Yaya and Nasri

[daxman]

Neither Nasri or Silva are suited to wing-play. Away from home it'd be either one or the other or at home I'd go for both in an advanced position with Fernandinho behind.

I've been saying for weeks that we don't need two defensive midfielders. All we need is one who has energy, a biting tackle and who can pick a pass and Fernandinho is perfect for that role because he can also get forward to pile on the pressure if necessary.

4-1-2-3 is the way to go.

Richards-Kompany-Nastasic-Clichy
---------------Fernandinho---------------
-------------Yaya---------Nasri/Silva-----
Navas----------Aguero----------Jovetic

While I don't necessarily like this formation. if I were to use it, I'd still play Nasri ahead of Jovetic. Coz Nasri works his butt off defensively.

Nasri and Silva's best attributes are wasted out wide imho.The 2nd half on Tuesday night was reminiscent of our title winning season with Yaya in a more advanced role with either Silva or Nasri beside him with one striker up front. Change Barry for Fernandinho and this was the formation that worked for Manchester City, not 3-5-2 or 4-4-2, we were at our best in a 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 formation and I'd go further and stick with the exciting 4-1-2-3 that we saw in the 2nd half again Plzen.

Again, we don't need two defensive midfielders and Silva and Nasri are wasted on the wings.

I didn't argue we needed 2 DMs. And while you might have a point that Nasri is wasted on the wings (and I agree) but it still isn't enough of a reason to have Jovetic over him. As Jovetic hasn't shown a superior offensive capacity on the wings (at least not yet), and Nasri has shown an ability to be a marauding defensive support for the Leftback. Even on Teusday, while he did wha Silva does often (when played on the wing, i.e. drift inside and play from the middle) he really did play left wing. You could tell this because he was quick to pick up the RB for Plzen, or anyone else that showed up on the left side.

Defensively, he was resolute, and ran endlessly (often from somewhere else in midfield) to come pick up his support duty. Most would like to believe he played in the middle (and yes he had lots of his offensive touches there) but defensively, he was always playing on the left. Which leads me to believe we played a simple 442, with Nasri having the freedom to drift to the middle while Kolarov hugged the line. But defensively, he stlll did his job of tracking the RB or any doubleteam attempts at our Leftback.

And for that reason, I'd like him on the left if he is not starting in the middle because Silva is there. At least, until Jovetic can show a offensive contribution on the wings, that dwarfs Nasri's defensive contributions out there.

 

[uwe rosler 28]

Looked very comfortable together today, a midfield trio of Fernandinho, Yaya and Nasri would be fantastic.

This^^^^ fernandinho holding with them 2 as advanced playmakers

 

[Dribble]

While I don't necessarily like this formation. if I were to use it, I'd still play Nasri ahead of Jovetic. Coz Nasri works his butt off defensively.

Nasri and Silva's best attributes are wasted out wide imho.The 2nd half on Tuesday night was reminiscent of our title winning season with Yaya in a more advanced role with either Silva or Nasri beside him with one striker up front. Change Barry for Fernandinho and this was the formation that worked for Manchester City, not 3-5-2 or 4-4-2, we were at our best in a 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 formation and I'd go further and stick with the exciting 4-1-2-3 that we saw in the 2nd half again Plzen.

Again, we don't need two defensive midfielders and Silva and Nasri are wasted on the wings.

I didn't argue we needed 2 DMs. And while you might have a point that Nasri is wasted on the wings (and I agree) but it still isn't enough of a reason to have Jovetic over him. As Jovetic hasn't shown a superior offensive capacity on the wings (at least not yet), and Nasri has shown an ability to be a marauding defensive support for the Leftback. Even on Teusday, while he did wha Silva does often (when played on the wing, i.e. drift inside and play from the middle) he really did play left wing. You could tell this because he was quick to pick up the RB for Plzen, or anyone else that showed up on the left side.

