The College Dropout

His dreamboat looks and excellent skill has done a lot to mask his mean streak from refs.

Much more Dawson for me than Shawcross. Less aggressive, better with their feet, same die hard action style. Pretty certain the Spurs lads listen to Dawson when he points though.

He can do the basics and his more composed than Williamson but I don't think he's that good of a footballer. More often than not you'll see him pass the ball backwards to Krul or sideways as he knows his limitations. That's absolutely fine by me as he knows that. He's just not like Colo, Santon or even Debuchy who can look up and pick a pass from their position. I don't think he's captain material as I don't think he has the full respect of all the players around him, like you said maybe it's because they know he's a bit of a daft lad? But when you see him out on the pitch with his pointless pointing he tends to get ignored by others. I'd rather he just concentrated on getting his form and fitness back first and him being captain could be too much for him. He made a lot of mistakes in his younger days trying to pass it out and its affected his game. In the countries the others come from, you can do that, make a mistake and you'll be told to persevere until it works. But even still, for a central defender he has a decent first touch and we've seen he's not afraid to carry the ball forward. Colo's the ball carrying centreback and is better at it so smartly, Saylor falls back on that. But he's comfortable on the ball and he doesn't look out of his depth with the other lads at all. He was a decent fullback IIRC. Add that to his Die Hard attitude and he's a good first team player imo. In the Premiership you need at least one British defender imo. i can't think of one solid regular back 5 that didn't include one British lad. Even Chelsea had Le Saux when the vast majority of their team was foreign.

Saylor is blood, guts and sometimes glory. I have a lot of time for him as a player. You need his type in the dressing room and in the first team. He's a better footballer than what he's given credit for. IMO he should be captain or at least VC. Committed. Wears the shirt with pride. Only problem is, he's a bit of a daft lad and i'm sure the others know it

Very true. Big black lad = DM. Even smaller ones like Essien & Muntari spent a good while of there careers being DM's when their passing and shooting where class. I think Yaya has done a lot to break the mould.

Fergie couldn't even give Pogba a game ahead of Ryan Giggs tbf.

Aye. Looking at him now I don't know where they thoght the potential was. Big and slow. Slow, short passing. He's pretty good in a double pivot midfield because he pretty much takes up half the size of the pitch. It seems like even Lampard does more running than him.

Never saw him. I watch a lot of Chelsea and he's pretty crap at that level tbh.

He doesn't like. Behind the striker is his best position and he's good at CM but shackled and a bit of a defensive liability.

Reminds me of when Sevilla bought Baptista. Big black dude = defensive mid, but they deployed him behind the strikers instead and he became a goal machine. Aye. Wasn't Mikel meant to be an attacking player?

Nah never good enough to produce it consistently enough to win the league. But a cup? Most definitely.

Vieira did it for a much longer period so I would agree. Vieira would make my Prem XI Essien wouldn't. We are talking at least a 5 year Prime to 3 years max. Vieira defines a whole Premiership era pretty much. But P4P i've never seen a more complete central midfielder than Essien, as a "role player" for much of his prime too. Could score beauties, excellent range of passing long or short, warrior etc. Yaya comparison is African apples and oranges.

Ballack looked very good whenever Lampard was injured tbf.

Nope. Yaya scores more goals but he's nowhere near the total package Essien was at central midfield. Yaya's best performances pretty much come as a #10 behind a striker with little defensive responsibilities like the way Fellaini now plays for Everton. If you're talking Central midfield, box-to-box Essien takes it comfortably. Yay's a bgf powerful lad but his game is played at a slower tempo than Essien and Essien has a far better engine and work rate. Yaya's almost lazy at CM, definitely in comparison to Essien. Better passer, better dribbler, better close control, much higher football intelligence. and more creative..... Yeah his engine and work rate is a lot higher but that doesn't make him a better player. Some of the passes Yaya has picked out playing as a CM Essien can only dream of. Anyway i realise my opinion is extremely unpopular but its how i feel.... Essien couldn't lace Vieira's boots in regards to being complete, Ballack was more complete also, what i'm talking about in regards to his hype. Essien was fantastic defensively and as mentioned had a ridiculous engine but when you talk about being complete you must consider creativity and goalscoring threat and quite frankly Essien isn't in the league of some of these players in regards to that. Yaya is a better at making powerful runs, that's all you've said that's true. Better passing? Nope. Yaya can do more with the ball when given time and space (see his assist against us) but Essien thought a lot quicker as well as playing a lot quicker. At the end of the day, Yaya Toure's best position isn't even as a box-to-box player so I don't get your point. I know people (going to include VI here) who all say the same thing about Yaya. So I have to question how much you've watched him and your overall football knowledge. Vieira/Essien is a far better comparison and too close to call imo. Essien's scoring record is better than Vieira's at every level too despite playing at least 1/5 of games in defence.

