The mancityfans.net football forum

Scouse fans are of the opinion he is up there

http://forums.liverpoolfc.tv/showthread.php?t=242455

I love NDJ and he is absolutely awesome but for me it is essien. If Nige can start to find the net with 4 or 5 a season then he will be top of the pile for me!

He's absolutely up there IMO but there are better at present, the most obvious being Essien.

In time though he very well might be.

some of the comments on there are funny. especially about him being a "thug". 32 games - 8 yellows, no reds this season. far from being the worst in the league.

great player - if he just had a little bit more going forward he's certainly be up there.

Erm - he's a defensive MF. I don't really care how many he scores as long as he lets the others take care of that side of things - which he usually does.

Right up there with the best imo.

only any cop in our half imo - so its a no for me - he is very, very good at breaking up play though, one of the best imo

NDJ is very very very good but not the best in the world.

He will get better and better though. If he scores one goal im sure there will be more to come.

We need 2/3 a season from him

I actually cant wait till he scores his little face will be a picture to treasure thats for sure.

His passing has improved a lot over the last season or so, I'm patiently waiting for him to find the back of the net. There's no one currently playing who can break play up like our Nige, not even Mascherano (who I rate quite highly).

I think he does a better job defensively than Essien. Not as good going forward as Essien at his best.

Imo though, what we really need at City are two fantastic alround midfielders who read the game, have pace & can get around the pitch quickly, attacking & defending. Players in the K***e mould or preferably a modern day Colin Bell. Then we can play without needing a DeJong or Barry in every game & fit more attacking players in the side.

In the meantime, Nige is as good at his job as it gets.

I think he is very good but there is a long way for him to go yet.
Getting forward I don't think is something he needs to worry about,for me he needs to learn to tackle more standing on his feet and not sliding in so much,passing more to his midfield partners and less to the defenders besides a few little things there is not much wrong with his game and hopefully he will improve.
The players who are around in his generation though who he is compared to I think will be slightly ahead of him.

ant london wrote:He's absolutely up there IMO but there are better at present, the most obvious being Essien.

In time though he very well might be.

Essien is class (and probably the better of the two) but Nige has been much much better this season!

i wouldn't swap Nigel for anyone.

Brilliant man.

I think the thing that has let him down in the past has been his passing. He is excellent in the tackle, one of the very best ball winning midfielders I have ever seen, but he seems to panic when he has won the ball and will often offload the ball with little or no thought which most likely means a pass backwards or a misplaced pass - both of which slow the momentum gained from the intial tackle.

This issue is one of the biggest reasons it irks me that Barry plays alongside him - as Barry is also guilty of panicking in posession and playing a pointless pass which slows momentum. These two should never play in the same team as their first passing instinct is always just to get rid of it, because they have little or no ability/skill when in posession of the ball. That said, Nige seems to be coming on in that aspect of his game wheras with Barry you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

By the time we eventually play the ball forwards after Nige wins a tackle, the opposition have had time to regroup their position - wheras the very best teams will have a ball winner who can play a ball to take advantage of the oppositions surprise at having lost the ball.

This issue I feel is the single issue that holds Mancini's teams back, and why Mancini would be well shut of Barry in the summer for a younger more mobile player with a couple of tricks up his sleeve.

I think he is right up there with the very best. His passing is increasing a lot, the left footed pass for our 3rd (I believe) goal against Sunderland was sublime.

london blue 2 wrote:Essien is class (and probably the better of the two) but Nige has been much much better this season!

Agreed, Essien has had a really poor season (by his standards)

A 'complete' midfielder is someone who contributes in every area of the pitch. defending, creating, and scoring.
So no, Nige isn't the most complete, but he is fucking good at doing what he does best, and that is keeping that defence protected.

For me it goes like this:
Essien,
Xabi Alonso,
Alex Song,
Busquets,
Mascherano,
Yaya,
Khedira,
Barry,
Nigel
So for me in Yaya and Barry we have two players that can do his job better and on the whole for me there are quite a few better.

'His job' for us is a rather limited one, to break up opposition attacks and hopefully get the ball back. No one currently playing football can do it better than him at this moment in time. That doesn't make him a complete DM though, because he isn't asked to be a complete DM in our system. So if you're listing all those players that can do 'his job' better than him you are wrong, if you're listing players who you consider to be better 'complete DMs' than him, you might have a point.

the thread on the scousers forum was actually "is NdJ the most complete BALL WINNING defensive midfielder in the world"

on that analysis I'd say quite probably

He is not the most complete midfielder though, and not even the most complete defensive midfielder

He may become the latter in time

Rag_hater wrote:For me it goes like this:
Essien,
Xabi Alonso,
Alex Song,
Busquets,
Mascherano,
Yaya,
Khedira,
Barry,
Nigel
So for me in Yaya and Barry we have two players that can do his job better and on the whole for me there are quite a few better.

did you google "complete midfielders" or something? in that list there are a couple better players than Nigel in that list, of which Masch, Yaya, Song and Khedira are not among them.

Look, if i were going to start a side tomorrow and someone told me i had to pick a defensive midfield enforcer with my first pick then Nigel wouldn't be the third pick in that draft. I can't think of two defensive midfielders i'd pick before him. Essien's a good shout, but the risk is that he's always halfway to broken. You wouldn't look foolish if you picked Nigel first. He's fantastic and will only shine even more against top clubs who try and play football. We've seen that for a while now.

cheers