I think he'd be limited there with Silva. if Silva goes to Madrid I can see him making a move though, for sure.
Isco
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Again they play different positions though. Nasri is used ineffectively as a winger and Silva will be ahead of him playing behind the striker plus Aguero is also capable of playing there if another striker is playing.
Isco would be very good for them replacing Nasri, he'd play narrow like Mancini wants. Gotta be better than Milner getting games anyway
Nasri and Isco are very similar in style and positionally, IMO. Nasri's best form for Arsenal came playing out wide, and Isco's shown plenty of times he can excel from a nominal wide position much like Mata.
Mata is a wierd example given how much he improved when AVB left and he was moved central. The likes of Mata, Silva, Kagawa, Iniesta etc can all play wide but it doesn't get the best out of them.
City should look to bring in some genuine width this summer, it's such a clear problem when they can't break teams down. Sticking central playmakers in a narrow 4-2-3-1 looks far better on paper than it works in practise. Isco could play there for Nasri but he's not what they need IMO.
I have a feeling he might follow Pellegrini to another club in the summer.
You might well be right about City needing some proper width but Mata's still a great player out wide, much like Isco. According to WhoScored Mata's played 14 games down the middle and scored 8 goals with 7 assists while he's played 12 games on the right with 7 goals and 7 assists, that's in line with what I've seen this season and throughout his career. Isco's played 7 games from the left wing and scored 5 goals with 1 assist whereas he's played centrally in 15 games with just 3 goals and 3 assists. Stats tell you very little but it's completely in keeping with what I've seen of them both - they're more comfortable out there than Kagawa or Silva.
He's not at all a weird example, because he existed before signing for Chelsea and had established himself as one of the better left sided players in the world at Valencia, creating and scoring lots of goals from that position
I know you have downplayed the merits of those stats yourself, but seeing as you brought them up it’s worth giving some comparisons for context.
Cazorla is better suited centrally yet he averages around twice the number of goals or assists when playing out wide. The same for Rooney, we all know he’s far better centrally yet his stats are much better on the wing, he has more assists in under half the games. Iniesta’s best position is in the middle but he is also averaging twice the number of assists/goals when he plays wide. So those stats don’t prove anything.
On Mata, he can clearly play the role but I’m surprised you even think it’s debateable where his best role is, or that it isn’t clear cut. He’s been nothing short of outstanding since Di Matteo moved him infield. His impact is limited on the wing as it doesn’t make the most of his creativity or passing. He became much more predictable and was just constantly looking to cut in. If you watched Chelsea back under AVB so many times he would have limited passing options, having to cut inside and play it towards the right. It’s just not the same as receiving it centrally and having the whole pitch in front of you with which to dictate play.
Not only that but simply his skill set just isn’t best utilised out there, he isn’t a winger and never was when he was at Valencia. Back when they had Silva they played as a fluid three behind Villa but he came central exactly like at Chelsea. Just look back at the game at the Mestalla when Chich scored the winner, they suffered from a real lack of width that night with Mata listed as a left winger but not playing out wide at all. There is a real modern trend to stick technical players out wide, but it doesn’t get the best out of them IMO, and more importantly they rarely stay out there.
On your comments comparing his ability playing there compared to Silva, I think any advantage is very slight IMO. They are really similar players and both are much more natural in the middle, whereas an AM like Hazard has a completely different skill set and is definitely more suited to playing wing role, to the extent that he's pretty natural there.
With Isco bar Revista and CL highlights I’ve only seen him play two or three full La Liga games and then the 3-0 against Zenit in which he was incredible and the best player on the pitch, but was rather central. So I haven’t seen enough to categorically comment but I’d take your word and agree he’s more suited to it than Silva, but from the little I have seen you would still be restricting him by limiting him to a wide role.
I'll probably check out the Malaga game tonight to see how he fares in against Gotze and Reus. In the meantime....
He's probably the best mid/attacking player that isn't at a 'top' team in Europe right now. I guess I consider Spurs a big team.
Do want.
Do want.