Nope. Yaya scores more goals but he's nowhere near the total package Essien was at central midfield. Yaya's best performances pretty much come as a #10 behind a striker with little defensive responsibilities like the way Fellaini now plays for Everton. If you're talking Central midfield, box-to-box Essien takes it comfortably. Yay's a bgf powerful lad but his game is played at a slower tempo than Essien and Essien has a far better engine and work rate. Yaya's almost lazy at CM, definitely in comparison to Essien. Yaya's tactical discipline and positioning has always been poor. He's a player that you have to accommodate in order to enjoy his strengths; you didn't need to do that with Essien. Essien's decline has been pretty tragic, and he cuts a rather poor figure playing fullback at Real Madrid, but I agree that in his prime he was the most complete midfielder there was. Very true on both counts. 20 years ago he would have been forced to retire by now. He's been spliced up to shreds and he's a shadow now unfortunately.

Nope. Yaya scores more goals but he's nowhere near the total package Essien was at central midfield. Yaya's best performances pretty much come as a #10 behind a striker with little defensive responsibilities like the way Fellaini now plays for Everton. If you're talking Central midfield, box-to-box Essien takes it comfortably. Yay's a bgf powerful lad but his game is played at a slower tempo than Essien and Essien has a far better engine and work rate. Yaya's almost lazy at CM, definitely in comparison to Essien.

Aye for awhile, maybe just a 2 year spell where he was often played in defence. He was pound for pound the best central midfielder in the world or at least in the top 10. Had it all. Long and short passing, could play it quick, terrific engine, high work rate, great in the tackle, could score a few goals. The injuries took it out of him unfortunately but he contributed strongly for a period when British teams had the best central midfields outside of Barca. Prime Lampard/Essien/Makelele vs. Prime Alonso/Mascherano/Gerrard

I agree he has looked tired but he's been poor since Fulham at least.

Yeah the whole time Jonas was injured.

Erm, positioning is the hardest and most vital part about being a fullback.

Balotelli is more similar to Aguero than Tevez/Dzeko which is why he's so out of favour and has been unable to produce. When fit, Aguero starts and plays to his strengths. Principally playing on the shoulder of the defenders, using his pace in behind.

Bobby put a lot of emphasis on energy and pace. I don't know the stats from that season but I'll bet we won a lot of points away from home. Dyer, Bellamy and Robert used to cut teams apart on the break. Add that to Speed and Shearer's threat from set pieces with some craft from Solano and we had a pretty potent mix. Bobby put a lot of emphasis on energy and pace. I don't know the stats from that season but I'll bet we won a lot of points away from home. Dyer, Bellamy and Robert used to cut teams apart on the break. Add that to Speed and Shearer's threat from set pieces with some craft from Solano and we had a pretty potent mix. I said this a while back, but that front 6 is my 'template' for building a good side and probably always will be. Such a fantastic, functional and exciting balance. Agreed. We won and lost with the effectiveness of that front 6.

Santon has been a poor defensive fullback a lot this season. If anything Jonas does his job for him. Don't remember the last solid defensive performance from Santon without Jonas. I think he was saying that Santon has to attack constantly because Jonas offers so little going forward. It's a delicate balance with Santon and Jonas... Jonas does offer some protection but would Santon be able to defend more if a more attacking player was in front of him? I don't really know the answer. Well he was piss poor defensively without Jonas so the answer is probably no.

17 goals in 32 matches for City last season whilst not playing regularly. People like to play dumb with Balotelli. His general level of performance at the Euros was superb. Ran England ragged. Scored a great goal against Ireland. Showed great composure and awareness to find Aguero against QPR when a lesser player would've turned and smashed it.

Santon has been a poor defensive fullback a lot this season. If anything Jonas does his job for him. Don't remember the last solid defensive performance from Santon without Jonas.