Micah Richards

[DoomMerchant]

"world class jogger" is going to stick i think...

amazing thread...and no i haven't seen the match, but i listened and watched highlights. I don't care what people "say" about Micah. He's a committed man...to City and our goals and he'll contribute 2nd half of the season i believe.

dicks.

[bigblue]

I don't think he is 'hands down the best right back in the league' Zab for one is better. Better defensively, better going forward and suits our passing game better.
That's not to belittle Micah who is still a top right back on his day but Zab has raised the bar and is now imo playing at a higher level then Micah has done.

Think back to Mancini's 1st full season. Micah was hands down the best RB in the league and 2x as much a threat going forward as Zabba is today. I love Zabba. He's never outworked, very intelligent, good touch, solid defending, and capable going forward.

But Micah at his best is a constant threat on every attack. Defenders could not stop him no matter how hard they tried. He was faster than them, twice as strong as them, and timed most of his runs perfectly to get in behind. Zabba is a very consistent and very good player who gives his all. Micah may not be as consistent, but when used properly, he can be more of an attacking threat than Zabba, Nasri, Kolarov, Milner, and even Garcia.

It's a shame that he has had such a problem with injuries. He's the only City youth player in our 1st team, a good deal younger than Zabba, a great player, and a very kind person. I don't get the hate for him in here; he is "Mr. City". One of our own and loves the clubs just as much as any fan. I hope he stays at City for his whole career.

[Herb]

[
But Micah at his best is a constant threat on every attack. Defenders could not stop him no matter how hard they tried. He was faster than them, twice as strong as them, and timed most of his runs perfectly to get in behind. Zabba is a very consistent and very good player who gives his all. Micah may not be as consistent, but when used properly, he can be more of an attacking threat than Zabba, Nasri, Kolarov, Milner, and even Garcia.

It's a shame that he has had such a problem with injuries. He's the only City youth player in our 1st team, a good deal younger than Zabba, a great player, and a very kind person. I don't get the hate for him in here; he is "Mr. City". One of our own and loves the clubs just as much as any fan. I hope he stays at City for his whole career.

Wow! And I thought that I had a blue tinted favourable memory!!!!

Yes he looked good going forwards in 2011/12 but we were less committed in attack under RM and had a defensive system that allowed for him being stranded upfield - he was never good at getting back and never clever off the ball but was loved as one of our own.
So, I love Micah like we all do and I hate to see a load of bickering over his suitability but he is simply the wrong physical shape to do the running he would need to do to cover the ground that Zab covers and that's why he's not good enough for us long-term.
I'm not going to go down the line of questioning his footballing intelligence, as other posters have, because I don't think that's really the issue as he simply cannot cover the ground he needs to cover so ends up miles out of position regardless of IQ or lack of it.

I do accept that he'll be better when match fit but he would need to lose circa 3 stone of that daft knucklehead muscle, that he's put so much effort into piling on over the last 4 years, before could keep pace with other fullbacks with more efficient physiques.
I'm not making this up and it isn't even a subject for debate because it's a physical fact that he's too fucking physically large to do his job and he can be as fit as he likes but that won't change the facts as a series of England managers have noted.

As a comparative example; even Yaya struggles at times because he's such a big physical unit that he gets bolloxed doing the honours from a central position. Micah carries much more bulk than Yaya and Micah's job is to do shuttle sprints from box to box all game - Micah has no chance.

I'm not having a pop at Micah for being so dumb as to bulk himself up for the sole purpose of self-adoration (nor for him being camel-gobs best mate), I'm not having a pop at the blue tints obscuring vision (I wear them sometimes too) but I am trying to introduce a bit of reality into this weird thread by nailing home the point that Micah has carefully developed himself into a shape that doesn't do him any favours at work.

[mcfc1632]

I would suggest that it is unfair to label posters that do not think that Micah is capable of playing at the level needed at CITY to be some sort of 'haters' or have some anti-Micah agenda.

I know that the only agenda I have is what is best for CITY and for us to go on and now have a glorious few years - fuck knows those that have been around for many years have had enough pain. So on that basis I want CITY to have players selected for their capability not for 'nostalgic' reasons. I have nothing against Micah - just do not think that he is a very good footballer and certainly not the new CITY level.

The blue-tinted view of Micah does seem strong. I hardly missed a match in the period under Mancini that people comment Micah was so impressive - and that totally confuses me. He was pretty poor overall during that period as well (IMO).

