yaya.....

[Chi-town blues]

All it takes is one goal or a game then it is professor Yaya all over again .

 

[hutton who blue]

He is a colossus of a player. All blues seeing him play know that. A powerhouse, clever with intricate passing, long range passing, accurate shooting and bursting forward with power and pace at his wont. When City don't have the ball he is found wanting in his desire to win it back. At the Etihad but especially away from home, teams have midfielders buzzing around in triangles and Toure looks lost, bereft and unconcerned. It's elementary to me. We have to play another midfield "grafter" alongside Fernandinho to make up for Toure's lethargy in this area of his game.

 

[Armaan]

He is a colossus of a player. All blues seeing him play know that. A powerhouse, clever with intricate passing, long range passing, accurate shooting and bursting forward with power and pace at his wont. When City don't have the ball he is found wanting in his desire to win it back. At the Etihad but especially away from home, teams have midfielders buzzing around in triangles and Toure looks lost, bereft and unconcerned. It's elementary to me. We have to play another midfield "grafter" alongside Fernandinho to make up for Toure's lethargy in this area of his game.

Yep Barry would have been great.

 

[Exeter Blue I am here]

He is a colossus of a player. All blues seeing him play know that. A powerhouse, clever with intricate passing, long range passing, accurate shooting and bursting forward with power and pace at his wont. When City don't have the ball he is found wanting in his desire to win it back. At the Etihad but especially away from home, teams have midfielders buzzing around in triangles and Toure looks lost, bereft and unconcerned. It's elementary to me. We have to play another midfield "grafter" alongside Fernandinho to make up for Toure's lethargy in this area of his game.

Yep Barry would have been great.

Whilst a tremendous defensive midfielder, Barry was also one of the worst at the club at coping with a high press. You have to be mobile, athletic and quick to deal with this tactic and Gaz Baz was none of the above. All his worst games last season were against high intensity pressure merchants (Everton, Southampton, Liverpool).

And therein lies the problem with Ya Ya as well. His performance at Sunderland I will concede was a half hearted disgrace, but the problem generally is not laziness, but rather that he is just not built for shuttle running back and forth, and closing opponents down. The guy is a magnificent footballer, but if he's deployed to poor effect in a 4-4-2 against a good, high tempo, passing team going 4-5-1, it ain't Ya Ya's fault, it's the manager's.

 

[dave_blue12]

He is a colossus of a player. All blues seeing him play know that. A powerhouse, clever with intricate passing, long range passing, accurate shooting and bursting forward with power and pace at his wont. When City don't have the ball he is found wanting in his desire to win it back. At the Etihad but especially away from home, teams have midfielders buzzing around in triangles and Toure looks lost, bereft and unconcerned. It's elementary to me. We have to play another midfield "grafter" alongside Fernandinho to make up for Toure's lethargy in this area of his game.

Yep Barry would have been great.

Whilst a tremendous defensive midfielder, Barry was also one of the worst at the club at coping with a high press. You have to be mobile, athletic and quick to deal with this tactic and Gaz Baz was none of the above. All his worst games last season were against high intensity pressure merchants (Everton, Southampton, Liverpool).

And therein lies the problem with Ya Ya as well. His performance at Sunderland I will concede was a half hearted disgrace, but the problem generally is not laziness, but rather that he is just not built for shuttle running back and forth, and closing opponents down. The guy is a magnificent footballer, but if he's deployed to poor effect in a 4-4-2 against a good, high tempo, passing team going 4-5-1, it ain't Ya Ya's fault, it's the manager's.

I both agree and disagree with this. Yaya is not suited to running shuttles like Fernandinho and he is therefore something of a defensive liability. I totally agree it's not Yaya's fault but then you blame the manager. Is the Manager implementing the system handed down from above (Txiki) or his he playing his own game ? I don't know the answer.

The answer to this problem is obvious to everybody - a) Drop Yaya in favour of a shuttle runner - who ? - I don't think so b) Drop a striker to facilitate playing another body in midfield - again who ?

Whereas I believe the answer is David Silva. Unfortunately he hasn't played many games yet this season. He has the extra quality to tip the possession stats in our favour and is a very difficult player to successfully press.

If Spanish Dave can stay fit for the rest of the season then I am very hopeful we will see silverware. If not then I think we have a personnel problem in playing the City way (as handed down from Txiki)

 

[YaYa]

He is a colossus of a player. All blues seeing him play know that. A powerhouse, clever with intricate passing, long range passing, accurate shooting and bursting forward with power and pace at his wont. When City don't have the ball he is found wanting in his desire to win it back. At the Etihad but especially away from home, teams have midfielders buzzing around in triangles and Toure looks lost, bereft and unconcerned. It's elementary to me. We have to play another midfield "grafter" alongside Fernandinho to make up for Toure's lethargy in this area of his game.

