder, not a winger.

 

[Amadeus20]

Re: The truth about Kolarov

The thing im most dissapointed with is that people compared him to Roberto Carlos and said he has one of the best left foots in the world and that he is a freekick-Master.

We havent seen it.

 

[VinceYoungisaBLUE]

Re: The truth about Kolarov

Love Kolarov, thought he was great at the start of the season and even won us that champs league game! He got hurt and hasn't played much recently and didn't have the best game against Sunderland but no body did..

 

[city diehard]

Re: The truth about Kolorov

He is shit, I really don't know if other people saw the same match as me. He is the weak link. You are told as a kid, either go to man and trackle, or stand off (which he does) and block the cross. He does neither. Granted he gets in good offensive poositions, but unfortunatly these first time flat cross are dogshit, and was lucky on this occasion one of them worked tonight (1st goal). Carling cup for me.

You don't know anything about football

Oh is that right, Marvin?

 

[buzzer1]

Re: The truth about Kolarov

Bobby Mac? bollocks...
Hinchcliffe... maybe. Forgot about him
Power... Never a left back

Bobby mac deffo, only kept out the England team by Sansome and yes we werent world cup winners, even so in this day and age and even from back then to now, wouldda matched and if not imo have bettered AK, hinchcliffe wouldda pissed all over him., and imo so would Power(yes as a left back goung forward just as AK is supposed to do).

Kept out the England team for what ?

For not being English:)

 

[bring back Boyata]

Re: The truth about Kolarov

He's not played one good game defensively since he joined. Apart from the odd goal here and there and one important one against Villareal, he's made no improvement to the team on Bridge and is defensively inferior. He never closes down and allows a player to cross unhindered every single time, he gets caught out of position regularly after running upfield unsuccessfully, his crossing is marginally better than Zab's but too frequently inaccurate and he is too slow to cope with the majority of premiership players. Not fit to lace Clichy's boots, and the major reason we lost in Napoli.

 

[xenon_]

Re: The truth about Kolarov

Interesting discussion, guys. I'd like to stick my two cents, if you don't mind, although I must say; I don't know much about statistics and I don't go to many games. But I never miss a match so I feel my opinion isn't too below you guys <wink wink>...

When Kolarov first came, I was among his harshest critics. Partly due to his over-hyped left peg. But mostly because he simply wasn't doing enough on the pitch for us. I still feel I was right to criticize him last season but this season, since the arrival of Clichy, Kolarov has really stepped up his game. Defensively he's been better (re individual performance) and attacking-wise, his will and determination to join in the fun is great to see, and our team style lends itself far more comfortably to his low, powerful crosses.

My memory isn't great so I don't have particular matches to cite in my defence of him, but I'd confidently say that I'll be proved right this year, when he gets back to full match fitness.

Conclusion:

I cut this post short because I'm off out, but I'll finish up by saying he's one of the best left-backs in the premiership, this year. Any team would be happy to have him, I'll wager.


So yeah, that's me on AK <nods>

P.S. Anyone blaming Kolarov for our Champions League performances needs to understand that football is a team game and our team was entering the strongest footballing competition in the world for the first time.