Ian [77] wrote:I know Barry is a good player but isn't he, in some ways, a similar type player to Kompany and De Jong? I suppose he'll play Kompany at centre half .
Fella, I wouldn’t say that Barry is similar to Kompany or De Jong.
Kompany is not a midfielder. He can produce some very good performances (about 1 in 3 or 4) but his positioning isn’t great and he doesn’t have the technical ability. He should be playing centre-half. De Jong is a good player. He covers the ground well, he’s aggressive and he is tough. He’s not a footballer but he does a job.
IMO we will play with a 3-tier midfield. De Jong will sit on top of the back 4, Barry will play in-front of him and Ireland will support the striker. Barry will be the one who links the play between De Jong and the more advanced players.
Kompany gets in De Jong’s way. The Dutchman looks twice the player when the Belgian isn’t in midfield.
Barry addresses a number of our weaknesses, in particular he gives us greater flexibility. Having Barry will allow us to change tactics and our approach mid-game. We didn’t have the players who could do that last season. His signing could also address our inability to take effective set-pieces. Dunne, Onouha Richards, Kompany and De Jong should be scoring more goals. I would guess that they only got three between them all season (not including Duinne’s OG tally).
Quote: but if he's going to spend on a midfielder, wouldn't a skillful, tricky type in the Arshavin mould be a better bet? .
I personally don’t think we are in desperate need for one of those type of players. We have Ireland, Robinho, SWP and Elano who can all play that role. Having a small, skillful, tricky-type of player is not something that should be a priority. We also have Weiss and Bellamy who are skillful and tricky. It could be argued that we have more of these types of player than any other club.
What we deseperately need is a striker. Preferebly not Tevez. We need someone who is a presence upfront
Quote: I'm sure Hughes knows what he is doing.
I’m sure he does. Hughes is a sharp cookie IMO. Despite what a number of City fans think, I like him. He’s not the best in terms of tactics but to be fair, he inherited an unabalanced squad, he had little to play with last season because of injury, and he did inherit a squad that was probably the worst team in the Prem from March to May 2008. We were on the slide, big time.
