Nasri's surprising stats vs Silva

[Abbeygoo]

Just goes to show how misleading stats can be.

For example, the average person has less than 2 arms.

 

[Ahmed]

Was thinking the exactly the same thing, i remember a couple of seasons ago, Leon Brittain had a better completion rate than Xavi but he only ever passed 5 yards to the side or backwards. Nasri never takes risk with his passes and doesnt look for the killer ball whereas Silva does, often.

Bit like lescott, his completion rate was about 90% too but he only ever passed to Kompany or Clichy lol

In the Premier League Leon Britton has no goals or assists to his name for either the 11/12 or 12/13 seasons.

This is exactly my point, yet he had a better pass completion rate than Xavi 2 years ago

Actually Nasri does take risk. That's how he created more clear cut chances than Silva or Mata despite having far less playing time...

Spoiler

Comparing Nasri's Pass completion with Britton's is just ridiculous...

 

[bluethunder]

In the Premier League Leon Britton has no goals or assists to his name for either the 11/12 or 12/13 seasons.

This is exactly my point, yet he had a better pass completion rate than Xavi 2 years ago

Actually Nasri does take risk. That's how he created more clear cut chances than Silva or Mata despite having far less playing time...

Spoiler

Comparing Nasri's Pass completion with Britton's is just ridiculous...

you got it wrong. the reason why nasri created more "clear cut chances" than silva and mata is because nasri plays it safe, he only attempts to create a chance for others when it is safe to do so. if he thinks that its too risky he'll pass the ball backwards or sideways... basically shifting the responsibility onto someone else.

 

[bluethunder]

I like Nasri and since the day he stood in for Yaya in CM whilst he was away on ACN duty, I saw that we were using him incorrectly. In the two games Nasri played there he was absolutely awesome. Many fans called for him to continue in that role, but once Yaya was back, it was back to the bench for Nasri.

Nasri is the deep lying play-maker we lack. I've never been happy with us using two defensive midfielders and as has been pointed out Barca with Xavi and Milan/Juve with Pirlo have proved that you don't need two defensive midfield brutes to protect your back-line. A deep-lying play-maker and a ball-playing, box to box destroyer and a creative midfielder is what we need to make the most of the talent we have.

The ability to hold on to the ball and to create attacks from that position is more effective than just being able to destroy and pass the ball to someone who can create.

I agree that Nasri is superb in that CM role. Problem is that he cannot defend. In the Premier League, CM's have to be capable of defending.

It would be possible to plays Nasri as a CM if we were playing the 4-3-3, but we're not.

Apparently, we are going to try a fluid version of 4-3-3 from the Academy sides up to the first team and this is what our hierarchy meant by a 'holistic approach' to football matters. If Nasri's never given the chance in that position, we'll never know what he can do in the long-term. All I know is that the 2 times I've seen him playing defensive midfield, he's been superb and those two performances have arguably been two of his best since signing.

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/nasri-i-see-myself-in-defensive-midfield

http://www.thegunninghawk.com/2010/...midfield-attacking-midfield-and-on-the-flank/

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11670_5283401,00.html


Nasri set for defensive role
Gunners ace admits he can play as a defensive midfielder

Samir Nasri has revealed that he can see himself playing as a defensive midfielder for Arsenal in the coming seasons.

The 21-year-old's comments may come as a surprise to some with the Frenchman deployed behind the strikers for former club Marseille and on the wing for the Gunners this term.

But Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger is thought to see the midfielder in a more defensive role in front of the back four, in the mould of AC Milan ace Andrea Pirlo.

Wenger is not the first to make the suggestion with Nasri revealing that ex-Marseille coach Albert Emon and France boss Raymond Domenech have both stated that they see the youngster as a deep lying midfielder.

The Gunners have been crying out for a ball winner in the middle of the park for the past few seasons and since the arrival of Andrey Arshavin, Nasri has seen himself pushed further back, not that he seems to mind.

"I think so yes," he said when asked if he could switch to defensive midfield.

"In any case, I am more at ease in the middle. I have more influence on the game. Even if it isn't up to me to do the dirty work, I feel capable of doing it

I think that Wenger fella knows a thing or two about talent spotting and I think we're all missing the obvious too. The answer is right under our noses and to deploy Nasri as a defensive midfielder would make us more dynamic as a team IMO and less reliant on width from the full backs.

