Nastasić

[SuperSilva]

Nastasic looks to be solid! He was naive lsat night with Benzema etc. Give him half of this season, the experience and game time and he will be taking Lescott's place in starting with Vinny in no time!

 

[Stoned Rose]

When you keep in mind that he had a strong game while...

1. Being a mere nineteen years of age.
2. Playing his first game for a new club.
3. Making his champions league debut.
4. Learning to play a whole new set-up in a whole new country.
5. Diving right in at the deep end by playing Real Madrid away.

... then I'd say I was very impressed with the lad indeed.

I think we have one hell of a young prospect on our hands here.

Take a bow son.

He was excellent, but given the context he was astonishing.

Lescott will be forced to up his overall game big time now. Which I think is an excellent thing.<br /><br />-- Wed Sep 19, 2012 9:23 pm --<br /><br />

City's best two players were Kompany and Nastasic. Madrid with all their great players rarely got through our defence. They were forced sideways whenever they got to the edge of our penalty area and ended up shooting continually from outside the box. Unfortunately they got lucky. A deflection and a perfect dummy

Clichy was the only player not to have a poor game defensively imo.

Vinny's worst game since he first played cb under Hughes. Awful.

Vinny's worst game since he first played cb under Hughes. Awful.

give over.

 

[Tricky Dickys Right Foot Shot]

He did well, but we need Lescott back!

For Kompany the way he's playing at the moment

I really don't see why we should be critical of Kompany. The midfield failed to stop Madrid too often last night leaving the heart of our defence exposed. For the most part I thought Kompany did well under extreme and constant presure.

As for Madrid's 3rd goal this wasn't Kompany's fault. He doesn't duck under the ball he avoids glancing it. The shot was struck powerfully by Ronaldo but was going to his, Kompany's, right. He doesn't have the time to get in front of it (try watching it a normal speed!). It's an awful dilema for a defender, do you try and intervene but risk deflecting it into your net? Kompany in a split second instinctively decides against touching it, and I believe it was the right thing to do; he was just unlucky the Hart was beaten by the dip of the ball.

As for Nastasic I thought is defending was great and his distribution was outstanding! What a signing!!!

If players like Mario, Dzeko, Silva, Barry and Yaya can come under criticism why can't Kompany?

He's been terrible by his standards so far, maybe being dropped could do him some good? It's not just us he's been shaky for but also Belgium as well!

 

[Stoned Rose]

The case against Kompany is being overstated. he also beat Ronaldo one on one a few times. I don't remember hart being faced one on one many times. Happened once or twice when long balls cut out our defenders, articularly in first 15 minutes. After that we got to grips with them.

You can't go 90 mins against Di maria and Ronaldo without them wriggling some space to shoot out of you at some point.

Spot on. In any game against Madrid, any player in world footall is going to get one or to rinsings throughout the match. You cant avoid that. Both Nastasic and Kompany did as well as anyone else would've.<br /><br />-- Wed Sep 19, 2012 9:32 pm --<br /><br />

Really impressed. The picture was a little grainy here, but i think it was him who played several balls, along the ground, totally bypassing the midfield into Tevez's feet?

And yeah he got beaten by Benzema, but that happens when you play against the the top players. He was a couple of feet too far away, so got wrong-footed closing the gap, by a perfect first touch.

In fairness for all Hart did well today getting beat near post is something a keeper of any level should accept.

That's just a cliche really. You still have a full goal to cover and from where Benzema was positioned he could have gone either side of Hart. The finish was so accurate that you don't really save those unless you anticipate and begin your dive just before the ball is struck. And you can't really do that for obvious reasons.

As for his lest side problem, think people are forgetting the two saves in the first ten mins. It's nonsense that team are 'targeting' the left side. Ronaldo had 10 shots last night, cutting in from the right. The majority are going to be aimed towards the far post as that's the largest target area given any keepers positioning in such a situation. In any case, just as many shots flew wide of his right hand post.

