Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:I'll take Kolarov. Mainly because I don't like him but Mancini does. There has to be something in his game i don't see.
Started off in weird Wingback/hybrid role and first five minutes seemed good going forward. Then it all fell to pieces. Borini was taking the piss out of him constantly. Making runs behind him and Kolarov simply couldn't keep up with him. He turns extremely slowly and his marking is terrible. He does make good runs forward, I'll give him that, but is very lazy tracking back when the move fells off. Whether this is pure laziness or stamina issue, I don't know. His communication with other members of the backline is non-existent.
Then he lost his man for the goal and that was purely his fault. Sure it was decent corner but it was outswinging and there's really no explanation for that.
In second half it actually got worse for him. We changed our system a bit (actually partly because they were taking the piss out of our left side.... most of their attacks were coming from there) and seemed to move in more traditional flat back four. As in the past, he simply can't seem to cope in that role. Tactically he seems to be completely lost on what he is supposed to do. Then he made the ridiculous reckless challenge from behind in penalty box. I didn't think he touched the ball, some people in match thread thought he did. That is besides the point though. In many (most) cases in modern football that sort of challenge ends in penalty and red card ---> game, set and match. Again that shows complete tactical naivety.
Summa summarum, I really tried to watch him open mindedly and forgetting the fact that I don't like him. But again, I didn't see anything in his game to warrant even back up spot in team like ours. Not only is his positioning and reading of the game shocking, he has major communication issues with rest of the backline and even shows signs of being lazy tracking back. Only situation he is usefull in is kind of games against poor opposition where we have vast majority of posession. But I think any decent leftback would shine in those situations and it's not his game that creates the posession but fantastic players around him.
P.s. Ted, it was definitely Rodders who headed that ball away from the goal line. Kolarov in fact couldn't block the cross that created the whole situation.