Up until this season, our width mainly came from our full backs and as Arsenal have shown, teams are now going to do a Wimbledon (or ManUre) against us and just hit the ball long in behind the defence.

If we were more dynamic in our set-up our full backs could then support the attack if needed, but in general they would just form a defensive block of four and defend which is primarily their job.

i don't mean defensive midfield. i mean one of the central midfielders in a 4-3-3 set up. nasri would be covered by the defensive midfielder (fernandinho, toure or garcia).

i don't think we're going to play the 4-3-3 with the current regime. its clear that we're still playing the 4-4-2.

 

[Dribble]

I agree that Nasri is superb in that CM role. Problem is that he cannot defend. In the Premier League, CM's have to be capable of defending.

It would be possible to plays Nasri as a CM if we were playing the 4-3-3, but we're not.

Apparently, we are going to try a fluid version of 4-3-3 from the Academy sides up to the first team and this is what our hierarchy meant by a 'holistic approach' to football matters. If Nasri's never given the chance in that position, we'll never know what he can do in the long-term. All I know is that the 2 times I've seen him playing defensive midfield, he's been superb and those two performances have arguably been two of his best since signing.

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/nasri-i-see-myself-in-defensive-midfield

http://www.thegunninghawk.com/2010/...midfield-attacking-midfield-and-on-the-flank/

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11670_5283401,00.html


Nasri set for defensive role
Gunners ace admits he can play as a defensive midfielder

Samir Nasri has revealed that he can see himself playing as a defensive midfielder for Arsenal in the coming seasons.

The 21-year-old's comments may come as a surprise to some with the Frenchman deployed behind the strikers for former club Marseille and on the wing for the Gunners this term.

But Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger is thought to see the midfielder in a more defensive role in front of the back four, in the mould of AC Milan ace Andrea Pirlo.

Wenger is not the first to make the suggestion with Nasri revealing that ex-Marseille coach Albert Emon and France boss Raymond Domenech have both stated that they see the youngster as a deep lying midfielder.

The Gunners have been crying out for a ball winner in the middle of the park for the past few seasons and since the arrival of Andrey Arshavin, Nasri has seen himself pushed further back, not that he seems to mind.

"I think so yes," he said when asked if he could switch to defensive midfield.

"In any case, I am more at ease in the middle. I have more influence on the game. Even if it isn't up to me to do the dirty work, I feel capable of doing it

I think that Wenger fella knows a thing or two about talent spotting and I think we're all missing the obvious too. The answer is right under our noses and to deploy Nasri as a defensive midfielder would make us more dynamic as a team IMO and less reliant on width from the full backs.

Up until this season, our width mainly came from our full backs and as Arsenal have shown, teams are now going to do a Wimbledon (or ManUre) against us and just hit the ball long in behind the defence.

If we were more dynamic in our set-up our full backs could then support the attack if needed, but in general they would just form a defensive block of four and defend which is primarily their job.

i don't mean defensive midfield. i mean one of the central midfielders in a 4-3-3 set up. nasri would be covered by the defensive midfielder (fernandinho, toure or garcia).

i don't think we're going to play the 4-3-3 with the current regime. its clear that we're still playing the 4-4-2.

Neither Nasri or Silva are suited out wide, they're both far more effective playing from the centre. I've always believed it better to create a system and to find and train the players to fit that system than the other way around. That is why we've ended up with loads of similar players with glaring gaps in the squad.

Pelligrini pointed this out as a major problem when he managed Real, and I feel we are suffering from a lack of a coherant stretegy in this respect which creates a very talented but unbalanced squad. Last season Mancini recognised this and we majorly fucked up in our transfer dealings. This transfer window we've begun to correct this imbalance, but I fear it will take us another major transfer window to complete the job.

There's still quite a few players to shift out and we all know we need another 2 x experienced CB, a LB and a LW at the very least to replace those surplus to requirements. Garcia, Sinclair, Kolorov, Barry, Lescott, Boyata, Razak could all leave and for me there would be no appreciable drop in our squad's strength. I only include Barry in that list because of his age and posibble FFP implications if we were to make these much needed improvements.

Unless we try to shake off our defensive minded shackles and trust in our players skills and talents, the likes of Nasri will always to be wasted.