It must just be how peoples memories work - perhaps people can probably hold the memory of him bombing at pace down the wing - perhaps because that is a more stimulating memory than holding the image of him then most of the time achieving nothing once he got up to the opponents penalty area because he seemed to run out of ideas - and ffs has not got a cross in him. My memory can clearly see him after losing the ball meandering back at his own jogging pace - so slow that there could be 3 further phases of play as the other defenders try to fill the hole left and he still would not be back to help.

Noting against the lad - ffs CITY have been good to him making him a very rich man and I am please for him - just not good enough for CITY IMO - and I fully respect the rights of others to have different opinions

[Renato_CTID]

Poor Micah! Sad to watch his afterglow with a City shirt! It's time he leaves the club for me!

[Foreverinbluedreams]

If he's not good enough for City then why do you suppose it is that he was offered a new four year deal last summer? Surely it can't be for nostalgic reasons?

[mcfc1632]

If he's not good enough for City then why do you suppose it is that he was offered a new four year deal last summer? Surely it can't be for nostalgic reasons?

Good question - Maybe I have it wrong and he is good enough? - maybe the people that decide these things are pretty new to the club and all they had seen/heard of Micah was as an injured player but someone who was apparently previously very good, is loved by the fans and meets the need to have a number of home grown etc.

I wonder if there is any truth in the rumour that he has rejected a new contract because the 'rise' was not big enough - or did he sign? What will be interesting is if he has not yet signed will it still be available - or will Pellers look to bring someone else in? I am not sure Pellers rates him (of course he may be a big fan) as he does not seem to fit with the profile that Pellers likes.

Micah is not alone in being (in the eyes of some) not the right level for CITY - I can see a number of players being let go this coming summer. When you see what is happening with the 'CITY brand' you can be confident that the club executives will act to make sure that on-pitch success is pretty certain. I can see a couple of quality signings in the summer happening.

[bigblue]

I'm not having a pop at Micah for being so dumb as to bulk himself up for the sole purpose of self-adoration (nor for him being camel-gobs best mate), I'm not having a pop at the blue tints obscuring vision (I wear them sometimes too) but I am trying to introduce a bit of reality into this weird thread by nailing home the point that Micah has carefully developed himself into a shape that doesn't do him any favours at work.

I don't buy the argument that Micah is too bulky or overly built. There is no proof that his large muscles have caused his injury problems. You can be very flexible and durable while still being ripped. Until a coach, manager, or teammate actually says that Micah's build has caused his continued injuries, I'll look to more sensible explanations such as bad luck or that he's still growing. After all, he's been huge since he was 18 years old!

His strength is one of his biggest assets and every fullback doesn't have to fit into the Dani Alves/Ashley Cole model of super slim, small, and nimble. Just like how DMs (Yaya vs Makelele) or strikers (Beast vs Aguero) come in all shapes and sizes, so can all other positions. It's up to the coaching staff to put him in roles that utilize his strong points. And as long as we play with attacking fullbacks that practically act as wingers, Micah has the assets to play a big part in our team.

It seems like he's been around forever, because he has (almost 8 years of 1st team football). And it's been a tedious 2 years of injury niggles. But you have to remember that he's only 25 and should have a good 7 years of play left in him (4 more than Zabba by the way). Obviously at this point he'll never make the long hoped of move to CB. But he's well trained in our way of playing and has more than enough ability to step in. He's been very loyal to City and I hope City fans will show him the same courtesy.

[Herb]

I don't buy the argument that Micah is too bulky or overly built. There is no proof that his large muscles have caused his injury problems. You can be very flexible and durable while still being ripped. Until a coach, manager, or teammate actually says that Micah's build has caused his continued injuries, I'll look to more sensible explanations such as bad luck or that he's still growing. After all, he's been huge since he was 18 years old!

His strength is one of his biggest assets and every fullback doesn't have to fit into the Dani Alves/Ashley Cole model of super slim, small, and nimble. Just like how DMs (Yaya vs Makelele) or strikers (Beast vs Aguero) come in all shapes and sizes, so can all other positions. It's up to the coaching staff to put him in roles that utilize his strong points. And as long as we play with attacking fullbacks that practically act as wingers, Micah has the assets to play a big part in our team.

It seems like he's been around forever, because he has (almost 8 years of 1st team football). And it's been a tedious 2 years of injury niggles. But you have to remember that he's only 25 and should have a good 7 years of play left in him (4 more than Zabba by the way). Obviously at this point he'll never make the long hoped of move to CB. But he's well trained in our way of playing and has more than enough ability to step in. He's been very loyal to City and I hope City fans will show him the same courtesy.

