Player topic: Eliaquim Mangala (2014/15)

[bitsmith]

We had 12 clean sheets this season, and Mangala played in 10 of those, other two he was injured.

From those 10, five were with Kompany as a partner, five with Demichelis which proves he is adaptable to his partner in defence.

The boy will come very good, I'm sure.

You're post does not take into account the standard of opposition

He's also had a red card, gave a penalty away, was changed position at home to Burnley because he was struggling so badly and scored an own goal this season - I don't rate him ane stats about clean sheets aren't going to change that. I'd rather base it on what I see

Of course it doesn't say everything, I didn't claim that, but it definitely shows he is not as bullshit and as flop as media, and some of our own fans are trying to portrait him.

He is having solid season for his first year in new team and league known to be hard for defenders, better than our captain who was considered to be one of the best in the world until recently, and it's not his fault he has price tag he does.

I don't like to see him on the ball, reminds me a lot on Lesscott but he is fine young defender and he will be fine player in years to come, I'm pretty sure.

The "what I see" part is something I consider as utter bullshit, sorry, but wouldn't expand it a lot as I just had some long discussions about it on the Dzeko's thread. The fact is though that nobody, specially not anyone who's opinion about Mangala matters, does give a flying one what you see. Or me as well. What matters to them is what he brings on the pitch and if he is going to bring more of those clean sheets than you could see whatever you'd want, nbody would care.

 

[Manchester_lalala]

He's been our best center back in recent months, he will be solid next year.

 

[BringBackSwales]

We had 12 clean sheets this season, and Mangala played in 10 of those, other two he was injured.

From those 10, five were with Kompany as a partner, five with Demichelis which proves he is adaptable to his partner in defence.

The boy will come very good, I'm sure.

You're post does not take into account the standard of opposition

He's also had a red card, gave a penalty away, was changed position at home to Burnley because he was struggling so badly and scored an own goal this season - I don't rate him ane stats about clean sheets aren't going to change that. I'd rather base it on what I see

the internet was made for people like you (and just to be clear, I am not saying that as a compliment)

 

[The Fat el Hombre]

We had 12 clean sheets this season, and Mangala played in 10 of those, other two he was injured.

From those 10, five were with Kompany as a partner, five with Demichelis which proves he is adaptable to his partner in defence.

The boy will come very good, I'm sure.

You're post does not take into account the standard of opposition

He's also had a red card, gave a penalty away, was changed position at home to Burnley because he was struggling so badly and scored an own goal this season - I don't rate him ane stats about clean sheets aren't going to change that. I'd rather base it on what I see

The penalty and own goal came in 1 game about a month into his city career. The red just a couple of months later and his poor performance against burnley was an isolated one in comparison to his good form at the time (which has continued). Does the young lad not get chance to settle and learn (and before anyone starts - the high fee we paid is because the powers that be think his potential is worth the gamble, I think everyone knew he wasn't the finished article and would take time to come of age.)? Personally I was very impressed with his attitude which showed courage to keep putting his neck on the line and making challenges after these incidents, lesser players would have wilted and shirked them. Mental strength like that will serve him very well long term and if he can iron out the short term mistakes that you mentioned (if he hasn't already) then we might well have a player on our hands.

And if you want to talk about the standard of opposition in regards to his performances then you're picking the wrong argument about the wrong player because Mangala has played some very good games in the bigger games against quality opposition (debut to chelsea and away in rome spring to mind). I'm still very hopeful he can be a huge player for us

 

[Bruun]

Way to many people join the bandwagon created by the media.

 

[moomba]

Had a look the other day, we keep more clean sheets, and concede less goal when Mangala starts than any of our central defenders.

 

[Sergi0 Na5r1]

Had a look the other day, we keep more clean sheets, and concede less goal when Mangala starts than any of our central defenders.

He's nowhere near as bad as some of the comments have made him out to be. In fact if he got a chance to play more often he'd be gaining some consistency the way MDM did and would likely end up starting most games next season.

 

[Rösler von Stretfordbömber]

He's been our best center back in recent months, he will be solid next year.

Bang on. Except I think he will be at the very least "solid" if not much better than that. As to the media/pundit cockroaches, it is interesting that you will often see some match commentator break out, for example, "rash challenge by Mangala" at any opportunity. But when Kompany does the exact same thing or worse a minute later then nothing is said.

And that is not to slag VK by any means - just an observation as to how these pundit idiots try to piggyback onto existing narratives that they themselves have created.

Best recent example I have seen of this - that fucking horrible dementia-riddled twat Tony Gayle was just demolishing DeMichelis in one game late last year. Where we had kept a clean sheet, where whoscored had MD at 9.0+, and where he was voted MoTM. So when they announce the MoTM result Gayle's broadcast partner says something snarky about it being a "sympathy vote."

 

[City_Sean]

He's been unfairly criticised this season, has made a few mistakes but for the most part has been really solid for us. Unfortunately the media have painted a picture that he's a poor player and as a result people think he's been a poor signing. In two of our biggest games this season he shackled the in form Costa and Totti.

 

[The Fat el Hombre]

He's been our best center back in recent months, he will be solid next year.

Bang on. Except I think he will be at the very least "solid" if not much better than that. As to the media/pundit cockroaches, it is interesting that you will often see some match commentator break out, for example, "rash challenge by Mangala" at any opportunity. But when Kompany does the exact same thing or worse a minute later then nothing is said.

I know this is a separate issue but this won't be the case anymore, quite the opposite - since neville called Kompany 'Mr rash" in the big game against liverpool any kompany mistimed tackle will get seized upon

But yea, Mangala was a big money signing and as he wasn't an established top player most of the media knew he was an easy target and went about savaging him, rather than taking into account that we hadn't signed the finished article and it might take a bit of time before we see the best of him