Even if we did play a 4-4-2, I would still play Nasri as one of two central midfielders as clearly that is where he is best suited and most effective. All his previous managers before he came to City and the player himself can't be wrong.

Just like Barca, we need to place our trust in skill and endeavour.

 

[bluethunder]

Apparently, we are going to try a fluid version of 4-3-3 from the Academy sides up to the first team and this is what our hierarchy meant by a 'holistic approach' to football matters. If Nasri's never given the chance in that position, we'll never know what he can do in the long-term. All I know is that the 2 times I've seen him playing defensive midfield, he's been superb and those two performances have arguably been two of his best since signing.

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/nasri-i-see-myself-in-defensive-midfield

http://www.thegunninghawk.com/2010/...midfield-attacking-midfield-and-on-the-flank/



I think that Wenger fella knows a thing or two about talent spotting and I think we're all missing the obvious too. The answer is right under our noses and to deploy Nasri as a defensive midfielder would make us more dynamic as a team IMO and less reliant on width from the full backs.

Up until this season, our width mainly came from our full backs and as Arsenal have shown, teams are now going to do a Wimbledon (or ManUre) against us and just hit the ball long in behind the defence.

If we were more dynamic in our set-up our full backs could then support the attack if needed, but in general they would just form a defensive block of four and defend which is primarily their job.

i don't mean defensive midfield. i mean one of the central midfielders in a 4-3-3 set up. nasri would be covered by the defensive midfielder (fernandinho, toure or garcia).

i don't think we're going to play the 4-3-3 with the current regime. its clear that we're still playing the 4-4-2.

Neither Nasri or Silva are suited out wide, they're both far more effective playing from the centre. I've always believed it better to create a system and to find and train the players to fit that system than the other way around.

Unless we try to shake off our defensive minded shackles and trust in our players skills and talents, the likes of Nasri will always to be wasted.

Even if we did play a 4-4-2, I would still play Nasri as one of two central midfielders as clearly that is where he is best suited and most effective. All his previous managers before he came to City and the player himself can't be wrong.

Just like Barca, we need to place our trust in skill and endeavour.

in our 4-2-2-2 (its a variation of 4-4-2) silva/nasri usually start out wide but they don't stay on the flanks. a lot of people don't know this because they don't pay attention. david silva / samir nasri usually drift into the hole. they also tend to drop deep into the midfield when the two holding midfielders are under pressure.

 

[Dribble]

i don't mean defensive midfield. i mean one of the central midfielders in a 4-3-3 set up. nasri would be covered by the defensive midfielder (fernandinho, toure or garcia).

i don't think we're going to play the 4-3-3 with the current regime. its clear that we're still playing the 4-4-2.

Neither Nasri or Silva are suited out wide, they're both far more effective playing from the centre. I've always believed it better to create a system and to find and train the players to fit that system than the other way around.

Unless we try to shake off our defensive minded shackles and trust in our players skills and talents, the likes of Nasri will always to be wasted.

Even if we did play a 4-4-2, I would still play Nasri as one of two central midfielders as clearly that is where he is best suited and most effective. All his previous managers before he came to City and the player himself can't be wrong.

Just like Barca, we need to place our trust in skill and endeavour.

in our 4-2-2-2 (its a variation of 4-4-2) silva/nasri usually start out wide but they don't stay on the flanks. a lot of people don't know this because they don't pay attention. david silva / samir nasri usually drift into the hole. they also tend to drop deep into the midfield when the two holding midfielders are under pressure.

And what does that tell you? Nasri and Silva's natural instinct is to play centrally and this is why we need the full backs to provide the width which as the Arsenal game proved leaves us with gaping holes at the back and leaves us open to the ball over the top counter-attack.

It's simple really, we need to decide on our system and apply the players best suited it...... Problem solved.

 

[bluethunder]

Neither Nasri or Silva are suited out wide, they're both far more effective playing from the centre. I've always believed it better to create a system and to find and train the players to fit that system than the other way around.

Unless we try to shake off our defensive minded shackles and trust in our players skills and talents, the likes of Nasri will always to be wasted.

Even if we did play a 4-4-2, I would still play Nasri as one of two central midfielders as clearly that is where he is best suited and most effective. All his previous managers before he came to City and the player himself can't be wrong.

