Yeah as I said mate Mancini has the luxury of top players on the bench so his job is made a little easier. That said though I think Mancini is a very good manager. He done well at Lazio, got the job at Inter in where I'm pretty sure he won the Serie A the same season he was sacked for Mourinho and now he's come into City (albeit with unlimited finances) and done well for them. The rest of your post I pretty much agree with. Gallas and Dempsey like you say need to be dropped. As does Friedel and Walker in my opinion while also giving a chance to Tommy Carroll at CM while Hudd has been so inneffective. We're in a no lose situation at the moment to try these changes. The teams playing sh*t at the moment as it is... Making a few changes can either mean - we continue to play sh*t or we see signs of improvement from players wanting to impress.
yeah you have to ask why, but then again, i guess he's had to. he's been one of our best players and it's just as bigger risk to drop him, i guess. especially when we're playing badly and he's one of the few who's playing very well. True about Hazard and Mata, but I guess no player is the same. JV might be struggling due to being out of position too. Who knows, it's all just a bloody nightmare at the moment.
that's exactly what we need though. 2 or 3 changes with players who want to play. - Dawson and Carroll are fine examples of those 2, and obviously Ade is a class player who can make the difference, as we've seen. Friedal IMO doesn't deserve to be dropped, although I'd like to see Lloris introduced. I don't think much of the problem lies with friedal at the moment. other areas are far more important; if we sort those issues out (inlcluding dropping gallas) we won't be inviting so much pressure on the defence, which inlcudes friedal.
I think Friedel definitely deserves to be dropped, but people knew that anyway He's slow and cumbersome and is leaking goals in every game. I still think he's a great guy and a top professional, but the sands of time have done their job and the egg timer is now full on the bottom glass. I make it he's conceding 1.6 goals a game which over a season equates to 61 goals, that 20 more than last season, ie 50% worse. It's also more goals conceded than any of the top 10 last season, it's simply not good enough. Of course the poor record is not just down to Brad, but he is one of the main contributing factors, IMHO.
I actually think Friedel does mate. Maybe this season I've been more critical due to the Lloris situation but I can't help but notice the amount of mistakes Friedel has been making in games. Slow reactions, failure to claim corners within his 6 yard box and just conceding goals that I think he should be saving. As of late, I'd blame or put him as partly to blame for goals against WBA, NCFC, Mata's one where it was low into the corner - Friedel may have been short sighted but the failure to even move for it annoyed me, WAFC, Aguero's yesterday, felt he was way to slow to get to ground... He hasn't looked as assured last season I feel.
I think spurs really missed a trick yesterday,we were there for the taking and if Rednapp had still been in charge I think that's what would've happened. Instead of going for the throat and getting that all important second I felt AVB tactically allowed us to get a foothold into the game & allowed us to dominate the possession which is what our play is built on. If you were going to sit on the lead then playing the high line without the likes of Dempsey and Bale dropping in front of them was a tactical disaster with Silva allowed the freedom to keep sliding balls through and over the back line which made it only a matter of time when you conceded. Surely moving that defensive line to the edge of the box and the midfield squeezing the space in front was the way to go,which in turn would've been a great base to counter attack with the pace of Lennon & Bale? How the awful Dempsey stayed on the field must have been a mystery? I would've thrown on Defoe for him by half time at the latest
fair points lads, but I'd like to see what our overall average possession % is this season in prem games and compare it to that of last year. City commanded the game yesterday, as would be expected at home against a top top side. (60-40%) However, against Wigan, it was tottenham 51% - 49% wigan Away at southampton, a game where we should have commanded the game, even away) it was saints 53% - 47% tottenham Home to chelsea it was tottenham 42% - 58% chelsea ...and even against Villa at home, who we should have destroyed for possession, it was only Tottenham 55% - 45% Villa last season, I remember checking my sky sports app on my iphone and nearly every week our possession stats were between 60 and 70%. there were even frustrated debates on here about how "having all the possession in the world doesn't matter if you don't get the goals". -But the point i'm making is that at the moment we don't appear to be able to get a hold on any game, our possession is far weaker (especially against sides where it should be up at the 65% mark, such as wigan) and I believe that as a result, we're inviting more pressure onto Brad. perhaps this season he's been faced with more difficult situations because we've never got hold of the game properly to attack? I just think he's being used as a bit of a scapegoat at the moment when the problem lies with the men in front of him. Yes, he's made mistakes, but if you're under more pressure (which we all say that we are by sitting back) then I think the mistakes are inevitable. it's like the saying "throw enough **** at the wall and some of it will stick". could Brad's mistakes be a result of this? Surely if we can't keep the ball, the pressure... followed by the attack... and more pressure, is eventually going to cause us to buckle? keep the ball, and we aren't on the back foot. and this leads us full circle to personnel...
