Garcia vs Demi

[Foreverinbluedreams]

Positioning for the goal.

All the defenders grouped leaving a massive space and our 'defensive' midfielder bottom of the picture.

Eto'o would have knocked any rebound in.

If you swap Yaya for Demichelis, not a cat in hell's chance of that being a goal, or them getting a shot off in the buildup.

If Demichelis had at least tried to recover his position then we wouldn't have been in a situation where they had two players lined up on the edge of our area waiting to pull the trigger. He just stood in the right back position having been made look a chump again by Hazard out on the sideline. Yes Yaya is lazy at recovering ground but fuck me that from Demichelis was on a whole different planet of laziness.

Look, if Eto gets a tap in THEN Demichelis can be questioned for not getting in position to cover, but not for the goal. That's Yaya's job & he switched off, twice.

The reason Demi won't be covering Eto, will be because he is fucked, because he is having to do too much running around the pitch.

Neither Garcia nor Gareth Barry nor even Fernandinho can cover that much space.

To suggest Demichelis was lazy in that game is fucking ridiculous.

I didn't say he was lazy in that game Ted, come on now, I said he was lazy in that instance.

To suggest he wasn't lazy in that instance is fucking ridiculous. He could've strolled back to the edge of the area and been in a position to mark one of Willian or Ramires when the ball was pulled back across goal.

[Foreverinbluedreams]

Incidentally, when we are talking about Hazard making a chump out of people, why is Zabaleta allowed to get away with that performance ?

He was wank. If that had been Richards we would never hear the last of it. Hazard was beating Zabba in the air ffs.

By all means criticise him, he deserves it but at least recognise that Demi was shit too.

[Ted Hughes]

No he couldn't have 'strolled' back, he could have legged it accross.

But why should he have to, but Yaya doesn't have to move two yards ?

[Wonderwall]

Positioning for the goal.

All the defenders grouped leaving a massive space and our 'defensive' midfielder bottom of the picture.

Eto'o would have knocked any rebound in.

If you swap Yaya for Demichelis, not a cat in hell's chance of that being a goal, or them getting a shot off in the buildup.

If Demichelis had at least tried to recover his position then we wouldn't have been in a situation where they had two players lined up on the edge of our area waiting to pull the trigger. He just stood in the right back position having been made look a chump again by Hazard out on the sideline. Yes Yaya is lazy at recovering ground but fuck me that from Demichelis was on a whole different planet of laziness.

Look, if Eto gets a tap in THEN Demichelis can be questioned for not getting in position to cover, but not for the goal. That's Yaya's job & he switched off, twice.

The reason Demi won't be covering Eto, will be because he is fucked, because he is having to do too much running around the pitch.

Neither Garcia nor Gareth Barry nor even Fernandinho can cover that much space.

To suggest Demichelis was lazy in that game is fucking ridiculous.

I didn't say he was lazy in that game Ted, come on now, I said he was lazy in that instance.

To suggest he wasn't lazy in that instance is fucking ridiculous. He could've strolled back to the edge of the area and been in a position to mark one of Willian or Ramires when the ball was pulled back across goal.

I am struggling to see what MD did wrong for their goal, I wouldnt expect him to track the jet healed Hazard across the pitch as he was just running across our defensive line and we have 8 City players in /around the box. With regards to Eto'o getting a rebound, if thats the case then it would have been Zabas fault as he tracked Eto'd and then got caught ball watching

clip here http://bcove.me/ivj8zeqe

[Ted Hughes]

Incidentally, when we are talking about Hazard making a chump out of people, why is Zabaleta allowed to get away with that performance ?

He was wank. If that had been Richards we would never hear the last of it. Hazard was beating Zabba in the air ffs.

By all means criticise him, he deserves it but at least recognise that Demi was shit too.

I think Demichelis saved us from an humilliation, as I've already said.

He was running round doing other people's jobs for them. Him & Yaya had a terrible job to do & both did loads of good stuff in the match, as did Vinny & Navas.

The rest, to a man, were a pile of fucking shite. Both fullbacks were a fucking joke, Nasti was a fucking ornament, Dzeko & Silva's finishing was unacceptably abysmal & Negredo should have stayed at home.

We should have won that fucking game, & the reasons we didn't, were not down to Demichelis.