Correct. No goalkeeper on the planet was saving that Benzema effort. It was rapidly executed with incredible precision.

Hart had an exceptionally good game, truly world class and kept us in the game on several occasions.

 

[Stoned Rose]

We conceded 3 goals, of which 1 was his man and he lost the ball a few times.

It's nothing to hold against him but he didn't play especially well. Will reserve my judgement.

Will reserve my judgement

you sure? read your post.......

-- Wed Sep 19, 2012 9:37 pm --

I just know that should Lescott have played then we would have been in trouble. Ronaldo and Di Maria would have ran rings around him.

Good debut.

Keep Nastasic for opposition that are possession based teams. Keep Lescott for physically strong teams.


---


I make that wide of the mark myself. Whilst Lescott isn't a great passer he is certainly a good player, harsh to speak lowly of him.

i am a fan of lescott and am greatful for the service, but we need to move to the next level. we got to have central defenders who are comfortable on the ball. less hoofing more possesion , also if they can make a pass that swings play from defence to attack . this is essential for counter attacking football.

something we are going to have to get right at the big boys grounds

Agreed. We ned 5-6 better players in to replace k.Toure(past it),Lescott(good but not a top player),Nasri,Milner,Zabaleta,Dzeko . We should buy Falcao,Neven Subotić,Hummels,Lahm,Neymar,Isco,Wilshire.

-------- hart--------------
Richards---Hummels------Kompany-----Lahm
--------Garcia------Wilshere-------
-------------Toure-------------------
--------Silva-----------------Neymar
-----------Falco------------------------

Second team
--------- Costel Pantilimon----------------
Maicon------Nastasić---------Neven Subotić--------Clichy
--------------Rodwell--Barry----------
--------------Isco---------------------
----Mario-----------------------Tevez
----------Augero-----------------------------

you're being a knob. Again.<br /><br />-- Wed Sep 19, 2012 9:39 pm --<br /><br />

Yesterday was perfect for Lescott. He's up there with the best when it comes to defending his 6 yard box.

You didn't watch the match did you?

 

[AgüeroKun]

Excellent display for Natasić, hopefully will develop into a world class player.

 

[Txiki Txiki Bang Bang]

If we play 352 against arsenal then i would like to see Nastasic play alongside Kompany and Lescott . Kompany and Lescott would help him build more confidence and it would take away pressure from both him and lescott , I believe Lescott probably feels his spot could be taken by Nastasic and Nastasic might also feel he has to work very hard to keep the spot he believes he has "taken" from Lescott and this could pile up pressure on both of them and end up hurting the team spirit. We can play both Nastasic and Lescott at the same time in a 3-5-2 formation. Funny enough i think Kompany and Lescott could also improve their composure when they play alongside Nastasic , I might sound like a praise singer but i haven't seen a defender play with the composure and calmness of Nastasic .

 

[BlueAnorak]

I wasn't impressed with our defending at all last night. We defended too deep at the end as well.

Frankly I was staggered that Tranny was not double teamed for the entire match. Also staggered that Milner wasn't on the bench to be able to plug any defensive gaps on the right.

Several times tranny cut inside - on the last occasion he scored - Fake Madrid should have scored on at least 2 or 3 other occasions - especially in the first half - but didn't. Prior to that the right of our defence was stretched too far allowing Marcelo to shoot and score from the edge of the box.

Mancini needs to sort it fast or our season could be over very quickly.

Note: I am a Mancini loyalist as Prestwich will testify - but we didn't defend well and it does need to be sorted.

Nastasic did bloody well on the left though. Much better than Kompany.

 

[CitytillIdie74]

Great debut in a cauldron of a ground,he looks a great prospect.

 

[MSP]

Yesterday was perfect for Lescott. He's up there with the best when it comes to defending his 6 yard box.

Lescott would be destroyed by Madrid pressing.. he can't deal with the ball for a life of him and they would run into him in numbers as soon as he would get it.

I rate Lescott but he was not the best man for Madrid game, you need someone who's better with ball there.