Soldato
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This.
Don't quite know what to say about Ireland. He was absolutely fantastic a couple of seasons ago and now I just don't know what has happened to him
Best and Worst team of the season so far
- Thread starter Tom84
- Start date
This.
Don't quite know what to say about Ireland. He was absolutely fantastic a couple of seasons ago and now I just don't know what has happened to him
You wouldn't use inverted comas if Toure really was an attacking player
De Jong - Defensive player
Barry - Defensive player
Toure - Defensive player
This.
Don't quite know what to say about Ireland. He was absolutely fantastic a couple of seasons ago and now I just don't know what has happened to him
Yeah I was hoping Ireland could rediscover his form at Villa but it just hasnt happened at all. To be fair though, it is difficult to come back cylinders firing when you have spent so long sitting on the bench not playing.
I nominate Chelsea for both categories.
They were brilliant for the 1st 2 months of the season or so yet now they play easily the worst football I've seen any team play for a long time. They remind me of the England team in the WC, some of the players look like they've never kicked a ball before.
They were brilliant for the 1st 2 months of the season or so yet now they play easily the worst football I've seen any team play for a long time. They remind me of the England team in the WC, some of the players look like they've never kicked a ball before.
MrG's back 
Barry's not a defensive midfielder and although Toure played that role at Barca, he's been pushed forward at City and at times played off the front.
Barry's not a defensive midfielder and although Toure played that role at Barca, he's been pushed forward at City and at times played off the front.
Of course Barry is a defensive/holding player, the only reason he gets in the national team is because that's his position
Fair point about Toure being played further forward in recent weeks but it doesn't stop him being a defensive player, City just need one of the three to offer some form of support to Tevez and being a far better player to Barry Toure gets the job
No he's not. If you ever watched him at Villa he played as a box to box player and it's been the same at City. Even for England he hardly plays as an out and out defensive midfielder. Just because he played alongside either Lampard or Gerrard in the middle, everybody automatically said he's the holding player but rarely did he sit in front of the back 4.
Soldato
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Yeah the lack of anybody protecting the back four could partly explain why we did so badly in the WC!
I agree Barry isn't a DM, he's more of a box-to-box CM. Toure was a DM at Barca, but he's much more attacking at City. I see what people mean about City's midfield though, it needs more attacking intent and when Johnson and Silva aren't there it can struggle to support Tevez.
The Guardian's teams are both stupid, it shows how much their readers know about football!
Agreed at Villa he was box to box but the whole reason why he got in the England team is because 2 out and out attacking players couldn't play together so they brought Barry in due to his defensive abilities (don't forget Barry played a lot at LB) and since then he's no longer box to box he's a holding player
Fletcher is someone who is box to box running around like a headless chicken all game, Barry is more like Carrick making maybe one forward run in a game (if that).
It's no slant on Barry being that type of player but with De Jong and Toure already playing there should be nothing to stop Machini playing Silva or Milner as the third midfielder and adding a bit of forward thinking to the team instead of the negativity of having 3 very similar players in the midfield