mr_nool wrote:bigblue wrote:Dubaimancityfan wrote:london blue 2 wrote:carl_feedthegoat wrote:He will hardly feature next season IMO unless we go through a bad patch of injuries.
Nobody in the league controls a game like yaya. We just need to find a way to pass that talent and knowledge on. I don't see that we have anywhere near a natural replacement yet so will be interesting to see how pep lines us up next year.
He is the link between the defence and the rest of the team. Nobody comes close in that role.
Fully agree with that. We always look different (better) when Yaya plays. No one in our current squad can do the job he does. I truly believe that if he had played from the beginning of last season, things would have worked out differently for us.
Very happy that I'll see him play for us for another season at least.
It's not only his skill and size, he has such an incredible feel for the rhythm of the game. To know when to play it short, when to pass long, when to shift the field is so intuitive for Yaya.
I agree with you both if we're talking about an in-form Yaya who bothers to show up. I love the big man, but let us not forget all the games in which he virtually was a passenger in Peller's last season. There were plenty on here who said his legs were gone and wanted us to get rid.
He seems in much better shape now, both physically and mentally, and overall he's been a great, steadying influence, but this season there have also been a couple of games that just seemed to pass him by.
Completely agree.
Yaya was very poor in Pellegrini's last season and was nowhere near his best and I wouldn't have had any issue selling him that summer. With his form and the endless sagas with his agent, Pep did the right thing I'm dropping him at the start of the season.
And it clearly worked with Yaya returning to the side and playing some great football.
I'm delighted he's staying. I didn't think he'd return to form after his decline at the end of Pellegrini's reign but he really has. And after all this time, if we're struggling in a match he is still the one person I want on the ball as he can create something out of nothing.
We need to have a long term replacement in mind for him because his time with us won't last much longer and he is a key part of how we play.