The Telegraph wrote featured an article this morning that tried to claim Malaga as some part English, our last and admittedly tenuous link to the seasons competition. Apparently there is a large contingent of English match going Malaga fans due to the large English population in that part of the world.
I'd sell all our wingers bar Zaha and start again, get some playmaker wingers in like Isco and do away with the dinosaur wingers we currently have. Draxler looks great too.
Going by SAF's targets the summer gone, I wouldn't be surprised in the least if we are in for him.
I can't tell what position he prefers from that video. Sometimes he seems as if he's a solid winger, and then in other segments he looks as if he plays in the middle in an attackive role.
Tonights game is going to be a muppets wankathon.
Gundogan, Reus, Gotze, Isco
Gundogan, Reus, Gotze, Isco
Malaga are in CL, Spurs are not. Though, i guess Malaga do have financial worries.
Can make a case for Neymar and James Rodriguez too, if you are talking about it financial terms.
First time I'm watching Isco. Is it me or does he have attitude issues?
Seen him quite a bit and not noticed much, he has a bit of a temper I guess.
Why do you say that?
Why do you say that?
Attitude issues as in ?
Really hope we're in for him. He'll probably be along with Lewandowski the most sought after player with Malaga being banned from the champions league next year(think they still are?). Would bring so much class and creativity to our attack.
Where do we fit in him though ? Will have to sell someone to make space.
27 passes, 56% accuracy
Apart from his nice shot in the second half he had a really underwhelming game tbh but everyone who has seen him play in the league and in other CL games knows he can do much better than that.
Sell both Valencia and Young to make space for Zaha and Isco. Young isn't good enough and I can't really see Valencia getting back to his best next year. Anyways, Isco is way more talented then both and Zaha seems promising.
It's what it said on tv when he was being subbed off. Thought it seemed a little off.
He looked frustrated, seemed disinterested and flapped his hands a few times towards his team mates.
And he was playing out wide. Reus who was playing a similar position wide had 62% while Gotze had 82% in central positions.
Didn't notice anything major tbh or have done before. Dunno..
Those stats from UEFA are always different to those on whoscored and other football stats sites.They probably count how many times player was dispossessed too, or something like that.
That was enough for Nani to be rewarded with "worst united player performance of all times".
Possible. Also should clarify that WhoScored lists the total number of passes attempted, whereas UEFA maybe showed the total accurate passes?
I don't know, but their stats are really weird. In game against City(if I remember corectly) Di Maria was on something like 27% accurate passes around 70th minute. That was awfull, even for him. Maybe they count crosses and setpieces too.
Isco, Gotze and Reus were all below their best tonight, I thought Gundogan was the standout player on the pitch.
Gündogan was excellent last night even though a bit suspect defensively at times which strangely enough always seems to happen when he plays alongside Kehl and not so much when he plays alongside Bender.
Götze wasn't bad but he should have scored at least one of his big three chances.
Reus on the other hand wasn't in the game at all and hardly did anything noteworthy, I don't know why but he also didn't look fully fit and wasn't making any of his good runs or nice interplay with Götze.
Isco was pretty much the same as Reus, never really got into the game and only produced one memorable scene when he tested Weidenfeller with his great shot from the left.
Isco had a couple of moments. Goetze was wasteful with his chances and didnt create anything for others, but he was very slightly more involved. For me Goetze was far more dissappointing because hes talked about as the significantly better player
Isco played a nice through ball to Saviola, and that was about all I can remember of his performance. Very underwhelming and those who've seen him this season know he's much better than that.
How good is he? Because he's obviously going to be available with their financial situation, and I'm interested to know who is going to be in for him.
Not for me.
You need width in the PL because teams play to deep. Have too many "attacking midfielders" like City and you're too narrow - its been their main fault this year in my opinion.
Hard for the likes of Silva to find space when Tevez and Nasri are, at times, trying to play in the same position. Makes then much easier to defend against.
The only team who make it work regularly are Barca - getting width from the full backs who dont have to defend as much owing to how much possession they have. Even then they still concede goals against good sides.
If you've got pacey wide players you always have an out ball, even when not playing well and under pressure. Too narrow and all players have to be on top form most of the time for it to work.
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