Alexander Kolorov

Do you think throughout his career so far he has ever played as poorly as he did last night? I thought he was wretched,absolutely dreadful.
Left back is definitely THE problem position for me. Kolorov doesn't seem anywhere near premier league standard,Zabaleta is not quick enough or tactically aware enough to play against the top sides there,Bridge is only on loan but can't see him returning and he's woeful anyway,leaving Lescott as the only possible at the moment to play there,as he did often enough for everton.
If we only buy 2 players in the summer let's hope it's 2 left backs so we have cover
Maybe we could swap kolorov and jo for Gareth Bale if we pay rubber chops' tax bill

Im not a fan mate to be honest.

Another lanky winger that thinks he is a defender that cant pass over short and can't defend.

I await to be proved wrong, like I was about Dzeko.

I think he is improving but to be fair was pretty cack last night. The 1st free kick, I'll let him off but to then do exactly the same thing on his 2nd free kick is just plain dumb. He then followed these up with 2 woeful long range efforts. However he is definitely not a LB so Bobby has fucked up big time on this signing coz that's why he was signed

I've said it all season on 606 and now here.

He is pants.

Cannot cross, no pace, his shooting is dire............oh yeah, can't defend.

Not sure what he brings to the team - except a little left-footed balance recently........but if AJ was fit...........the guy shouldnt grace our first 11.

Poor signing IMO.

Think his performance against the Rags at OT proved how good/bad he was. The game passed him by at an alarming level, he litterally looked like he had concrete blocks as boots, which just isn't good enough for this level of football(our left back in Vets footy is faster and he's 42).
Full back positions nowadays require speed first and foremost to combat premiership wingers (like cliche, evra, cole, etc,etc) and at the moment City are lacking this on both flanks. Kolarov's no doubt filling in for AJ at the minute but he's just not good enough, imo he could well be on his way out if things don't improve pretty sharpish. I know Danny Alves's name has been mentioned and that's the right side sorted but it's the left back position that seems to be a bigger problem (Lescott and Zab aren't fast enough either to be there full-time).

Trouble is who do we get? There aint exactly hundreds of names spring to mind when it comes to LBs or RBs for that matter. Think Alves has just signed a new contract hasn't he?

Yeah i get where you're coming from there TMG, there aren't too many names that spring to mind, let's hope RM has an eye on someone then.

No idea about Alves tbh.

Leighton Baines - there's one.

Kolarov is no better at tackling than Wayne Bridge. Proof of the pudding is the fact that Bobby has preferred to play Zaba out of position at LB ahead of Kolarov.

Only problem is, after spending a large sum of money on a player who is supposedly the finished article last summer, is Mancini prepared to swallow his pride, and bring in another LB?

I'm not sure if he is to be honest, I often think that Yaya Toure is played due to his wages, despite him being unfit and clearly needing substituted by the 70min mark in 80% of the games he plays.

I think Kolarov had a very good WC and on the strength of that Bobby decided to buy him fearing another would snap him up(always a very dangerous thing to do imo). I feel the guy is typical of a player whose reputation went before him(blistering free kicks).

As someone who lives in Ireland and generally only gets over to see City once a year I'm just wondering how the fans in general are with him, are we becoming frustrated with him and if we're not vocably barracking him does he sense that frustration in the fans and is it affecting his game as a result?

It could be that he just needs this season to bed in as not everyone settles in smoothly from the off. Having said that though...

Assuming we get 3rd behind THEM and Arsenal which will thereby mean Chelsea or Spurs missing out on Champs League we could very well dip our elbow in to test the water and put a summer bid in for Ashley Cole or Gareth Bale.

Leighton Baines, although how likely Gollum is to do business with us after Lescott is another matter!

What about Jose Enrique at Newcastle? In his final contract year next season I think.

Think we might need to stay away from Baines as I'm not sure what Moyes might do to Mancini after that touchline fiasco last season... Attempted murder probably.

Baines is a cracking shout and he can take free-kicks too, would Moyes contemplate a swap deal with Kolarov going the other way?

If it were upto me about signing a LB, then the big signing i'd go for would be Bale, think he could make up into a world class LB for years to come.

I'm not writing Kolarov off yet, but the early signs aren't good.

Shaken,

If we sold Kolarov to Everton he'd probably knock a 40 yarder into the top corner past Hart to win the bloody game so no thanks.

Yaya,
You're probably right there

Remember watching Baines for England & he was fuckin useless. There has to be someone better

Only thing about Kolarov needing to bed in is you look at Dzeko and you can see the talent, he just needs time, you look at Kolarov, and you have to see he doesn't look like he's got a tackle in him, whether he needs time to settle in or not.

I don't agree that Mancini signed him on a bit of a whim, after having a good World Cup. I don't think that's Mancini's style, he is much more presice and controlled than that. Any player we are looking to buy will have a massive dossier produced and Bobby will examine whether he will fit into the team or not. So far he hasn't made a bad buy, but Kolarov looks more and more like an expensive squad player than a world class fullback.

Wouldn't go for Baines. Moyes is brilliant at getting that bit extra out of pretty average players, ie Lescott. Baines looks quality in a pretty an average PL team, but has he got that bit of world class magic that we now look for in a player?

Thing is though are we looking for 'world class players' that little bit too early in our development?

There's better than Kolarov out there, there has to be but they aren't gonna come without champions league football imo.

We need to be able to walk before we can run. Anyone can see we're getting there but we're not there yet.

Rather than criticising Kolarov(however slightly)let's put all our weight behind him coz we've got no choice now until the summer anyway.

We've got enough to break into the top 4 I believe provided we hold our nerve coz that's what it's all about now, bottle... From the manager right the way down the line.

Thing is though are we looking for 'world class players' that little bit too early in our development?

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True, I'd say we are in the market for four types of players:

World class - Tevez, Silva, Kompany, Jo.

Promising young players - Milner, Hart, Richards, Johnson, Dzeko, Boateng, Balotelli.

Hardworkers - De Jong, Barry.

Squad players - Zaba, SWP.

I have to say I think Kolarov fits into the category of squad players, his price tag on the other hand doesn't match this. The starting eleven should be made up of players fitting into the first three categories, the fact that we still have a few players in there who are essentially squad players, suggests that Mancini has not yet built his ideal team.