Look, I've got a lot of respect for you Big Blue but I think you've failed to read my post and responded to something you read in your own head here.
What I actually said was that he carries too much mass to be physically able to do box to box shuttle runs as is required of a fullback under our current system of play. I didn't say that his injuries were due to his carefully crafted Popeye muscles - I don't think that and didn't even allude in that direction.
I also said that I think he'll be better than he has been in recent showings once he's up to match fitness - but that won't alter the fact that he's made himself too bulky to do the job he's employed to do at the level we need him to do it.

I must also lay out that I do think that he's a good footballer and I don't argue against the fact that we extended his contract - who the fuck wouldn't have done so? He's got to be worth somewhere between £8m and £10m in the market and he's ok as back up against weaker opposition so no way I'd have let his contract run down.
I think he'll be either part exchanged or sold outright in summer when we bring in a top class fullback of the right physique to play in our system and that he'll go on to play good football every week for a mid-table English club like stoke or similar where his attributes will be effective under their less demanding system of play.
Then we can all look back fondly on the many good things that Micah did for our team when we were at a lower level of performance and his efforts were generally positive for us in that scenario!

[dick dastardley]

He aint doing himself any favours not signing the deal on the table, hes injury prone not improved from a couple of season ago, and the longer we keep him the less hes worth.

[Crossie]

He's good but has never really got any better. The last time he was fully fit and playing he'd burst into the oppositions box, receive the ball and be so indecisive with what to do next that very often nothing came of it. Occasionally he'd bundle over a miss hit pull back or get a deflection that would look a bit like an assist, he even scored a few, but generally I always thought he was an good player finding himself in some excellent positions but not able to deliver world class results.

If he stays he'll easily get 25 games a season. If that's good enough for him then great I hope he stays.

[Im_Spartacus]

As much as I hate to admit it - I must be considered a Micah boo boy - and that makes me very disappointed in myself.

But he is simply never going to make it. The comparisons with Kolorov are actually quite helpful I think - yes people were on Kolorov's case and hugely frustrated - given a chance he has started to find some form - so the logic is - give Micah some game time and he will come good etc etc.

Point is though that people seem (IMO) to have some strange view of Micah's past record. I read posts about how good he was in our title winning season and before...... I hardly missed a game in those days and I can clearly remember being incandescently frustrated with his fucking cannot be arsed lazy attitude - I have posted many times on here in those days describing him as a world class fucking jogger!!

So yes- perhaps Kolorov is not the best defender - perhaps he is not as fast a Micah over 30m etc - but at least he fucking tries!! He can get outpaced but he is at least running at more or less his best pace. I have screamed at Micah to get back so many times. OK so he may not be able to get back to affect the direct attack that is ongoing because he is stranded up field (normally because he has bombed on and lost the ball through a total lack of skill / football brain) - but I have seen him so many times fail to get back to affect the 2nd or 3rd phase of an attack - his team mates must see him as a total liability, simply kept on to keep fans happy and because he is 'home grown'.

And in terms of adding to the team's capability though attacking skills - well I would not insult Kolorov by drawing any kind of comparison with Micah.

So yes - he had a few months when he seemed to have potential - seemed to be possibly something special perhaps - but fuck me that was for a very short time and very long time ago.

If we can get some team daft enough to pay £5m then we should offload without a second thought - I am all for loyalty but CITY have given a pretty average player a special position in life and have shown a lot of loyalty.

He has had plenty of time (IMO) to come good and all he has done is shown that he is less than Joe average - the fact that he comes out and makes statements about being good enough to go to Brazil shows that he has absolutely zero self-awareness.

His 'world class jogging' reached its peak against hamburg from what I remember, and then Hughes dropped him and he was pretty much banished till Mancini arrived, and he came on in leaps and bounds, to the extent that he was like a totally new player in the title season, and there was none of the half arsed jogging back - of course bob wouldn't have accepted that, hence the improvement.

I think he has it, it just needs coaxing out of him. Pearce seemed to do it, Hughes failed, Mancini succeeded, and he is coming back from injury under pellers. Even if he fails to improve, unfortunately it's likely he will always be kept around the place due to the required quotas.

[Foreverinbluedreams]

As much as I hate to admit it - I must be considered a Micah boo boy - and that makes me very disappointed in myself.

But he is simply never going to make it. The comparisons with Kolorov are actually quite helpful I think - yes people were on Kolorov's case and hugely frustrated - given a chance he has started to find some form - so the logic is - give Micah some game time and he will come good etc etc.

