Blend.

[Ted Hughes]

I did a thread a while back about slow defenders & a high line not working. Last night we saw some of that, but even more problems.

We saw how slow defenders plus slow, clueless, def mid= potential disaster when used in an all out attacking team & a big half arsed lump up front takes away the 'out' ball when the oppo press our penalty area. We never stood a chance v Bayern, with Dzeko upfront.

Plzen showed us that; when they pressed Joe Hart, as Bayern did, if he doesn't kick it into the stand & Micah wins a header, the move still ends with Dzeko giving the oppo the ball.

I don't know what the Count's short term mission is; whether he has been told to do what it takes to change our way of playing or to win stuff as a priority whilst gradually changing, but definitely & obviously, we are changing over to a more open, attacking style & it's a club thing, not a one manager thing. If the Count was sacked tomorrow, the next bloke will be told to attack; it's how we will play.

Bayern showed how we have a hurdle to overcome, irrespective of which players are picked, but imo, last night showed how much we lack pace as a squad throughout the backline options, & how we need pace (& possibly numbers sometimes) in front of them, to cover it, NOT GARCIA. Then Dzeko, in such a game, is an absolute liability. We need the front men to get on the ball & keep it. He can't.

Obviously it will take time to learn all the stuff we are trying to do, but imo it simply won't work to the highest level with the blend of players we have. We have to make some changes to the squad if we are to play this way imo, or we have to go more 'Mancini' or Mourinho style to cover it. We can't be stranded somewhere in the middle.

One slow fucker, perhaps two, behind a team of attack minded grafters is possible. Four or five moderate paced/slow players in an attacking team with forwards who don't 'track back' ? In the Champs Lg ? Nah.

Thoughts ?

[Sister of fu]

It looked shocking last night when Demichaels comes haring out claiming offside and everyone else was stood behind him. Very school boy and very basic. We have serious issues if we can’t get the basic aspects of defending sorted like all stepping up together as a unit. Will give them the slight benefit that the back line is forever chopping and changing from one game to the next so no partnerships are forming. This does need to be addressed ASAP though as better teams will take advantage.

[Hazy2]

Ted, before I comment, thanks for starting threads like this. I watched from the Colin Bell last night, Both James Milner and Micah looked rusty to be fair to them, however as a combo I can see your points on Blend, both have nothing this City , and for me they are never going to move us forward, they lack a touch they lack a pass, sad to say Micah is still that raw all power 18yr old. Milner sorry to say he is a great lad but nothing more than a worker. Bardsley scoring that side with these two plus last night sorry for all fans of the players they are old City against poor opos. Last year Milner had Nasri in his sights, this year Nasri looks 3 levels above him.

[Ted Hughes]

It looked shocking last night when Demichaels comes haring out claiming offside and everyone else was stood behind him. Very school boy and very basic. We have serious issues if we can’t get the basic aspects of defending sorted like all stepping up together as a unit. Will give them the slight benefit that the back line is forever chopping and changing from one game to the next so no partnerships are forming. This does need to be addressed ASAP though as better teams will take advantage.

I agree with all of that but I think, even if we get that part right, Demichelis was also charging out to try & fix other people's problems because he saw Kolarov Garcia etc totally going missing & thoght he needed to dive in. Lescott also tried coming out to do that & against quick players, both of them are 2nd favourite, but so would Vinny/Nasty be 1v1. We don't want our cbs in that situation, but if they are going to be, we need cbs who are 2 yards quicker & can jockey quick players rather than having to make a block tackle. We ended up with people charging out & getting skinned, left centrebacks on the right, rcbs on the left, two players going for the same ball but nobody marking the bloke who takes the shot, etc etc.

Get that part sorted & they can concentrate work on the offsides & high line etc, but if we are going to play this way, imo we can't sort that without pace, both in defence & defensive mid. One bloke who can sprint takes out half the team.

[Ted Hughes]

Ted, before I comment, thanks for starting threads like this. I watched from the Colin Bell last night, Both James Milner and Micah looked rusty to be fair to them, however as a combo I can see your points on Blend, both have nothing this City , and for me they are never going to move us forward, they lack a touch they lack a pass, sad to say Micah is still that raw all power 18yr old. Milner sorry to say he is a great lad but nothing more than a worker. Bardsley scoring that side with these two plus last night sorry for all fans of the players they are old City against poor opos. Last year Milner had Nasri in his sights, this year Nasri looks 3 levels above him.