Defensively, he was resolute, and ran endlessly (often from somewhere else in midfield) to come pick up his support duty. Most would like to believe he played in the middle (and yes he had lots of his offensive touches there) but defensively, he was always playing on the left. Which leads me to believe we played a simple 442, with Nasri having the freedom to drift to the middle while Kolarov hugged the line. But defensively, he stlll did his job of tracking the RB or any doubleteam attempts at our Leftback.

And for that reason, I'd like him on the left if he is not starting in the middle because Silva is there. At least, until Jovetic can show a offensive contribution on the wings, that dwarfs Nasri's defensive contributions out there.

TBF, I've always seen Jovetic as a deep lying striker/attacking midfielder, it was only when mentioned on here that I realised he has played on the left effectively in the past which is why I put him there as an alternative and which brings me to another point.

We still have an unbalanced squad because we have one specialist right winger and no specialist left winger and it's baffling why we didn't address this during the summer along with getting a better left back than Kolorov and a proper ball-playing centre half to replace Kolo. The difference Kompany makes because of his midfield footballing abilities is immense. Just imaging if we had a left-footed Kompany, Baines instead of Kolorov and replaced Sinclair with Reus, Daxler or Di Maria? With a 4-1-2-3 system, we'd be like Bayern last season!

 

[Shaelumstash]

hart
zabba-kompany-nasty-clichy
fernandinho-yaya-nasri
navas-aguero-silva

i think a formation like that this 4-3-3 will benefit us more than the 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-2

Neither Nasri or Silva are suited to wing-play. Away from home it'd be either one or the other or at home I'd go for both in an advanced position with Fernandinho behind.

I've been saying for weeks that we don't need two defensive midfielders. All we need is one who has energy, a biting tackle and who can pick a pass and Fernandinho is perfect for that role because he can also get forward to pile on the pressure if necessary.

4-1-2-3 is the way to go.

Richards-Kompany-Nastasic-Clichy
---------------Fernandinho---------------
-------------Yaya---------Nasri/Silva-----
Navas----------Aguero----------Jovetic

Otherwise known as 433!

Barca are the obvious model of the modern 433, and they always play with one holding player (Yaya and then later Busquests) and two in front (usually Xavi and Iniesta), exactly the same shape as you've drawn. Never heard it called 4123 before though.

This definitely gets the best out of both Nasri and Yaya, as shown on Tuesday night in the second half when they were both immense.

 

[Dribble]

hart
zabba-kompany-nasty-clichy
fernandinho-yaya-nasri
navas-aguero-silva

i think a formation like that this 4-3-3 will benefit us more than the 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-2

Neither Nasri or Silva are suited to wing-play. Away from home it'd be either one or the other or at home I'd go for both in an advanced position with Fernandinho behind.

I've been saying for weeks that we don't need two defensive midfielders. All we need is one who has energy, a biting tackle and who can pick a pass and Fernandinho is perfect for that role because he can also get forward to pile on the pressure if necessary.

4-1-2-3 is the way to go.

Richards-Kompany-Nastasic-Clichy
---------------Fernandinho---------------
-------------Yaya---------Nasri/Silva-----
Navas----------Aguero----------Jovetic

Otherwise known as 433!

Barca are the obvious model of the modern 433, and they always play with one holding player (Yaya and then later Busquests) and two in front (usually Xavi and Iniesta), exactly the same shape as you've drawn. Never heard it called 4123 before though.

This definitely gets the best out of both Nasri and Yaya, as shown on Tuesday night in the second half when they were both immense.

4-4-2, 4-2-4, 4-3-3, 4-1-4-1, 4-2-2-2, 4-2-3-1, 4-2-1-3, 4-1-2-3 (My personal fave), 5-3-2, 5-2-3, 3-5-2, 3-3-4, 3-2-5, 2-3-5 (A bygone classic).................. It's all Mike Bassett England manager to me! Lol :-)

It is a 4-3-3, but I've defined it as a 4-1-2-3 for the avoidance of doubt.

