Enfield Exile wrote:
What makes you say we need a ball player ‘further back’?
If you can point out where I said Barry is a ‘ball player’, that would be great.
He is certainly not perfect and I agree that great players don’t make great managers, However, I would imagine that his background in football would make him a much better judge of players and tactics than someone like Karlssen. In fact, it would be ridiculous to think otherwise.
You'd need a ball player 'further back' as it seems to be a hallmark of most of the better sides over recent years. Look at Madrid and Barca with Xavi and Xabi running things. Last year, when Mancini played that three man midfield (Barry, de Jong, Toure), the biggest problem was the lack of creativity/composure/level of passing, i.e. you had nobody on the level of somebody like Fabregas or Alonso. When playing a three man midfield, it's generally important for one of those players to be outstanding on the ball. Now I know Silva is, but he plays further up.
I never said you said Barry was, just a sly dig at a player I don't particularly rate in comparison to some of your recent marquee signings.
You would expect Mancini to be the better judge, with him being a manager and all that, but I never said Mancini wasn't a better judge, you simply brought up that you'd take Mancini's opinion over his, which is fair enough, but if you seriously believe for one minute that Mancini scouted and picked all of City's signings, you're a mad man. Every club has scouts watching all of the good players around the world, it's these scouts that report things back to the manager or DOF. Now, if Karlsen has worked as a scout, giving his opinion and match reports on players to managers/DOF's, then it isn't too farfetched to believe that he's better at spotting talent than Mancini (I'll add this before you attempt to verbally fist me, I'm not saying Karlsen is better, just that it isn't too farfetched to believe he is). However, the problem with a scout is they're there to spot a player's talent, Mancini is there to be a manager, so if Mancini signs a player believing they can play together, then you'd 100% take Mancini's view over the scout, as the manager clearly has a stronger grasp of tactics and how he wants his systems to work.