Big opportunity missed to play Milner centre mid with Fernandinho imo. We need to find a midfield 3 to play v teams like Bayern I recon. Ideal chance to try it.

We got Garcia instead.

[Foreverinbluedreams]

Ted, before I comment, thanks for starting threads like this. I watched from the Colin Bell last night, Both James Milner and Micah looked rusty to be fair to them, however as a combo I can see your points on Blend, both have nothing this City , and for me they are never going to move us forward, they lack a touch they lack a pass, sad to say Micah is still that raw all power 18yr old. Milner sorry to say he is a great lad but nothing more than a worker. Bardsley scoring that side with these two plus last night sorry for all fans of the players they are old City against poor opos. Last year Milner had Nasri in his sights, this year Nasri looks 3 levels above him.

Funny, it was the left hand side that looked exposed to me first half, when Milner went left second half that vulnerability was adressed somewhat. I do accept that Milner is lacking in quality though, although that was a sweet cross for Dzekchair's header.

@Ted, can't argue with any of the points you made. The defensive five are all decent players in their own right but as a unit they are painfully slow and a counter attacking side's wet dream.

[Twobob]

Be a quicker response than the OP deserves i'm afraid. Great thread again Ted, something thought provoking.

I noticed several times last night that Martin D rushed forward to defend into the huge hole in midfield, initial thoughts are 'what the fuck is he doing - again!?'

However he had to, the gap was there in midfield as there was no one covering in front of the back four, in positions where typically Barry would have sat back in anticipating their break.

We've had to do that before so it's nothing new as its pulled Lescott and Nasti out of position too.

I noticed several timed that the back four where not working together, MD was trying to pull us forward in a line but too many times Richards was dawdling and the line was more of a wave. I seriously get the impression that the amount of prep and hard work needed to get a back for in unison is either not there, with very little planning or the players involved are leaving their brains in the changing room.

With regards to Richards, he seems to have regressed 4 years where he seed almost unaware of what was happening around him, at Sunderland for their goal he was wandering somewhere and last night seemed to be out of touch tactically (from a defensive perspective). Now i Know he's a better player than that as do most of us so have to simply put it down to lack of game time due to injury etc affecting him more than others.

I totally agree with the sentiments about Milner playing centrally - he should now be the one taking on that Barry role we're clearly missing. Garcia is a waste of space and actually looked lethargic yesterday. What Milner is missing in flair he more than makes up for in worth ethic, positional sense and all-round play - skills that add Balance to the team - we cant win anything with a team of David Silva's. He's one of our most important players in the squad who should feature ahead of Garcia every time!

I'm going to have to leave it there for now, this is as I see it so may be slightly warped from reality :-)

[Hazy2]

Ted, before I comment, thanks for starting threads like this. I watched from the Colin Bell last night, Both James Milner and Micah looked rusty to be fair to them, however as a combo I can see your points on Blend, both have nothing this City , and for me they are never going to move us forward, they lack a touch they lack a pass, sad to say Micah is still that raw all power 18yr old. Milner sorry to say he is a great lad but nothing more than a worker. Bardsley scoring that side with these two plus last night sorry for all fans of the players they are old City against poor opos. Last year Milner had Nasri in his sights, this year Nasri looks 3 levels above him.

Funny, it was the left hand side that looked exposed to me first half, when Milner went left second half that vulnerability was adressed somewhat. I do accept that Milner is lacking in quality though, although that was a sweet cross for Dzekchair's header.

@Ted, can't argue with any of the points you made. The defensive five are all decent players in their own right but as a unit they are painfully slow and a counter attacking side's wet dream.

Buzz word with coaches is Transition, when a team turns over possesion like we do with Edin, in the team the setup is to be able to cope with this, Bayern and most top teams look to this to Counter attack from midway in there half we look like the Dog and Duck FC. We have more problems than that as we see on the road, where teams look to exploite 1 maybe 2 oportunities and we have the ball for 75 mins creating nothing. It will all boil down to players and we have a great squad for the league and weaknesses that top Euopean teams like with England expose. We also lack a leader at the back, defending with heart not brains at times. Vinny, Zabba are included in that, Pelli could have used Bayern as that tester but with Arsenal a few days later it will be a defeat for a scratch team.

[Foreverinbluedreams]

Be a quicker response than the OP deserves i'm afraid. Great thread again Ted, something thought provoking.

I noticed several times last night that Martin D rushed forward to defend into the huge hole in midfield, initial thoughts are 'what the fuck is he doing - again!?'

However he had to, the gap was there in midfield as there was no one covering in front of the back four, in positions where typically Barry would have sat back in anticipating their break.

