Player thread: Fernando (2014/15)

[chris85mcfc]

I think it's clear that he struggles badly as part of a two man midfield. He cedes possession far too easily, and offers nothing going forward. It's strange, because his reputation in Portugal was very good, and a lot of respected journalists raved about him.

I'm not going to write him off completely though, as I still think he can do a job as a squad member. He can be utilised for away games when we play a three man midfield, especially in Europe, and also helping to close out games. Needs to improve quickly though.

Is he any use to us if he is only able to play in a three man midfield? Personally we would have been better off signing someone that can play in both. I actually think that Fernandinho can do Fernando's job better than he can, and he could have been used as the defensive minded player in a 3 if necessary.

I just find it odd that we have signed a player who apparently excels as the sweeper in a 3 man midfield, yet I can count the amount of times we've played a 3 man midfield on one hand.

From what I've seen of him so far, he can't tackle, he doesn't break up play (enough), he's not blessed with pace, he can't drive forward, he can't shoot, he can't make clever forward passes. But I won't write him off just yet :)

 

[chris85mcfc]

he is a destroyer

You don't need a destroyer when you are playing against a 10 man defence. Against Chelsea he totally dominated Matic who has been their main man this season

From where I was watching it was Fernandinho that was dominating Matic, although Fernando had a decent game.

He is ideal when we are playing a compact game, away from home. Which baffles me as to why he has probably played the most home games out of our 4 centre midfielders, and that is one of the reasons our home form has been so poor this season.

 

[OrigamiNinja]

I think it's clear that he struggles badly as part of a two man midfield. He cedes possession far too easily, and offers nothing going forward. It's strange, because his reputation in Portugal was very good, and a lot of respected journalists raved about him.

I'm not going to write him off completely though, as I still think he can do a job as a squad member. He can be utilised for away games when we play a three man midfield, especially in Europe, and also helping to close out games. Needs to improve quickly though.

Is he any use to us if he is only able to play in a three man midfield? Personally we would have been better off signing someone that can play in both. I actually think that Fernandinho can do Fernando's job better than he can, and he could have been used as the defensive minded player in a 3 if necessary.

I just find it odd that we have signed a player who apparently excels as the sweeper in a 3 man midfield, yet I can count the amount of times we've played a 3 man midfield on one hand.

From what I've seen of him so far, he can't tackle, he doesn't break up play (enough), he's not blessed with pace, he can't drive forward, he can't shoot, he can't make clever forward passes. But I won't write him off just yet :)

Do it, just write him off. You wont regret it. You needn't worry about the old "I told you so" coming your way. He's no good, has nothing going for him. No stand out attributes. Makes those around him play worse and for those James Milner fans out there, he will also end up being a contributory factor to Milner leaving the club. £12m down the pan! Awful!

I think I have written him off!

 

[Marvin]

he is a destroyer

You don't need a destroyer when you are playing against a 10 man defence. Against Chelsea he totally dominated Matic who has been their main man this season

From where I was watching it was Fernandinho that was dominating Matic, although Fernando had a decent game.

He is ideal when we are playing a compact game, away from home. Which baffles me as to why he has probably played the most home games out of our 4 centre midfielders, and that is one of the reasons our home form has been so poor this season.

His game is suffering a bit, but I think he is a really good player. He just needs to play in a system that suits him and the team.

Pellegrini got it totally wrong against Hull and took too long to change it. And the result is Fernando gets criticism he doesn't really deserve

 

[OrigamiNinja]

he is a destroyer

You don't need a destroyer when you are playing against a 10 man defence. Against Chelsea he totally dominated Matic who has been their main man this season

From where I was watching it was Fernandinho that was dominating Matic, although Fernando had a decent game.

He is ideal when we are playing a compact game, away from home. Which baffles me as to why he has probably played the most home games out of our 4 centre midfielders, and that is one of the reasons our home form has been so poor this season.

His game is suffering a bit, but I think he is a really good player. He just needs to play in a system that suits him and the team.

Pellegrini got it totally wrong against Hull and took too long to change it. And the result is Fernando gets criticism he doesn't really deserve

We are the best / 2nd best side in this league and as such will not be changing our system to accommodate him. On this basis he will never have a significant (positive) impact on this side. We have purchased a player whose "skill set" is a horrendous fit for 2015 Manchester City. He may have done a job for 2005 Manchester City.

 

[chris85mcfc]

he is a destroyer

You don't need a destroyer when you are playing against a 10 man defence. Against Chelsea he totally dominated Matic who has been their main man this season

From where I was watching it was Fernandinho that was dominating Matic, although Fernando had a decent game.

He is ideal when we are playing a compact game, away from home. Which baffles me as to why he has probably played the most home games out of our 4 centre midfielders, and that is one of the reasons our home form has been so poor this season.

His game is suffering a bit, but I think he is a really good player. He just needs to play in a system that suits him and the team.

