I'd be inclined to give Zab another season, unless he wants to go. No reason why he can't recover some form and physical conditioning, 31 is not that old.
Macharano plays Center Back only now, bloody good at it as wellI can see him adapting to a Mascherano-like role, a defensive mid, occasionally (but not ideally) covering as a centre back. He doesn't have the passing range of Mascherano though.
Hope we can find a role for him in the squad. I'd quite like to try him in a CB partnership with Vinnie. I don't think we can count on Otamendi or Mangala coming good.
Lol. But you think we can count on Vinny?Hope we can find a role for him in the squad. I'd quite like to try him in a CB partnership with Vinnie. I don't think we can count on Otamendi or Mangala coming good.
You want to try a 31 year old 5 ft 10 right back who has lost his pace as a new centre half! Glad you are not manager.
Ottamendi is bigger than zabba and he struggles sometimes at cb against bigger and more physical strikersPace is absolutely not a pre-requisite for a centre half, it's all about reading the game, As for his height, so what? Somebody on here has already mentioned Mascherano who at 5'8" does a pretty good job. Puyol and Cannavaro were two pretty good CB's and both were shorter than Zabba.
Might survive the cull just on the basis that we can't replace everyone this summer
we could use our youth to fill up some of the gaps?I agree with this. Some people seem to think we can just replace the whole squad at once. We need to ideally replace at least 12 players but realistically we will only be able to get in 6 or so this summer. I'd keep Zabaleta and Sagna, both need replacing but they got one more year left in them.