We've had to do that before so it's nothing new as its pulled Lescott and Nasti out of position too.

I noticed several timed that the back four where not working together, MD was trying to pull us forward in a line but too many times Richards was dawdling and the line was more of a wave. I seriously get the impression that the amount of prep and hard work needed to get a back for in unison is either not there, with very little planning or the players involved are leaving their brains in the changing room.

With regards to Richards, he seems to have regressed 4 years where he seed almost unaware of what was happening around him, at Sunderland for their goal he was wandering somewhere and last night seemed to be out of touch tactically (from a defensive perspective). Now i Know he's a better player than that as do most of us so have to simply put it down to lack of game time due to injury etc affecting him more than others.

I totally agree with the sentiments about Milner playing centrally - he should now be the one taking on that Barry role we're clearly missing. Garcia is a waste of space and actually looked lethargic yesterday. What Milner is missing in flair he more than makes up for in worth ethic, positional sense and all-round play - skills that add Balance to the team - we cant win anything with a team of David Silva's. He's one of our most important players in the squad who should feature ahead of Garcia every time!

I'm going to have to leave it there for now, this is as I see it so may be slightly warped from reality :-)

I agree with most of what you've said but I have to take issue with a couple of things.

First up Richards, don't take this as a general defence of his performances because it's not, he has been well below par in the limited game time he has got since his return from injury but I have to take issue with the finger pointing over Sunderland's goal, I know Micah's positional sense is one of his biggest flaws but on this occasion he was doing exactly what he should be doing. He was marking Johnson, who had dropped deep, meanwhile Bardsley made a run up our right side which Milner ( his man ) tracked, now tell me what is Micah meant to do? Should he leave Johnson free and double up on Phil Bardsley or should he let Milner deal with it and not let Johnson out of his sight? If you look at the replay again you will see Micah at the edge of our box when the goal goes in and he's goal side of Johnson who had burst forward to support Bardsley.

Second thing is Milner in the centre doing the mopping up, I've seen/heard quite a few suggesting Milner would be ideal in this role but what I want to know is what are people basing this on? Has he ever played this role? I've seen him play brilliantly in the centre of the park but that was in a more advanced role where we have Silva and/or Nasri but I've never seen him in a more defensive minded midfield role.

[Ted Hughes]

Be a quicker response than the OP deserves i'm afraid. Great thread again Ted, something thought provoking.

I noticed several times last night that Martin D rushed forward to defend into the huge hole in midfield, initial thoughts are 'what the fuck is he doing - again!?'

However he had to, the gap was there in midfield as there was no one covering in front of the back four, in positions where typically Barry would have sat back in anticipating their break.

We've had to do that before so it's nothing new as its pulled Lescott and Nasti out of position too.

I noticed several timed that the back four where not working together, MD was trying to pull us forward in a line but too many times Richards was dawdling and the line was more of a wave. I seriously get the impression that the amount of prep and hard work needed to get a back for in unison is either not there, with very little planning or the players involved are leaving their brains in the changing room.

With regards to Richards, he seems to have regressed 4 years where he seed almost unaware of what was happening around him, at Sunderland for their goal he was wandering somewhere and last night seemed to be out of touch tactically (from a defensive perspective). Now i Know he's a better player than that as do most of us so have to simply put it down to lack of game time due to injury etc affecting him more than others.

I totally agree with the sentiments about Milner playing centrally - he should now be the one taking on that Barry role we're clearly missing. Garcia is a waste of space and actually looked lethargic yesterday. What Milner is missing in flair he more than makes up for in worth ethic, positional sense and all-round play - skills that add Balance to the team - we cant win anything with a team of David Silva's. He's one of our most important players in the squad who should feature ahead of Garcia every time!

I'm going to have to leave it there for now, this is as I see it so may be slightly warped from reality :-)

I agree with most of what you've said but I have to take issue with a couple of things.

First up Richards, don't take this as a general defence of his performances because it's not, he has been well below par in the limited game time he has got since his return from injury but I have to take issue with the finger pointing over Sunderland's goal, I know Micah's positional sense is one of his biggest flaws but on this occasion he was doing exactly what he should be doing. He was marking Johnson, who had dropped deep, meanwhile Bardsley made a run up our right side which Milner ( his man ) tracked, now tell me what is Micah meant to do? Should he leave Johnson free and double up on Phil Bardsley or should he let Milner deal with it and not let Johnson out of his sight? If you look at the replay again you will see Micah at the edge of our box when the goal goes in and he's goal side of Johnson who had burst forward to support Bardsley.

