Mathieu Debuchy

[Cajun]

Love his aggression.

[Benwell Lad]

Probably the best right back in the league at the moment - he's playing like an absolute boss.

 

Yup. Have to go a long way back to remember us having a RB this good.

[ponsaelius]

He is quality

[ponsaelius]

'Getting used to the league' can cover many things but it doesn't excuse the almost laughable lack of recovery pace he showed in some matches, or some of the diabolical decision-making that resulted in penalties and red cards. Some of it was schoolboy stuff.

 

He's in great form now - happy days - but it doesn't change my opinion of how he played previously. As Tiresias says above, he's clearly bucked his ideas up.

 

I think the line in quotation marks can absolutely explain some of that daft stuff. Being off the pace is an obvious one in a league transition and poor decision making also. The red cards I agree, thats just frustration and stupidity on his behalf.

[Guest Haris Vuckic]

Debuchy is a very classy player. If anything he's adapted reasonably quickly.

[Willow]

One of my favourite players for us right now, he's been immense

[gazza ladra]

Probably the best right back in the league at the moment - he's playing like an absolute boss.

 

http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/tacticsandanalysis/id/2310?cc=5901

 

Giggs?

 

You can prove anything with statistics... Debuchy, the best full-back in the league

 

 

 

WhoScored give us their run down of the best full-backs in the Premier League to date this season, with Mourinho's decision to drop Ashley Cole tough to contest after a slow start to the campaign.

 

Atop the pile after an impressive upturn in form is Newcastle's Mathieu Debuchy. The Frenchman has been able to successful marry the defensive and offensive duties of the modern day full-back, displayed in the fact that his statistically calculated strengths are aerial duels, crossing, key passes and tackling.

 

The right-back has garnered an average rating of 7.5 having won the second most aerial duels per game (four) and completed the third most clearances per game (5.8) of all full-backs in the league. Elsewhere he's averaged an impressive 2.8 tackles per game and is one of only seven full-backs to register more than ten key passes this season.

[joeyt]

How do people rate him compared to Enrique?

 

I know different sided full backs etc

[Hughesy]

I never quite worked out why people were so quick to write him off.

[HawK]

Enrique is still better than anything we have at left back, one of the best we've had. But Debuchy is a class above.

[Mole_Toonfan]

Comparing past players is pointless.... especially successful ones.

 

All everyone remembers is the high points and forget all the bad times leading to an over exaggeration of how good they actually were.

 

He's class and all that matters really.

[Guest firetotheworks]

Probably the best right back in the league at the moment - he's playing like an absolute boss.

 

Yup. Have to go a long way back to remember us having a RB this good.

 

I dunno like,  Beye was fucking class for a season and a bit.

[Flip]

'Getting used to the league' can cover many things but it doesn't excuse the almost laughable lack of recovery pace he showed in some matches, or some of the diabolical decision-making that resulted in penalties and red cards. Some of it was schoolboy stuff.

 

He's in great form now - happy days - but it doesn't change my opinion of how he played previously. As Tiresias says above, he's clearly bucked his ideas up.

 

I think the line in quotation marks can absolutely explain some of that daft stuff. Being off the pace is an obvious one in a league transition and poor decision making also. The red cards I agree, thats just frustration and stupidity on his behalf.

 

 

The frustration could've easily stemmed from being a second or two too late due to a higher tempo. Most defenders need time to adapt. Glad he's improving for every game.

[AlanSkÃrare]

Enrique in 2010/11 was fucking unreal at times. Haven't really seen that from Debuchy yet even though he's a top player. Enrique was our best player and even ran a couple of games in both directions (remember Blackburn away?).

 

Still - when was the last time we upgraded a certain position in the manner we've switched Simpson for Debuchy? Woodgate for Dabizas/O'Brien transformed us defensively.

[Guest firetotheworks]

Tiote for Smith/Butt was the biggest I've ever experienced. I'm not even a massive Tiote fan, Smith and Butt were just that shit.

[AlanSkÃrare]

Tiote for Smith/Butt was the biggest I've ever experienced. I'm not even a massive Tiote fan, Smith and Butt were just that s***.

 

Aye good shout. Butt was out of the team for 6 months but Smith was still a starter when Tioté came in. His debut at Everton was when I realised what we had been missing.

[Guest firetotheworks]

When I think about the defence we had in 08/09 I sometimes wonder how we got relegated (Beye, Bassong, Coloccini, Enrique), then I remember that the options they had in front of them were Butt, Geremi, Smith, Guthrie, Duff, NZogbia, Jonas (as an attacking player)

 

With Owen, Viduka and Martins as strikers.

 

 

 

Jesus.

[The College Dropout]

Nolan & Barton too for some of the season. We really missed Charlie in the 2nd half of the season. Add to the fact they were all gutless.

[basjen]

Got his name on my shirt the day he signed. Happier and happier with it

[Guest The_Optimistic]

He couldn't of hit that strike any sweeter at the end of the first half.

[Guest firetotheworks]

I excuse Nolan because he was massively dropped in at the deep end and then did the business for 2 seasons after that. Barton only played like 5 or so times as well.

[Guest firetotheworks]

Christ, just had a look. Barton played more than Smith in that season. I must have just noticed Smith being shit in the few games that he played.

[Yorkie]

I'd argue that Smith's run up front, typically alongside Owen in a 4-4-2, during the second half of 07/08 was the most excruciating experience of being forced to watch a certain player every week. Why even Keegan persisted with it for as long as he did I've no idea. Such relief when he changed it to 4-3-1-2 and we went on a cracking run of results and performances. Nicky Butt in the team every week when we went down was similarly awful; good grief he was fucking terrible. Arguably the worst regular starter I've ever seen for us.

 

As for comparisons of departing full-backs. Enrique is still miles ahead of Debuchy for me - sublime player who was consistently excellent for us. Beye, in his first season, was probably the best right-back I've seen for us, but he soon went by the way-side. Simpson was beyond limited and Debuchy is an obvious upgrade. Really looking forward to seeing Mathieu continue to progress, I just hope Cabaye's departure doesn't have too big an impact. It'd be soft as shit if it did.

[nufc4eva]

I have just had a flash back of Nicky Butt and Alan Smith in same team after his name was mentioned. If you compare those 2 nuggets to Tiote and Cabaye with Anita and Sissoko our strength is twice what we had in the 2 seasons before we went down in that department (Would like a bit more up front)

[Benwell Lad]

High praise indeed from Tom Davidson's very credible tactical analysis blog.

 

STAR PLAYER

Tiote misses out by a whisker but Debuchy deserves all the plaudits for a truly sensational 83 minutes. Scarcely caught out of position despite going forward so much, this was a performance a la Dani Alves for Barcelona.