[Foreverinbluedreams]

Incidentally, when we are talking about Hazard making a chump out of people, why is Zabaleta allowed to get away with that performance ?

He was wank. If that had been Richards we would never hear the last of it. Hazard was beating Zabba in the air ffs.

By all means criticise him, he deserves it but at least recognise that Demi was shit too.

I think Demichelis saved us from a humilliation, as I've already said.

He was running round doing other people's jobs for them. Him & Yaya had a terrible job to do & both did loads of good stuff in the match, as did Vinny & Navas.

The rest, to a man, were a pile of fucking shite. Both fullbacks were a fucking joke, Nasti was a fucking ornament, Dzeko & Silva's finishing was unacceptably abysmal & Negredo should have stayed at home.

We should have won that fucking game, & the reasons we didn't, were not down to Demichelis.

I'm not blaming him solely for the defeat Ted, you're reading things into what I'm saying that just aren't there. I agree that both full backs were poor and Nasty was fucking abysmal but I don't see how you can be of the opinion that Demi saved us from humiliation when Hazard had his pants down half the night.

[Foreverinbluedreams]

I am struggling to see what MD did wrong for their goal, I wouldnt expect him to track the jet healed Hazard across the pitch as he was just running across our defensive line and we have 8 City players in /around the box. With regards to Eto'o getting a rebound, if thats the case then it would have been Zabas fault as he tracked Eto'd and then got caught ball watching

clip here http://bcove.me/ivj8zeqe

He didn't do anything, that's the problem. Your clip doesn't show Demi getting mugged off by Hazard on the sideline, after which Demi just loiters around the full back position. Like I said he could've strolled back across and been in a position to mark either Willian or Ramires by the time the ball is pulled back.

[Ted Hughes]

Incidentally, when we are talking about Hazard making a chump out of people, why is Zabaleta allowed to get away with that performance ?

He was wank. If that had been Richards we would never hear the last of it. Hazard was beating Zabba in the air ffs.

By all means criticise him, he deserves it but at least recognise that Demi was shit too.

I think Demichelis saved us from a humilliation, as I've already said.

He was running round doing other people's jobs for them. Him & Yaya had a terrible job to do & both did loads of good stuff in the match, as did Vinny & Navas.

The rest, to a man, were a pile of fucking shite. Both fullbacks were a fucking joke, Nasti was a fucking ornament, Dzeko & Silva's finishing was unacceptably abysmal & Negredo should have stayed at home.

We should have won that fucking game, & the reasons we didn't, were not down to Demichelis.

I'm not blaming him solely for the defeat Ted, you're reading things into what I'm saying that just aren't there. I agree that both full backs were poor and Nasty was fucking abysmal but I don't see how you can be of the opinion that Demi saved us from humiliation when Hazard had his pants down half the night.

Because of the number of times he won tackles & headers that would have left us in deep shit, with no cover, had he missed them & also headers etc he won which set up our attacks.

In a normal, balanced midfield, he & Yaya would have been excellent, but playing only two, we needed the rest of the team to step up & make up the difference. They failed in all areas of the pitch, & left Yaya & Demichelis to sort it out at each end.

If they got some of that wrong, it's pretty understandable.

[BmoreBlue]

Ted I don't always agree with everything you post on here, but you are 100% spot on with regards to Demi - I thought he did well last night for the job he was given, and honestly has been a very good signing for us (again for the job he's been brought in to do). fits the pellegrini system better than any of our other non-Kompany CBs - pellegrini clearly wants a ball carrying CB next to Kompany so he can organize the back line up high. as much as we all rate Lescott as a defender, he does not fit the high line style that pellegrini wants to play. nastasic has gone way backwards this season (i remember in his debut at the Bernabeu he was playing long balls on the floor to our forward players, which i was excited about - obviously we no longer see that, and his defending hasn't improved one bit).

i thought the obvious choice going into last night would've been to bring in another CM to sit with Demichelis and allow Yaya to support Dzeko - Negredo didn't look fit. i suppose since Milner and Garcia weren't fit we would've had to use Rodwell from the start, which is always an injury risk, but we needed a link between midfield and the forwards, and because we only had 2 CMs, we had no shot to link anything.

as crap as we played last night, we still had a few good chances and could've scored 3 if we had some better finishers. last night was the first loss for any team of "adults" at city (U18s, U21s, senior team) since Sunderland, so i'm certainly not expecting the sky to fall just yet. we do need fernandinho back ASAP though - CM is the one position where there is a significant drop off after the first two. i am definitely worried about Barca now, where i thought we were slight favorites before.