Second thing is Milner in the centre doing the mopping up, I've seen/heard quite a few suggesting Milner would be ideal in this role but what I want to know is what are people basing this on? Has he ever played this role? I've seen him play brilliantly in the centre of the park but that was in a more advanced role where we have Silva and/or Nasri but I've never seen him in a more defensive minded midfield role.

Last night would have been a pretty good time to find out.

Because of the urge to play Garcia, we learned very little positive information about the squad & achieved nothing new tactically.

But does he have to 'pick up' on his own anyway ? What about Milner, Fernandinho, Yaya as a 3 man, tight central midfield, rotating positions, for an experiment, then say Nasri Navas (Silva) making it into a five, potentially for away games in C League ?

We could have tried that for 45 with Dzeko upfront as an added handicap, to put pressure on it, & see how it coped at both ends of the pitch.

[Hazy2]

Be a quicker response than the OP deserves i'm afraid. Great thread again Ted, something thought provoking.

I noticed several times last night that Martin D rushed forward to defend into the huge hole in midfield, initial thoughts are 'what the fuck is he doing - again!?'

However he had to, the gap was there in midfield as there was no one covering in front of the back four, in positions where typically Barry would have sat back in anticipating their break.

We've had to do that before so it's nothing new as its pulled Lescott and Nasti out of position too.

I noticed several timed that the back four where not working together, MD was trying to pull us forward in a line but too many times Richards was dawdling and the line was more of a wave. I seriously get the impression that the amount of prep and hard work needed to get a back for in unison is either not there, with very little planning or the players involved are leaving their brains in the changing room.

With regards to Richards, he seems to have regressed 4 years where he seed almost unaware of what was happening around him, at Sunderland for their goal he was wandering somewhere and last night seemed to be out of touch tactically (from a defensive perspective). Now i Know he's a better player than that as do most of us so have to simply put it down to lack of game time due to injury etc affecting him more than others.

I totally agree with the sentiments about Milner playing centrally - he should now be the one taking on that Barry role we're clearly missing. Garcia is a waste of space and actually looked lethargic yesterday. What Milner is missing in flair he more than makes up for in worth ethic, positional sense and all-round play - skills that add Balance to the team - we cant win anything with a team of David Silva's. He's one of our most important players in the squad who should feature ahead of Garcia every time!

I'm going to have to leave it there for now, this is as I see it so may be slightly warped from reality :-)

I agree with most of what you've said but I have to take issue with a couple of things.

First up Richards, don't take this as a general defence of his performances because it's not, he has been well below par in the limited game time he has got since his return from injury but I have to take issue with the finger pointing over Sunderland's goal, I know Micah's positional sense is one of his biggest flaws but on this occasion he was doing exactly what he should be doing. He was marking Johnson, who had dropped deep, meanwhile Bardsley made a run up our right side which Milner ( his man ) tracked, now tell me what is Micah meant to do? Should he leave Johnson free and double up on Phil Bardsley or should he let Milner deal with it and not let Johnson out of his sight? If you look at the replay again you will see Micah at the edge of our box when the goal goes in and he's goal side of Johnson who had burst forward to support Bardsley.

Second thing is Milner in the centre doing the mopping up, I've seen/heard quite a few suggesting Milner would be ideal in this role but what I want to know is what are people basing this on? Has he ever played this role? I've seen him play brilliantly in the centre of the park but that was in a more advanced role where we have Silva and/or Nasri but I've never seen him in a more defensive minded midfield role.

Last night would have been a pretty good time to find out.

Because of the urge to play Garcia, we learned very little positive information about the squad & achieved nothing new tactically.

But does he have to 'pick up' on his own anyway ? What about Milner, Fernandinho, Yaya as a 3 man, tight central midfield, rotating positions, for an experiment, then say Nasri Navas (Silva) making it into a five, potentially for away games in C League ?

We could have tried that for 45 with Dzeko upfront as an added handicap, to put pressure on it, & see how it coped at both ends of the pitch.

Richards is in need of games taht is fair, I just do not see him as the right back or back up central defender. He has just for me never improved, Raw Powe, same as Milner, model pro who lacks the quality needed every week for us, 1st half Wed was so bad from them my mate said we must have EDS players with more ability than the two them.

[Foreverinbluedreams]

Be a quicker response than the OP deserves i'm afraid. Great thread again Ted, something thought provoking.

