brite blu sky wrote:there are a lot of good points here.. particularly the fact that robson was a statement of intent initially and has served his purpose for that already.. also he probably wasnt ANY managers choice as far as i can make out, he was a marketing choice.
However put that aside and you still have to recognise that robbie is a very skillfull football player. If he has the all round game to survive in a prem team is now seriously in question.
He always seem to play best with Stevie.. i assume the skill and thinking level of the two of them were complementary and made Robbie more relaxed.. feel at home.. fluid.. perhaps cos he knew he could rely on at least one other players style.
If anything i would suggest we should have an in depth discussion of Robbies style in order to assess IF (assuming he has his confidence high), that he could have a second go at finding a 'role' in the team and succeeding in the prem.
For instance having the ball taken off you easily, repeatedly is defo not good!
Did that happen at Madrid? anyone remember?
will that happen in the Brazilian league.. will it happen in WC?
Lets see..
Can anyone really say that it is possible to 'understand' any single human being? i would say no. So for me it is very much still open season on Robbie. For instance i would not fall on the floor if he suddenly appeared in the central forward mid role at Santos and consistently performed well by dicking his marker and distrubuting well. i dont know how Santos play so i am just stating this as a way of saying i wouldnt be surprised. He always said here in Spain that he prefered to play centrally, and he said it was one of the things he was disappointed with life at Madrid always being played on the left.
maybe he got stuck in that position with us because he had to fit in somewhere and was known to play on the left by that time.
I seem to recall there was some debate when we bought him if he would play centrally or not. Maybe in training he was clearly exposed as not being able to cope with being the forward distrubutor in the english game. That wouldnt surprise me iether, based on how seamingly easily he can be robbed.
He is 26, not fast over ground, but fast with his feet and presumably thinking. Without direct line speed his game relies on positioning. It seems clear that his confidence dropped in the prem and with it his ability to beat defenders. But no-one seems to offer a reason as to why that is. I would suggest that it is a lack of upper body strength that allows him to get muscled off balance. Robson is small and light.. and isnt fast in a straight line and does't have the work rate. Doesnt sound good does it? He does have the quick feet, balance and thinking to sidestep players and nip in and out of spaces. He seems the perfect kind of player to always be hanging around the area, ready to run straight into it and cause havoc. Apart from that i have no idea what role he could play well in the prem because i have never seen him play as central forward mid. ( and boy any team in the prem that could afford to have a forward mid that did fuck all challenging would basically have to be shit hot.. like as solid as Chelsea and fluid as Arsenal in one package )
I can understand why Barca were really interested, because for any team to suit Robbie they would have to be playing well up the pitch.. in fact mostly in the opponents half. Believe me he would be an amazing addition to such a team, and would cause mayhem and be loving it. Barcas style would suit Robbie well. But as City intend to be the best team in the world, we are going to have to be even better than Barca, means we are going to have to dominate teams; most teams, in the Prem and Europe!
So as i am keeping an open mind i am waiting to see how he goes on at Santos, what sort of role he plays.. i am pretty much assuming he will get his confidence back in no time back there, see what happens.. if he plays a role we believe that he cant in the prem - then let him go to Barca. If he shows a different side of himself at Santos.. more of a playmaker... then i would be one of the peeps saying give him another chance to try in the prem with us, if he aslo really wanted to do that, obviously.
What would sway me more though would be that our current team had evolved well enough under Bobby to be playing consistently against top AND bottom sides, at home AND away.. solidly higher up the pitch and dominating games more. If we were that good by the end of this season i would defo get robson back in sky blue.
But that is a big ask to do in a short space of time. and tbh is the topic of another thread for sure. But i for one will be keeping an eye on Robinho as i am as yet not convinced that his time in sky blue is completely over.
I'd disagree with the point about him being bullied of the ball easily.I've very rarely seen him get tackled,he passes the ball before that happens.When he has the ball most of the time he manages to keep hold of it until a blue shirt comes into an area he can pass it.He can play in most positions and I dont think that we have to limit him to the second striker or more in the middle of the park at all.However I do think that he would be best utilized as a playmaker as I say I think he has the ability to hold onto the ball and create a telling pass.
The lessons we have learned from this is that our club has a lot of hypocritic and fickle fans.
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