Joleon

[Cocacolajojo1]

I thought he had very very little to do, at all, in 90 mins.

When called upon to do that little bit, he was absolutely useless, not just a little bit off, but truly & completely shit awful & considerably worse than Demichelis.

That's just unfair. The last minute clearance for example when he was racing towards his own goal was a very good one. I'm not saying he did it better than anyone else would have but it wasn't "absolutely useless".

And he's a better passer than Lescott, despite not being Bobby Moore. Lescott isn't that bad at passing but Nastasic is better.

[Pretty Boy Lee]

That's just unfair. The last minute clearance for example when he was racing towards his own goal was a very good one. I'm not saying he did it better than anyone else would have but it wasn't "absolutely useless". And he's a better passer than Lescott, despite not being Bobby Moore. Lescott isn't that bad at passing but Nastasic is better.

Problem is lescotts lack of flair passing will cost us less goals than nastasic's inability to defend one on one or long balls.

Was nastasic passing so good it set up counter attack and goals id understand.

[Cocacolajojo1]

That's just unfair. The last minute clearance for example when he was racing towards his own goal was a very good one. I'm not saying he did it better than anyone else would have but it wasn't "absolutely useless". And he's a better passer than Lescott, despite not being Bobby Moore. Lescott isn't that bad at passing but Nastasic is better.

Problem is lescotts lack of flair passing will cost us less goals than nastasic's inability to defend one on one or long balls.

Was nastasic passing so good it set up counter attack and goals id understand.

You'll have no argument from me there and if your read my post, I wasn't saying anything about whether we should pick Nasty or Lescott. I just think it's a bit much to say that Nastasic was completely useless (or something to that effect, Ted's post was just the one I chose for quoting, could have gone with several other ones as well) when he wasn't.

[Ted Hughes]

I thought he had very very little to do, at all, in 90 mins.

When called upon to do that little bit, he was absolutely useless, not just a little bit off, but truly & completely shit awful & considerably worse than Demichelis.

That's just unfair. The last minute clearance for example when he was racing towards his own goal was a very good one. I'm not saying he did it better than anyone else would have but it wasn't "absolutely useless".

And he's a better passer than Lescott, despite not being Bobby Moore. Lescott isn't that bad at passing but Nastasic is better.

The key is 'he didn't do it better than anyone else' as in, anything he does, Phil Jones can do just as well & faster, but we take the piss out of Phil Jones because he fucks up, same with Smalling, Johnny Evans etc. He would not get a game ahead of any of them if he was at OT. Likewise, he wouldn't get a game ahead of Wes Brown or John O'Shea, for Sunderland. He doesn't defend enough to merit it.

All of these blokes, whilst dodgy & shit, have turned in backs to the wall, match saving, performances at times. Nastasic is just 'there' next to somebody. When he does ANYTHING of note, someone remarks on it & goes 'look what he did there' because it's an event. Most of the time, he is neither passing well marking well or defending well, he is just 'on the pitch'.

If Sunderland had played City with Nastasic instead of Wes Brown, we would have won without getting out of 3rd gear.

He does fuck all, hardly ever, to merit being given a shirt & wouldn't be first choice in most Prem teams. It's only because we are so good, that we can have somebody so nondescript at cb & not get hammered.

And yes he is a better passer than Lescott, marginally, but he doesn't actually do it better than Lescott.

[Cocacolajojo1]

I thought he had very very little to do, at all, in 90 mins.

When called upon to do that little bit, he was absolutely useless, not just a little bit off, but truly & completely shit awful & considerably worse than Demichelis.

That's just unfair. The last minute clearance for example when he was racing towards his own goal was a very good one. I'm not saying he did it better than anyone else would have but it wasn't "absolutely useless".

And he's a better passer than Lescott, despite not being Bobby Moore. Lescott isn't that bad at passing but Nastasic is better.

The key is 'he didn't do it better than anyone else' as in, anything he does, Phil Jones can do just as well & faster, but we take the piss out of Phil Jones because he fucks up, same with Smalling, Johnny Evans etc. He would not get a game ahead of any of them if he was at OT. Likewise, he wouldn't get a game ahead of Wes Brown or John O'Shea, for Sunderland. He doesn't defend enough to merit it.

All of these blokes, whilst dodgy & shit, have turned in backs to the wall, match saving, performances at times. Nastasic is just 'there' next to somebody. When he does ANYTHING of note, someone remarks on it & goes 'look what he did there' because it's an event. Most of the time, he is neither passing well marking well or defending well, he is just 'on the pitch'.

If Sunderland had played City with Nastasic instead of Wes Brown, we would have won without getting out of 3rd gear.

He does fuck all, hardly ever, to merit being given a shirt & wouldn't be first choice in most Prem teams. It's only because we are so good, that we can have somebody so nondescript at cb & not get hammered.

And yes he is a better passer than Lescott, marginally, but he doesn't actually do it better than Lescott.

Well yeah, perhaps. I don't know Wes Brown well enough to say that he's equally good as Nasty but I get your point.

As for the marginally better passing, I disagree as I think it's significantly better, but I don't really have anything to add to the discussion though. I can't really prove my point as it's more of an impression. I will also add that though I think Nasty is a significantly better passer, I have no idea what it gives us in terms of ball retention or attacking quality. It could equally just be superficial, I.E. look good but not provide our team with any substantial gain in any form. And.... any gain would also have to be weighed against Lescott's superior defending skills.

[blues2win]

My worry about Nastasic is that he is only 20 but doesn't seem to be learning. He isn't bad in the air winning some good headers in the first half. Then in the second half the same mistake as against Chelsea. He let the ball bounce and got in a pickle. Against Chelsea Hart's fuck up meant he didn't get away with it. Kompany cleaned up behind him yesterday and he did. What are the coaches doing with him or is he incapable of progressing in which case he needs to be moved on. He certainly isn't good enough for first choice or second choice the way he's playing at the moment.