WIDTH / NEVER rest Clichy & Micah

[Nick]

Every time we have zaba and kolorov at full back we lost our attacking threat from wide IMO. Kolorov is too slow to bomb up and down like clichy and Zaba just isnt micah.

That game was so frustrating because I think we could have had them on the wings. They had 10 men behind the ball all in the middle and I dont think we played anyone wide?! What a joke.

I wanted johnson to come on but when he did he proved why Mancini doesnt trust him.

Aguero should have been much sooner though. Dzeko was fairly absent.

[Blue Since 76]

Every time we have zaba and kolorov at full back we lost our attacking threat from wide IMO. Kolorov is too slow to bomb up and down like clichy and Zaba just isnt micah.

That game was so frustrating because I think we could have had them on the wings. They had 10 men behind the ball all in the middle and I dont think we played anyone wide?! What a joke.

I wanted johnson to come on but when he did he proved why Mancini doesnt trust him.

Aguero should have been much sooner though. Dzeko was fairly absent.

Fairly? I can't imagine a much more absent performance.

[Nick]

I dont see why he chose today to play both ballo and dzeko

[Bluedj]

Every time we have zaba and kolorov at full back we lost our attacking threat from wide IMO. Kolorov is too slow to bomb up and down like clichy and Zaba just isnt micah.

That game was so frustrating because I think we could have had them on the wings. They had 10 men behind the ball all in the middle and I dont think we played anyone wide?! What a joke.

I wanted johnson to come on but when he did he proved why Mancini doesnt trust him.

Aguero should have been much sooner though. Dzeko was fairly absent.

Agreed, total frustration. Mancini really it wrong tonight, I'm broper pissed off now

[Nick]

Im seriously pissed off. On Saturday I was raving about Clichy (And was when we signed him) I think hes really underated and obviously Micah is shit hot at the moment. Clichy is so fast he bombs up and gives us options, whereas kolorov is so slow hes cautious sometimes because if they get a break we're fucked because he won't get back in time.

[Original Dub]

That game was screaming out for richards.

Its gonna take a lot to get through now.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

Im seriously pissed off. On Saturday I was raving about Clichy (And was when we signed him) I think hes really underated and obviously Micah is shit hot at the moment. Clichy is so fast he bombs up and gives us options, whereas kolorov is so slow hes cautious sometimes because if they get a break we're fucked because he won't get back in time.

The problem with Kolarov isnt just his pace based on tonight.He had quite a few crossing opportunities and just got them all wrong.

[PeterParker]

He used Zaba and Kolarov in the first leg and Napoli striked exactly there. Tonight was the same. Both Micah and Clichy are fast players that could had stop Lavezzi and Hamsik.

[Nick]

Going on the match thread it seems EVERY BLUE agrees. Even the commentators were saying we need width and asking where Micah was. What a joke. I don't want to see kolorov again. He gets the odd goal / assist which masks his general play.

[Mike J]

fucking dreadul decision making. think it has now put us out. villareal arent beating them. tut tut bobby manc.

[Bridge'srightfoot]

I'd been a big fan of kolarov this season but tonight he was awful. Crossing poor and got beat every time.

[BlueMoonAwoken]

Kolarov should of been on the near post for the first goal wasnt switched on because he hasnt been playing..

Ballotelli and dzeko 2 6 ft ers up top with no width.......

Johnson comes on when the best header of a ball is not on the pitch dezeko........

sooo what does mancini want from johnson to stay wide and.......................

[london blue 2]

Im seriously pissed off. On Saturday I was raving about Clichy (And was when we signed him) I think hes really underated and obviously Micah is shit hot at the moment. Clichy is so fast he bombs up and gives us options, whereas kolorov is so slow hes cautious sometimes because if they get a break we're fucked because he won't get back in time.

Bellamy and Downing. That why they were rested, unfortunately this showed that the 2nd choice defence are way way off the 2nd choice midfielders and attackers.

[Blue Since 76]

Im seriously pissed off. On Saturday I was raving about Clichy (And was when we signed him) I think hes really underated and obviously Micah is shit hot at the moment. Clichy is so fast he bombs up and gives us options, whereas kolorov is so slow hes cautious sometimes because if they get a break we're fucked because he won't get back in time.

