Well I wanted 3 points and a clinical performance
against Hull
Where’s the team that played against Newcastle
Like Cardiff City ’s
first ever Premier League home game we must have been REALLY up for the Newcastle
Soft middle
Not only do we still
look vulnerable in the middle of the defence but I’m really starting to believe
that Fernandinho and Toure
just cannot play affectively together. I’m not calling Fernandinho a fine wine
and neither am I calling Toure and exceptional ale - but playing them together is
starting to give me a bit of a hangover.
In the opener
against the Geordies they looked quite good together. Having said that, every
player came out of that game with a 7+ / 10 performance rating. During the opening
fixture of the season one of 'em dropped deep while the other went forward and they seem to
have a good understanding of one another. At Cardiff
Silva looked isolated at times on the wing; he
does WAY more damage down the middle and often had to drift inside to get anywhere
near as involved as he should be during 90 minutes. Navas just
didn’t see nearly enough of the ball either…and I put that down to a lack of
passing and organisation from central midfield too (not feeding him the ball). It just looked all wrong.
He’s at it again
Dzeko – a player on fire for most of pre-season; a
very good performance against Newcastle and a crackin’ goal at Cardiff – looked
like he’d sent his twin brother to stand in form him yesterday…and I take it his twin isn’t a footballer. He was back to his old
‘couldn’t trap a back of cement’ ways again and I wasn’t surprised to see him
substituted at half time. I need to get
him out of my Fantasy Football Team soon…
So what needs to happen?
Point 1
We’ve got a break now and although that’s still not enough time to get
Kompany back; it might be enough time for Martin Demichelis
(assuming he’s going to sign tomorrow of course) to get used to his new
teammates. Perhaps we need to play a full 90-minute, ‘behind closed doors’
friendly game (as much as missing personnel - due to International games - allows of course) to
sort out some issues during the break.
I’m not blaming them
for all of our frailties yesterday but if Lescott
and Nastasic perform like they did against Hull
when we go away to the potential aerial bombardment of Stoke City, then we’ll be in real trouble. As Mancini
often did at places such as Stoke; Pellegrini too might opt to leave out Nastasic
for this one. If so, that leaves a potential new central defensive partnership
of Lescott and Demichelis at the Britannia Stadium
on 14th September. That MAY
improve things.
Point 2
Drop Fernandinho. I had reservations before we even signed this fella (comment at the very bottom of this post from way back on 2nd May 2013) and although he doesn’t look like a terrible
player; I’m yet to see what we paid £30M for. That's 30…MILLION…QUID!
Anyway, that’s not
why I want him dropped. It’s either him or Yaya in the middle for me and Yaya just
gets the nod.
We need to bring
Silva inside and in a 4-4-2, that’ll be:
Nasri Silva Navas
Yaya
That looks a bit
more like it.
Not happy with Yaya
sitting deep? Well in that case then stick the more-mobile Fernandinho in. This is exactly why we should never have sold Nigel de Jong…and is why I don’t necessarily
agree with letting Barry go out on loan either
(I’m just not a Garcia fan…and Rodwell’s injury record is there for all to see).
Having said all of
that, there is a 3rd option that I discussed with my mate after yesterday’s
jittery match. As well as some fine performances on the flanks last season, Milner produced some good performances in the middle too.
His pace and, in particular, his energy levels could see him perform a ‘sitting
deep’, sweeping-defensive role to great affect.
However, for me,
such is the need for Silva to be played in the middle; putting James in there would see both Yaya
& Fernandinho drop to the bench and I just can’t see our Manager doing
that. Point number 2, it would seem, is far more complicated than our
fragile-looking defence issues.
A quick note at this stage: I thought Kolarov had a good game yesterday and that is high
praise indeed from me…
Point 3
This is much easier. Swap Negredo for
Dzeko and use this break to get Jovetic’s match
fitness up to scratch (again, a friendly game will help if
our new signing isn’t going away with his country of course).
Keep calm and carry on
When all is said and
done we won a game ugly yesterday and we have 6 points from a possible 9;
currently lying 2nd in the (early) league table before today’s
games.
We’ve also probably
got a new, highly experienced defender coming in; we’ve got Kompany to come
back, Richards is only about 2 weeks away,
we’ve hardly used the very capable, adaptable & useful Milner and Jovetic
is yet to make his league debut.
Stoke is never an
easy place to visit (particularly for us it would seem); the Derby
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