Pellegrini got it totally wrong against Hull and took too long to change it. And the result is Fernando gets criticism he doesn't really deserve

Fernando doesn't deserve criticism purely because the signing of him is just totally unnecessary, he just doesn't fit in with the way we play at all. I feel sorry for him sometimes just because he has been brought in and asked to do a job that is completely alien to him.

He is 26 years old, he isn't a young lad that you can mould and hope that he can improve certain aspects of his game, what you see is what you get with him. Like I said he is ideal in games where we are a bit 'backs to the wall', but playing him at home against the likes of Hull is baffling. Like Shaleumstash said in the Pellegrini thread, its almost like he thinks he can replace Fernando with Yaya and expect a similar result/performance.

 

[chris85mcfc]

Do it, just write him off. You wont regret it. You needn't worry about the old "I told you so" coming your way. He's no good, has nothing going for him. No stand out attributes. Makes those around him play worse and for those James Milner fans out there, he will also end up being a contributory factor to Milner leaving the club. £12m down the pan! Awful!

I think I have written him off!

The ':)' was my attempt at sarcasm mate :)

 

[Neville Kneville]

We didn't sign the player in order for him to give the ball away & be off the pace, we signed the player to be on, or ahead of the pace, win the ball keep the ball & defend the difficult bits so that others don't have to.

It's nothing to do wth him not being able to play in our system, it's down to the fact that he's struggling to play his normal game.

If he gets up to the pace of things then next season we'll have player who can sit deep & clean everything up, whilst the rest do their stuff, & stop us from being so vulnerable when we lose the ball. Also pile in and rescue dire defensive situations (which he has several times actually) That's what we signed him for.

We signed him precisely to fit into this job, not to change our style in order to suit him. For a short spell, he did exactly what we want & looked two yards quicker. Now for some reason he seems off it. But he's still done plenty of good stuff as well as the bad. We will find out next season if he can do the job, once he has a full pre season behind him & more experience of the league. If he can't we'll move him on.

 

[BigOscar]

We didn't sign the player in order for him to give the ball away & be off the pace, we signed the player to be on, or ahead of the pace, win the ball keep the ball & defend the difficult bits so that others don't have to.

It's nothing to do wth him not being able to play in our system, it's down to the fact that he's struggling to play his normal game.

If he gets up to the pace of things then next season we'll have player who can sit deep & clean everything up, whilst the rest do their stuff, & stop us from being so vulnerable when we lose the ball. Also pile in and rescue dire defensive situations (which he has several times actually) That's what we signed him for.

We signed him precisely to fit into this job, not to change our style in order to suit him. For a short spell, he did exactly what we want & looked two yards quicker. Now for some reason he seems off it. But he's still done plenty of good stuff as well as the bad. We will find out next season if he can do the job, once he has a full pre season behind him & more experience of the league. If he can't we'll move him on.

I think it's very tough for the new players to come into a team that's playing so badly and with such little shape or discipline, it's not surprising they are struggling to play their natural game when even those who've been here for years seem to be struggling to as well. All our players seem to be dragging each other down at the moment, so those who don't have credit in the bank with the supporters are getting slaughtered.

Our complete lack of midfield shape isn't exactly helping any of our defensive players either, they all look in full on panic mode when we break down into our "everyone just run around doing whatever you fancy" tactic that we seem to have adopted for most of the season. When we've actually played with a bit of discipline this year, Fernando and the defenders have looked an awful lot better. You only have to look to our unpleasant neighbours in Trafford to see how hard it is for players to come in and play well in a shambles of a system, even players a hell of a lot more talented than Fernando.

 

[Wio Gumflapdinand]

From where I was watching it was Fernandinho that was dominating Matic, although Fernando had a decent game.

He is ideal when we are playing a compact game, away from home. Which baffles me as to why he has probably played the most home games out of our 4 centre midfielders, and that is one of the reasons our home form has been so poor this season.

His game is suffering a bit, but I think he is a really good player. He just needs to play in a system that suits him and the team.

Pellegrini got it totally wrong against Hull and took too long to change it. And the result is Fernando gets criticism he doesn't really deserve

Fernando doesn't deserve criticism purely because the signing of him is just totally unnecessary, he just doesn't fit in with the way we play at all. I feel sorry for him sometimes just because he has been brought in and asked to do a job that is completely alien to him.

He is 26 years old, he isn't a young lad that you can mould and hope that he can improve certain aspects of his game, what you see is what you get with him. Like I said he is ideal in games where we are a bit 'backs to the wall', but playing him at home against the likes of Hull is baffling. Like Shaleumstash said in the Pellegrini thread, its almost like he thinks he can replace Fernando with Yaya and expect a similar result/performance.

He's just a couple of years older than that other Turkey Mangala yet most still think he just needs a little time to become the greatest CB ever. Porto took us to the cleaners last summer, the scary thing is I remember a Porto fan came on here and said of the two he was more sad to see Fernando go.......YIKES!!