[ross.mcfc]

I can't blame Demi for last night.

He should never been signed full stop but last night he was played out of position against one of the strongest midfields in Europe. He was on a hiding to nothing and it was a miracle he did not get himself sent off.

The manager takes the blame for this one I am afraid.

Perhaps now people will give Garcia a break. Of course he is not the answer but he can play in that role and for games like last night which are few and far between for us he really need a player who knows that role.

Given the shit AC MIlan are in. I cannot help wonder if a cheeky bid for De Jong on a short term deal would helped us out, He does not fit into our new system but there are times I miss a player like him.

[Ted Hughes]

Ted I don't always agree with everything you post on here, but you are 100% spot on with regards to Demi - I thought he did well last night for the job he was given, and honestly has been a very good signing for us (again for the job he's been brought in to do). fits the pellegrini system better than any of our other non-Kompany CBs - pellegrini clearly wants a ball carrying CB next to Kompany so he can organize the back line up high. as much as we all rate Lescott as a defender, he does not fit the high line style that pellegrini wants to play. nastasic has gone way backwards this season (i remember in his debut at the Bernabeu he was playing long balls on the floor to our forward players, which i was excited about - obviously we no longer see that, and his defending hasn't improved one bit).

i thought the obvious choice going into last night would've been to bring in another CM to sit with Demichelis and allow Yaya to support Dzeko - Negredo didn't look fit. i suppose since Milner and Garcia weren't fit we would've had to use Rodwell from the start, which is always an injury risk, but we needed a link between midfield and the forwards, and because we only had 2 CMs, we had no shot to link anything.

as crap as we played last night, we still had a few good chances and could've scored 3 if we had some better finishers. last night was the first loss for any team of "adults" at city (U18s, U21s, senior team) since Sunderland, so i'm certainly not expecting the sky to fall just yet. we do need fernandinho back ASAP though - CM is the one position where there is a significant drop off after the first two. i am definitely worried about Barca now, where i thought we were slight favorites before.

The problem is, Milner wasn't deemed fit & Rodwell was bitched by Watford's midfield last week, having to be replaced by Demichelis. There were no viable options.

Otherwise I recon he probably would have used Yaya or Silva behind the striker.

Still wouldn't make any difference if we can't put the ball in the net though & still won't stop Chelsea from creating chances; our back 4 isn't good enough to do that.

[BmoreBlue]

my hope would be that in a 3 man midfield Rodwell would've been a bit more protected in terms of having to do too much and we could've dealt with a bit of pressure better than we did. but you're right, there were no options in midfield to add.

[Ted Hughes]

Statistically, Demichelis covered less distance than most midfieldrs but only by a fraction compared to his oppo Luiz.

An interesting stat about the top sprinting speeds recorded during the match.

1: Azpilucueta 21mph
2: Kompany 20.5
3=: Kolarov. Navas 20.4 mph
5: Demichelis 20.2 mph.

The slowest top speeds on City's team were Yaya & Silva 17.5 & 17.4 but they were both in our top 4 for distance covered, below Navas & Kolarov. Matic though covered 1 mile more & Ramirez covered 0.8 of a mile more as well as spriniting faster. Willian also covered more ground & sprinted faster.

Zabba was the slowest of our defenders & covered the least distance of our 'runners'. Almost the same distance as Dzeko.

Pretty obvious why Chelsea won this match; they had better athletes in the midfield, not just numbers.

[blues2win]

Numbers mattered as well Ted. Look no one's going to sympathise with our injury situation but it was clearly a huge factor last night. If you take Pellegrini at his word and why not we had Nasri, Sergio, Fernandinho and Garcia out( probably Lescott as well). We had Negredo hampered by his shoulder Jovetic not fit for more than half an hour Milner not fit for I'm not sure how long. That's a lot of players and we really suffered because of it . Even with our big squad there's a limit. That said I don't think it was sensible to start with Negredo and Dzeko. Negredo wasn't injury free and contributed almost nothing when we were crying out for another body in midfield. I think Milner should have been asked for 45 minutes and then Jovetic could have replaced him. It really would have helped shore up our left flank desperately vulnerable because of both Kolarov and Nastasic's bad defending. We actually might have got more out of Kolarov who puts in some terrific crosses one of which should have been buried by Yaya. Guess where the goal came from; the left flank.

