Yaya Toure

[Dubai Blue]

Proper lazy twat tonight. Got to be the unfittest 'fit' player on our books

 

[Mattyc55]

The movement was poor, but maybe you have to give credit to the United 3 who at times made it nigh on impossible for De Jong and Barry to play any sort of pass into feet. Maybe Yaya felt sorry for himself, coz that's what it looked like; but instead of ambling around the midfield, maybe just maybe he could of tried to do what united were doing to us and get his fucking body/foot in there. Awful.

The problem is, at Barca he was the deeper player, with Xavi and Iniesta immediately infront of him. Teams backed off and it allowed Alves and Maxwell forward. The gave Toure options to either side of him aswell as the excellent movement of Xavi and Iniesta.

Here he is the furthest forward of the 3. Zabaleta comes inside from the left and crowds the pitch. Boateng is still finding his feet. Barry and De Jong are behind him and only Tevez, Silva and Milner are in front of him.

All 3 have to take the ball with their back to goal. Milner's ball retention is remarkably bad. Silva and Tevez's is great, but when marshalled tightly, Silva struggles sometimes because of his size.

The team is missing Kolarov and Boateng. Then we can realistically challenge for a top 3 place. Then in the summer we will make the necessary changes to push on challenge for the title. I'd be amazed if Barry and Milner were integral parts of our team next year.

To be a fluid unit, there has to be intelligent off the ball movement, backed up with assured control. Neither Barry or Milner have that. Silva does, Balotelli does and Tevez does.

Finally finding a balance between conservative and gung-ho is very difficult. Johnson isn't good enough to start against somebody like Evra, and he would have left us exposed on occasion. Spurs are a perfect example of a gung-ho team. It's great when it works, not so great when you're losing at Bolton and at home to Wigan etc. They have an outlet in Crouch and they have two exciting wingers who lift the crowd. We have one exciting winger and a false 9 striker. We're a completely different team and we are set up to not concede.

Most successful teams are built on top of a solid base. We're in a transitional period where we are gradually becoming a better side. We will probably see the best out of this team towards the end of the campaign unfortunately. For now, we are doing fine. If we lost tonight we'd have been 6 behind United and 5 behind Arsenal, with them both to play away. United and Arsenal are both dropping points against weak teams and we're within touching distance of both teams after having the harder start. We'll be fine. We just have to be patient with the team, the players and the managers.

I recognise that people havent really seen much in Milner yet (but I thought he worked really hard tonight, made a few runs and put one or two good balls in), and I do think he has a future at the club. He isnt the greatest footballer in the world, but he isnt a winger, and hes technically superior to Fletcher (a crucial part of United's side). Milner could do a great job for us if deployed in the box to box central midfield role, and eventually, I think he'll go on to become a huge part of a title winning city side through the middle.

Yaya wise, I agree with everything you've said, and I've watched every Barca game for about 3 years so I know full well that he is far more comfortable as a deeper lying midfielder. Why then, does Mancini deploy him in this role, when it clearly doesnt suit his game; its all well and good not conceding, but to win games you HAVE to show some ambition in your midfield three when playing against the likes of United/Arsenal et al. Its far too defensive to consider winning things at the top level for me.

 

[goat boy]

I thought all our players did well or very well tonight- except this clown. How he finished the first half, let alone the match, I'll never know. If he'd tried even one ounce, he'd have become qualified as 'lethargic'- but we didnt even get that, imo. He's stealing a living as a professional footballer if thats all he's got to give to us. Honestly, what can Mancini see that I can't? I think I know a little bit about football, but I'm absolutely stumped. How the genuinely driven players like De Jong, Kompany and Tevez didn't snot him one to liven him up, again, I don't know. Sorry boys, that was utter rubbish- I'm just glad playing (effectively) with 10 men didn't cost us, and a draw was a very commendable result, in effect.

 

[Rammy Blue]

One of my life's great mysteries at the moment, just can't work him out.

Milner should have moved into his role when AJ came on.

 

[brooklandsblue2.0]

I never ever rated him as a TOP midfielder and said the same all last leason when we were linked with him and sadly he's proving that. Added this his seeming lack of effort and pride in the shirt and I think we have a 150K a week squad player.

