Yeah, good read that. Just one comment though, the writer alludes to Michu's lack of pace..... it's not the first time I've heard this and commentator's often refer to it, but I think he's pretty quick. Quicker than Danny and a few others in our team anyway.... Am I seeing this through Michu-tinted glasses and he's actually not got any pace or is it another case of lazy journalism...one person making a comment and then everyone else following suit?
Very good article. Michu scores goals with his head that we haven't seen in seasons and his ability to be ghosting into the right place at the right time is terrific.
I think if he has a lack of balls out speed he more than makes up for it with the timing of his runs - right place / right time trumps for me.
But that's what I'm saying - I don't think he HAS a lack of speed....maybe he just looks a little slow because he's got Nathan running alongside him?
Michu isnt a speed merchant but he is the fastest midfielder arriving in the box to score a goal!! Timing is everything and while people can argue about pace,clever players dont need it, nobody would say Torres,Van persie,Suarez,Roony or Djempe Ba are particularly quick either, it dont stop them from being top goal scorers though!! Teddy sheringham was as slow as anything but had the football brain, same with Lampard who has averaged around 16 goals per season for years! Michu is an intellegent player and has the same timing as Lampard when it comes to being on the end of things t the right time, in fact not being blindingly quick is probably a bonus,it means his career will last longer as his speed of thought and timing wont fade away so fast. Stupid journo's by the sound of things. In fact i cant think of a really fast player who was a top goal scorer since maybe Henry at Arsenal, Gareth bale is quick but hasnt scored the same amount of goals than Michu this year,quite frankly "a lack of pace " is a load of bollocks. Have a look at the table on the link below, the first "fast" player i can see is jermaine defoe and he is back in 9th in the scoring charts http://eurosport.yahoo.com/football/premier-league/top-goalscorers.html
He's not an out and out speed merchant but he turns on the burners when he has to. Michu's strength is that he combines an incredible sense of positioning with the ability to sprint the last few yards to lose his marker. He is a superb talent but he is not an up front striker. I mentioned this several times on other threads and Michu himself has recently confirmed that he much prefers to play in midfield and get his goals from there. It's simple really. Playing midfield gives Michhu the time and space, when we are attacking, to suss out his options and read the likely development of the play. And this is his genius - he is brilliant at reading where to be at the right moment and gets it correct most of the time. I only hope that we can hang onto him because I don't think we've seen the best of him yet. When Michael Laudrup gets the team playing the way he really wants, and the team develops their understanding, I believe that Michu will easily eclipse the 15 goals he got in La Liga. This is outstanding and the only midfielder I can think of by way of comparison is Frank Lampard. That is some accolade.
Sorry, Norway, I wasn't nicking your Lampard comparison. We were obviously writing at the same time and you beat me to it! Great minds, eh?
... thats quite spooky Ivor !! Great minds indeed eh ? The Lampard comparison is accurate though isnt it? watching Michu ghost into the box time and time again is extremly similar to Lampard in his pomp, the only suprise to me is that premier defences could never handle it and it still looks that way now thank god !! There is no substitute for intelligence on a football field, Michu playing in his correct position has that in bucket fulls, i watch him hanging back sometimes then making the run, the deeper he comes from the easier he seems to lose the opposition, it takes a football brain to do that on a regular basis thats for sure
Right, that's it. I'm buying him in Football Manager!! I don't think anyone can doubt that he's been the best value for money signing so far.
Michu has a good football brain that can anticipate where the ball is going to go and his positioning is good, this is something Danny don't have in top flight football, He is never where he should be and when he finally gets the ball he cant finish or even hit the target like a good striker should.....Michu is a classy player not the paciest but he dont need too with his superior football brain that gets him in the right place at the right time....
Two different positions with different requirements ,I admit Danny hasn't been firing this season but he hasn't had a consistent run in the side . Michu isn't a striker and his goal return whilst playing confirms that .
true that they represent different positions but that goes to prove that michu can get in the right positions where danny should be if he was playing and michu could do it as an attacking midfielder....
I think your wrong there Dai, Michu didnt score when playing up front either !! maybe he had one maximum, so that puts him on the same level as DG then? What it does prove is how difficult it is to score from that position in our system of play, DG is very much a victim of our system but i agree he isnt as confident as he was last season, his limited minutes at Newcastle were encouraging though.
Very good read SA9, makes you think regarding Laudrup's eye for a player. Michu will be our player of the season, and I hope we can keep him here for a good few years. The only bit I didn't agree with in that article was Michu's lack of pace, not sure if that's accurate, as from what I've seen of him, he has no problem turning with pace and going for goal. It also seems to me, that he is better at attacking defense's from midfield, he seems to be at his best when he has the whole defense in front of him as he goes for the channel to goal, if you look at his goal threat leading the line, sitting on the last defender, he's not so accomplished with his back to goal waiting for the pass. At any rate who the hell would have believed that his stats would be up there with the best, got to be the best buy for Swansea in a very long time!............... PS: Dyer was developing into a good goal threat, before he was retired to the bench, hope to see more of him, would like to see Nathan hit 9 or 10 goals this season, he has the ability to do it. On the subject of Striker, we need this sorted by January, we either need Graham to step up, and hit some form or maybe Shechter should be given a run of games to see what form he can hit, I particularly like the look of this lad, think he has some serious potential, we need to be scoring from this position, because it will be the difference between draws and wins.
Thanks for all your kind words regarding the article and feedback. I wouldn't say I was being 'lazy' saying he lacks speed - I've gone to pretty much every Swans game this season and genuinely think he does have very little pace. However, I agree with the point about his impeccable timing with his runs; in fact, in hindsight I wish I'd talked about that more as reading back through it I've hardly mentioned it. Nevermind. Cheers again As for Brendan's return today - Come on the Swans!
