aaron bond wrote:Vinnie and Lescott.
Lescott's form was better than Kompany's last season, but for some reason he gets a raw deal from many.
Nastasic is good cover and is a useful squad player. I'd love him to become the world class player so many on here seem to think he'll become but he hasn't done anything to demonstrate that he could achieve that thus far. If you compare Richards and Nastasic at the same age, Richards was in a different league. Richards was having stand-out games for us back then, and Nastasic hasn't done that yet. Furthermore, people outside of City were regularly talking about Richards as his ability was noticed by a wide range of people. Very few outside of City (and the Balkans) will know anything about Nastasic because his performances have not been at a level good enough to warrant that sort of attention. I know he's only 19 and has time on his side, but a future 'world class' player would have shown some glimpses already.
The reason Micah stood out so much was the sheer size of the lad when he first hit the scene, his athletic ability is/was immense, he is also English and as we all know we like to hype up English talent on a ridiculous scale. There were major flaws in his game from an early age, his positional sense was practically non-existent, thankfully his ability to recover position was good, he's also prone to rash challenges. These problems still exist in his game today but since Mancini arrived ( yep that's right he did improve him believe it or not ) these flaws have been improved on.
Nastasic is a quality young centre back, he has a subtlety to his game that reminds me of Carvalho. The fact that he's already nailed downs a starting berth in the Serbian national team at 19 is testament to that. Yes he still has flaws naturally, he is still learning the game after all.
I, with a heavy heart, went with Kompany/Nastasic pairing as they are more suited to the type of high defensive line we employ, a heavy heart because I admire Lescott not only as a footballer but he seems a really top bloke too.