I noticed several times last night that Martin D rushed forward to defend into the huge hole in midfield, initial thoughts are 'what the fuck is he doing - again!?'

However he had to, the gap was there in midfield as there was no one covering in front of the back four, in positions where typically Barry would have sat back in anticipating their break.

We've had to do that before so it's nothing new as its pulled Lescott and Nasti out of position too.

I noticed several timed that the back four where not working together, MD was trying to pull us forward in a line but too many times Richards was dawdling and the line was more of a wave. I seriously get the impression that the amount of prep and hard work needed to get a back for in unison is either not there, with very little planning or the players involved are leaving their brains in the changing room.

With regards to Richards, he seems to have regressed 4 years where he seed almost unaware of what was happening around him, at Sunderland for their goal he was wandering somewhere and last night seemed to be out of touch tactically (from a defensive perspective). Now i Know he's a better player than that as do most of us so have to simply put it down to lack of game time due to injury etc affecting him more than others.

I totally agree with the sentiments about Milner playing centrally - he should now be the one taking on that Barry role we're clearly missing. Garcia is a waste of space and actually looked lethargic yesterday. What Milner is missing in flair he more than makes up for in worth ethic, positional sense and all-round play - skills that add Balance to the team - we cant win anything with a team of David Silva's. He's one of our most important players in the squad who should feature ahead of Garcia every time!

I'm going to have to leave it there for now, this is as I see it so may be slightly warped from reality :-)

I agree with most of what you've said but I have to take issue with a couple of things.

First up Richards, don't take this as a general defence of his performances because it's not, he has been well below par in the limited game time he has got since his return from injury but I have to take issue with the finger pointing over Sunderland's goal, I know Micah's positional sense is one of his biggest flaws but on this occasion he was doing exactly what he should be doing. He was marking Johnson, who had dropped deep, meanwhile Bardsley made a run up our right side which Milner ( his man ) tracked, now tell me what is Micah meant to do? Should he leave Johnson free and double up on Phil Bardsley or should he let Milner deal with it and not let Johnson out of his sight? If you look at the replay again you will see Micah at the edge of our box when the goal goes in and he's goal side of Johnson who had burst forward to support Bardsley.

Second thing is Milner in the centre doing the mopping up, I've seen/heard quite a few suggesting Milner would be ideal in this role but what I want to know is what are people basing this on? Has he ever played this role? I've seen him play brilliantly in the centre of the park but that was in a more advanced role where we have Silva and/or Nasri but I've never seen him in a more defensive minded midfield role.

Last night would have been a pretty good time to find out.

Because of the urge to play Garcia, we learned very little positive information about the squad & achieved nothing new tactically.

But does he have to 'pick up' on his own anyway ? What about Milner, Fernandinho, Yaya as a 3 man, tight central midfield, rotating positions, for an experiment, then say Nasri Navas (Silva) making it into a five, potentially for away games in C League ?

We could have tried that for 45 with Dzeko upfront as an added handicap, to put pressure on it, & see how it coped at both ends of the pitch.

Richards is in need of games taht is fair, I just do not see him as the right back or back up central defender. He has just for me never improved, Raw Powe, same as Milner, model pro who lacks the quality needed every week for us, 1st half Wed was so bad from them my mate said we must have EDS players with more ability than the two them.

I'm hearing this quite a bit recently and it just doesn't ring true for me. From the moment Mancini arrived to Micah picking up that knee injury at the beginning of last season the improvement in his game was huge. Gone was the tendency to stroll back into position, his rampaging runs were very frequent and effective and the partnership he built with Milner in that title winning season was brilliant, our right side was rock solid and always provided a threat to the opposition. Mancini had him well drilled.

That said, in the limited time he's had since his return from injury he has looked like the old Micah that struggled for form under Sparkless. I hope he turns it around because as he showed in that title winning season when he's on top of his game he's one of the best right backs in the country. The only problem is it doesn't look likely that he'll get that run of games to find his form again unless god forbid Zaba was to get injured.

[Dameerto]

Before he became injured he was the best rightback in the league, though Zabba wasn't far behind at that point.

[sheblue]

the game away in Bayern will tell us a bit about how things are changing.

[mcfc1632]

Ted - great thread and thought provoking - but on a train so not able to respond to your key points.

Do not want to distract but I must take issue with your taking issue with:"

"but I have to take issue with the finger pointing over Sunderland's goal, I know Micah's positional sense is one of his biggest flaws but on this occasion he was doing exactly what he should be doing. He was marking Johnson, who had dropped deep, meanwhile Bardsley made a run up our right side which Milner ( his man ) tracked, now tell me what is Micah meant to do? "

I do not think that he was marking anyone - the fact that Johnson was vaguely within 5 yards at that time does not = marking. If that was marking - on that basis in that game at various times Micah was probably marking all 11 players, some of ours and a few people in the crowd.

