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Immense. Again. Attention will rightly go to the front two, but I thought he deserved his own thread. Don't understand how people can dismiss him as a one note player anymore - when he's given a run in the team, his ability to dismantle attacks and retain possession is a cut above. His passing's come a long, long way since the World Cup final, too - that chip to Zaba was beautiful.

Played well today, and you now why? Because he's back in familiar terratory with Barry in the middle of the park. The pair of them were our midfield foundation last year, and i think the pair of them have been excellent in the last 2 games, working together.

Disagree. Struggles to play the ball forward and slows us down too much against top quality. Love him for his ball winning and never say die attitude, but the fact is we have moved past him in my opinion. Always makes me cringe when people praise defensive midfielders because it is the easiest job to do in professional football if you have the right attitude.

Love Nigel, hope he stays, we need fighters like him in our squad

colonel_muck wrote:Disagree. Struggles to play the ball forward and slows us down too much against top quality. Love him for his ball winning and never say die attitude, but the fact is we have moved past him in my opinion. Always makes me cringe when people praise defensive midfielders because it is the easiest job to do in professional football if you have the right attitude.

You must have been watching a different game. De jong was immense in possession, always keeping the ball and using his body to shield the other player away. Little dragbacks and shoulder feints were great. Very underrated side of his game.

Grob wrote:Played well today, and you now why? Because he's back in familiar terratory with Barry in the middle of the park. The pair of them were our midfield foundation last year, and i think the pair of them have been excellent in the last 2 games, working together.

Eh ?

Barry certainly did not play well today...he was the worst player on the pitch , constantly giving the ball away.
NDJ however had an excellent game.

colonel_muck wrote:Disagree. Struggles to play the ball forward and slows us down too much against top quality. Love him for his ball winning and never say die attitude, but the fact is we have moved past him in my opinion. Always makes me cringe when people praise defensive midfielders because it is the easiest job to do in professional football if you have the right attitude.

The old Nige struggled, but he's been working hard on his passing (possibly at the request of Mancini) - he regularly looks to give forward balls now, and seems to favour a straight ball through to the attackers (when it's on).

Superb today. MUST stay

Dameerto wrote:

colonel_muck wrote:Disagree. Struggles to play the ball forward and slows us down too much against top quality. Love him for his ball winning and never say die attitude, but the fact is we have moved past him in my opinion. Always makes me cringe when people praise defensive midfielders because it is the easiest job to do in professional football if you have the right attitude.

The old Nige struggled, but he's been working hard on his passing (possibly at the request of Mancini) - he regularly looks to give forward balls now, and seems to favour a straight ball through to the attackers (when it's on).

Today, when Norwich were pressing we kept giving the ball away, so everythime Nige broke their attacks up his delivery was spot on......I can't remember him giving the ball away, his passing is just so accurate now.....I'd love to know his pass completion in this match..........So that's two cracking displays on the bounce from him.....welcome back Nige

his ball to zabba was as good as anything silva or nasri would play

colonel_muck wrote:Disagree. Struggles to play the ball forward and slows us down too much against top quality. Love him for his ball winning and never say die attitude, but the fact is we have moved past him in my opinion. Always makes me cringe when people praise defensive midfielders because it is the easiest job to do in professional football if you have the right attitude.

This is my view on him and won't change. I don't doubt his quality but I also think we are past him and the need for him. We started the season great without him and Barry instead. I think Him and Barry together is a bad idea. Too many DM doesn't work for me either. You only need 1 though it did work today one will always look bad and that today was Barry.

I really hope we keep him. He's been better than Barry for awhile now.
People seem to not understand his job and I don't see Mancini playing with only 1 DM
from the start....and this means that if NDJ and Barry dont play together, Yaya will
be pulled back into one of those DM spots and thats not good. he flourishes further forward.

did i miss something? didnt put in one challenge today, passed sideways or backwards

Longball wrote:did i miss something? didnt put in one challenge today, passed sideways or backwards

He didn't kick enough "Longball" IMAO

Vhero wrote:

colonel_muck wrote:Disagree. Struggles to play the ball forward and slows us down too much against top quality. Love him for his ball winning and never say die attitude, but the fact is we have moved past him in my opinion. Always makes me cringe when people praise defensive midfielders because it is the easiest job to do in professional football if you have the right attitude.

This is my view on him and won't change. I don't doubt his quality but I also think we are past him and the need for him. We started the season great without him and Barry instead. I think Him and Barry together is a bad idea. Too many DM doesn't work for me either. You only need 1 though it did work today one will always look bad and that today was Barry.

Did you also have a view of Micah a couple of seasons ago? The season that he was roundly attacked on here for not getting back quickly enough? Lacking focus and not being good enough? Players change, they learn, they evolve. Shouldn't we be open minded and accept that?

john68 wrote:
Did you also have a view of Micah a couple of seasons ago? The season that he was roundly attacked on here for not getting back quickly enough? Lacking focus and not being good enough? Players change, they learn, they evolve. Shouldn't we be open minded and accept that?

You are trying to drag a boat over a mountain Fitzcaraldo. Just leave it alone. I enjoy the nonsensical declarations.

carl_feedthegoat wrote:

Grob wrote:Played well today, and you now why? Because he's back in familiar terratory with Barry in the middle of the park. The pair of them were our midfield foundation last year, and i think the pair of them have been excellent in the last 2 games, working together.

Eh ?

Barry certainly did not play well today...he was the worst player on the pitch , constantly giving the ball away.
NDJ however had an excellent game.

I actually think that one reason Barry may be giving the ball away more than usual is that Bob has told him to play it quicker. Against WBA he was much quicker in possession & more like he was at Spurs early season. I think Bob has told him to force the pace & not play everything safe, & it's working & getting us moving better.

Seems to me a player only has to make the odd "key" pass wrong and that determines to the fans whether he had a great game or not.With the emphasis on great game as it seems that players only have a great game or are totally horse shit.

I recall more than one poor pass from Barry yesterday but I also noted that he helped on Silva's early corner which maybe should have given us a first goal and he was also the player who got back to block that Wilbraham shot when it was 2.1.He was available and linking play well as he usually does.Barry had a decent game but wasnt at his very best.

Nigel had a good game again and had an important role as the team was in serious attacking mode again.

Longball wrote:did i miss something? didnt put in one challenge today, passed sideways or backwards

Apart from put zabba through on goal with a great ball and plenty of tackles,no.

Douglas Higginbottom wrote:Seems to me a player only has to make the odd "key" pass wrong and that determines to the fans whether he had a great game or not.With the emphasis on great game as it seems that players only have a great game or are totally horse shit.

I recall more than one poor pass from Barry yesterday but I also noted that he helped on Silva's early corner which maybe should have given us a first goal and he was also the player who got back to block that Wilbraham shot when it was 2.1.He was available and linking play well as he usually does.Barry had a decent game but wasnt at his very best.

Nigel had a good game again and had an important role as the team was in serious attacking mode again.

Barry's passing stats for the game are very similar to Niges.


An intersting stat is the fact that Tevez completed 50 passes out of 57. 7 more successful passes than David Silva & twice as many as Aguero. For a guy who gets a hat trick & isn't actualy a midfielder that is phenomenal. The help he is giving to the whole midfield is on another planet to Mario or Dzeko.

When you compare that to 89 mins of Balotelli v Arsenal (10 passes completed out of 18) it makes it pretty obvious the difference he could have made if given half an hour in that game.