Vincent Kompany

[hihosilva]

I cannot see how anyone could fault Kompany's performance last night. He was immense, best player on the pitch by a country mile.

 

[aguero93:20]

I cannot see how anyone could fault Kompany's performance last night. He was immense, best player on the pitch by a country mile.

He was fucking brilliant, him and Merlin a mile ahead of the rest I'd say, Nasri brilliant when he came on as well, pity he wasn't fit enough to start.

 

[pass2silva]

I must apologize... Of course Kompany leaves Messi onside, but he is paying attention to Fabregas.. If he joins the offside line, Fabregas is onside and will give an easy pass for a "PES goal" by Messi

The defence was just in a bad position due to Navas going heroball against 3 Barça players.. Thats why you don't lose ball in silly positions like Navas did (I did not think that bump of knees was a foul, the ball was far away)

I might be wrong, as I haven't watched a TV replay, but didn't Kompany play the ball to Navas from deep? That is probably why he is so much deeper than the rest of the back 4 when Barca break: he was still behind them from having been in possession in a deep position.

 

[TonyBookEnd]

For me, Kompany was the only one there who didn't fall asleep waiting for the referee to give the foul. He went back and took up the line he was supposed to, but unfortunately the others didn't. He then sees that the others haven't got back quick enough so tries to step up, but it's too late. All a consequence of the ref not giving the foul on Navas though, as almost everyone stopped

This.
As Martin Keown stated in the DM "You should always take your line from the deepest defender, but he left a large gap to Vincent Kompany that Lionel Messi exploited."

 

[JamesA]

Kompany is too often a one-man defence for us, especially with the dross he usually has next to him as a CB partner - they've all been bad at times this season, Nastasic, Demichelis and Lescott.

Lescott has been the most consistent I'd say this year but is the best of a bad bunch - Nastasic looks to have regressed this year after a promosing start. We simply HAVE to prioritise a top CB partner for Kompany in the summer, that's 2 years we haven't addressed that issue by buying a top quality guy who isn't either too young (nasty) or past it (Demichelis) and it keeps getting exposed at the top level.

 

[alib]

Kompany is by some distance the best centre half in the world which he proved again last night

 

[hihosilva]

[bigimg]http://giant.gfycat.com/SardonicImperfectKoodoo.gif[/bigimg]

That tackle reminded me of the Bobby Moore challange in the 1970 world cup.

 

[BigOscar]

I think I actually prefered the one he was ridiculously penalised for in the first half, where he read exactly what Messi wanted to do and just burst across him to the ball (only for Messi to bounce off him like a child and the referee to inexplicably give them a foul)

 

[Tbilisi]

Kompany is by some distance the best centre half in the world which he proved again last night

He is,looked devastated at defeat last night.

We have to push the boat out in the summer to do him and the great players in the team justice,one more summer to get some of the dross / sicknotes out and we will be awesome...providing we don't lose anyone.

 

[Deleted member 58678]

I must apologize... Of course Kompany leaves Messi onside, but he is paying attention to Fabregas.. If he joins the offside line, Fabregas is onside and will give an easy pass for a "PES goal" by Messi

The defence was just in a bad position due to Navas going heroball against 3 Barça players.. Thats why you don't lose ball in silly positions like Navas did (I did not think that bump of knees was a foul, the ball was far away)

I might be wrong, as I haven't watched a TV replay, but didn't Kompany play the ball to Navas from deep? That is probably why he is so much deeper than the rest of the back 4 when Barca break: he was still behind them from having been in possession in a deep position.

This still pic makes it look like like the other three are in line but it is just pure coincidence that that is the case.

Zaba was, and is there^, out if position. Clichy was jogging back and Demichelis was aimlessly wandering forward ball watching/not concentrating and then started running back when he realised he was doing something wrong. If there was a still pic of a few seconds before this you'd see nobody in any sort of line, they were all over the place. Poor defending all round.

Kompany did have his eye on Messi at one point but didn't communicate with anyone else about the situation. Most of all he was concentrating on Zaba being out of position with Fanregas and Demichelis should have been in line with Vincent. But Messi was in complete control of the situation, he knew exactly what he was doing. It wouldn't have mattered if Kompany had been further up because Messi was going to get himself in line no matter where he or the other three were going to set up a defensive line.

Was Joe Hart communicating with any of the four at any point in this?

That was the biggest difference in the game, although I don't think either of our strikers were at the level of their opposition, this little period of very poor defending by all four defenders and possible questionable communication skills from the 'keeper, lost us the game.