 

[daxman]

Nasri and Silva's best attributes are wasted out wide imho.The 2nd half on Tuesday night was reminiscent of our title winning season with Yaya in a more advanced role with either Silva or Nasri beside him with one striker up front. Change Barry for Fernandinho and this was the formation that worked for Manchester City, not 3-5-2 or 4-4-2, we were at our best in a 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 formation and I'd go further and stick with the exciting 4-1-2-3 that we saw in the 2nd half again Plzen.

Again, we don't need two defensive midfielders and Silva and Nasri are wasted on the wings.

I didn't argue we needed 2 DMs. And while you might have a point that Nasri is wasted on the wings (and I agree) but it still isn't enough of a reason to have Jovetic over him. As Jovetic hasn't shown a superior offensive capacity on the wings (at least not yet), and Nasri has shown an ability to be a marauding defensive support for the Leftback. Even on Teusday, while he did wha Silva does often (when played on the wing, i.e. drift inside and play from the middle) he really did play left wing. You could tell this because he was quick to pick up the RB for Plzen, or anyone else that showed up on the left side.

Defensively, he was resolute, and ran endlessly (often from somewhere else in midfield) to come pick up his support duty. Most would like to believe he played in the middle (and yes he had lots of his offensive touches there) but defensively, he was always playing on the left. Which leads me to believe we played a simple 442, with Nasri having the freedom to drift to the middle while Kolarov hugged the line. But defensively, he stlll did his job of tracking the RB or any doubleteam attempts at our Leftback.

And for that reason, I'd like him on the left if he is not starting in the middle because Silva is there. At least, until Jovetic can show a offensive contribution on the wings, that dwarfs Nasri's defensive contributions out there.

TBF, I've always seen Jovetic as a deep lying striker/attacking midfielder, it was only when mentioned on here that I realised he has played on the left effectively in the past which is why I put him there as an alternative and which brings me to another point.

We still have an unbalanced squad because we have one specialist right winger and no specialist left winger and it's baffling why we didn't address this during the summer along with getting a better left back than Kolorov and a proper ball-playing centre half to replace Kolo. The difference Kompany makes because of his midfield footballing abilities is immense. Just imaging if we had a left-footed Kompany, Baines instead of Kolorov and replaced Sinclair with Reus, Daxler or Di Maria? With a 4-1-2-3 system, we'd be like Bayern last season!

Ahh! I have been advocating saying this for years now.

Especially about the ball playing CD. If you were in the transfer forum 2 years ago, I banged on about it none stop, until i began to sound like a broken record. I was the one who was crying for Vertonghen in 2011 after we didn't attempt to sign David Luiz. Why we didn't sign Vertonghen, till this day is a surprise to me. Apparently we went to watch him multiple times and concluded Savic was a better decision. I said it then, that it was a huge mistake passing on Vertonghen. One of the arguments against signing him back then, was the question, would he mind seating on the bench (something I internally sensed wouldn't be an issue, coz I knew he'd bench Lescott inside of 2 months). The other was the claim that we had the best defense with Lescott and Komps. An argument that ignored the value added of a defender as good as Lescott (better in my opinion) when defending, and 10 times better with the ball at his feet. Funny enough, I tried to point out back then that Lescott was already heading towards the wrong side of 30, and was bound to be a backup anyway. So why not get the replacement with added value. But hey, Mancini and the board (and a lot of our fans I might add) disagreed. Oh well, bygones. Sadly,there are fewer and fewer options out there. Inigo Martinez is one, but we simply have to wait for the next really good ball handling defender. I can't know of any other right now

As for Leftback: We really need an upgrade (not just for Kolarov, but also Clichy). I know most don't like saying it, but Clichy is really poor when we have the ball. His movement is poor, his crosses are poor, and he often just passes backward. And while Kolarov gets a lot of the flak here, neither has a good enough amount of the total package we need. Clichy has the speed and lungs, but his production is abysmal. In my mind, it really doesn't matter which one goes, they are both very good backup LB for this level of football, but simply not good enough offensively. And that applies to Kolarov too. There is a fallacy that one is great defensively and the other great offensively. In reality, Clichy is good defensively and terrible offensively, while Kolarov is decent in both, but not very good at either. Kolarov's weakness is in possession play. He is poor at this. Baines, Fiilipe Luis, and Adriano are 3 options we should look into. All of whom are good defensively, but immense down the wing. Adriano is more of an allrounder. As good as CLichy defensively, but way superior offensively and in possession play. Baines and Luis might be slighly inferior defensively, but not enough to make much difference. However, they are so much more superior in possession and offensively, that it makes it a non-starter compared to either of our LBs.

