javi garcia

subtly intrigued by his ultra minimal interpretation of the defensive midfield role which consists of playing within about 10m between the defence and the centre circle, 80% of the time walking, taking the ball from one central defender and playing it to the other one

Hmm yes totally

“That’s really harsh. Because if it’s cold, you wrap up warm and that’s that, but it’s really tough when it’s getting dark at half past three.”

Garcia went on to add that the fans are less critical than in Spain and that the players accept it and move on, whereas in Spain there would be “five minutes of protests and squabbling.”

“What I like most about English football is that even if you make a bad challenge, the players and the fans don’t complain. A lot of the challenges that happen in the Premier League would cause five minutes of protests and squabbling in Spain. Not here – people get over it and move on.”

no summary canklecution, losing yr grip ffs

garcia is most anonymous massive signing ever

http://i.imgur.com/QuxNOSD.jpg

barney ronay has seen what is happening but he misattributes some higher purpose to his immotility which isn't there when javi is truly himself, gently ambling in brownian motion in the vicinity of a football match

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/feb/01/javi-garcia-manchester-city-screen-idol

Juanfran Torres, Álvaro Domínguez, Javi García, Beñat and Adrián made their debuts with the national team (Juanfran started, the other four came in as substitutes in the second half). Congratulations, and hopefully there are many more caps in their future, as they are all fantastic players.

that is just about the perfect selection of third tier spanish national team players who will never do anything ever

33 yr old centre back chosen ahead of him in dmid

Injured? Demichelis ahead of him does seem a bit wtf if he's fit

hes on the bench, as is rodwell

think manuel fucked up playing 442 without aguero

Not been watching long so may have missed a sighting but none of the usual sites name him among the subs. Demichelis is creaking out there

yeah i just refreshed this liveblog and they have boyata listed there now

milner could also play cb

i like pellegrini but the amount of trust in demichelis is not a good sign, i hate it when managers favour their old (in this instance going back to their time at river plate) players at all costs

/cm/

Who do you hook to change shape though? Dzeko feels kind of cumbersome in this line up without Aguero in there but Jovetic doesn't seem trusted. Milner in on left and Silva into the middle?

yeah, the latter, they were playing silva behind aguero with navas wide the other day and it worked really well

sorry silva behind negredo

hes looked rather good tonight but pellegrini's lack of trust in squad goons like rodwell is apparent

ts: garcia v mikel

theyre quite similar players, javi probably displacing mikel as the utilitarian dmid king

the mystery with mikel is that he played #10 for nigeria in their youth teams and was named one of the players of the tournament alongside messi in one them

mikel fucking useless on the second goal

mikel has managed to stay surprisingly low profile but mourinho clearly loves him like pellegrini loves garcia. he is a little more offensively minded; was up the pitch leaving a hole for second city goal. not sure when I've seen garcia attack, but he was good in a solid midfield

mourinho loves essien, trusting him in 2013 when he was beyond done, i dont think he likes mikel as a player very much because he hasnt developed the faultless defensive aptitude that makalele or cambiasso had (hence buying matic), but he would like to keep him as a squad player because he is one of the few who go back to his first era, and he is one of a vanishingly small number of players who mourinho brough through as an under 20 during his entire career so there is some of that karate kid mentorship there

garcia doesn't seem to offer anything offensively except at set pieces where he can be very dangerous in the air (i think he set up that disallowed goal today with a knockdown)

i like pellegrini but the amount of trust in demichelis is not a good sign, i hate it when managers favour their old (in this instance going back to their time at river plate) players at all costs

― Pedro Mba Obiang Avomo est un joueur de football hispano-ganéen (nakhchivan), Monday, 3 February 2014 21:03 (2 weeks ago)

http://i.imgur.com/A9EtfmF.jpg