Our Centre Mids

[johnmc]

Milner and Barry.

]

No De Jong?

No. And if Hargreaves was fit it would be him and Milner.

 

[Astuteboy]

Barry is awful awful awful awful. I nearly died from shock when I saw people posting on here thinking he had a good game tonight.

Have to say I agree; the Barry love is excessive now.

I like the guy, and he's had a decent start to the season against lesser teams, but he gave the ball away last night several times when we really needed to keep possession. Should have done much more to stop the first header on the 2nd goal also. Obviously being alongside a poor Yaya didn't help him in general, but to say he played well is excessive blue-tintededness imo. Way out of his depth and not good enough against a top side.

No surprise Mancini is so keen for someone like De Rossi, although it wouldn't surprise me if Hargreaves gets a run in the team once fit (remains to be seen if he'll do any better).

 

[lostgalaxy]

Just put De Jong there and we'll be fine.

Give Razak as much game time as possible because he's the only one who can replace De Jong.

Don't ping too much hope on Hagreaves. He can come back, play some role now and then, but thats already a happy ending of a sad story.

 

[Deleted member 14625]

Barry was well out of his depth last night. He was jogged past, one-two'd around, left for dead numerous times by their midfielders and gave far too many free kicks and balls away. I thought he was appalling. He was the same against Napoli, it was his fault for the goal. He's out of his depth at this level.

Yaya just showed again that he's not a defensive midfielder. He was replaced at Barca by Busquets because he wasn't good enough there and wasn't better than Iniesta or Xavi to play in his proper position. He also looks knackered last night and last week.

In fact around the whole team we looked tired. Last night reminded me of the Community Sheild performance. We were the unfit side ofthe two. Bayern looked sharper, quicker, faster, fitter, more energetic, stronger...

I agree get de Jong and Milner in for the next few games.


The. what about our defence?! The pride of our team last season. Well last night, I don't really know what to say. The one thing I'm pissed off about with Mancini is dropping Lescott. He's been one of our best players so far this season, he's been better than Kompany and Kolo has played one game in six months and couldn't get in the team for three months before that. AND GE DROPS LESCOTT FOR KOLO! Aarrgh! That moves Kompany out of position to his weaker left side, that brings in someone who wins very few headers, that upsets the balance and the complimentary partnership you get with VK+JL.. not happy with it at all. Both goals could and should have been avoided, fucking terrible reaction times by our defenders. Kolo was a joke. I can't get my head around it!
-- Wed Sep 28, 2011 6:14 am --

Barry played well, yet again.

That's wildly wrong!

 

[EaglesFan]

I've been saying for a while now that Yaya doesnt bring much to the table this year. He looks lazy, tired, and very slow with the ball. Disgustingly slow.

And that is my only issue with Mancini - he seems to fall in love with certain players (see Yaya), while over-scrutinizing others (see Dzeko, Balotelli), when his "untouchables" have, to be fair, been one of the key reasons for recent struggle by the strikers (from Napoli on).

Right now, Milner and NDJ should be our starting CM's - no question IMO. So I'm eager to see if Mancini does the right thing, or persists on shuffling strikers like cards when our struggle stems in midfield.

 

[bluemoonmatt]

I'm sorry, but we need to drop Yaya and Barry and replace them with Milner and De Jong for the foreseeable.

Yaya has looked positively lethargic for the past 4 or 5 games and Barry, love the guy, but he's too slow.

I'm also worried about Nasri. Great debut but jesus he's gone missing since. £20m+ player he is absolutely not proving to be so far.

Thoughts?

I agree, Yaya in particular has been massively below what we know he is capable of. Its like he's in a comfort zone, like he knows he won't get dropped. Well Bobby, I say drop him.

 

[Deleted member 14625]

I've been saying for a while now that Yaya doesnt bring much to the table this year. He looks lazy, tired, and very slow with the ball. Disgustingly slow.

And that is my only issue with Mancini - he seems to fall in love with certain players (see Yaya), while over-scrutinizing others (see Dzeko, Balotelli), when his "untouchables" have, to be fair, been one of the key reasons for recent struggle by the strikers (from Napoli on).

Right now, Milner and NDJ should be our starting CM's - no question IMO. So I'm eager to see if Mancini does the right thing, or persists on shuffling strikers like cards when our struggle stems in midfield.

Yaya was like this for us last season. I don't think he's an athletic physical specimen like a lot of footballers at this level. I think it takes Yaya months to get into the right physical condition for this level of sport. There's nowt up with that and nowt we can do. Eventually he came good by Christmas onwards last season and he was much fitter and in better shape by Spring - have a look on the Yaya threads from 12months ago, I posted at the time "he's the fattest player in the Premier League" - and we seem to have the same this season.

 

[Comrade Buka]

Yaya was like this for us last season. I don't think he's an athletic physical specimen like a lot of footballers at this level. I think it takes Yaya months to get into the right physical condition for this level of sport. There's nowt up with that and nowt we can do. Eventually he came good by Christmas onwards last season and he was much fitter and in better shape by Spring - have a look on the Yaya threads from 12months ago, I posted at the time "he's the fattest player in the Premier League" - and we seem to have the same this season.

I am not saying I disagree, but to have one of the highest paid players in the team only playing at the level required for 5 months of the year seems a bit nonsensical to me.

As much as I love Yaya's passing he adds little to nothing defensively.

If we are ever to emulate Barcelona's high pressure on the pitch, having players like Yaya and Barry on the pitch simply will not do. While they both are great passers of the ball, they are both simply too slow. When we were 2-0 down yesterday in the second half, some of our midfield still looked like they were doing an after game training session.

If you lose the ball the first priority is to win the ball back, not fall back and wait for Bayern to lose the ball. Only when Bayern were stringing 15-20 passes together did we seem to get involved. And that was mostly born from frustration which the second half yellow cards bear witness of.

 

[Skip Donoghue]

A huge lack of mobility in our central area was highlighted last night, Yaya is great when we are controlling the game same with Barry, but if we need to press and close down they aren't able and they chased shadows once Bayern got control of the middle of the park

 

[Akira]

We need De Jong, end of.

A top class midfield is not a top class midfield without a proper anchorman. True story.