Believe me Roo, Friedel doesn't get a fraction of the blame than what the likes of Walker and Gallas deservedly get from me. Wouldn't say I use him as a scapegoat but do think he's been, along with them and others, one of the poorer players in our team and therefore criticism is well deserved. In this order, I'd rate these as our worst performing players this season: Walker, Dempsey, Gallas, Friedel, Huddlestone. Of those, Huddlestone is the only one I can be lenient with, for a start he's come back from a season long injury and it was clear in the summer he wasn't in AVB's plans so it's fair to say his mindset may not be great knowing that he's near enough a last option and that when one of Dembele/ Parker/ Livermore return to full fitness, there's a good chance he'll be benched or even out the squad.
The keeper is the LAST line of defence, I think Brad has seen more action this far, than he did all last season, where he may aswell have bought a ticket and watched in the stands with us lot in some games! so you do make a valid point Roo. The person between the sticks is the least of the problems we face atm, its the 10 in front of him.
regardless of blame SOS, I' just trying to get my head around reasons why it's like this. I'm hoping that the walking encyclopaedia that is Humanbeingincroydon, will post something on possession soon! HBIC?! I just think that brad's been poor due a domino effect of other players. I'll await possession statistics, but I do believe that our lack of possession and commanding of games which we saw so much of last year, is beginning to take it's toll on us defensively, which is why the keeper is getting the blame. for me the worst performing players are: Dempsey, Gallas, Walker, Sigurdsson, Huddlestone. like you, I agree on Hudd and being slightly lenient, but the fact is, he's too slow and always has been. Sig could do with a couple more games, but as it stands, he's been nowhere, just like Dempsey. both completely invisible. gallas frightens the life out of me nowadays and i'm a nervous wreck watching him. walker's just been poor, but he's still working hard which is a good sign. he's just going through a bad patch.
I think sticking Sig in there is a tad harsh, yes he's been poor from what we've seen but he's had a quarter of the time as what Dempsey has had. I too would like to see that stat side of things though. I know we've not controlled games but I really can't think of Friedel making too many "important" saves in games from the opposition. Sure he's made the odd one or two which are expected but in terms of total shots (on target) against us, I'd be pretty confident in saying it probably isn't much higher than what he had last season. Queue the "it's been 6 times higher on average than last season" post from someone next
I don't think that Vertonghen did have a bad game, exactly. He was left exposed constantly by Bale's failure to adjust to the tactical change and the introduction of Maicon, but he also injured himself quite early on in the 2nd half. It seemed to take a lot out of him. As I've already said, it should've been dealt with in any number of ways, as it was clear where the damage was being done.
If you're a LB, you can see your LM in front of you. If Bale goes missing, as a LB do you go and get caught upfield out of position aswell?
No, but he's not really a left-back. He wasn't really getting caught upfield too much, just being left isolated with a good attacking wing-back who didn't have any defending to do and had fresh legs, plus he looked to be feeling that injury, to me.
1/4 of the time? really? if that's correct, then I'll hold my hands up. we've played a total of 17 games and wikipedia says he's played in 10. so for now, i'll base my thoughts on that. 10 games (if correct) is long enough to see some signs of promise. - refer to Dembele and vertonghen. it might sound harsh, but I see the same issue with Sig as I do with Dempsey at the moment. 10 games and we've seen nothing positive from him. he's supposed to be a set piece specialist... I've seen about 2 of his corners beat the first man. he looks lost in the same way as Dempsey in the middle of the 3. I don't think either player have become bad players over night, but i think there's been long enough for both players now to tell that neither of them are likely to work in that position. Have to disagree on Friedal there too, mate. There's been 2 or 3 games this season where brad has kept us in it with save after save.
Frustrating game again yesterday, it just didn't feel like there was any real shape and plan to our play and when it came to seeing the game out for what would have been a great 3 points our midifeld crashed into our defence and we looked more like relegation strugglers. It's hard for us to know where the blame lies but I thought Brad could've done better for the last goal and Lennon and Bale should have done better in exploiting their frustration and as their wide players like Zabaleta and Kolarov lost their cools. I've no doubt Zabaleta in particular was walking a thin line with the ref for all the fouls he was giving away and his reactions to them which could've seen him sent off but it just needed Bale and Lennon to get smart an start making life difficult for him like Ade did. No one had a good game though and everyone gave ball away which was a real problem. Lets hope we're better next week.
He plays LB for his country, so I wouldn't go down the 'unfamiliar with the role' road PNP. Watch the replays of the goals mate and look where JV was in both at the 'start' of the passages of play.