He is lacking any football brain at the moment - IMO.

Anyway - do not want to distract from an excellent thread

[Foreverinbluedreams]

Ted - great thread and thought provoking - but on a train so not able to respond to your key points.

Do not want to distract but I must take issue with your taking issue with:"

"but I have to take issue with the finger pointing over Sunderland's goal, I know Micah's positional sense is one of his biggest flaws but on this occasion he was doing exactly what he should be doing. He was marking Johnson, who had dropped deep, meanwhile Bardsley made a run up our right side which Milner ( his man ) tracked, now tell me what is Micah meant to do? "

I do not think that he was marking anyone - the fact that Johnson was vaguely within 5 yards at that time does not = marking. If that was marking - on that basis in that game at various times Micah was probably marking all 11 players, some of ours and a few people in the crowd.

He is lacking any football brain at the moment - IMO.

Anyway - do not want to distract from an excellent thread

You're right about not wanting to detract from this thread so I'll post a question to you in the Micah thread.

[getdressedmctavish]

As I said on the day, this is the one aspect where Pellers is completely fucking up.However, with a day to cool down one can usefully ask"if every man and his dog can see Milner for Garcia, is it possible Pellers can't?"why does he persist.? Has he had a look at Milner at DM in training and decided it don't work. Does Garcia train brilliantly. This latter is possible because Doug always rated him on what he saw on the training field. The worry is that the Count is just blind to this. He gave Nasri short shrift for telling him what was required. At 2-1 that was the time to go to a five and try some options, ie getting behind the ball and moving up as a unit. The most alarming thing about Garcia's awfulness on Weds was the number of times I saw him running towards our goal. Did he make on key interception v a team of mugs? Imagine Bayern, RM, Barcelona....it doesn't bare thinking about.as for Edin, an absolutely disgraceful display but one we have seen many times. I doubt he'll ever start a game for us again other than the league cup and he shouldn't start that.

[Blue Since 76]

I can accept Wednesday as there was little to play for and in the team selection, it was clear that we weren't that bothered.

However, some of the issues from Wednesday have been there all season, including against Spurs. Yaya offers very little defensive cover and Fernandinho is not a Barry or de Jong. He's trying, but I'm not sure just sitting is his thing and trying to get involved pulls him out of position. Spurs looked the better side for much of the period before we scored our second and the defence was exposed a number of times again, but fortunately they're poor up front.

With Aguero and Negredo, we get away with a lot due to their work rate, but we could be in trouble if anything happens to either of them - we saw what Aguero and Dzeko can do together on Wednesday and against Bayern.

On the grounds we're not going to drop Fernandinho or Yaya and the system is unlikely to change, the defence is going to be busy for the rest of the season.

[zuricity]

As I said on the day, this is the one aspect where Pellers is completely fucking up.However, with a day to cool down one can usefully ask"if every man and his dog can see Milner for Garcia, is it possible Pellers can't?"why does he persist.? Has he had a look at Milner at DM in training and decided it don't work. Does Garcia train brilliantly. This latter is possible because Doug always rated him on what he saw on the training field. The worry is that the Count is just blind to this. He gave Nasri short shrift for telling him what was required. At 2-1 that was the time to go to a five and try some options, ie getting behind the ball and moving up as a unit. The most alarming thing about Garcia's awfulness on Weds was the number of times I saw him running towards our goal. Did he make on key interception v a team of mugs? Imagine Bayern, RM, Barcelona....it doesn't bare thinking about.as for Edin, an absolutely disgraceful display but one we have seen many times. I doubt he'll ever start a game for us again other than the league cup and he shouldn't start that.

To refer to the plsen team as a team of 'mugs' is highly disrespectful. The rest isn't worth commenting on. It was a dead game , we are going through the motions , building up to a very important winter. No injuries, do enough to win. Leave it at that.

EDIT:

Garcia is not as bad as people on this website try to make out.

[Pretty Boy Lee]

To refer to the plsen team as a team of 'mugs' is highly disrespectful. The rest isn't worth commenting on. It was a dead game , we are going through the motions , building up to a very important winter. No injuries, do enough to win. Leave it at that. EDIT: Garcia is not as bad as people on this website try to make out.

I agree, he's worse.