Looking at individual performances Yaya played heroically but he does play adventurously which sometimes left poor old De Michelis horribly exposed.Silva missed an absolute sitter and was nowhere near his best. Dzeko may not have had a good service but didn't exactly make the runs to make himself available and missed a really good chance. Zaba was badly exposed by Hazard. Joe kicked all day long but wasn't at fault for the goal. Vinny was pretty heroic; a particularly good block on Ramires which didn't stop the goal. Kolarov was Kolarov.

I agree you can look at the glass half full; we could and probably should have been two up after 15 minutes or so. Still Chelsea's extra man in central midfield paid off during the middle part of the match and won it for them. We cannot play 2 against 3 in central midfield against the top teams.if we do that against Barca we'll be taken to the cleaners.

[patrickblue]

Incidentally, when we are talking about Hazard making a chump out of people, why is Zabaleta allowed to get away with that performance ?

He was wank. If that had been Richards we would never hear the last of it. Hazard was beating Zabba in the air ffs.

By all means criticise him, he deserves it but at least recognise that Demi was shit too.

I think Demichelis saved us from an humilliation, as I've already said.

He was running round doing other people's jobs for them. Him & Yaya had a terrible job to do & both did loads of good stuff in the match, as did Vinny & Navas.

The rest, to a man, were a pile of fucking shite. Both fullbacks were a fucking joke, Nasti was a fucking ornament, Dzeko & Silva's finishing was unacceptably abysmal & Negredo should have stayed at home.

We should have won that fucking game, & the reasons we didn't, were not down to Demichelis.

I'd agree with that 100%

[Wonderwall]

Statistically, Demichelis covered less distance than most midfieldrs but only by a fraction compared to his oppo Luiz.

An interesting stat about the top sprinting speeds recorded during the match.

1: Azpilucueta 21mph
2: Kompany 20.5
3=: Kolarov. Navas 20.4 mph
5: Demichelis 20.2 mph.

The slowest top speeds on City's team were Yaya & Silva 17.5 & 17.4 but they were both in our top 4 for distance covered, below Navas & Kolarov. Matic though covered 1 mile more & Ramirez covered 0.8 of a mile more as well as spriniting faster. Willian also covered more ground & sprinted faster.

Zabba was the slowest of our defenders & covered the least distance of our 'runners'. Almost the same distance as Dzeko.

Pretty obvious why Chelsea won this match; they had better athletes in the midfield, not just numbers.

Ted, where are these stats from?

[bigblue]

Thought Demi was just an mobile (immobile) as Garcia but looked at bit more assured on the ball.

Demi made a few great tackles to win the ball back that you wouldn't expect anyone to make. But he also let Hazard and a few other drift around him very easy. Part of the problem was that in his position, he wasn't supposed to go against people running at him at full speed. We gave the ball away in bad areas too often, with too large of a gap between Demi and the defense, leaving him stranded.

Basically he wouldn't have looked so out of place if we kept the ball better and got the strikers more involved (so we didn't lose it in bad areas).

[nottsblue]

Dont understand the reasoning of Milners not fit so cant come off the bench. What the fuck is he doing on the bench in the first place then. Always assumed if you are fit enough for the bench, you are fit enough to play

[Twobob]

How many more jobs did Demi have to do? He pretty much covered the whole of midfield against 3/4 of their players. Gets blamed for the goal when there was fuck all he could do as he was fuckall near it.

But he Was the only player on the pitch who Hazzard ran circles around, he missed countless shots, left us wide open on the flanks, constantly out of position and was often strolling back after a long run forward, couldn't pass, couldn't put a single tackle in ... Hmmm ....

My skin just crawls in fear when he's in defence but last night he did his job very well.

Garcia was injured but so was Ferdi - now Ferdi in MF would have been brilliant - i would have loved a Ferdi-Demi-Yaya midfield. But Garcia? He's been OK against some of the lesser teams we've played but even Chelsea would have scored more than 1 if he was trying to do what Demi had to do last night.

[ashton287]

Take them both out the back of the etihad and put the fuckers down.