As for Leftwing: To be honest, I am not that big of a Reus or Draxler fan. Both are phenomenal players, but not necessarily phenomenal wingers. I say this knowing quite well how great of a producer Reus is. But his production comes from his talent at setplays, and his movement, more so than his ability to create from wide. So even if he joins City, he'd simply be best in Yaya's role or Silva/Nasri's role. i.e. either playing in the middle or playing wide but drifting to the middle. Draxler on the other hand, really is a young Nasri. If you watched Nasri at Marseille, he was doing the same things Draxler is doing now. I reckon he (Draxler) would eventually move to the middle to fulfil his potential. In Nasri and Jovetic, we have very similar players to Draxler and Reus. They thrive on movement and intelligence, more so than skill. As for a marauding left winger, the 2 that come to mind for me are Di Maria and Ben Arfa. You either want incredible speed, or a "take on the defender and skin him constantly" type player. Unfortunately they both prefer playing on the right, but I think, they'd be just as prolific on the left.

 

[somethingelse]

I think yaya and nasri communicate through a series of toots and whistles......,or silly French noises
thus disguising their intentions on the pitch

 

[Dribble]

I didn't argue we needed 2 DMs. And while you might have a point that Nasri is wasted on the wings (and I agree) but it still isn't enough of a reason to have Jovetic over him. As Jovetic hasn't shown a superior offensive capacity on the wings (at least not yet), and Nasri has shown an ability to be a marauding defensive support for the Leftback. Even on Teusday, while he did wha Silva does often (when played on the wing, i.e. drift inside and play from the middle) he really did play left wing. You could tell this because he was quick to pick up the RB for Plzen, or anyone else that showed up on the left side.

Defensively, he was resolute, and ran endlessly (often from somewhere else in midfield) to come pick up his support duty. Most would like to believe he played in the middle (and yes he had lots of his offensive touches there) but defensively, he was always playing on the left. Which leads me to believe we played a simple 442, with Nasri having the freedom to drift to the middle while Kolarov hugged the line. But defensively, he stlll did his job of tracking the RB or any doubleteam attempts at our Leftback.

And for that reason, I'd like him on the left if he is not starting in the middle because Silva is there. At least, until Jovetic can show a offensive contribution on the wings, that dwarfs Nasri's defensive contributions out there.

TBF, I've always seen Jovetic as a deep lying striker/attacking midfielder, it was only when mentioned on here that I realised he has played on the left effectively in the past which is why I put him there as an alternative and which brings me to another point.

We still have an unbalanced squad because we have one specialist right winger and no specialist left winger and it's baffling why we didn't address this during the summer along with getting a better left back than Kolorov and a proper ball-playing centre half to replace Kolo. The difference Kompany makes because of his midfield footballing abilities is immense. Just imaging if we had a left-footed Kompany, Baines instead of Kolorov and replaced Sinclair with Reus, Daxler or Di Maria? With a 4-1-2-3 system, we'd be like Bayern last season!

Ahh! I have been advocating saying this for years now.

