Pablo Zabaleta - 2016/17 performances

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Zaba: "I know my contract expires (in the summer). I am 32, not getting any younger, so I need to make sure my decision is the correct one."

Zaba: "If I decide to stay, I will stay. If I will decide to move on, I will move on. Until then, I don’t want to talk too much about it."
 
City health warning said:
Not much in it to be honest Dax but neither look convincing for next season. Zaba stepped in against Monaco.
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Spot on - Sagna has had a poor season in my opinion and if you watch him closely he tends to put his teammates in trouble by passing to them when they are in tight spots - the Monaco game summed up what a leader, and how passionate Zaba is. Despite that both will be gone in the summer. Zaba should be carried off on someones shoulders and Sagna thanked quietly for a decent, if not special stay with us.
 
Mr HJ said:
Spot on - Sagna has had a poor season in my opinion and if you watch him closely he tends to put his teammates in trouble by passing to them when they are in tight spots - the Monaco game summed up what a leader, and how passionate Zaba is. Despite that both will be gone in the summer. Zaba should be carried off on someones shoulders and Sagna thanked quietly for a decent, if not special stay with us.
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Sagna's looked more assured in adapting to Pep's methods but age is against him.As you have pointed out Zaba's leadership qualities has been one of his plus points both for this season and during his time at the club and has made him one of our legends.
 
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Not sure that just because a player hits 32 we should be automatically flinging them out of the departure lounge.
 
Mr HJ said:
Spot on - Sagna has had a poor season in my opinion and if you watch him closely he tends to put his teammates in trouble by passing to them when they are in tight spots - the Monaco game summed up what a leader, and how passionate Zaba is. Despite that both will be gone in the summer. Zaba should be carried off on someones shoulders and Sagna thanked quietly for a decent, if not special stay with us.
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Sagna has been very good for us and deserves more that "quiet thanks" IMO
 
doobyedoobye said:
Not sure that just because a player hits 32 we should be automatically flinging them out of the departure lounge.
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His legs have gone. He's an absolute defensive liability in Pep's system. I appreciate that he could occasionally be rolled out for a flat track game but I'd prefer we used those games for younger developing players, not players like Zaba who are at the end of their careers.
 
We shouldn't underestimate the role these guys could potentially play with helping youth come through. I'm really only talking about Vinny and Zaba
 
doobyedoobye said:
We shouldn't underestimate the role these guys could potentially play with helping youth come through. I'm really only talking about Vinny and Zaba
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Yeah that i'd 100% go along with. If we're talking about coaching roles with the odd game thrown in during injury crisis' i'm all in. It's just the idea that our regular r/b gets injured/suspended and all we have as fall back is Zaba. Would be a bad situation IMO.
 
BillyShears said:
Yeah that i'd 100% go along with. If we're talking about coaching roles with the odd game thrown in during injury crisis' i'm all in. It's just the idea that our regular r/b gets injured/suspended and all we have as fall back is Zaba. Would be a bad situation IMO.
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Agreed.
 
I thought Zabba was excellent today and whatever you think regarding Zabba v Sagna from a defensive point of view Zabba clearly offers more to this team in an attacking sense. If by some miracle Sagna had gotten into the same position for the opening goal I am convinced he would have turned around and looked for our centre backs.
 
Agree completely with the above post. Zab's use of the ball remains superb , he had an excellent game today.
Regrettably against the best his lack of pace now does mean he is occasionally suspect defensively.
 
West Ham are among the clubs interested in signing Manchester City right-back Pablo Zabaleta (32) if he leaves this summer. [Mail on Sunday]

Guardiola has yet to decide if Zaba will get a new contract and West Ham believe his experience would help younger players. [Mail on Sunday]
 
Should give him another year. Can still offer attacking threat against the lesser teams and would be good in rotation with the new RB we sign in summer (hopefully).
 
RandomJ said:
Should give him another year. Can still offer attacking threat against the lesser teams and would be good in rotation with the new RB we sign in summer (hopefully).
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I would rather give Mafeo a chance to stake a claim to be our number one right back, Zabs can back him up in a transitional season and see how it goes, at some point we have to give some of our youth a chance to shine, they may not be exactly 100% ready to be in a top team but then they will never learn and kick on playing with better players.

We can't keep paying 40m for other teams youth products, like Stones for example, as much as I like him and want him to succeed he is by no means the finished article at 40m, Sane has taken an age to come to himself but we are now seeing what a player he could be but what if say Diaz was afforded half a season to settle in with the first team, getting minutes, could he not show a vast improvement and save us another 40/50m in the summer ?
 
Been directly involved in 6 of our last 7 seven goals, more interceptions than anyone else on the pitch at weekend.
He offers way more in possession and going forwards than Sagna and should have been on at some point tonight.
 
blumoonrisen said:
Been directly involved in 6 of our last 7 seven goals, more interceptions than anyone else on the pitch at weekend.
He offers way more in possession and going forwards than Sagna and should have been on at some point tonight.
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Yup, the right hand side misses his overlapping runs and it shows, Sagna not done anything wrong as such he just isn't as good as Zabs bombing forward.
 
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