Player topic: Eliaquim Mangala (2014/15)

[BillyShears]

I'm a big fan of Mangala and I too believe he should have started yesterday,especially against the height and power of Mertesacker and Giroud.
Demichelis has begun to let mistakes creep back into his game,he had a shocker yesterday and i'm thinking he may well be showing signs of an inevitable decline.

Mangala is our future,and now Komps is back,the boss needs to concentrate on giving the pair as much game time as possible together,only then will we see their best.Chopping and changing,and I include our fullbacks in that.....is doing us,or the individual,no favours.

Been banging this drum since last night FI. Was a mistake for Pellegrini to not start EM.

 

[Wio Gumflapdinand]

I'm a big fan of Mangala and I too believe he should have started yesterday,especially against the height and power of Mertesacker and Giroud.
Demichelis has begun to let mistakes creep back into his game,he had a shocker yesterday and i'm thinking he may well be showing signs of an inevitable decline.

Mangala is our future,and now Komps is back,the boss needs to concentrate on giving the pair as much game time as possible together,only then will we see their best.Chopping and changing,and I include our fullbacks in that.....is doing us,or the individual,no favours.

Been banging this drum since last night FI. Was a mistake for Pellegrini to not start EM.

Lol ....fuck yeah this was the answer, throw the French Frank Spencer in the mixer, he'd have sorted the shit midfield out and provided Silva with room and inspire Kun to play like he was 100% fit, got on the end of Jesus dodgy crosses....FFS more likely we'd have gone down to ten and lost 3 or 4...no now he's our saviour. Demichelis has let mistakes creep in to his game???..fucking Mangalas game is rottenly infected to it's core with mistakes you numbskull

 

[Thenumber1blue]

I'm a big fan of Mangala and I too believe he should have started yesterday,especially against the height and power of Mertesacker and Giroud.
Demichelis has begun to let mistakes creep back into his game,he had a shocker yesterday and i'm thinking he may well be showing signs of an inevitable decline.

Mangala is our future,and now Komps is back,the boss needs to concentrate on giving the pair as much game time as possible together,only then will we see their best.Chopping and changing,and I include our fullbacks in that.....is doing us,or the individual,no favours.

Been banging this drum since last night FI. Was a mistake for Pellegrini to not start EM.

Lol ....fuck yeah this was the answer, throw the French Frank Spencer in the mixer, he'd have sorted the shit midfield out and provided Silva with room and inspire Kun to play like he was 100% fit, got on the end of Jesus dodgy crosses....FFS more likely we'd have gone down to ten and lost 3 or 4...no now he's our saviour. Demichelis has let mistakes creep in to his game???..fucking Mangalas game is rottenly infected to it's core with mistakes you numbskull

What an absolute load of fuckin utter over reaction-al shite !

 

[Wio Gumflapdinand]

Should have started yesterday, not least with an eye to the Chelsea game.

Demichelis has been struggling for weeks, and was woeful yesterday. Probably too many games - looks like his legs are made of lead.

Hoho...utter bollocks. He's the only smart good ball playing defender we have.Get fucked with yourself stating that bollocks and hiding it in a pro Mangala thread. Yesterday our left side Clichy/ Demi was good and managed all they had to contend with it was the usually solid right hand side Zab/ Komps that was atrocious. At least Demi communicates around him, Kompany tries to do it all himself and Mangala just runs like a headless chicken....think I've seen Kompany and Mangala run in to each other on more than one occasion in the few times they've played together...this partnership is going to be a disaster as Mangala needs to be tutored and Komps doesn't do that. Just you watch and see

 

[Wio Gumflapdinand]

Been banging this drum since last night FI. Was a mistake for Pellegrini to not start EM.

Lol ....fuck yeah this was the answer, throw the French Frank Spencer in the mixer, he'd have sorted the shit midfield out and provided Silva with room and inspire Kun to play like he was 100% fit, got on the end of Jesus dodgy crosses....FFS more likely we'd have gone down to ten and lost 3 or 4...no now he's our saviour. Demichelis has let mistakes creep in to his game???..fucking Mangalas game is rottenly infected to it's core with mistakes you numbskull

What an absolute load of fuckin utter over reaction-al shite !

How come? Everyone calling out one of the only good players on the pitch yesterday Demichelis as if Zaba, Kompany had been good and saying this lad would solve it when he clearly would have been out of his depth yesterday as Kompany was that shite any defender would have struggled beside him not least a young one that's struggling to cut errors and rash challenges from his game.

 

[FantasyIreland]

Wio,youre talking nonsense.

Demi was poor yesterday,and due to rustiness.....so was Kompany in fairness.......however,the sooner we get the two playing together,the sooner the understanding will develop.Both are highly intelligent,technically sound,gifted athletes - they will be the envy of Europe in the none too distant.

 

[chris85mcfc]

Not sure you can slag Demichelis for a poor performance really. The guy is 35 years old and pace has never been one of his assets, yet we have over-played him over the last 18 months because he has been our only consistently fit centre half, and he has arguably been our best.

The question is, why have we spend £32 million on a defender only to see him on the bench, and a 35 year old playing in his place?

 

[FantasyIreland]

Why does his price tag continue to crop up?

He was bought for his potential,hopefully for the next ten years,you'd have to be very short sighted to think otherwise.

 

[chris85mcfc]

Why does his price tag continue to crop up?

He was bought for his potential,hopefully for the next ten years,you'd have to be very short sighted to think otherwise.

Perhaps because that £30 million could have been used more wisely ie a player that could have been the difference yesterday

We should have saved the 'potential' signings until we were home and hosed in terms of FFP

 

[sh249]

Should have started yesterday, not least with an eye to the Chelsea game.

Demichelis has been struggling for weeks, and was woeful yesterday. Probably too many games - looks like his legs are made of lead.

Hoho...utter bollocks. He's the only smart good ball playing defender we have.Get fucked with yourself stating that bollocks and hiding it in a pro Mangala thread. Yesterday our left side Clichy/ Demi was good and managed all they had to contend with it was the usually solid right hand side Zab/ Komps that was atrocious. At least Demi communicates around him, Kompany tries to do it all himself and Mangala just runs like a headless chicken....think I've seen Kompany and Mangala run in to each other on more than one occasion in the few times they've played together...this partnership is going to be a disaster as Mangala needs to be tutored and Komps doesn't do that. Just you watch and see

I like Demichelis, and stuck up for him regularly back when the vast majority of fans were lining up to announce that he was shit and to accuse Pellegrini of playing favourites in picking him. He's had a very good six months for us over the back end of last season and the start of this; his performances have, however, dropped markedly over the past few weeks. It's hardly been noticed, because pundits - and our own fans - have done a bit of a 180 on him and have been fixating on Mangala, but it's nonetheless been there to see. Against Burnley he was poor and both goals came about, in part at least, because he couldn't get off the ground to challenge for headers. Yesterday he was simply abysmal - in the first 20 minutes he made three or four awful mistakes (miscontrolled balls, terrible passes, ridiculous attempt at a tsckle on the left side) which could easily have cost us. If Mangala had made them (or if Demichelis had made them 6 months ago), he would have been crucified.

He was by no means the only one to be crap yesterday, and I agree that Zaba and Kompany were also awful. But the point here is that Pellegrini had a straight choice of Demichelis or Mangala, and for me he got it wrong. I said at the time it was the wrong decision and stick by it completely - not only because of the above but also with an eye to the Chelsea game. Given the way that Kompany and Mangala bullied Costa out of the game at the Etihad, the plan must be to play them again in a couple of weeks. It should have been a no-brainer to give them game time together.