Yep Barry would have been great.

Whilst a tremendous defensive midfielder, Barry was also one of the worst at the club at coping with a high press. You have to be mobile, athletic and quick to deal with this tactic and Gaz Baz was none of the above. All his worst games last season were against high intensity pressure merchants (Everton, Southampton, Liverpool).

And therein lies the problem with Ya Ya as well. His performance at Sunderland I will concede was a half hearted disgrace, but the problem generally is not laziness, but rather that he is just not built for shuttle running back and forth, and closing opponents down. The guy is a magnificent footballer, but if he's deployed to poor effect in a 4-4-2 against a good, high tempo, passing team going 4-5-1, it ain't Ya Ya's fault, it's the manager's.

Absolutely top post this. I'm sure every single one of us could see the need for an extra man in midfield on Saturday from about minute 15. Why we never started with another body next to Fern and Yaya behind Serg I'll never know. I can't see Pellers changing his system though and that's why we'll come unstuck when faced with high pressing opposition away from home.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

He is a colossus of a player. All blues seeing him play know that. A powerhouse, clever with intricate passing, long range passing, accurate shooting and bursting forward with power and pace at his wont. When City don't have the ball he is found wanting in his desire to win it back. At the Etihad but especially away from home, teams have midfielders buzzing around in triangles and Toure looks lost, bereft and unconcerned. It's elementary to me. We have to play another midfield "grafter" alongside Fernandinho to make up for Toure's lethargy in this area of his game.

Yep Barry would have been great.

Whilst a tremendous defensive midfielder, Barry was also one of the worst at the club at coping with a high press. You have to be mobile, athletic and quick to deal with this tactic and Gaz Baz was none of the above. All his worst games last season were against high intensity pressure merchants (Everton, Southampton, Liverpool).

And therein lies the problem with Ya Ya as well. His performance at Sunderland I will concede was a half hearted disgrace, but the problem generally is not laziness, but rather that he is just not built for shuttle running back and forth, and closing opponents down. The guy is a magnificent footballer, but if he's deployed to poor effect in a 4-4-2 against a good, high tempo, passing team going 4-5-1, it ain't Ya Ya's fault, it's the manager's.

Tell you what, fella.

The Ya Ya conundrum is costing us a lot of points and needs addressing fast. Like you, I don't buy any of the "lazy" stuff. He's a very committed player and a very good player, but one with a huge limitation to his game. He is of course superb at bursting forward and using his strength, but his instinct to do that leaves a huge gap in a 4222 when the move breaks down. And if a mobile player runs at him they just run right past him. And that's what kept happening on Saturday and has happened in all of the games we have come under pressure.

We can afford him in the deep role in the easier homes games, we can even afford him there against the less mobile midfields (like Man United's), but we can't afford to keep playing him there against the better sides, the ones who can play. YEs, they will press him out of posession, but they'll also isolate him and run straight past him.

Every single Southampton attack came from this problem. Players were gojng past him like he wasnt there.

The answer is of course to play him in the hole in the 4231 in those tougher games and keep him where he is for the easier games. But the manager is going to have to bite the bullet on this one. Ya Ya is never going to learn to tackle or play in tight spaces. Never.

I sometimes wonder if there was truth in the old rumour I heard that his contract was based on a guaranteed first team start.

 

[Exeter Blue I am here]

Yep Barry would have been great.

Whilst a tremendous defensive midfielder, Barry was also one of the worst at the club at coping with a high press. You have to be mobile, athletic and quick to deal with this tactic and Gaz Baz was none of the above. All his worst games last season were against high intensity pressure merchants (Everton, Southampton, Liverpool).

And therein lies the problem with Ya Ya as well. His performance at Sunderland I will concede was a half hearted disgrace, but the problem generally is not laziness, but rather that he is just not built for shuttle running back and forth, and closing opponents down. The guy is a magnificent footballer, but if he's deployed to poor effect in a 4-4-2 against a good, high tempo, passing team going 4-5-1, it ain't Ya Ya's fault, it's the manager's.

I both agree and disagree with this. Yaya is not suited to running shuttles like Fernandinho and he is therefore something of a defensive liability. I totally agree it's not Yaya's fault but then you blame the manager. Is the Manager implementing the system handed down from above (Txiki) or his he playing his own game ? I don't know the answer.

The answer to this problem is obvious to everybody - a) Drop Yaya in favour of a shuttle runner - who ? - I don't think so b) Drop a striker to facilitate playing another body in midfield - again who ?

Whereas I believe the answer is David Silva. Unfortunately he hasn't played many games yet this season. He has the extra quality to tip the possession stats in our favour and is a very difficult player to successfully press.

