Jose Angel Tasende (Angelino)
Every time Kompany and Mangala play together our Captain suffers, I don't believe Mangala is our answer to partnering Vinny at all. With Demichelis getting closer to retirement and only young Jason Denayer as potential at present. I feel somewhat underwhelmed by our lack of activity for a new experienced Centre Back. Here I have placed our players in the positions they can occupy to show a true picture of our strength in depth and positional strength. I really hope the Nicolas Otamendi rumour turns out to be true or we bring in a proven European Centre Back quick.
Goalkeeper: Hart / Caballero / Wright
Right Back: Zabaleta / Sagna
Centre Back: Kompany / Demichelis
Centre Back: Mangala / Denayer
Left Back: Clichy / Kolarov
Right Attacking Midfield: Sterling / Nasri / Lopes
Centre Midfield: Yaya Toure / Fernandinho
Centre Midfield: Delph / Fernando
Left Attacking Midfield: Silva / Iheanacho / Navas / Lopes
Centre Attacking Midfield: Silva / Iheanacho / Bony /Lopes
Striker: Bony / Iheanacho / Aguero / Sterling
This tells me one thing, we are one Centre Attacking Midfielder short, we are also weak at both Wing Back positions and at Centre Back. I'm not at all convinced by Sagna as well as Mangala and Kolarov's defencive ability is not exactly doing Mangala any favours either. We are for the majority of time attacked on our left which highlights how weak City are in that position. Clichy is past his best to say the least so we need Wing Backs super fast, the only Wing Back we have that I have faith in is Zabaleta. One good plus to all this defencive mess is, that we have young Left Back Angelino (Jose Angel Tasende) coming through the ranks and currently on loan at New York City FC.
I am deeply concerned with the season ahead, if we don't strengthen now I see us possibly losing the title race yet again considering the underwhelming emphasis Pellegrini puts on our defencive play. Chelsea clearly showed last season that playing from the back is needed to grind out results. You can't always outscore everyone especially when they always park the bus like most seem to do against us, what do you think of all this?
It has been patently obvious for 18 months or more that the defence is no where near good enough. Sagna is not up to it, not a patch on Micah and sadly Zabby is not getting any younger. Neither of our two left backs can defend at all and Mangala and Demich are a disaster but all we hear about are midfielders and strikers!!!!! We stand no chance of taking the title back unless the back line is completely overhauled
ReplyDeleteStuttgart simply ran through us and around us, any team with young pace is going to hammer us in the Premier League.
ReplyDeleteWe have big slow defenders, not good.
We have no chance of winning the league with the current defensive line.
While none of the above is incorrect, I think the problem is the lack of a Nigel De Jong type of player. Defensive midfielder/holding midfielder what ever they get called. None of the present bunch are stable enough to stay put and help the back 4 out, our back 4 are all over the place as apposing teams go straight down the middle at pace
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