Colback deserves all the abuse he'll get now

All better suited to SAFC than Colback players - I don;t necessarily think "above average" but better suited to the way we play or better than Colback - I think M'Vila, Lens, Johnson, Cattermole and Larsson are all better than Colback - I think Rodwell is better suited to us - but I also think Rodwell will become a decent signing for us in the long term

 

They're certainly above our average over the last few years.

 

Fair enough. I'd argue Rodwell has shown nothing to suggest he is anything other than useless like But I'm not defending Colback, it's a disgrace that he gets in our team. As I said on here at the time of the signings, Lens and M'Vila are top quality and very impressive signings.

 

Aye we know thanks

As for Rodwell - I see glimpses in him when he plays but never a full 90 minutes of quality. Enigmatic is probably the word!!

 

We had 6 'central' midfielders in the matchday squad on Sunday, all of them (imo) better than Colback: M'Villa, Gomez, Toivonen, Larsson, Rodwell, Cattermole.
They may not be world beaters but that's the best selection we've had for years. One or two still have to prove their worth (Gomez, Rodwell) and Catts may be out of form (and probably now our 'worst' player in that position) but I'd chose any of them over Colback.
That said, Colback was in our team to do a job. He wasn't expected to be either a creative or defensive force so I'm slightly confused as to what his best role is.
How have Newcastle been playing him, alongside Anita as a holding player? What does he offer your team in that role and would you play him differently? aside from his goal against Newcastle I don't recall any other stand-out moments for us.

 

Fair play, we could argue the toss over COlback/Larsson, Colback/Cattermole etc but the answer isn't really clear.
We've been playing Anita and Colback in holding midfield. When we have the ball at the back, Anita drops in between the centre halves to get the ball. Colback has a pretty non-descript role. He floats inbetween the defence and the attacking midfielders, neither pushing forward nor getting back too deep. He has good tackling ability and is fairly good at keeping the ball moving with more incisive passes than Anita can ever produce.

For me, the idea of 2 defensive minded centre midfielders is absolutely shambolic. I can get on board with 1 - Tiote was sensational for us in his first 2 years - but 2 just creates a massive chasm between the offensive players and the defensive players. I prefer Colback to Anita (who can't tackle or play long passes, the extent of his ability is 5 yard passing and nothing else). If one of them has to play, I'd prefer him with Wijnaldum along side. Ideally, I would have Tiote and Wijnaldum, if Tiote can rediscover his form. That's a good balance for me.

 

You're far too polite Marcus!!

A massive massive waste of £10m

I'm so disappointed with him. I really thought we were getting someone who'd appreciate the club saving his career from the doldrums and would show that appreciation with maximum effort! All we got was was an extra bum on the physio's bench!

 

The thing that really drove me mad with Colback was the amount of times you'd see a photo of him, in a Sunderland shirt, watching a goal go in from around 5/10 yards outside of our area. He seems unable to see the danger of an opposition midfield player going past him towards goal. It shows what a hypocrite I am because I find it hilarious now

He's also mesmerised by a football and will run towards it like a Jack Russell on the park .....

...... he covers a lot of ground but really hasn't a clue what's going on around him.

Watch this and you'll see what I mean .......

 

Now I wouldn't have gone for the late tackle from behind and actually got ahead of the attack and covered the left side which included the man he should have been tracking.

 

He's excellent at making ridiculous challenges in the box on derby days

When he got booked in that game my bairn said he hoped he'd get sent off, I replied no, we wanted him to stay on as he was so crap.