Point is though that people seem (IMO) to have some strange view of Micah's past record. I read posts about how good he was in our title winning season and before...... I hardly missed a game in those days and I can clearly remember being incandescently frustrated with his fucking cannot be arsed lazy attitude - I have posted many times on here in those days describing him as a world class fucking jogger!!

So yes- perhaps Kolorov is not the best defender - perhaps he is not as fast a Micah over 30m etc - but at least he fucking tries!! He can get outpaced but he is at least running at more or less his best pace. I have screamed at Micah to get back so many times. OK so he may not be able to get back to affect the direct attack that is ongoing because he is stranded up field (normally because he has bombed on and lost the ball through a total lack of skill / football brain) - but I have seen him so many times fail to get back to affect the 2nd or 3rd phase of an attack - his team mates must see him as a total liability, simply kept on to keep fans happy and because he is 'home grown'.

And in terms of adding to the team's capability though attacking skills - well I would not insult Kolorov by drawing any kind of comparison with Micah.

So yes - he had a few months when he seemed to have potential - seemed to be possibly something special perhaps - but fuck me that was for a very short time and very long time ago.

If we can get some team daft enough to pay £5m then we should offload without a second thought - I am all for loyalty but CITY have given a pretty average player a special position in life and have shown a lot of loyalty.

He has had plenty of time (IMO) to come good and all he has done is shown that he is less than Joe average - the fact that he comes out and makes statements about being good enough to go to Brazil shows that he has absolutely zero self-awareness.

His 'world class jogging' reached its peak against hamburg from what I remember, and then Hughes dropped him and he was pretty much banished till Mancini arrived, and he came on in leaps and bounds, to the extent that he was like a totally new player in the title season, and there was none of the half arsed jogging back - of course bob wouldn't have accepted that, hence the improvement.

I think he has it, it just needs coaxing out of him. Pearce seemed to do it, Hughes failed, Mancini succeeded, and he is coming back from injury under pellers. Even if he fails to improve, unfortunately it's likely he will always be kept around the place due to the required quotas.

I agree with that synopsis.

Point to note, there is no requirement to fill the quotas.

[Herb]

As a further note of my opinion (not intended to piss anyone off) I don't agree at all with the 'world class jogger' label being attached to Micah because he's been good at the level he was playing at but he's never ever been world class, except for in dreams perhaps.
I don't think that the jogger label is fair either because he doesn't jog back by intent - he jogs back because his massively developed torso has just nearly burst it's 'not big enough for that torso' lungs what he ran up the pitch in the first instance - getting back without dying then requires that he cuts his effort dramatically for the sake of oxygenated blood getting to his brain and survival.
He's not world class and he's not a jogger by intent - he's just a nice bloke who's the wrong shape for his job - nothing else wrong with him.

[Grandad Rosler]

As a further note of my opinion (not intended to piss anyone off) I don't agree at all with the 'world class jogger' label being attached to Micah because he's been good at the level he was playing at but he's never ever been world class, except for in dreams perhaps.
I don't think that the jogger label is fair either because he doesn't jog back by intent - he jogs back because his massively developed torso has just nearly burst it's 'not big enough for that torso' lungs what he ran up the pitch in the first instance - getting back without dying then requires that he cuts his effort dramatically for the sake of oxygenated blood getting to his brain and survival.
He's not world class and he's not a jogger by intent - he's just a nice bloke who's the wrong shape for his job - nothing else wrong with him.

Give over, not only does he jog back he sometimes feigns injury as he can't be arsed to get back, we used to watch him lose the ball, pretend to be injured then spring back up when we had won it back. It was comical in the end. I'm not a Micah boo boy by any stretch and would love him to do well again but looks like he ain't gonna cut it any more

[MilnersJaw]

He's a proffessional football player shouldn't he know when to get back and defend instead of it being its OK because he's not player many games recently, he must be rusty. Total bollocks, did he also forget to wipe his arse too?

Ignoring his ability he seemed to be a liability as sick note, club should not give him a new deal next year and get someone who is cheaper and not injury prone.