Just like Barca, we need to place our trust in skill and endeavour.

in our 4-2-2-2 (its a variation of 4-4-2) silva/nasri usually start out wide but they don't stay on the flanks. a lot of people don't know this because they don't pay attention. david silva / samir nasri usually drift into the hole. they also tend to drop deep into the midfield when the two holding midfielders are under pressure.

And what does that tell you? Nasri and Silva's natural instinct is to play centrally and this is why we need the full backs to provide the width which as the Arsenal game proved leaves us with gaping holes at the back and leaves us open to the ball over the top counter-attack.

It's simple really, we need to decide on our system and apply the players best suited it...... Problem solved.

against arsenal we simply didn't defend properly . clichy, kompany, lescott and zabalete were sleeping during the 90 minutes. if we kept a clean sheet we could have e won that game.

it was later revealed that the players were tired after a busy week.

i don't see the problem with our 4-2-2-2, it is actually quite flexible, we can quickly change into a 4-2-3-1, 4-4-1-1 or 3-5-2 without making substitutions as well.

 

[Dribble]

in our 4-2-2-2 (its a variation of 4-4-2) silva/nasri usually start out wide but they don't stay on the flanks. a lot of people don't know this because they don't pay attention. david silva / samir nasri usually drift into the hole. they also tend to drop deep into the midfield when the two holding midfielders are under pressure.

And what does that tell you? Nasri and Silva's natural instinct is to play centrally and this is why we need the full backs to provide the width which as the Arsenal game proved leaves us with gaping holes at the back and leaves us open to the ball over the top counter-attack.

It's simple really, we need to decide on our system and apply the players best suited it...... Problem solved.

against arsenal we simply didn't defend properly . clichy, kompany, lescott and zabalete were sleeping during the 90 minutes. if we kept a clean sheet we could have e won that game.

it was later revealed that the players were tired after a busy week.

i don't see the problem with our 4-2-2-2, it is actually quite flexible, we can quickly change into a 4-2-3-1, 4-4-1-1 or 3-5-2 without making substitutions as well.

4-2-2-2, 4-2-3-1, 4-4-1-1 or 3-5-2......... You sound a bit like Mike Bassett there mate. :-)

Seeing as Negredo scored against Arsenal, it's quite obvious if we'd kept a clean sheet we'd have won! Lol

On a more serious note; As I've been saying all along its not the formation that's the issue, it's the players we use in that system where we fall down. Silva and Nasri aren't wingers. They are both better employed playing behind the main striker or in a central midfield role creating attacks or in Nasri's case as a deep lying play maker.

 

[bluethunder]

And what does that tell you? Nasri and Silva's natural instinct is to play centrally and this is why we need the full backs to provide the width which as the Arsenal game proved leaves us with gaping holes at the back and leaves us open to the ball over the top counter-attack.

It's simple really, we need to decide on our system and apply the players best suited it...... Problem solved.

against arsenal we simply didn't defend properly . clichy, kompany, lescott and zabalete were sleeping during the 90 minutes. if we kept a clean sheet we could have e won that game.

it was later revealed that the players were tired after a busy week.

i don't see the problem with our 4-2-2-2, it is actually quite flexible, we can quickly change into a 4-2-3-1, 4-4-1-1 or 3-5-2 without making substitutions as well.

4-2-2-2, 4-2-3-1, 4-4-1-1 or 3-5-2......... You sound a bit like Mike Bassett there mate. :-)

Seeing as Negredo scored against Arsenal, it's quite obvious if we'd kept a clean sheet we'd have won! Lol

On a more serious note; As I've been saying all along its not the formation that's the issue, it's the players we use in that system where we fall down. Silva and Nasri aren't wingers. They are both better employed playing behind the main striker or in a central midfield role creating attacks or in Nasri's case as a deep lying play maker.

we cannot have nasri as a deep lying playmaker...the deep lying play makers must be capable of defending. we bought him to play in an attacking midfield role.

nasri definitely doesn't fit into our system he's made that clear himself:

"At Arsenal I was playing a little bit higher with three strikers and three midfielders. Here we play 4-4-2 so you have to work more defensively." - Nasri

we're not going to change our system to suit nasri so if the lad doesnt improve soon id sell him.

David Silva has had no problems since his arrival. He's had the most assists in 2011 season. Last season he 's had the best chance per minute rate in the league.