After announcing his new contentedness at City, Elano has just scored a miraculous goal for Brazil. Seriously: have a look.
There are lots of people already on bluemoon writing stuff along the lines of 'if he can do that, why doesn't Hughes pick him?'. I think the important point to make in response is that whilst he demonstrably can do that, he very rarely ever does for City, particularly in tough games. Too often he just gets bypassed in midfield, ends up getting outmuscled and has to come off. I think that SWP in midfield and Vassell on the right sucks as an alternative, but we shouldn't pretend that Elano always plays brilliantly for us when he just doesn't.
This Saturday, however, is Arsenal. At home. Denilson, Nasri and Fabregas are obviously very good players - but this could be just the stage Elano needs.
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2 comments:
elano has been playing deep in the midfield...yet has scored 3 goals and created for others this season.
he has toughned up this season, and when he plays, we our usuallt better off for it...he can pass better than any one else at the club.
The point is elano shouldnt be the one missing it out, hughes has to be able to motivate the foreign players aswell, i'm not convinced he can...yet..
JPB
I think you're also missing the point. While it's true that Elano is the one that opposing teams have found easiest to muscle off the ball, the fact is that they do it only at the expense of leaving huge gaps for SWP, Stevie Ireland and Robinho to stroll through.
In particular, the combination of Jo and Elano have been devastating at opening gaps by pulling opposing defenders all over the place.
But MH is increasingly reluctant to play this combination. He appears only to see team performances in terms of individuals - in other words, all tactics and no strategy.
He seems strangely reluctant to play Elano in any case, but when you look at the goals Elano HAS scored, his off the ball movement, and in particular his devastating pass completion ratio, you have to question whether MH has been watching the same game as all the rest of us....
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