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This has been mentioned in lot of topics over recent months (AJ, Dzeko, Balotelli, Milner, De Jong, Micah) to name few. There were only handfull of players who were guaranteed a start when available for selection. Those were basically Hart, Kompany, YaYa, Silva, Aguero. Those also happen to be our best players no matter which way you look at it. Rest of the places were up for competition.

Now the point I'm trying to make here is that while lot of these players seem to be unhappy with the amount of chances they got, they still managed to get quite a few appearances under their belt. Let's look at some of those names:

Adam Johnson - 38 games
Edin Dzeko - 40 games
Mario Balotelli - 32 games (remember suspensions here)
James Milner - 35 games
Nigel De Jong - 29 games
Micah Richards - 31 games
Pablo Zabaleta - 32 games

It's not like these players just sat on their arses. Every single one of them played important role in our season and every single one of them were more than worthy of their winners medal.

Now I understand players want to start every game, I wouldn't have it any other way, but this is the way it works in top clubs. And that means EVERY top club. Football these days is such demanding game that apart from goalkeepers and few superfit centerbacks no player will be able to start over 90% of games and be fresh. On the other hand, we NEED these players when injuries, suspensions, lack of form etc hit us.

Take Richards - Zabaleta combo for example. I think I witnessed best rightback play I've ever seen from those two players during the season. They both started respectable amount of games and both had fantastic peaks during the season which were elemental for our league triumph. They are both also superfit players who COULD have started just about every game. This was actually second most games Micah got during a season? He played 47 games during 08/09 season.....and mostly sucked balls then. That's just too many games for fullback who is constantly asked to overlap and otherwise play physical football.

Good thread, I like it.

Surprised at AJ's tally. Is that counting sub appearances?

If so its not quite as impressive in his case as most of them were 10-15 min cameos.

Pretty Boy Lee wrote:Good thread, I like it.

Surprised at AJ's tally. Is that counting sub appearances?

If so its not quite as impressive in his case as most of them were 10-15 min cameos.

It is counting sub appearances but the way I see it, every time you are on the pitch you are contributing for that individual game.

Now put it into minutes on the pitch you lazy bastid...that gives a clearer picture to see if their whinging is justified..I think AJ and Dzeko had quite a few last 15 mins or so of the game to do something.

Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:
It is counting sub appearances but the way I see it, every time you are on the pitch you are contributing for that individual game.

I'm not saying they didn't contribute, but if his :8 games was say 15 starts and the rest late cameos its a completely different story.

I quite like the way you used "league triumph" there :)

carl_feedthegoat wrote:Now put it into minutes on the pitch you lazy bastid...that gives a clearer picture to see if their whinging is justified..I think AJ and Dzeko had quite a few last 15 mins or so of the game to do something.

I think at least 8 of Dzeko's were after the 85-minute mark, 3 of them being in the 89th minute or later.

AJ had about 6 after the 85 minute mark, I reckon.