Lovebitesandeveryfing
Well-Known Member
Now anyone with eyes to see can see that Yaya's legs over the last season or so are not what they were. That's not slagging him off, it's just recognising biology. He's still an immense player for us. Time and again against Watford, I noticed him making first-touch passes to people in better space than he was. He wasn't doing a lot of running. Nothing spectacular. He didn't need to. He'd decided exactly who he was going to pass the ball to long before receiving it, and his choices were nearly always good ones. He's up there with Silva in his vision and grasp of patterns of play. Think of that brilliant, effortless flick to Nasri for our second against Everton (and incidentally, he has an exceptional understanding with Nasri, always has had, and that's one more reason among several for holding on to Nasri).
I just find myself thinking that it perhaps doesn't matter that we haven't got Pogba. With the people we've now got, we could envisage asking Yaya to do what he does best. Not haring up and down the field, which he was never much good at, and is becoming visibly less able to do. He was never a good defender, doesn't have the first idea how to close a player down. With the likes of Otamendi, Delph, Fernandinho behind him, Sterling and De Bruyne wide, both of whom are young and can run until the cows come home, I suspect that we could get three or even four more good years out of Yaya in simply playing him in a reduced role, further up the field, his preferred area of operations being about twenty yards or so either side of the halfway life, and a few yards behind Silva.
Nobody we've got plays like Yaya, that's obvious. But it's not the point. It just might be that this awesome transfer window has, collectively, solved the Yaya problem in giving him a new lease of life.
I just find myself thinking that it perhaps doesn't matter that we haven't got Pogba. With the people we've now got, we could envisage asking Yaya to do what he does best. Not haring up and down the field, which he was never much good at, and is becoming visibly less able to do. He was never a good defender, doesn't have the first idea how to close a player down. With the likes of Otamendi, Delph, Fernandinho behind him, Sterling and De Bruyne wide, both of whom are young and can run until the cows come home, I suspect that we could get three or even four more good years out of Yaya in simply playing him in a reduced role, further up the field, his preferred area of operations being about twenty yards or so either side of the halfway life, and a few yards behind Silva.
Nobody we've got plays like Yaya, that's obvious. But it's not the point. It just might be that this awesome transfer window has, collectively, solved the Yaya problem in giving him a new lease of life.