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Dont think he covered much ground tonight but gave our midfield abit more stability and cofidence, played a bit higher up the pitch then i expected....one or two great passes...wasnt really putting himself about though....but if Mancini knows anything about this lad and thinks hes so important im shocked he played him the whole game as Im pretty sure now he will be crocked for the weekend.
At Arsenal he was known for taking longer then most to recover from games and thats when he was playing regularly.

CLASS PLAYERS ARE ALWAYS CAPABLE OF THE SUBLIME ..AS WAS EVIDENT WITH VIERAS (BETTER THAN IRELANDS) PASS TO ADE.

BUT IM SORRY - THE GUY IS TOO SLOW FOR THE PREM AND IS A LIABILITY IMO.
BAD SIGNING FOR OUR TEAM BASED ON TONIGHTS PERFORMANCE.

I thought Vieira was excellent tonight, all things considered. Best midfielder on the park. He was knackered after 80 minutes, but that's not a surprise. He gave the midfield a nice lined balance, his control and first time passing was sublime and for me, it seemed like he carried Barry and De Jong into fitting into a cohesive unit for the first time in forever.

Obviously not one to rely on every game, but personally, after that potential butt ramming, I felt he was a more astute signing than anybody was and is thinking.

i thought he was more effective at the start when he was a bit deeper.. he looked a bit lost at times higher up the pitch.

However he did give the midfield a bit more much needed composure, and i for one suspect that what Mancini wants is for the team to be more confident to be playing higher up the field, so perhaps PV had orders to push higher up if he could and try drag the rest of with him. Trouble is in my view it didnt really work and we started to struggle as soon as Vieira moved up to a higher position after about 12 mins or so.

Think we will see more of this though.
If it works i will be happy.. but im worried that it wont be easy and we dont have the luxury of a lot of time to get that right. ( also assuming that PV stays match fit )

Crap at first half but I actually thought he did pretty well in second half when he got the engine going.

Funny as I was in text contact with Sister of Fu at the game first half who was moaning about him being slow and off the pace

On TV for the same period with the benefit of several angles and replays, he looked a different class in terms of positioning and his use of the ball which was sublime in parts in the first 45 mins.

There were some shocking performances tonight that I shall rant about elsewhere but Vieira was one of those who emerged with significant credit for me.

He's not as mobile/physical as the wrinkly one sure, but he can use the ball miles better

And on tonight's evidence his distribution is 1000000000x better than Gareth Barry's

I'd be happy playing 4-2-3-1 with De Jong/Vieira as the two or 4-4-2 with those two in the middle on tonight's form

Barry was shocking on the ball, fucking horror show stuff

Some nice simple touches which moved the ball on quite well I thought.

Showed that he can still pick a pass when given time but is painfully slow, let's hope he's just not up to speed with the Prem

Geo123 wrote:Dont think he covered much ground tonight but gave our midfield abit more stability and cofidence, played a bit higher up the pitch then i expected....one or two great passes...wasnt really putting himself about though....but if Mancini knows anything about this lad and thinks hes so important im shocked he played him the whole game as Im pretty sure now he will be crocked for the weekend.
At Arsenal he was known for taking longer then most to recover from games and thats when he was playing regularly.

Got 90 minutes into his legs which is no bad thing.

Showed his quality at times, but didn't look at the races for large parts of the game. Hopefully that is just match fitness rather that his legs having gone!

Thought he was quality tonight and controlled the midfield, well played Patrick.

Geo123 wrote:Dont think he covered much ground tonight but gave our midfield abit more stability and cofidence, played a bit higher up the pitch then i expected....one or two great passes...wasnt really putting himself about though....but if Mancini knows anything about this lad and thinks hes so important im shocked he played him the whole game as Im pretty sure now he will be crocked for the weekend.
At Arsenal he was known for taking longer then most to recover from games and thats when he was playing regularly.

Thought he was the worst player then he pulled out that amazing ball.

Svensational wrote:It would've been tough for him, but the amount of times he lost the ball was just unbelievable. Dont think he would cut it for us full time.

Mate watch a full replay and concentrate on barry. He gave the ball away under no pressure time and time again. Vieira was stingy in comparison and when you consider how up to pl speed he is. Barry was shit, given was awful, as was toure, as was swp. Johnson good, zabaleta excellent tonite, the forwards ok. De jong and wayne not bad. Overall pretty terrible. Manager gets a C+ tops

I thought he was decent in the first 45 especially that opening 15 minutes where we dominated. 2nd 45 he was past over for the most part but his pass to Ade was tremendous. However I thought he was always chasing the game and was seemingly second to the ball and apart from that one ball to Ade was very negative on the ball.

I for one thought Barry had a good game, certainly that first 45 from him was a lot better than recent matches.

For starters, playing De Jong, Barry and Vieria in midfield tonight was at least 1 defensive midfielder too much.

Vieria was hit and miss on the ball but looked much more comfortable when Barry went to left back and he was left on his own in midfield to play the game.

Positioning as mentioned was a class apart. He knows where to play. De Jong sits deep whatever the weather and you often think from watching Barry that he longs to do the same.

Kladze wrote:

Geo123 wrote:Dont think he covered much ground tonight but gave our midfield abit more stability and cofidence, played a bit higher up the pitch then i expected....one or two great passes...wasnt really putting himself about though....but if Mancini knows anything about this lad and thinks hes so important im shocked he played him the whole game as Im pretty sure now he will be crocked for the weekend.
At Arsenal he was known for taking longer then most to recover from games and thats when he was playing regularly.

Got 90 minutes into his legs which is no bad thing.

I'm not sure that's a positive thing at his age, tbf.

Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:Crap at first half but I actually thought he did pretty well in second half when he got the engine going.

this (forgive me).

got himself in order after looking in danger of going missing,

carl_feedthegoat wrote:CLASS PLAYERS ARE ALWAYS CAPABLE OF THE SUBLIME ..AS WAS EVIDENT WITH VIERAS (BETTER THAN IRELANDS) PASS TO ADE.

BUT IM SORRY - THE GUY IS TOO SLOW FOR THE PREM AND IS A LIABILITY IMO.
BAD SIGNING FOR OUR TEAM BASED ON TONIGHTS PERFORMANCE.

Thought I was going to have to give a full and frank statement on Vieira there, but yours sums it up for me. This is the best I'm expecting of Vieira, but I still live in hope that we see the old Patrick Vieira that we all expect.

Have to give Vieira the benefit of the doubt after tonight as it looks like he is going to be in the team if fit and it is good that he got 90 minutes. I thought he looked a liability and did anything but boss the game imo. Of course his positioning was going to be reasonably good as he has a zillion years experience.And yes he made the odd pass ( one special one of course) but he was caught on the ball at times and generally so slow he makes Barry look like a sprinter.

Amazing how some have seen it so different. As with the team though if we/he plays like that all the time he/we will get found out easily by good teams.

i thought he played well for his first game playing with strangers. Also playing his first game back after injury and first back in the prem for howerver many years.

But if your going to play you either need to drop barry or de jong and play SWP on the right, petrov or johnson on the left..

id want this

...........Dejong.............

SWP.......Vieira.......Johnson

...........Ireland.............

......Tevez.......Adebayor....