moomba said:
BlueTG said:
Alright I get that some posters accept no criticism of Kompany what so ever, despite most of it being reasoned and constructive. But claiming a 'sudden' loss of form is clutching at straws. His form has been on the slide for 2 years almost. And yes, some supporters did mention aspects of his captain qualities that may be lacking throughout his whole tenure as captain - it's not an inconceivable possibility. Some supporters are discussing whether the captaincy is a weight on his shoulders coupled with a clear, extensive loss of form.
Instead of dismissing every poster who dare contradict your adoration and can do nothing wrong attitude for our captain, why don't you engage in a reasonable, constructive footballing debate about it which is what forums encourage. Then again it is bluemoon so it'd probably be too much to ask. Here's a question for you all, if his form doesn't recover and he is consistently in and out of the side; when does leaving him as captain become an issue as opposed to appointing a captain who starts every week? No player is bigger than the club.
I think theres been pretty reasonable debate on both sides. Maybe a touch sensitive there.
For me I don't think losing the captaincy will help his form. If anything it'll be worse. So when he's not good enough to be captain he's probably out the door. I don't see him sticking around playing under another leader.
The captaincy issue isn't a question of talent for me, and absolutely definitely not some gift that we bestow because somebody will let us continue paying them two hundred grand a week all in for the next few years.
The issue is that
no matter how good he is or how well he is playing, his temperament is wrong for a leader at the highest levels or at least his reaction to adversity. The message should always be to keep playing our game, keep doing what we're good at and we'll get our chances. Kompany tries to force the issue which heightens tension and frustration both in the crowd and on the pitch. The time when we need most to be mentally strong is the time where he moves to another level and the team starts moving more towards individualism.
I actually thought the above would be the accepted bit and the next bit would be the controversial bit to be honest; I think he lacks self-motivation or self-belief or self-something as when we are sat at 2-0, he seems to be the one who has that lapse of concentration. I can't recall the last time we just passed somebody calmly off the park sat at 2-0 up, and Kompany is one of the issues surrounding that.
City are mentally weak in my eyes and have been since 2010. We don't have a soft underbelly so to speak but I do think that we're able to be rattled by teams who will frustrate then smack it to a pacey striker. This isn't something that has happened this season, that has always been our weakness stretching back to Mark Hughes.
Not all of the time obviously; when we get going on a run of form as we did last year then we're a force to be reckoned with. In my opinion it's no coincidence that some of the best football that we played was when the "title was gone" and we were points behind United and then Liverpool. With all pressure gone and no expectations we had a freedom of movement and expression that we rarely found elsewhere.
Obviously this isn't just Vincent Kompany's fault and you can look at some key members of our squad such as Hart, Kolarov, Zab, Fernandinho, Silva, Dzeko and Aguero who all seem that have "trying too hard" switch that goes off inside of them sometimes. But to many players the Captain is the example to follow in terms of behaviour and Kompany is part of that gang.
I think our teams and fortunes would have been extremely different if we brought in Vieira a little younger and he could instill that calmness and discipline into the dressing room in this squad's formative years. It's also why I wanted us to bring in Xavi in every transfer window since 2010 and Lampard is a nice start though as a squad player doesn't have the influence over the Kompanys of the world.
This is one of those extremely subjective things because I think what we look for in a captain is probably close to the type of person that we would respond to as a leader. Shouting and being showily pumped up doesn't really motivate me but when times get really tough, and you look over at your leader and it's just business as usual for them and a "carry on doing what you're doing" attitude then it gives you confidence that what you're originally doing was right and this was a blip. Each to their own really.
