Nastasic

[Wonderwall]

Thats not right Ted, Hart was forced to kick it ;long because chelsea pressed us, you could see Eto's waving at his team mates to come forward when Hart had the ball at his feet.

It won't stop Barca when teams do that, or our U16s. It might work i5/20% of the time but you can most often get a player free; it's down to whether you trust them on the ball or not. When we tried it, Nasti was shitting himself.

[/quote]

It didnt work very well for Barca against Chelsea. Its not always the right thing to do either, it can put you under immediate pressure if the opposition are going man for man

[Cocacolajojo1]

Thats not right Ted, Hart was forced to kick it ;long because chelsea pressed us, you could see Eto's waving at his team mates to come forward when Hart had the ball at his feet.

It won't stop Barca when teams do that, or our U16s. It might work i5/20% of the time but you can most often get a player free; it's down to whether you trust them on the ball or not. When we tried it, Nasti was shitting himself.

It didnt work very well for Barca against Chelsea. Its not always the right thing to do either, it can put you under immediate pressure if the opposition are going man for man[/quote]

And it worked a treat when Inter beat Barcelona back when Mourinho was there as well.

Plus it's the tactic Barca and Real use against each other in the classicos. Force the opposing team to pass the ball to the goalkeeper and then force him to kick it long. It sounds pretty simplistic but considering the pace of the game and all it requires some team discipline. Tevez used to try to do it but noone ever followed him :).

[Ted Hughes]

nasty was often our best defender last season...everyone conveniently forgets how shit kompany sometimes was last year, and how shit lescott has often been this year. i'm not saying nasti should be starting, but he deffo doesn't deserve the hate in this thread.

He was never our best defender last season & has never been as good as Lescott has this season.

The bit which posts like this 'conveniently forget' are the times Lescott has been our best defender & the number of times Nastasic lost out to his opponent both in the air & on the ground last season & the number of times he did actually nothing at all other than pick up loose balls or misdirected passes.

He's great at heading the ball unchallenged & intercepting it unchallenged. Whilst the poor bastard next to him charges about doing his job for him. If you don't actually do anything, you don't do anything wrong.

Great for stastistics, useless for actual football.

[Hazy2]

High energy and a packed defence which we should have breached with Silva was the reason we lost, we had 60 odd % of the ball. What we faileD atwas ripping up his plan A, Silva scores game over that I repeat is the fine margin at this level, Shocking shite miss from 2 yards. We will be top again this weekend and this blip will be long forgot we just need Jimmy Milner fit and match sharp, the rest of the boys can possibly be ready for 2nd leg in Barca. Norwich 0 City 4.

[getdressedmctavish]

Well what goes around... Last season I kept telling my mates the bloke was a feckin imposter who headed nothing clear from the box and was slow on the turn. I was treated like the fuckin antichrist. Then at the cup final I was screaming at him to bring the ball forward as they had no cf but he was terrified. This season every aspect of his game has gone. Perversely, I don't think he is as bad as folks are saying. But he should have been Lescott's understudy in my view, and that always was my view. However, there is an obsession with ball playing cb's at the moment under the Barca model.All very well if you've got one, but he is not using his skill and hasn't for a while.Lescott and Milner are entitled to feel hard done by at the minute.

[Piccsnumberoneblue]

Why oh why Bob chose to rip apart our centre half pairing I'll never know. Why Pells Bells hasn't reinstated it I don't know. Why this guy was brought in I don't know.
Defenders often get better with age but I subscribe to Ted's view that Nastistitch has none of the raw material to make a great defender.
Without being glib, I preferred Savic. At least he wasn't a soft lad.

[City64]

Nastasic performance last night was one of the most worrying in years , he was awfull !!! Never seen Vinny so frantic after Nasti took him clean out early doors .

[zuricity]

Nastasic performance last night was one of the most worrying in years , he was awfull !!! Never seen Vinny so frantic after Nasti took him clean out early doors .

Kompany should never ever have been near that ball. If anything Kompany was the worst last night. Hot headedly getting himself booked early on Constantly hitting on the ref and thereby wasting time.

[City64]

Nastasic performance last night was one of the most worrying in years , he was awfull !!! Never seen Vinny so frantic after Nasti took him clean out early doors .

Kompany should never ever have been near that ball. If anything Kompany was the worst last night. Hot headedly getting himself booked early on Constantly hitting on the ref and thereby wasting time.

I will have to disagree . Vinny had that situation covered then Nasti took him clean out , the whole section of crowd where i was were of the same opinion . Vinny was frantic as fuck all match after that episode.

[clawbaggio]

No better than Savic. It's like he is in a daze. Doesn't open his mouth and just strolls around. Can't tackle properly and gives daft free kicks away.

And I know Hart was the main offender when we lost at the Bridge, but I don't understand why Nastasic still headed the ball goalwards when he saw Hart race past him

[zuricity]

I will have to disagree . Vinny had that situation covered then Nasti took him clean out , the whole section of crowd where i was were of the same opinion . Vinny was frantic as fuck all match after that episode.

Vinnie had lost it earlier which is why he nearly got booked. He had a long chat with the ref an unnecessary foul.

[bigblue]

Lescott is 2x as good a defender and can mark some of the most physical forwards out of the game. Great in the air and well timed in the tackle. Not the best decision maker, but it seems to balance out when Kompany is next to him.

