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Everyone's back for training tomorrow morning.

blues2win wrote:Everyone's back for training tomorrow morning.

will be great after an 8.5 hr flight and with jetlag....

his "welcome interview" is on the OS

phips wrote:his "welcome interview" is on the OS

Yeah and he certainly will give his maximum.. :)

kennyboy wrote:

phips wrote:his "welcome interview" is on the OS

Yeah and he certainly will give his maximum.. :)

how can you be so sure?

nervy debut. not bad for sure…there were others that were far worse today

phips wrote:nervy debut. not bad for sure…there were others that were far worse today

Debut or not, worse than Zabba and if he can't provide more why don't we just play Micah?

Moonchesteri wrote:

phips wrote:nervy debut. not bad for sure…there were others that were far worse today

Debut or not, worse than Zabba and if he can't provide more why don't we just play Micah?

He wasn't given the ball until the last 10 mins of the match. No one seemed to trust him. When nasir was on he was in loads of space on the right and never given the ball. Then when navas came on they were on separate pages and gave each other no space.

This was purely down to the rotation policy of Pellers. Zabba and Clichy were great last week against a much better team, so why bench them ? Cant claim they needed a rest !! Why change a winning team ?

Not worse than Zabba at all imo. Better defensively than Zabba has been so far this season but not pushed forward as much first half as everything was aimed at Kolarov.

Excellent debut imo both on the ground & aerially.

I thought we lost a lot of our attacking intent down the right today.

Piccsnumberoneblue wrote:I thought we lost a lot of our attacking intent down the right today.

We had little on either flank. When it did come, it was Navas & Sagna.

He was steady, I agree, but he definitely definitely wasn't making the same inside right runs that Zaba does. It's not his fault though - the whole half-arsed lethargy of the team around him made it nigh on impossible for him to make an impression.

There's also the argument of the loss of the talismanic effect of Zaba too.

twosips wrote:He was steady, I agree, but he definitely definitely wasn't making the same inside right runs that Zaba does. It's not his fault though - the whole half-arsed lethargy of the team around him made it nigh on impossible for him to make an impression.

There's also the argument of the loss of the talismanic effect of Zaba too.

Agree, you really do miss players like Zab's influence in a game like today.
Sagna wasn't bad but still think Zabs is miles better.

Thought he was very good, both defensively, and in showing a willingness to get forward, but was all too often ignored when in a great position to make an attacking run - did provide a couple of decent crosses on a day when City's attacking play was far too narrow and played right into Stoke's hands.

First game so you cant be to critical. It does make you appreciate how important Zabaleta is though.

Thought he did quite well, his delivery could be a bit better but we've all seen zabs ping in some atrocious crosses before.

Slim wrote:Thought he did quite well, his delivery could be a bit better but we've all seen zabs ping in some atrocious crosses before.

Not just about the delivery though. What Zabs does is stretch teams and make space in the box for our other players with his lung busting runs which drag defenders out of position. Something Sagna didn't.

bobbyspater wrote:Thought he was very good, both defensively, and in showing a willingness to get forward, but was all too often ignored when in a great position to make an attacking run - did provide a couple of decent crosses on a day when City's attacking play was far too narrow and played right into Stoke's hands.

This.

They were ignoring Sagna for Kolarov, who was only getting through occasionally & wasted every pass bar one. Vs Liverpool, we got nothing at all from Zabba going forward until just before half time, same as Sagna.

Sagna's own game, imo, was better as a right back, than what Zabba has been producing so far this season & in the World cup. He may have had some crowd pleasing moments, but some of his defending has been poor. Sagna was very very solid for the most part, albeit not vs a great team. When we started passing to Sagna he was also a threat in the attacking 3rd & has a better jump on him. And he did make at least one 'inside run'. All in all, a very very good debut for me, in shit circumstances.

Early days for him and to me he did ok for first game. Needs more games under his belt to see if he can get up to the level of Zab's influence on the game (which is, as you'd expect, much greater than we saw from Sagna yesterday). As for the comparison of him and Micah then Sagna just on one appearance fills me with a lot more confidence than Micah has over the last two seasons.