[Herb]

Give over, not only does he jog back he sometimes feigns injury as he can't be arsed to get back, we used to watch him lose the ball, pretend to be injured then spring back up when we had won it back. It was comical in the end. I'm not a Micah boo boy by any stretch and would love him to do well again but looks like he ain't gonna cut it any more

You make a fair point but I'm not arguing with that. I've seen some good stuff from Micah and loved him for it - I've seen some piss poor stuff from him and still loved him - but, the point I'm making is whatever his attitude or state of fitness etc. he's not got the right physique for the role he's now trying to fill. I'm not anti-Micah in any way, shape or form - I have great respect for the guy but he's not at the level that he needs to be at to play for us at our current and aspired levels.

[mcfc1632]

As a further note of my opinion (not intended to piss anyone off) I don't agree at all with the 'world class jogger' label being attached to Micah because he's been good at the level he was playing at but he's never ever been world class, except for in dreams perhaps.
I don't think that the jogger label is fair either because he doesn't jog back by intent - he jogs back because his massively developed torso has just nearly burst it's 'not big enough for that torso' lungs what he ran up the pitch in the first instance - getting back without dying then requires that he cuts his effort dramatically for the sake of oxygenated blood getting to his brain and survival.
He's not world class and he's not a jogger by intent - he's just a nice bloke who's the wrong shape for his job - nothing else wrong with him.

Give over, not only does he jog back he sometimes feigns injury as he can't be arsed to get back, we used to watch him lose the ball, pretend to be injured then spring back up when we had won it back. It was comical in the end. I'm not a Micah boo boy by any stretch and would love him to do well again but looks like he ain't gonna cut it any more

Good post - glad someone else spotted these things - saves my sanity and some money - was thinking about specsavers.

In those days before the money came in and he had just got his 'big contract' - was it 50k? He definitely (IMO) went through a big fish small pond period and it was the job of other team members to do the mundane things like covering for him. I would expect him to be different now if he gets a run - he is not our big fish and if he wants more money than offered he will have to demonstrate he is worth it. Still do not think he has thee capability but would love to ge proven wrong - we need a reliable back up ti Zabba and he currently is not.

[london blue 2]

This Micah hating is a strange one, its like we've run out of bad things to say about Dzeko and Garcia and moved onto Micah.

Who will be next if he plays a good game soon?

[charvet_wonderland]

As much as I hate to admit it - I must be considered a Micah boo boy - and that makes me very disappointed in myself.

But he is simply never going to make it. The comparisons with Kolorov are actually quite helpful I think - yes people were on Kolorov's case and hugely frustrated - given a chance he has started to find some form - so the logic is - give Micah some game time and he will come good etc etc.

Point is though that people seem (IMO) to have some strange view of Micah's past record. I read posts about how good he was in our title winning season and before...... I hardly missed a game in those days and I can clearly remember being incandescently frustrated with his fucking cannot be arsed lazy attitude - I have posted many times on here in those days describing him as a world class fucking jogger!!

So yes- perhaps Kolorov is not the best defender - perhaps he is not as fast a Micah over 30m etc - but at least he fucking tries!! He can get outpaced but he is at least running at more or less his best pace. I have screamed at Micah to get back so many times. OK so he may not be able to get back to affect the direct attack that is ongoing because he is stranded up field (normally because he has bombed on and lost the ball through a total lack of skill / football brain) - but I have seen him so many times fail to get back to affect the 2nd or 3rd phase of an attack - his team mates must see him as a total liability, simply kept on to keep fans happy and because he is 'home grown'.

And in terms of adding to the team's capability though attacking skills - well I would not insult Kolorov by drawing any kind of comparison with Micah.

So yes - he had a few months when he seemed to have potential - seemed to be possibly something special perhaps - but fuck me that was for a very short time and very long time ago.

If we can get some team daft enough to pay £5m then we should offload without a second thought - I am all for loyalty but CITY have given a pretty average player a special position in life and have shown a lot of loyalty.

He has had plenty of time (IMO) to come good and all he has done is shown that he is less than Joe average - the fact that he comes out and makes statements about being good enough to go to Brazil shows that he has absolutely zero self-awareness.

His 'world class jogging' reached its peak against hamburg from what I remember, and then Hughes dropped him and he was pretty much banished till Mancini arrived, and he came on in leaps and bounds, to the extent that he was like a totally new player in the title season, and there was none of the half arsed jogging back - of course bob wouldn't have accepted that, hence the improvement.

I think he has it, it just needs coaxing out of him. Pearce seemed to do it, Hughes failed, Mancini succeeded, and he is coming back from injury under pellers. Even if he fails to improve, unfortunately it's likely he will always be kept around the place due to the required quotas.

Rams home how quickly we've improved when I get reminded that he played a couple of seasons under Pearce (and he's only 25)