Player thread: Fernando (2014/15)

[Marvin]

I get your point. He may be able to play in a 3 but even then he isn't anywhere near good enough. Compare and contrast with Busquets for example..

Busquets is the best out there but I tell you what put him in our team in our midfield and he would struggle!

You're probably right. Certainly in 4-4-2.

Which we're not play at the moment

 

[Phil1]

don't think Busquets would do brilliantly in our setup, nor should he.

You're right, I think the set-up is wrong.

But Fernando does not help himself at all. His positioning is hopeless and cannot tackle, he cannot pass. He looks unfit and that is not acceptable.

Yet he is now a regular in our team

Can't tackle, and is unfit? What does that make Yaya Toure then? Fernando's power and tackling is exactly why we bought him. Some of the closing down he does is very impressive.

The one weakness in his game is his passing. Most of the time he gvesit very simple but every game he seem to give 2 or 3 balls away sometimes in dangerous areas.

For me he has been our best signing this Summer because the defensive side of his game is outstanding.

A lot of City fans don't appreciate the defensive side of his game because we're often up against 10 man defence. He comes into his own though when we lose the ball upfield and need someone to close the opponents down. I've not seen anyone better than that including De Jong

What part of his defensive game has been outstanding? The part where he he allows the opposition to ghost past him? The part where he finds himself out of position? The part where he makes silly fouls that could be given as a penalty? The part where he fails to make tackles in a 50/50?
So far his biggest attribute has been his pace and I've only seen that used a couple of times early on in the season.

If he really is the best signing we made all summer then our transfer strategy is more worrying than I thought. If you think really think he's been defensively outstanding then your judgement is definitely more worrying than I thought.

 

[Wretched Vengeance]

don't think Busquets would do brilliantly in our setup, nor should he.

You're right, I think the set-up is wrong.

But Fernando does not help himself at all. His positioning is hopeless and cannot tackle, he cannot pass. He looks unfit and that is not acceptable.

Yet he is now a regular in our team

Can't tackle, and is unfit? What does that make Yaya Toure then? Fernando's power and tackling is exactly why we bought him. Some of the closing down he does is very impressive.

The one weakness in his game is his passing. Most of the time he gvesit very simple but every game he seem to give 2 or 3 balls away sometimes in dangerous areas.

For me he has been our best signing this Summer because the defensive side of his game is outstanding.

A lot of City fans don't appreciate the defensive side of his game because we're often up against 10 man defence. He comes into his own though when we lose the ball upfield and need someone to close the opponents down. I've not seen anyone better than that including De Jong

Your faith in him is admirable, however, I see very little of those traits you describe in the guy.

 

[kunaguero10]

don't think Busquets would do brilliantly in our setup, nor should he.

You're right, I think the set-up is wrong.

But Fernando does not help himself at all. His positioning is hopeless and cannot tackle, he cannot pass. He looks unfit and that is not acceptable.

Yet he is now a regular in our team

Can't tackle, and is unfit? What does that make Yaya Toure then? Fernando's power and tackling is exactly why we bought him. Some of the closing down he does is very impressive.

The one weakness in his game is his passing. Most of the time he gvesit very simple but every game he seem to give 2 or 3 balls away sometimes in dangerous areas.

For me he has been our best signing this Summer because the defensive side of his game is outstanding.

A lot of City fans don't appreciate the defensive side of his game because we're often up against 10 man defence. He comes into his own though when we lose the ball upfield and need someone to close the opponents down. I've not seen anyone better than that including De Jong

Just LOL. I can't agree with any of what you say there (apart from the giving the ball away part).

 

[pudge]

I repeat, 1 successful tackle in his last 5 games.

 

[carlos tevez is a blue]

I thought he was good again.

He is the legs for Yaya Toure and Silva. He closes down and puts opposition players under pressure

Occasaionally 2 or 3 times a game he gives the ball away in dangerous positions, but overall I think he is very effective

One of our better signings in recent seasons. And he'll get better as Garcia did. It's only his first season and he has been in and out of the team. He's also managed to displace Fernandinho from the team so the manager must be very happy with what he is doing even if the serial critics are not.

Incidentally one of their other targets also had a good game last night, and I bet they didn't comment on that or revise their view accordingly because that is something they are not prepared to do.

I agree, let's get rid of Yaya and replace him with Fernando, after all what has Yaya ever done for us?

 

[AC1DK1LLA]

I'm hearing we want Nainggolan from Roma which would be a massive improvement on Fernando.

 

[mammutly]

I think he shows promise, but did we really expect potential when he was brought in? I think, like Mangala, the expectation was more of the finished article. That isn't what we've got.

 

[Dax777]

I'm hearing we want Nainggolan from Roma which would be a massive improvement on Fernando.

