Player topic: Yaya Toure (2014/15)

[Blueband Brother]

Why should he have to bust a gut in defense? Because he's big and black? He's in the Xavi, Lampard, Gerrard, Fabregas, Pirlo, Scholes mold. He's obviously a liability in defense so get the players we need to protect him so he can do what he does best.

I agree with what you are saying.

The bottom line is the he has never been a defensive player and does not do much when it comes to tracking back and every player to some extent is expected to fulfill that role. Against a team like Barcelona, that flaw so to speak becomes even more apparent and damaging. So playing him in a midfield two against such a team like Barcelona was never a good idea. He should be given a free role where he can move up front and show why he is still the best attacking midfielder in the world but he should still expected to do some defensive work and he was particularly poor yesterday in doing so.That could be down to exhaustion (played many games since summer, travelling , ACON and all that entailed), the formation and him having a poor night.

But I agree that many players of the same mold get a more of a pass for their lack of defending than Yaya does and more is expected of him because of his appearance, certainly. A tendency of thought that unfortunately will never change.

The thing is that Yaya Toure has been a City player for how many years now? going 5 seasons and all this discussion about what he is and who he is as a player is saturated and we are just going round in circles. He has been a great player for us and I think he will be difficult to replace when he finally leaves as world class players like that are very hard to find.

 

[sunscres92]

Why Toure was not in the squad today?

 

[Ray78]

Why Toure was not in the squad today?

Achilles injury.

 

[bitsmith]

Why should he have to bust a gut in defense? Because he's big and black? He's in the Xavi, Lampard, Gerrard, Fabregas, Pirlo, Scholes mold. He's obviously a liability in defense so get the players we need to protect him so he can do what he does best.

The bottom line is the he has never been a defensive player and does not do much when it comes to tracking back and every player to some extent is expected to fulfill that role.

Of course he was defensive player, he even played Champions League final as CB, and competed with Busquets for place in Barca team, and as far as I know Busquets is defensive player.

 

[Blueband Brother]

Why should he have to bust a gut in defense? Because he's big and black? He's in the Xavi, Lampard, Gerrard, Fabregas, Pirlo, Scholes mold. He's obviously a liability in defense so get the players we need to protect him so he can do what he does best.

The bottom line is the he has never been a defensive player and does not do much when it comes to tracking back and every player to some extent is expected to fulfill that role.

Of course he was defensive player, he even played Champions League final as CB, and competed with Busquets for place in Barca team, and as far as I know Busquets is defensive player.

He played CB position at Barcelona true but most of his work was about positioning, anticipation and reading the game from the back Line. He wasn't pushing forward and then having to constantly track back as midfielders do. Also for a team like Barcelona, the term defensive player is somewhat redundant as it is about the team closing the opponent down especially the first few moments after losing the ball.
As you probably know..Yaya is an intelligent player so can adjust to different position but tracking back, making flying tackles is not really his game. That is or should be clear to all by now.

Yaya main threat is in attacking and all the great things he has done for us has been as an attacker or deep lying orchestrator.

 

[sunscres92]

Can Toure stay for the next season and helps for it. He is not that old and still can really help City, for me best player on his position and will be a terible mistake to sell him this summer, even if we buy a younger player to replace him, he still can help a lot. We see this season, what is City without Yaya, just the team is not ready.Yes, there is matches, who he really don't make all that he can do, but for me in that moment, there isn't better CM in the wrold.

 

[sunscres92]

I see in many sites, where it is write that, we will sell Toure during the summer. For me that is a huge mistake, even if we buy a younger player for his psotion, for me he is best CM in the world, we see this year hom important is Toure for the team, yeah there are matches when he doesn't play on his best, but last year we win this two tournaments becouse of him. He still can help City and i hope he will stay longer in this club - probably best midfielder i have ever seen.

 

[Sergi0 Na5r1]

I see in many sites, where it is write that, we will sell Toure during the summer. For me that is a huge mistake, even if we buy a younger player for his psotion, for me he is best CM in the world, we see this year hom important is Toure for the team, yeah there are matches when he doesn't play on his best, but last year we win this two tournaments becouse of him. He still can help City and i hope he will stay longer in this club - probably best midfielder i have ever seen.

There's going to be some difficulty for any club to sign him. First his wages are very high at City and I don't see anyone paying him more than he gets here so it's going to be difficult getting agreement on a move.

He's also getting on in years meaning we probably won't get a reasonable transfer fee for him. So even if we do sell him it may not be worth the money.

I think he deserves to retire here. But the downside for us is also his wages, they are way too high if we're thinking about benching him for someone else. I'd like to see him being fitted into the team somehow but not in a defensive role.

 

[City_Sean]

I'd like to see him as a deep lying playmaker in a three man midfield next year. If you had workhorses round him he'd flourish.

 

[I'm no cynic but...]

I see in many sites, where it is write that, we will sell Toure during the summer. For me that is a huge mistake, even if we buy a younger player for his psotion, for me he is best CM in the world, we see this year hom important is Toure for the team, yeah there are matches when he doesn't play on his best, but last year we win this two tournaments becouse of him. He still can help City and i hope he will stay longer in this club - probably best midfielder i have ever seen.

There's going to be some difficulty for any club to sign him. First his wages are very high at City and I don't see anyone paying him more than he gets here so it's going to be difficult getting agreement on a move.

He's also getting on in years meaning we probably won't get a reasonable transfer fee for him. So even if we do sell him it may not be worth the money.

I think he deserves to retire here. But the downside for us is also his wages, they are way too high if we're thinking about benching him for someone else. I'd like to see him being fitted into the team somehow but not in a defensive role.

Only if he is happy to stay here. His agent raised a lot of unanswered doubts last summer and his performances since have been generally well below his best. As with any player, if we are able to buy better or if we are able to change the teams shape to improve, then this should be done. Yaya is 'old' now and it will have to be done sooner or later, better to do it while we can raise a fee for him and while there are still a few clubs who are wealthy enough to pay him somewhere near his expectations while he still has a year or two left in the game.