Nastasic

[grahamgor]

To all those saying he lacks pace, what are you gleaning that from? He rarely has to run at full tilt because he's rarely out of position. However, watch Villa's 3rd goal again, as the ball bounces past Nastasic and Kompany they both turn to chase Weimann back and Nasty outstrips Kompany and nearly gets to the ball before it crosses the line whilst Vinnie's given up. Also, if you can find it, have a watch of the Champions League home game from last season vs Madrid. There was a 40 yard chase between Nastasic and Ronaldo and Nasty got to the ball first.

If a centre back truly is top class, he should never have to sprint.

Excellent points. I vividly remember that long chase in the CL as it finished parallel to where I was seated. It had looked all over, goal to Real, but , to everyone's relief, Nastasic won out.
At Villa Park, Nasty seemed to lose momentum for a split second looking to the lino for a decision. Even so,as you say, he almost got there.

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

To all those saying he lacks pace, what are you gleaning that from? He rarely has to run at full tilt because he's rarely out of position. However, watch Villa's 3rd goal again, as the ball bounces past Nastasic and Kompany they both turn to chase Weimann back and Nasty outstrips Kompany and nearly gets to the ball before it crosses the line whilst Vinnie's given up. Also, if you can find it, have a watch of the Champions League home game from last season vs Madrid. There was a 40 yard chase between Nastasic and Ronaldo and Nasty got to the ball first.

If a centre back truly is top class, he should never have to sprint.

Not true, even top class CB's make a mistake, get undone by a great through ball to a quick striker or have to cover for another defender's error.

 

[daxman]

He's too slow to be one of the best in the league. Good backup to have in years to come, but I would have hoped in 2-3 years our first choice cb pairing will be kompany and the 2nd best cb in the world...whoever that will be. Nasty will be great cover IMO

He' not slow

Vidic was regarded as the best defender in the Premiership, and he's quicker than Vidic.

Makes the odd stupid mistake, but then no one is immune from that, and for his age his game is remarkable. Media would be going on and on about him if he played for someone else. Lets hope he carries on learning and improving

He's a very promising player, but his speed will be an issue in the future

These silly needles fouls that people keep mentioning are caused by the opposition twisting nastasic for pace and him pulling them
back or fouling them on purpose.

It's all about opinions, and I love bulling our youngsters up as much as anyone, but I don't think he is as good as some like to make out on here

Oh lord! This fantasy claim keeps making the rounds. Nastasic has 15 fouls this season. 10 of them were from Jumpball fouls and Overaggressively tackling an opponent trying to hold up play. None of these fouls are speed related. He has 2 foul, in which he was turned and pulled the player. On both plays, he was beat by the player taking a better angle (not by speed). This will happen to the fastest defender in the world. Navas and Micah, 2 of our fastest defenders have been beat the same way. 2 of 15 fouls called for pulling shirt, in no way suggest this is a player being beat for pace constantly.

As for speed: Nastasic may not be the fastest defender in Europe, but here is a list of defenders he is clearly faster than:
Dante (Bayern),Pique, Masherano (Barca), Godin, Alderwield (Ath Madrid) Alex(PSG), SKrtel, Agger (Liverpool), Barzagli (Juventuss), Mexes, Papadoupolos, Otamendi, Ezequiel Garray. And in the Prem he is quicker than Mertasacker, Vermaelen, Vertongen, Dawson, Terry, Ivanovic, Hangeland, Huth, Williams, Vidic, Ferdinand, Shawcross, Lovren, Colochini, Taylor, Vlaar, Just to name those I can remember. He is probably faster or as fast as 80% of the CDs in the league. How that can be deemed slow, beats me.

Just to name a few. In other words, Nasty is not in the lower range of speedy CDs. He may not be Distin, Kompany or David Luiz fast, but he is certainly as quick as the majority of starting CDs in the Prem.

 

[Deleted member 52846]

For me his positives are: he's aggressive; he's got a good leap on him; his positional sense is outstanding; he reads the game excellently; he's consistent from game to game, it's only odd mistakes here and there that he makes - i've not seen him have a poor all round game as yet and i can't say that for our captain!; he's got good pace, not got a clue what people are on about who say he's got no pace - he overtook CRonaldo in a sprint FFS!...

Negatives: he's not got great upper body strength just yet but he's not weak by any stretch; he's young and makes odd mistakes here and there - that is to be expected of a 19 and now 20 year old starting CH for a top side. He doesn't give too many fouls away around the box, i don't know where that myth has come from.

I really rate the lad! I think he's already special but i cannot wait to see how good he is going to be in a few years time.

The best young player in the Prem by absolute lightyears!

 

[Jumanji]

I didn't know he was slow...

 

[Vienna_70]

For me his positives are: he's aggressive; he's got a good leap on him; his positional sense is outstanding; he reads the game excellently; he's consistent from game to game, it's only odd mistakes here and there that he makes - i've not seen him have a poor all round game as yet and i can't say that for our captain!; he's got good pace, not got a clue what people are on about who say he's got no pace - he overtook CRonaldo in a sprint FFS!...

Negatives: he's not got great upper body strength just yet but he's not weak by any stretch; he's young and makes odd mistakes here and there - that is to be expected of a 19 and now 20 year old starting CH for a top side. He doesn't give too many fouls away around the box, i don't know where that myth has come from.

I really rate the lad! I think he's already special but i cannot wait to see how good he is going to be in a few years time.

The best young player in the Prem by absolute lightyears!

And I bet he still won't be on the PFA's YPotY shortlist!

 

[Jumanji]

he's got good pace, not got a clue what people are on about who say he's got no pace - he overtook CRonaldo in a sprint FFS!...

To be fair, he did have a yard head start on Ronaldo, but Ronaldo is the most explosive player in the game and Nasty matched him stride for stride.

 

[Mrmcfc]

Imo nasty has a great deal of potential,
But hes too slow to ever be world class.

 

[southstandblue27]

Think we are guilty of overrating/over expecting with Nastasic.

Don't get me wrong, for such a young age he does very well and in the future will become a valuable asset.

However, I think we needed a TOP class player to partner Vinny, someone like Hummels or Godin.

Just think we rely on him too heavily and he is not yet at the level we need him to be if we are to be competing for both the PL and CL.

As for this 'too slow' business, what a load of rubbish.

 

[Jumanji]

Imo nasty has a great deal of potential,
But hes too slow to ever be world class.

What is Vinny then if he's not even as quick as Nastasic?