A tackling version of Milner. When would management learn :(

 

[Damocles]

Good article from the DM:

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2992367/Manchester-City-s-Fernando-admits-life-Premier-League-really-hard-rates-Philippe-Coutinho-Europe-s-best-Brazilian-player.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... layer.html</a>

Manchester City's Fernando admits the Premier League is 'really hard' but says his best is yet to come... and rates Philippe Coutinho as Europe's best Brazilian player

In the wake of Manchester City’s recent Barclays Premier League defeat by Liverpool, the first thing the club’s Brazilian midfielder Fernando did was seek out compatriot Philippe Coutinho.

‘I wanted to say ‘‘well done’’ to him after his winning goal,’ revealed Fernando.

‘To me, he is the best Brazilian playing in Europe at the moment.’

Elsewhere at Anfield, the criticism of the City midfield that had started after the home defeat by Barcelona four days earlier was being cranked up to the next level.

According to those on TV paid to know, City had lost back-to-back games simply because of failings in central midfield.

Fernando played in the first game and not the second. Was he, therefore, at least partly culpable for setbacks that seem to have done so much to damage City’s aspirations at home and in the Champions League?

Fernando: 'I haven’t reached my level here yet and the language is a problem'

‘It’s really hard,’ Fernando admitted on Thursday. ‘I haven’t reached my level here yet and the language is a problem. The Premier League is very challenging.

‘This season has gone OK, I think, but I’m hoping my next season will be a lot better. It was really difficult against Barcelona. We were not playing a normal team.

‘We want to get to that level but we need to learn if we are going to be successful in the Champions League. We know we can win in Barcelona. But having an attacking mentality won’t help us if we go over the top with that. Our mentality has to be right.

‘The criticism will always come if things aren’t going well. It can be aimed at the strikers or the defence and now at this time it is the midfield. It shouldn’t do but that is just what happens.’

City’s shot at European redemption comes next Wednesday at the Nou Camp.

Manuel Pellegrini’s team trail 2-1 and need a huge result if they are going to become an isolated Premier League representative in the last eight.

At home, City trail Chelsea in the Premier League by five points and have played a game more. On Tuesday, Fernando watched Jose Mourinho’s team exit Europe in a rather feisty game at Stamford Bridge.

On a night more memorable for needle than football, it was tempting to wonder if Chelsea were beginning to show signs of frailty.

Certainly Fernando revealed he could not imagine his City team-mates hounding a referee in similar fashion. He did, however, have an interesting take on why some footballers - including friends such as David Luiz, Oscar and Thiago Silva - behave the way they do.

‘It’s not something that would happen in our team,’ he told Sportsmail. ‘We are mainly a very calm team that concentrates on actually trying to win the game on the pitch.

‘We play according to whatever happens and we don’t try to change things by altering decisions and trying to influence the result that way.

‘Every player has to hold things in. There are so many occasions when you actually want to say things but you must not.

‘At City I follow the example of people like James Milner, Joe Hart and Pablo Zabaleta. They are players who just try to play and not talk too much.

‘But you have to understand that the Champions League is a huge competition and the players were aware of that on Tuesday.

‘It was two great teams wanting to go through.

‘The players were aware of the investment each club had made so they had that pressure too.

‘The players were tense and that’s why these things happen. It’s adrenaline and tension.’

On Thursday at City’s training base, Fernando and his team-mate and fellow Brazilian Fernandinho took part in a Disability Awareness Workshop with local schoolchildren organised by the club’s City in the Community scheme.

So close are the two that when Fernandinho was chosen for random doping after training, his friend waited for him before arriving to take part in the event.

Fernando was also there at Anfield, of course, when Fernandinho and City captain Vincent Kompany had a rather frank exchange of views about what was going wrong.

‘In every team and every player there is a need to talk,’ he said. ‘It has to happen. It helps. We are working to improve when things are going wrong. It’s a quality and we will carry on with that.

'Fernandinho isn’t even a tiny bit upset about. It’s a story for a day and people like to talk but it means nothing to us.’

Back at home in Brazil, they are still coming to terms with their own bad news day. That came last July when the national team flunked a World Cup semi-final, losing 7-1 to Germany.

Fernando watched that game in a Brazilian restaurant in Manchester and put his hands to his head at mention of it yesterday.

Now 27, he has international aspirations of his own but knows he - and his country - have much to learn.

‘It is really hard for Brazil now,’ he said. ‘We have had to learn a lesson from what happened.

‘The Germans and the Dutch have improved and we needed to realise that we have to catch up.

‘Tactically we have fallen behind. If I get called up then of course I will be extremely happy. I am focused on my performance here, though.

‘Every players needs time to get settled and get his status. This is what I am doing.’