Especially about the ball playing CD. If you were in the transfer forum 2 years ago, I banged on about it none stop, until i began to sound like a broken record. I was the one who was crying for Vertonghen in 2011 after we didn't attempt to sign David Luiz. Why we didn't sign Vertonghen, till this day is a surprise to me. Apparently we went to watch him multiple times and concluded Savic was a better decision. I said it then, that it was a huge mistake passing on Vertonghen. One of the arguments against signing him back then, was the question, would he mind seating on the bench (something I internally sensed wouldn't be an issue, coz I knew he'd bench Lescott inside of 2 months). The other was the claim that we had the best defense with Lescott and Komps. An argument that ignored the value added of a defender as good as Lescott (better in my opinion) when defending, and 10 times better with the ball at his feet. Funny enough, I tried to point out back then that Lescott was already heading towards the wrong side of 30, and was bound to be a backup anyway. So why not get the replacement with added value. But hey, Mancini and the board (and a lot of our fans I might add) disagreed. Oh well, bygones. Sadly,there are fewer and fewer options out there. Inigo Martinez is one, but we simply have to wait for the next really good ball handling defender. I can't know of any other right now

As for Leftback: We really need an upgrade (not just for Kolarov, but also Clichy). I know most don't like saying it, but Clichy is really poor when we have the ball. His movement is poor, his crosses are poor, and he often just passes backward. And while Kolarov gets a lot of the flak here, neither has a good enough amount of the total package we need. Clichy has the speed and lungs, but his production is abysmal. In my mind, it really doesn't matter which one goes, they are both very good backup LB for this level of football, but simply not good enough offensively. And that applies to Kolarov too. There is a fallacy that one is great defensively and the other great offensively. In reality, Clichy is good defensively and terrible offensively, while Kolarov is decent in both, but not very good at either. Kolarov's weakness is in possession play. He is poor at this. Baines, Fiilipe Luis, and Adriano are 3 options we should look into. All of whom are good defensively, but immense down the wing. Adriano is more of an allrounder. As good as CLichy defensively, but way superior offensively and in possession play. Baines and Luis might be slighly inferior defensively, but not enough to make much difference. However, they are so much more superior in possession and offensively, that it makes it a non-starter compared to either of our LBs.

As for Leftwing: To be honest, I am not that big of a Reus or Draxler fan. Both are phenomenal players, but not necessarily phenomenal wingers. I say this knowing quite well how great of a producer Reus is. But his production comes from his talent at setplays, and his movement, more so than his ability to create from wide. So even if he joins City, he'd simply be best in Yaya's role or Silva/Nasri's role. i.e. either playing in the middle or playing wide but drifting to the middle. Draxler on the other hand, really is a young Nasri. If you watched Nasri at Marseille, he was doing the same things Draxler is doing now. I reckon he (Draxler) would eventually move to the middle to fulfil his potential. In Nasri and Jovetic, we have very similar players to Draxler and Reus. They thrive on movement and intelligence, more so than skill. As for a marauding left winger, the 2 that come to mind for me are Di Maria and Ben Arfa. You either want incredible speed, or a "take on the defender and skin him constantly" type player. Unfortunately they both prefer playing on the right, but I think, they'd be just as prolific on the left.

Bloody hell....... Gulp! That's me signed up to the Daxman revolution! Lol :-) Seriously, we should start one!!

Surely there's more than just us two who can see the obvious. I've been advocating this for ages and just knew that it would be the way forward for us. Mancini mostly had it right during our title winning season, but instead of moving us to a 4-1-2-3, we went to a 3-5-1-1 with players who weren't comfortable with the system. I agreed with Mancini that top players should be comfortable and capable enough in any system they are asked to play, but for me we were almost there and just needed a slight adjustment in formation and there was no need for wholesale changes.

Last season's summer transfer window was deeply damaging for us and I still feel we are feeling the repercussions. Imagine if we'd jettisoned Balotelli, Tevez and Dzeko and bought RVP and Falcao instead? With Aguero already here and the addition of Jovetic dropping deep behind them, now that would have been some forward line choice for us to have. But alas, we have to deal with what we have and hope Aguero, Negredo and Jovetic stay fit and Guidetti can get fit.

Dzeko is another issue, he's a goal scorer, but not the quality of footballer we need to compliment the ball playing players we have. Apart from his well taken goal on Tuesday, he didn't offer us a great deal in football terms and he's a player along with Kolorov, Lescott and Garcia I can't wait for us to come to our collective senses and get rid of.