It's not a bad side. But I think it would be a strange move to drop de Jong. He's been our second best outfield player this season. A Barry/Vieira combination would be very effective, but I think Barry and de Jong are working increasingly well together. Were de Jong to be injured or suspended then I guess this is what I'd go for.
With everyone fit, though, this next one is my favourite. One of Mancini's main innovations as manager has been his willingness to deploy defensive players in wide midfield positions: both Pablo Zabaleta and Sylvinho have been asked to do it. And so I'm sure he would be willing to put Gareth Barry on the left. I'm sure he did it at Aston Villa occasionally, and while he's not Martin Petrov his delivery from wide would be at least as good as Petrov's. As long as there was pace on the right, we'd look well-balanced:
Again, it's quite good. My one worry is that Gareth Barry is best used running games in the middle. And Nigel de Jong would be a great partner for the Patrick Vieira of 2000. But the Patrick Vieira of 2010, who plays slower and deeper than he used to, is possibly too similar to Nigel de Jong.
It could be useful, though, for difficult away games. As would this option - which is presuming that Mancini plays 4-3-3 instead:
I quite like this one too, particularly in away games. That front three, those that started at Molineux, provides good pace on the break allied to a very solid central midfield three. I wouldn't be too surprised to see this at Goodison Park next Saturday.
One problem, though - no Stephen Ireland. If you know how to play Vieira, Barry, de Jong and Ireland in the same team, please let me know.
14 comments:
What I ment to say was
Mancini likes to adopt the 4-3-3 formation with the wingers dropping back into a 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 while defending.
Prepare to see Dejong and Barry either side of Vieira with Vieira protecting our two centre backs.
In other words we will probably play all 3 formations in one without having to make many substitutions unless injury or fatigue permits.
Given
Richards Toure Lescott Barry
Vieira De Jong
Tevez Ireland Bellamy
Adebayor
Vieira will play instead of de Jong or, more probably, Barry (who is due a hernia op).
He is simply an addition to our midfield and effectively replaces Johnson. He is also importantly an aide-de-camp to Roberto.
There is the possibility that Mancini will use a midfield diamond with Dejong screening the back 4, Barry to the left, Veira to the right, and Ireland at the top of the diamond, playing behind 2 out and out strikers.
we may well see this:
Given
richards toure kompany ????
zab - vieira - barry
petrov - bellamy
tevez
very tight unit, devestating on the counter attack. we are still short of genuine all round midfielders. in some ways zab is probably the closest we have.
I have always had two reservations over de jong, which lead me to believe that he is heavily overrated by blues. one, he plays too deep, doesn't engage far enough up the pitch, and is too often missing in the central area. the whole point of his role is to screen the defenders, not to be a last ditch defender. two, he is very average in possession. we've lacked accurate passers in the middle of the park.
to be fair to the guy, he's improved greatly on both scores in the last few games. perhaps he was just being pulled out of position, and rushed in possession previously.
Urgh......Grolsch!
What's wrong with Grolsch? It's Gerard Wiekens' favourite.
PJdemers has it - the diamond was a favoured formation of Mancio at Inter, where Vieira was often employed on the right of the central two. That formation with a front 2 of Tevez and Bellers fed by Ireland is interesting indeed.
There are other problems though - how do we find a place for Petrov, SWP and Robinho, none of whom fit into the diamond particularly well?
The answer to me is that we will chop and change formation (though not necessarily style of play) quite often.
I should add: this type of exercise does demonstrate one thing, which is that in terms of attacking options, we have an absurdity of riches that no other team in the league possesses. That's not to say that we have the best players, but we certainly have the best variety. We can set the team up to play in almost any style you care to name. Fast passing interplay, possession game, counter attacks, wingplay and crossing, long balls to big men - all options are open to us.
Down to you, Roberto.
a team of midfielders would work!
I like the diamond idea with Ireland at the forward point.
Can't he play a Rooney-like role behind the front two?
Given
Richards Toure Lescott Barry
Vieira De Jong
Tevez Ireland Bellamy
Adebayor
This would be brilliant. Barry is left out, which in my opinion is a good thing. Highly over-rated player for the blues. Nothing like the player he was for villa.
A nice cross section of opinion - and none of us has a clue what he's going to do, although the majority agree that Stevie Ireland shouldn't be the one to lose out.
I hope he hasn't forgotten Michael Johnson either.
But I'm more confident of Mancini squaring the circle than I ever was with MH.
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