Player Topic: Eliaquim Mangala (2015/16)

[IanBishopsHaircut]

We lost it in midfield not in defence...the consequences of us being shite in the middle of the park made our defenders look considerably worse than they are

 

[Ric]

I think there's little point in blaming individuals for Saturday's performance. There has to be collective responsibility when we function so badly as a team.

 

[Gareth Barry Conlon]

I agree Mangala was rubbish yesterday and he has been a poor and vastly overpriced buy.
However I do not understand how he played so poorly when he looked ok in the last 6 games of last season with Demi, all wins with 4 clean sheets, and in the first 5 games of this season with Vinny, all wins and all clean sheets.
This is a winning run of 11 games on the bounce with 9 clean sheets.
The stats suggest he has something but yesterday he looked totally clueless as did Demi. Hard to understand. Perhaps lack of games and no midfield did not help, neither did Sagna having his worse game of the season.

Mangala just needs someone steady along side him. He's got potential but is still young and learning. Put him with Vinny or Ota with some midfield cover and he'll be fine. Playing him with MDM, with an overrun static midfield duo of Yaya and Nando is never going to work.

It’s hard to stick up for him after Saturday however, collectively it was a shambles and I think a lot of that has to do with players not being 100% on their game in crucial positions i.e. right across the back and defensive midfield. LPool were always going to come and press really hard and we had to many players that could not cope.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Not worried about him, hopefully he'll get the chance to bounce back and show his worth v Juventus.

Interesting quotes from Sagna about the performance of himself and Mangala:

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/nov/22/bacary-sagna-manchester-city-problems

I found it more interesting that Sagna clearly wasn't up for this mentally and he still played when Zabaleta was on the bench!

 

[Ric]

I found it more interesting that Sagna clearly wasn't up for this mentally and he still played when Zabaleta was on the bench!

I did wonder whether Sagna and Mangala would still be affected by the events in Paris. Presumably both told Pellegrini that they were mentally prepared to play.

 

[Matty]

I think there's little point in blaming individuals for Saturday's performance. There has to be collective responsibility when we function so badly as a team.

True, but Mangala, more and more, is looking some distance from being a £30m+ defender that we can build our defence around for years to come. You have to start to worry about whoever scouted him if they couldn't see his issues after watching him multiple times.

 

[kas_tippler]

We've got a long proud history of calamitous centre half's from Alan Kernaghan up to Richard Dunne......David Sommiel as well

 

[Saddleworth2]

I do wish blues would cut this guy some slack. We seem to have forgotten already how well he partnered Vinny early this season. Since them he has been in and out without a decent run of games. As far as Saturday is concerned 1) he played a poor game as part of a poor team and was made to look worse by others. He was no less or more culpable than the rest of the team. 2) unlike the rest of the team, he and sagna were in the middle of terrorist attacks in Paris. Some on here have been frightened by the media coverage. How much worse for them to be part of it, in their own country. Let's get behind him, recognise the circumstances he was playing under, not to mention the impact the first goal would have had, and hope he comes through to show what a good player and asset to the club he could be. The whole team and principally pellegrini are responsible for the shambles that was Saturday, not Mangala.

 

[.A.]

When a player refuses to track runners into the box playing a one-man offside trap resulting in numerous goals, and gives the scousers early momentum by side footing a weak cross into his own net from 8 yards, you can blame him for defeat.

 

[domalino]

True, but Mangala, more and more, is looking some distance from being a £30m+ defender that we can build our defence around for years to come. You have to start to worry about whoever scouted him if they couldn't see his issues after watching him multiple times.

I don't agree with this.

End of last season, beginning after the Derby, Mangala played 6 games straight with Demichelis. We won all 6 and conceded 4 goals.

Then after playing a lot in pre-season, he started the first 5 games of the season, we won all 5 and conceded 0 goals.

So that's 11 league games in a row, with 2 different partners. 11 wins, 4 goals conceded and 8 clean sheets.

Mangala was looking every bit the £32m defender until we fucked about and started pulling him in and out of the team because we spent a huge amount of money on Otamendi.