 

[ono]

The problem is, at Barca he was the deeper player, with Xavi and Iniesta immediately infront of him. Teams backed off and it allowed Alves and Maxwell forward. The gave Toure options to either side of him aswell as the excellent movement of Xavi and Iniesta.

Here he is the furthest forward of the 3. Zabaleta comes inside from the left and crowds the pitch. Boateng is still finding his feet. Barry and De Jong are behind him and only Tevez, Silva and Milner are in front of him.

All 3 have to take the ball with their back to goal. Milner's ball retention is remarkably bad. Silva and Tevez's is great, but when marshalled tightly, Silva struggles sometimes because of his size.

The team is missing Kolarov and Boateng. Then we can realistically challenge for a top 3 place. Then in the summer we will make the necessary changes to push on challenge for the title. I'd be amazed if Barry and Milner were integral parts of our team next year.

To be a fluid unit, there has to be intelligent off the ball movement, backed up with assured control. Neither Barry or Milner have that. Silva does, Balotelli does and Tevez does.

Finally finding a balance between conservative and gung-ho is very difficult. Johnson isn't good enough to start against somebody like Evra, and he would have left us exposed on occasion. Spurs are a perfect example of a gung-ho team. It's great when it works, not so great when you're losing at Bolton and at home to Wigan etc. They have an outlet in Crouch and they have two exciting wingers who lift the crowd. We have one exciting winger and a false 9 striker. We're a completely different team and we are set up to not concede.

Most successful teams are built on top of a solid base. We're in a transitional period where we are gradually becoming a better side. We will probably see the best out of this team towards the end of the campaign unfortunately. For now, we are doing fine. If we lost tonight we'd have been 6 behind United and 5 behind Arsenal, with them both to play away. United and Arsenal are both dropping points against weak teams and we're within touching distance of both teams after having the harder start. We'll be fine. We just have to be patient with the team, the players and the managers.

I recognise that people havent really seen much in Milner yet (but I thought he worked really hard tonight, made a few runs and put one or two good balls in), and I do think he has a future at the club. He isnt the greatest footballer in the world, but he isnt a winger, and hes technically superior to Fletcher (a crucial part of United's side). Milner could do a great job for us if deployed in the box to box central midfield role, and eventually, I think he'll go on to become a huge part of a title winning city side through the middle.

Yaya wise, I agree with everything you've said, and I've watched every Barca game for about 3 years so I know full well that he is far more comfortable as a deeper lying midfielder. Why then, does Mancini deploy him in this role, when it clearly doesnt suit his game; its all well and good not conceding, but to win games you HAVE to show some ambition in your midfield three when playing against the likes of United/Arsenal et al. Its far too defensive to consider winning things at the top level for me.

I disagree with Fletcher and Milner. Think Fletcher is better technically and i think he was a stronger character about him. He can bully players. Milner always looks like he's feeling a bit sorry for himself. He's got the constant look of anguish on his face that you see when something just hasn't quite come off. He's a bit of a nearly there player for. Fletcher is a complete player imo.

I don't think it's quite at that stage where we can just roll up and expect to beat some of the very best teams in Europe. On paper we look stronger, but United are a great team and you can see they have great belief in one another. They are also more cohesive which is to be expected. We'll get there, but we're a few years away from being able to match their level over a full season imo.

 

[Brendan110_0]

Thought he was ok in the first half, poor in second. He's obviously needing more fitness after his small lay off recently. Judge him at the end of the season.

 

[brian the blue]

Didn't do too badly I thought, he was one of the few players who tried to drive forward, but unfortunately he lacked support.

Didn't think Tevez looked 100% tonight and also thought we missed Balo, which made our attacking play look a lot more laboured.

A good win against Birmingham and I see this as being a good week, including the WBA result... That is IF we beat birmingham!

 

[Mattyc55]

One of my life's great mysteries at the moment, just can't work him out.

Milner should have moved into his role when AJ came on.

Exactly, I was completely bemused as to why Mancini did do this. All in all, United are still a better side than us (first 11 wise), so im not complaining about the point so long as we beat Birmingham on saturday, but I really dont accept the hideous lack of effort players like Toure put in tonight.

 

[Stillsy]

Some people need to wind their necks in!

He was for me the only player who looked like doing something with the ball. He was so quick when running the defenders and generally had a good game i dont know what people are going on about.