Full backs...

[Pretty Boy Lee]

Kolarov looks ok to me. Still finding his feet from injury, but liked what I've seen.

Boateng has 2 better players warming the bench behind him. Jons for boys needs to stop.

[Nick]

Been worried about Boateng since early on. I think he knows he needs to improve, as shown by his interview stating that he is a CB.

[Ted Hughes]

It's not always easy to come over here & play football. Remember Evra? Particularly v Trevor Sinclair? If you turned back time & put Evra in the same position now, he'd run fucking rings round him. We shouldn't be exposing these blokes so badly.

correct - but they have to learn dont they.. and there is only one way to do that, school of hard knocks.

As fans we have to give the manager and the club the benefit of the doubt and let them get on with it.. learning is a fuclin process it requires patience and understanding and most of all it takes being thrown into the lions den and trying.. and realising things.
Ultimatley that is why it takes time to get a team together.. thats why youngsters take time to develop.. otherwise we would live in a fuclin perfect world and there would be no development and there would probably be no football league!

But the point is; we don't have to give any fullbacks time to settle in during games like this because we have absolutely no need to play them & we certainly don't have to play them both at once with Vieira, SWP & Jo. It's unneccessary. It's their job to force their way into the team on merit, not our job to risk going out of the cup to give them experience.

Our squad isn't so desperately unfit that all those players need changing in order to play in a week's time. Micha & Zabba would have no problems playing both games. DeJong & Barry could play 45 mins each. Ade or RSC could play up front (or Bellamy could still be a City player instead of having to rely on Jo.)

We're in this position with the squad because we chose to be, not because we have to be.

[CityFanFromRome]

But the point is; we don't have to give any fullbacks time to settle in during games like this because we have absolutely no need to play them & we certainly don't have to play them both at once with Vieira, SWP & Jo. It's unneccessary. It's their job to force their way into the team on merit, not our job to risk going out of the cup to give them experience.

Our squad isn't so desperately unfit that all those players need changing in order to play in a week's time. Micha & Zabba would have no problems playing both games. DeJong & Barry could play 45 mins each. Ade or RSC could play up front (or Bellamy could still be a City player instead of having to rely on Jo.)

We're in this position with the squad because we chose to be, not because we have to be.

The fact is, Ted, that they can look as good as they want in training, and I'm sure they do otherwise they wouldn't be selected so often, but the only proof is to play games and perform in them. There's no way to know if they have learned before seeing them in games, and while I know we could give them a game once a while to test their progress, their learning process will be much faster if exposed to the Prem week in week out; if we kept them on the bench until ready, and seldomly played them to see how they were progressing, we might reach the end of their contracts and still have unfinished articles.

As I said in another thread too, yesterday we had 6 of our usual starting eleven on the pitch (Hart, Touré, Boateng, Kolarov, Milner, Tevez) plus another two of those immediately outside the best eleven (Lescott, AJ); so we had 8 out of 11 regular starters (or featurers), I don't think that's too soft an approach to a game with a Championship side. I agree that Adebayor or RSC could have played in Jo's place and to be honest why Mancini keeps fielding him is beyond me, but then again, we go back to impressing the manager in training...maybe he sees something in Jo during training that makes him think he could perform better than the other two (even if then he's shit time and time again during matches).

[Slim]

Can we never ever give players just a little time to bed in before writing them off. I'm sure both given time are going to be fine. The Premier League is probably the fastest and hardest league to adjust too, god does anyone recall Dave Silva at Spurs and how he looked like a deer in headlights.

Let's give a player at least as season and a run of playing injury free before judging. There will no doubt be a Dzeko is not good enough thread in two weeks time!

I would like to say you are right and as far as Kolarov is concerned I am in agreement, but I saw Boetang play last season as well and he never convinced me then, when I had heard we bought him I was hoping that I had magically managed to miss all the games in which he looked like a 10m pound player and sadly after seeing him play this season I am more convinced than ever that he is not up to the task at this level.

However, Bobby bought him and didn't buy Zabs or Richards and that's the only conceivable reason he is playing ahead of either of them.

[s1ty m]

Can we never ever give players just a little time to bed in before writing them off. I'm sure both given time are going to be fine. The Premier League is probably the fastest and hardest league to adjust too, god does anyone recall Dave Silva at Spurs and how he looked like a deer in headlights.

Let's give a player at least as season and a run of playing injury free before judging. There will no doubt be a Dzeko is not good enough thread in two weeks time!

I would like to say you are right and as far as Kolarov is concerned I am in agreement, but I saw Boetang play last season as well and he never convinced me then, when I had heard we bought him I was hoping that I had magically managed to miss all the games in which he looked like a 10m pound player and sadly after seeing him play this season I am more convinced than ever that he is not up to the task at this level.

However, Bobby bought him and didn't buy Zabs or Richards and that's the only conceivable reason he is playing ahead of either of them.

I can handle the concept of giving players time, no problem. Boateng has had enough time. We have seen enough to form a balanced judgement that he is simply not good enough. Kolarov, I just don't know. The problem is his pace and turning circle, turns done at glacial speed. How will that improve? Speed is not acquired by training or familiarity, he just does not have it.

[Duckman]

just watch boatengs movement as bamba scores. its crazy.

[blues2win]

Boateng wasn't Mancini's buy. It was in the works before he became Manager as part of the Hamburg connection. Kolarov clearly was his buy. Richards's performances this season have been uneven to say the least; he was dreadful against Spurs and that wasn't the only bad performance. I agree that Zabaleta is playing better than Boateng but he can't play every game. Kolarov is definitely our best left back and he's nowhere near as bad defensively as some people are suggesting. Zabaleta offers little going forward down the left side because he's pretty right footed although I did see one good cut back for Tevez in a recent match. By contrast Kolarov has the potential to create goal scoring opportunities both in open play and with dead balls.

Bottom line we've bought two young foreign defenders ( especially Boateng who's only 22) who have both missed a good few matches through injury. Is it too much to ask that they're given a full season before being written off? And remember it was Joe Hart's feeble attempt to recover from his blunder which ultimately cost us the match not Kolarov or Boateng.

As for our dreadful defensive performance on corners yesterday I've seen this failing in match after match with or without Boateng or Kolarov. I don't like zonal marking but Mancini obviously does so he needs to get it sorted. I've long wondered whether we shouldn't go for a centre half who's really dominant in the air. Brede Hangeland? There again it will be argued that he isn't comfortable enough on the ball for where we're going, I suppose

[Mikhail Chigorin]

I wonder if, because of the perceived tackling/defensive weaknesses of whichever fullback combination we employ, Bobby Manc has ever considered switching to a 5-3-2 formation, allowing the fullbacks to be proper wing backs to "feed" Dzeko from wide positions on the flanks i.e.

Hart

K Toure Kompany Lescott

Zabaletta Kolarov

Y Toure De Jong Silva

Tevez Dzeko