Yaya - Defensive Midfield??

[BigOscar]

I think people are overplaying it. I don't think he was selected to play holding midfield, I think he just realised that Milner was all over the place (literally, not using the expression) so instincively fell further and further back to cover for him as the game went on. Unfortunately that's a complete waste of his talent, but it's clearly better than neither midfielder doing any defending. In an ideal world, Milner would have done that instead, but clearly he doesn't have that in his game.

 

[prestonibbo_mcfc]

I think people are overplaying it. I don't think he was selected to play holding midfield, I think he just realised that Milner was all over the place (literally, not using the expression) so instincively fell further and further back to cover for him as the game went on. Unfortunately that's a complete waste of his talent, but it's clearly better than neither midfielder doing any defending. In an ideal world, Milner would have done that instead, but clearly he doesn't have that in his game.

They did have a chat before the game. Andy Gray joked that Yaya was telling Milner to cover him if he went forward as
he was a bit slow getting back. So I think that they must have known their roles and Yaya decided to sit or Milner
decided to roam.

 

[TrueBlue1705]

I think people are overplaying it. I don't think he was selected to play holding midfield, I think he just realised that Milner was all over the place (literally, not using the expression) so instincively fell further and further back to cover for him as the game went on. Unfortunately that's a complete waste of his talent, but it's clearly better than neither midfielder doing any defending. In an ideal world, Milner would have done that instead, but clearly he doesn't have that in his game.

Milners a good pro, responsible player - my 14 year old son knows how to hold or be more attacking midfield. I'm sure Milner could & would make a half decent job of it

 

[themachine]

Based on what I've seen he's your typical box-to-box midfielder although he does slack off on occasions and just sits deep. It seemed that today he couldn't be arsed doing much running so he let Milner do more of the dictating but Jimmy doesn't have the vision, speed and strength to make forward bursts effectively although he did do it on one of occasion today but he lacked the killer pass and just made a safe pass to Silva. We needed Fern today as he's the reason we play at a higher tempo. It gives Yaya more freedom and either one of them can dribble past players and open up defenses and make space for Silva/Navas, our forwards and even our fullbacks. Today we were so slow going forward it's like we've forgotten how to attack as a cohesive unit and Yaya sitting deep was a key reason for that imo.

 

[ChichesterBlue]

Here we go again...."no good at the back", "must be further upfield", "rampaging runs", "box to box midfielder"....heard it all before.

Firstly, the guy was uninterested today. This crap about him being "stifled" playing the deeper of the two midfielders. So what? We had Norwich pushed back for 70% of the game, he didn't need to be playing (at times) deeper than Kompany. In fact, Komps made more foraging runs in the 2nd half than Yaya, who was just milling around the centre circle playing cluedo with Demichelis for most of the game.

From that position against a side like Norwich, he should be able to dictate the pace of the game, spreading the ball around. That twat Scholes did it to superb effect later in his career, Pirlo has been dictating play from a deeper role for a few years now. With Yaya today we got a disinteresting guy who just wanted to play square passes to the defence, holding onto the ball too long etc. It's an all too common theme with him. 1 brilliant amazing performance followed by 3 dismal ones.

People tag him as world class. World class players have the ability to make an influence in games and generally don't go missing for games on end at times. Before people jump down my throat, this isn't a post to say he's shit etc, it's a post from a fan just tired and frustrated with potentially our most influential player. The guy could/should be f*cking brilliant every game, or at least in most games, instead he turns on his ability as and when he chooses. We should stop making excuses up for him. Yeah he may not be able to show his full range of talent playing in a deeper role, but against Norwich, come on....from wherever he plays he should be doing better than what he did today - or in any number of games I could mention this season and last.

 

[Negredo09]

Could we have moved Kompany into CM today instead of Milner? Especially considering when we bought Kompany,he used to be a holding player. It would've allowed Yaya to attack more. Plus we would've been solid enough with MDM and Lescott/nastasic at the back.

 

[capiloton]

we just need a true DM, just like De Jong or Barry. so then we can unleash Yaya, free for him to roam.

while playing alongside Fernandinho, he can take turn to join the attack. but he turn like shit, if he's playing with Garcia, Demichelis, Milner and Rodwell.

 

[Craig]

One of the worst decisions Pellers has made since he took charge yesterday. He cost us 2 points and surpassed his bad decision to not move Yaya further forward against Chelsea.
He has a week to improve his tactics or our season could almost fall apart.

 

[Stanger]

we just need a true DM, just like De Jong or Barry. so then we can unleash Yaya, free for him to roam.

Never thought I'd say this, but Javi Garcia was missed today!

 

[Craig]

We don't need a De Jong or Barry. Both ( and very few are good enough to cover Yaya) are not good enough to play in the style we do, although they'd obviously be a huge improvement on Garcia and Demechelis there.