Let's have your honest criticism of N'zogbia

[johnnypd]

Duff's been f****** s***. Can't believe some of the praise he gets. Even his better displays have only been good relative to his usual non-shows in black and white.

 

He looked quite sharp when he returned but his end product has been zero. He also looks like one of those players you can count on least when it gets tough.

 

I've not given up hope on Duff working out for us, because his class is sometimes evident. He's another player mightily handicapped by our central midfield/strikers. He at least looked interested and was involved plenty against Man Utd, although most of our initial threat came down the right thanks to Milner and Beye.

 

This is why I think it won't take ridiculous numbers of changes to make us compete again, because we have players who will look infinitely better with some quality players to feed off. Obviously some of them aren't good enough - both central midfielders and the target men we've been playing, and we're still crying out for a proper centre half/left-back.

 

A lot of our players aren't beyond saving though. Duff has lost a bit of pace, but he could still play his part here. Not now though, and not at left-wing.

 

Where do you think Duff could play for us, if not at left-wing?

 

I think he should be sat on the bench at the moment, then tried in behind Owen/Martins if one gets injured or the partnership doesn't work/isn't given a chance.

 

He looks to me to be a player who now needs pace around him to function properly, because he seems to have the eye for a bit of pass-n-move, unlike any of our other midfielders.

 

At Blackburn in particular he had all the tricks and a lot more pace than he has now, which meant he still performed to an exceptional level because he could do a lot by himself - much like I've seen N'Zogbia do for us. Now that he's lost that extra yard, he struggles to beat people to the byline and looks to have started to model his game on feeding balls into the strikers and then running off them - quite probably the way he was trained to play at Chelsea.

 

Unless our playing style alters dramatically away from what it is now and what I expect Keegan to play (fairly direct attacking football with two wingers and two mobile central midfielders, fullbacks bombing on, etc.) then I'm struggling to see him as a first choice player.

 

Sitting on the left-flank I get to see a fair bit of Duff from a good vantage point and I'm yet to see him square up to a man, take it past him to the byline and swing a ball in. All of his crosses come from stationary positions, making it nigh-on impossible for the strikers to do anything worthwhile with them.

 

The best game I've seen Duff have was AZ home last season, when him and Martins linked nicely together and Duff was often in acres of space (more to do with AZ's formation than anything, IIRC) - but that was a one-off because AZ played in such a strange fashion.

 

It's a puzzle, but for me there's only one winner between Duff and N'Zogbia for that LW spot in the current climate.

 

I agree with that.

 

Another point, Duff seemed to have much more power at Blackburn too, remember he used to hit unstoppable shots into the top corner every few weeks or so. Now his shots look unbelievably feeble. This might be related to his loss of pace - ie, legs have gone.

i think it's as much related to that he is soooo very out wide these days. if he comes inside the full back rarely comes outside and to recieve the ball instead of it being played quick it's normally been played via midfiled with 3 players having several touches so the oppo can squeeze the play meaning whoever is out wide has to go to the touch line tryiong to find space (this happens regardless of who we have playing wide)

 

True.

 

I remember picking up on how deep he played when he first came here, whereas at Chelsea he was one of the front-three in a team that dominated possession so always received the ball in and around the penalty box and could simply cut inside and be in a really dangerous position. as a consequence he looked far better for them, while for us he was stranded out wide on the half way line without the pace to carry it forward.

[Colocho]

He can't tackle. He's a left/attacking midfielder, not a fucking left-back.

 

Keegan must go.

[Guest alex]

He can't tackle. He's a left/attacking midfielder, not a fucking left-back.

 

Keegan must go.