If Spanish Dave can stay fit for the rest of the season then I am very hopeful we will see silverware. If not then I think we have a personnel problem in playing the City way (as handed down from Txiki)

I refuse categorically to believe that anyone other than Pellegrini decides what tactics we will employ. And the answer at places like St Mary's is a 4-5-1 in my book. We did it at Chelsea to reasonable effect, although Garcia would not be my choice as the additional midfielder under anything other than extreme circumstances. Personally I'd go with Rodwell or Milner

 

[waspish]

Yep Barry would have been great.

Whilst a tremendous defensive midfielder, Barry was also one of the worst at the club at coping with a high press. You have to be mobile, athletic and quick to deal with this tactic and Gaz Baz was none of the above. All his worst games last season were against high intensity pressure merchants (Everton, Southampton, Liverpool).

And therein lies the problem with Ya Ya as well. His performance at Sunderland I will concede was a half hearted disgrace, but the problem generally is not laziness, but rather that he is just not built for shuttle running back and forth, and closing opponents down. The guy is a magnificent footballer, but if he's deployed to poor effect in a 4-4-2 against a good, high tempo, passing team going 4-5-1, it ain't Ya Ya's fault, it's the manager's.

Tell you what, fella.

The Ya Ya conundrum is costing us a lot of points and needs addressing fast. Like you, I don't buy any of the "lazy" stuff. He's a very committed player and a very good player, but one with a huge limitation to his game. He is of course superb at bursting forward and using his strength, but his instinct to do that leaves a huge gap in a 4222 when the move breaks down. And if a mobile player runs at him they just run right past him. And that's what kept happening on Saturday and has happened in all of the games we have come under pressure.

We can afford him in the deep role in the easier homes games, we can even afford him there against the less mobile midfields (like Man United's), but we can't afford to keep playing him there against the better sides, the ones who can play. YEs, they will press him out of posession, but they'll also isolate him and run straight past him.

Every single Southampton attack came from this problem. Players were gojng past him like he wasnt there.

The answer is of course to play him in the hole in the 4231 in those tougher games and keep him where he is for the easier games. But the manager is going to have to bite the bullet on this one. Ya Ya is never going to learn to tackle or play in tight spaces. Never.

I sometimes wonder if there was truth in the old rumour I heard that his contract was based on a guaranteed first team start.

Can't argue with any of that and that's the problem when we haven't got the ball the opposing team are on are back four to easy and when Garcia and YAYA are in the same side we so easy to get through, the answer is either play YAYA behind the striker in a 4-4-1-1 or have Fernandinho a Rodwell or a Milner as the 2 midfielders with YAYA in front of them, only other option is don't play him away from home in certain games but can't see that happening.. Pellegrini must see this so it's more baffling he stays with 4-4-2 away from home...

 

[YaYa]

Yep Barry would have been great.

Whilst a tremendous defensive midfielder, Barry was also one of the worst at the club at coping with a high press. You have to be mobile, athletic and quick to deal with this tactic and Gaz Baz was none of the above. All his worst games last season were against high intensity pressure merchants (Everton, Southampton, Liverpool).

And therein lies the problem with Ya Ya as well. His performance at Sunderland I will concede was a half hearted disgrace, but the problem generally is not laziness, but rather that he is just not built for shuttle running back and forth, and closing opponents down. The guy is a magnificent footballer, but if he's deployed to poor effect in a 4-4-2 against a good, high tempo, passing team going 4-5-1, it ain't Ya Ya's fault, it's the manager's.

Tell you what, fella.

The Ya Ya conundrum is costing us a lot of points and needs addressing fast. Like you, I don't buy any of the "lazy" stuff. He's a very committed player and a very good player, but one with a huge limitation to his game. He is of course superb at bursting forward and using his strength, but his instinct to do that leaves a huge gap in a 4222 when the move breaks down. And if a mobile player runs at him they just run right past him. And that's what kept happening on Saturday and has happened in all of the games we have come under pressure.

We can afford him in the deep role in the easier homes games, we can even afford him there against the less mobile midfields (like Man United's), but we can't afford to keep playing him there against the better sides, the ones who can play. YEs, they will press him out of posession, but they'll also isolate him and run straight past him.

Every single Southampton attack came from this problem. Players were gojng past him like he wasnt there.

The answer is of course to play him in the hole in the 4231 in those tougher games and keep him where he is for the easier games. But the manager is going to have to bite the bullet on this one. Ya Ya is never going to learn to tackle or play in tight spaces. Never.

I sometimes wonder if there was truth in the old rumour I heard that his contract was based on a guaranteed first team start.

All of what you say there is bang on the money for me.

Answer me this though, we, the fans have seen this on at least 4 or five occasions this season so why has the manager not come to the same conclusion?!

It's worrying.