I know Lescott isn't the best on the ball but all our CBs usually do is pass 10 yards to Yaya/Fernandinho or Zabba/Kolarov. I know Demi is a bit better on the ball, but Lescottt doesn't exactly need to be Pirlo does he?

Nasti looks shit scared when anyone runs at him and teams seem to have started attacking him as part of their game plan. Why we ever broke up the Lescott/kompany partnership is something that I'm always going to question and shake my head at.

[nottsblue]

Would Nastastic get in Arsenals or Chelseas or even Liverpools team? No. He isn't good enough. Don't see how he is then good enough for us. Sorry to sound negative but its the way it is

[MilnersJaw]

If you look at other prem teams you will find a lot of cbs better than both demi and Nasti. Dunno why we are gimping ourselves since lescott is out of the picture

[Cocacolajojo1]

Would Nastastic get in Arsenals or Chelseas or even Liverpools team? No. He isn't good enough. Don't see how he is then good enough for us. Sorry to sound negative but its the way it is

That about sums it up for me and it sums up all teh other candidates we have to stand play beside Vinny. None of them would get a starting place in to four club, perhaps not even top six. Lescott had it. Nasty perhaps had it. Now they don't. It seems anyway.

[Twobob]

He did look very nervous last night, certainly not helped by the constant shifting of defensive pairings. Had potential but do believe he's gone backwards and it started last season.

Although Lescott isnt immensely better i would still prefer him and Vinnie together - good partnership that should never have been split.

Shame, as i said he had potential but it looks like his confidence is shot.

[PrezIke]

I can't think of a single reason why anyone would want him in the side ahead of Lescott, and that's not based on tonight, its been no different the last few seasons

And before anyone plays the passing bullshit, Lescotts pass completion this season is 88%, Nastasic is 90 - so if it comes down to who can defend, Nastasic shouldn't be anywhere near the team ahead of Lescott

Demichelis is also 88% incidentally and the point stands for Lescott to be ahead of him too

i can't really defend nasti these days but the continued use of pass % as a good statistic to defend some players and slag off on others has become quite silly, i think.

pass percentage does not account for the level of difficulty of the passes a player makes. this does not only not account for say how long the pass is, or if it was made between two or three defenders, but nor does it account for the situation a player is in when they receive the ball or when they set to pass the ball. those should ALL alter the level of difficulty of a pass, and be more indicative of a players skill with the ball at their feet than pass completion %.

we don't have those statistics.

if you want to compare pass % why is it that fernandinho's is 87% and silva is just over 88%.

are we suggesting they are worse passers than lescott?

of course not, but why?

because they tend to make more difficult passes, in traffic, after dribbling out of trouble, etc? because when they make a better pass that it has a better chance at leading to a scoring chance?

well, how about applying that logic to demi and nasti. for better or for worse, those players are ahead of lescott in part due to the above reasons. how many times have i heard one of the big plusses for us this season is "how quickly city turns defence into attack."

well, lescott is less likely to ensure that occurs. so as a result, i think, he sits despite attributes that make him a good defender because pellegrini's approach to managing the team values that slightly less than defenders who are more comfortable with the ball at their feet. lescott makes simple passes. great, he doesn't make many mistakes that way, but he also doesn't help create chances as much. this is his problem on this team. now, some more traditionalists will dislike this approach, and i get it, but it is not as clear as day that lescott is the better choice for the team and its approach.

i also believe we want to develop nasti, while we are moving on from lescott after the season, so pellers would also rather give nasti games, even if lescott may be rated a bit higher in defensive areas that are weaknesses we could use with strengthening on the pitch.

right now, however, nasti is not impressing too much, so he isn't teflon don or anything. he'll get a few more chances before lescott moves ahead of him, one would think.

[aaron bond]

It's taken a while but finally people are realising how fucking useless Nastasic is!!! No more moronic 'world class' comments I hope!

Him being beaten in the air by Oscar on Monday reminded me of when Walcott was beating him in the air against Arsenal last year. Pathetic defending.

Our best hope for a steady central defensive partnership in the remainder of the season is Kompany-Lescott, with Demichelis as support, then Richards/Boyata as further back-up.

Then we need to try and get a top class defender in early in the summer, preferably pre-World Cup so that they can begin training with the players in July, as opposed to mid- or end-August. And we need to get rid of Nastasic somehow...

[dazby]

He's a very good back up. If only he had that status.

[carl_feedthegoat]

It's taken a while but finally people are realising how fucking useless Nastasic is!!! No more moronic 'world class' comments I hope!

Him being beaten in the air by Oscar on Monday reminded me of when Walcott was beating him in the air against Arsenal last year. Pathetic defending.

Our best hope for a steady central defensive partnership in the remainder of the season is Kompany-Lescott, with Demichelis as support, then Richards/Boyata as further back-up.

Then we need to try and get a top class defender in early in the summer, preferably pre-World Cup so that they can begin training with the players in July, as opposed to mid- or end-August. And we need to get rid of Nastasic somehow...

Well its obvious to a blind cunt that Pellers wont use Lescott and doesn't rate him over Nasty no matter how many fuckups so stop banging on about it ffs.!!!
Nasty is shite and the penny dropped with me a while back but theres fuckall we can do about it but get through the season with Demi in the back 4 and hope we outscore the opposing team.