Bellamy and Downing. That why they were rested, unfortunately this showed that the 2nd choice defence are way way off the 2nd choice midfielders and attackers.

I could mark Downing, let alone Zaba or Kolarov.

With Richards, there could be an argument over his defensive ability against good players, but on the left Clichy is fastest, best defensively and best going forwards. The only think Kolarov offers is a threat from a free kick once a season.

[london blue 2]

Im seriously pissed off. On Saturday I was raving about Clichy (And was when we signed him) I think hes really underated and obviously Micah is shit hot at the moment. Clichy is so fast he bombs up and gives us options, whereas kolorov is so slow hes cautious sometimes because if they get a break we're fucked because he won't get back in time.

Bellamy and Downing. That why they were rested, unfortunately this showed that the 2nd choice defence are way way off the 2nd choice midfielders and attackers.

I could mark Downing, let alone Zaba or Kolarov.

With Richards, there could be an argument over his defensive ability against good players, but on the left Clichy is fastest, best defensively and best going forwards. The only think Kolarov offers is a threat from a free kick once a season.

I'm sure you could.

No point having a squad if we don't use/trust them. Mancini got it wrong. Like I said unfortunately it shows our weakness in the defensive third.

[carl_feedthegoat]

Im seriously pissed off. On Saturday I was raving about Clichy (And was when we signed him) I think hes really underated and obviously Micah is shit hot at the moment. Clichy is so fast he bombs up and gives us options, whereas kolorov is so slow hes cautious sometimes because if they get a break we're fucked because he won't get back in time.

Bellamy and Downing. That why they were rested, unfortunately this showed that the 2nd choice defence are way way off the 2nd choice midfielders and attackers.

I could mark Downing, let alone Zaba or Kolarov.

With Richards, there could be an argument over his defensive ability against good players, but on the left Clichy is fastest, best defensively and best going forwards. The only think Kolarov offers is a threat from a free kick once a season.

I'm sure you could.

No point having a squad if we don't use/trust them. Mancini got it wrong. Like I said unfortunately it shows our weakness in the defensive third.

Mancini also got it wrong in the first games - why didn't he fucking learn from it?

[london blue 2]

Im seriously pissed off. On Saturday I was raving about Clichy (And was when we signed him) I think hes really underated and obviously Micah is shit hot at the moment. Clichy is so fast he bombs up and gives us options, whereas kolorov is so slow hes cautious sometimes because if they get a break we're fucked because he won't get back in time.

Bellamy and Downing. That why they were rested, unfortunately this showed that the 2nd choice defence are way way off the 2nd choice midfielders and attackers.

I could mark Downing, let alone Zaba or Kolarov.

With Richards, there could be an argument over his defensive ability against good players, but on the left Clichy is fastest, best defensively and best going forwards. The only think Kolarov offers is a threat from a free kick once a season.

I'm sure you could.

No point having a squad if we don't use/trust them. Mancini got it wrong. Like I said unfortunately it shows our weakness in the defensive third.

Mancini also got it wrong in the first games - why didn't he fucking learn from it?

The fact that we got done in exactly the same way as the first age, time and time again is more worrying agreed! Like someone has said, lose on Sunday and the alarms will be ringing!

[Ted Hughes]

Kolarov's crossing has been good in most games. It was poor today. Zabba's crossing was a throwback to last season; aimless. The big improvement in that area has been Micah; he mostly puts a great ball in now. I just can't see how Kolarov can make it as a top level fullback. We can use him v the lesser teams but if he's to play v a decent team then we have to have a wide player looking after him. In a 1 v 1 he's just got no chance.

[Moonchesteri]

I'm pissed off because of the result too.

this thread (OP) is ridiculous....

[freshie]

IMO the fullback positions is where we lost the game. Napoli like to play the majority of the game through the middle and consequently left a lot of space for us in the wide positions, however, Zabaleta is nowhere near as good as Micah offensively and Kolarov is just awful (his crosses were shit on the rare occasion he chose to cross the ball and the rest of the time he just gave the ball back to whoever had passed it to him) so we couldn't maximise the space we had out wide.