Whilst Colo is yet to resume full physical training, he has been doing fitness work for a week or so and will be tested this week to see if he is ready to return in any of our final four league games of the season.
This poses an interesting problem for our manager. What do you do if he is fit enough to return? Do you put him straight back into the team given the fact that he is our captain and is arguably our best defender on his day? Or do you stick with the Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa and Steven Taylor partnership which, aside from a couple of blips, has generally been fine and seems to be getting better?
The issue is clouded even more with the uncertainty surrounding the future of Coloccini who may well be off in the summer anyway. So do you then focus on the shorter term aim of staying up by including a player who hasn’t played since the 4-2 win over Southampton in February or do you continue with what is likely to be our first-choice defensive partnership next season, barring any new central defensive recruits in the summer of course.
I really don’t know. If Colo had been in the same kind of form he was in last season then these questions would have easier answers and Colo would walk straight back into the team for me.
But it’s not that simple. Colo hasn’t been great this season. He’s shown flashes of what he can do such as his performance away at Sunderland but, much like the rest of the squad, he’s failed to hit the heights of last season consistently enough this term.
I honestly can’t make my mind up but I think a lot of that is to do with the nonsense in January which is playing on my mind a bit.
So, lacking in match fitness, would you usher Colo straight back into the team in the hope that he can hit the ground running? Or do you stick with Yanga-Mbiwa and Taylor at the heart of defence?
Stick or twist?
Lewandowski and Götze both to FC Bayern 🙂
Munich Mag(Quote)
Typically, the Germans rely on a Pole..*cough* Klose…
Newkie(Quote)
Lewandowski is a freaking assassin in the box…ice cool 🙂
Newkie, it baffles me how you can’t just LOVE IT when Barcelona and Real Madrid get battered. You must really hate the Germans 🙂
btw Dortmund have 3 Poles in their line up 🙂
Munich Mag(Quote)
MM-Nah, I said yesterday I wanted Dortmund to win the thing because they are the biggest underdogs and probably have the best footie. Only reason I wouldn’t want them to win is because you’d go on about it so much, You’d be like JJ on a Pardew rant for all of next season 😆
I don’t really like Bayern at all though so they can do one
Yeah, Piszczek and Blaes man who I won’t even attempt to spell, but I know as he’s the polak captain 😉 I’m just glad Lewandowski got capped though because (fair enough, Klose grew up in Ger) but Podolski, the polish manager said he wasn’t good enough so the germans capped him at 18 and well… 🙄
Polish F.A must be worse than ours! 😆
Newkie(Quote)
My french commentators are positively purring over the Germans…Probably saying “Why does anyone bother buying people from our league/country when Germany is right there…Carr, get on that autobarn man ffs! 😀
Newkie(Quote)
Newkie, it’s been a canny couple of days for German footy 🙂
You’re right though, as long as my team are treading water I’ll blather on about Dortmund 🙂
Munich Mag(Quote)
Newkie, all of the German teams retain posession well like Dortmund. That’s why I get so disappointed at the toon cos they cannot string 4 passes together and have no logic or system to their football at the moment 🙁
Munich Mag(Quote)
M+M-Aye, but they really seem to be something else this season…real evolution at the club and getting better, same defo can’t be said about la liga or pl
Newkie(Quote)
Newkie, you probably don’t know mate, but Lewandowski has scored in the last 12 consecutive Bundesliga games 😯 The bloke is mental man…
Apparently it’s between Man Ure or FC Bayern as to who signs him in the summer. My money is on FC Bayern…
Munich Mag(Quote)
Munich, nah I didn’t pal…crazy stats. I did just read on the BBC though that dortmund signed him for 4mil! Blackburn + fat sam almost had him! Imagine how his career would have been then… 😆 😆
Gutted he won’t make it to the WC, would rather watch Poland play than England anyway.
Newkie(Quote)
Newkie, I know mate… the man behind it all is Jürgen Klopp. The bloke is immense…
Munich Mag(Quote)
Not including this years sale of gotze, which would make things even more incredible.. What is dortmunds net spend since 2008z?
SolanosTrumpet(Quote)
3 Million!! The ashley model could stand a chance of working! If they invested when they sold players promptly and splashed on some coaches/manager.
SolanosTrumpet(Quote)
Munich-Aye, he’s awesome like. 😕
ST@313-That’s absolutely …but coaches and managers aren’t a viable source of profit when sold, to him they are strain costs. There is no plan, ashley just wants his money back (we owe him about 75m now?) as quick as possible. After that, who knows.
Newkie(Quote)
Watching Lewandowski reminded me of Shearer. Hold up player, scores goals, great goals, tap ins and great movement. Think we forget how good he was to be honest. Especially with his injuries too.
He every bit as good as Lewandowski
Stuart79(Quote)
I guess MM is a German now 😆
Big Dave(Quote)
Dave-Aye, all that guff yesterday about growing up in the Toon…I reckon his german wife has him more whipped than Aussies.
You’ll all be glad to know Newport County won against grimsby…hey, my local side could be playing against the Toon sooner than we think 😆
Newkie(Quote)
Munich my old chum, I think the Germans gave the Spanish tossers a good run around, wouldn’t you say?
My dad says its not over till the little argentine sings but I just told him he may as well pay me now 😎 😆 .
Andymag(Quote)
I’d like to see a blog (if anyone fancies the challenge !) on whether players have generally improved over the years – to their potential – with us, or stagnated/gone backwards.
It was just the comment on BBC about how Lewandowski was close to joining Blackburn a few years back. Would he have become this good had he had gone there? I doubt it. The old nature vs nurture debate.
Players like Cabaye, HBA, Tiote, Cisse, Krul, Sissoko, all have it in their lockers (or did) to become world class. There’s no doubt in my mind that if a few of them were at Man Utd they’d be talked about as some of the great PL players.
We don’t have a great record of players improving a great deal when moving to us imo. Often we suck the life out of exciting talents leaving them with a chunk of the careers squandered.
Ashley’s plan only works if players actually reach their potential while with us.
SolanosTrumpet(Quote)
ST I think it’s obvious well imo that players seem to stagnate or go backwards with us. like try to think of a youngish prospect in the last few yrs that has made it ?? Carroll, Krul ?? we have had so many exciting prospects that seem to just fade away. Then look at some of the older players we have got for them to be top notch for the 1st season then after they seem to go backwards, I have said all along our coaching and backroom staff in general arn’t big enough or good enough for a team like ours.
Newkie yeah I think thats why he comes on here as he is allowed to talk and have an opinion, where as in his house his Lass has to give him his opinion before he can express it
Big Dave(Quote)
ST why don’t you do it yersel ?
Big Dave(Quote)
@Dave
I think I will do when I get a chance. Will definitely make for some interesting reading.
Jesus. Just had a quick flick through from players we’ve signed since 04/05 –
Krul
Arguably (very arguably) Parker
Beye?
Enrique definitely
Bassong
Maybe Coloccini (from a PL perspective definitely)
Simpson
Williamson
Best
Perch
So in the last 9 years these are the only players I can find where we have helped their career and they’ve positively developed with us. And 4 of them the terms “polishing” and “turd” come to mind.
SolanosTrumpet(Quote)
We are not a selling club because Carroll aside we rarely produce any improved talent worthy of selling! Spurs/Arsenal/Liverpool/Everton/Wigan all buy often cheap/relatively cheap players, they blossom there, and then are sometimes reluctantly sold on, that has never ever happened here.
SolanosTrumpet(Quote)