Jack Colback


Status
Not open for further replies.
For 75 mins there was only Sess looking at doing something different (possibly Richardson a little). All we did was pass sideways for a few minutes lump it in the box for Samba to head it away. We need forward momentum. You need to build up a good head of steam and put teams under pressure and turn defenders round. It was too easy for Blackburn to sit in their positions and they defended facing up the pitch way too much. Very few times till McClean came on did we make them uncomfortable
 
OK I know stats aren't everything but, for the record here's those relating to passing yesterday -


Colback 89% completion (our best)

Bramble 87%

Sess 81%

Vaughan 77%

Bardsley 72%

O Shea 69% (who's taken much abuse for his passing but wasn't worst)

Rico 68%

Wickham 65%

Brown 65%

Larsson 65%

Obviously not the only measure - and you expect different positions to offer different skills, but it's key to CM.
 
I don't think passing was his issue yesterday, he was caught in possession quite a few times in the first half. Don't think he had a bad game to be honest.
 
Looked out of his depth i thought. Looked good on the ball (when he got it) but went missing at times.
 
He needs to start looking up and be more confident at trying to move the ball forwards.

For me, he seems to be falling into the age old "SAFC central midfield easy option" trap and becoming a crab.

Hopefully MON will bring it out of him.
 
OK I know stats aren't everything but, for the record here's those relating to passing yesterday -


Colback 89% completion (our best)

Bramble 87%

Sess 81%

Vaughan 77%

Bardsley 72%

O Shea 69% (who's taken much abuse for his passing but wasn't worst)

Rico 68%

Wickham 65%

Brown 65%

Larsson 65%

Obviously not the only measure - and you expect different positions to offer different skills, but it's key to CM.

Use your nonse mate...

Larsson and Richardson were playing wide so im guessing a canny percentage of their passes were crosses which were cleared by the machine that is Samba hence their sucsess rate being a little lower which is expected.

Brown was the one playing long balls up to wickham proving the same problem.

O'shea on the other hand only had to pass it down the line or inside, nothing risky about it and he gave away 20% of the time!!! Not to mention most passes he made successfully were likely to put the other lad under pressure.
 
I don't get how you think Vaughan was doing Cattermole's role. They're nowt like each other and do completely different things. If anything, they might form a tidy partnership for this very reason.

But then you said David Vaughan couldnt tackle.

Last year he was one of the best tacklers in the league, with more than Scott Parker, Check Tiote and Cattermole.

OK I know stats aren't everything but, for the record here's those relating to passing yesterday -


Colback 89% completion (our best)

Bramble 87%

Sess 81%

Vaughan 77%

Bardsley 72%

O Shea 69% (who's taken much abuse for his passing but wasn't worst)

Rico 68%

Wickham 65%

Brown 65%

Larsson 65%

Obviously not the only measure - and you expect different positions to offer different skills, but it's key to CM.

The reason his pass rate is so high is because he doesnt risk anything, which is what people are identifying. They would probably sacrifice his % rate to see him try a few more defence splitting passes.
 
Use your nonse mate...

Larsson and Richardson were playing wide so im guessing a canny percentage of their passes were crosses which were cleared by the machine that is Samba hence their sucsess rate being a little lower which is expected.

Brown was the one playing long balls up to wickham proving the same problem.

O'shea on the other hand only had to pass it down the line or inside, nothing risky about it and he gave away 20% of the time!!! Not to mention most passes he made successfully were likely to put the other lad under pressure.

Use your's marra. I wasn't presenting these as the total measure of performance, and the reasons behind for some of them are clear with a moment's thought.

None-the-less they tell part of the story, particularly for this thread that Colback is a very neat and tidy passer of the ball.
 
I think he's OK but long term he isn't the answer. Vaughan looks capable but needs to be supported by someone with a bit of drive and presence. I don't think we have anyone on the books to do that unless Gardner comes in and performs that role. Catts is too defensive and lacking in pace though away from home may be useful. I think we need to sign a quality midfielder, in the interim I would keep Vaughan in and pair him with Gardner or Catts.
 
He will ultimately only get better. This is his first Premier League season in reality and at times he looks very comfortable on the ball and looks every bit a Premiership footballer. Like the rest of the team, just needs a bit more consistency.
 
I paid particular attention to colback today,because he gets a lot of slack on this board. I thought he played well, he offered himself for the ball and kept possession with neat and tidy football, also got in And broke up a few of their passages of play. I agree that he played too many sideways passes and I agreed with substitution. But I can't recall him losing possesion many times. I think Vaughan got stronger as the game went on and overall our midfield dominated........finally, these two are far better than cattermole, whom I just don,t get.
 
I don't think passing was his issue yesterday, he was caught in possession quite a few times in the first half. Don't think he had a bad game to be honest.

Vaughan was also guilty of this as well in the first half.

I paid particular attention to colback today,because he gets a lot of slack on this board. I thought he played well, he offered himself for the ball and kept possession with neat and tidy football, also got in And broke up a few of their passages of play. I agree that he played too many sideways passes and I agreed with substitution. But I can't recall him losing possesion many times. I think Vaughan got stronger as the game went on and overall our midfield dominated........finally, these two are far better than cattermole, whom I just don,t get.

He was also certainly the opposition box more often than Vaughan. Whilst I still think Vaughan had the better game of the two.

Use your nonse mate...

Larsson and Richardson were playing wide so im guessing a canny percentage of their passes were crosses which were cleared by the machine that is Samba hence their sucsess rate being a little lower which is expected.

Brown was the one playing long balls up to wickham proving the same problem.

O'shea on the other hand only had to pass it down the line or inside, nothing risky about it and he gave away 20% of the time!!! Not to mention most passes he made successfully were likely to put the other lad under pressure.

To add to that someone had to pass the ball to Larsson and Richaerdson who put in so many crosses (albeit not very good ones). The two midfielders cant play defence splitting passes as there wasn't / isn't enough movement in front of them to do so. The only real option the centre midfielders have is out wide (why we played two wingers). cant honeslt recall Vaughan making many forward passes with the majority of his being played wide yet he doesnt get any stick.

Last week Cattermole was praised for being involved in a couple of our attacking moves yet Colabck done the same for the Richardson chance in the first half any goes completely unoticed.
 
But then you said David Vaughan couldnt tackle.

Last year he was one of the best tacklers in the league, with more than Scott Parker, Check Tiote and Cattermole.



The reason his pass rate is so high is because he doesnt risk anything, which is what people are identifying. They would probably sacrifice his % rate to see him try a few more defence splitting passes.

Do we want him to risk anything? Win it, keep the ball, feed it out to the wings, and ensure they have plenty of opportunity to deliver it into the box will be the remit of all our central midfielders for the foreseeable future under O'Neill you feel. Colback and Vaughan did that brilliantly second half.
 
I paid particular attention to colback today,because he gets a lot of slack on this board. I thought he played well, he offered himself for the ball and kept possession with neat and tidy football, also got in And broke up a few of their passages of play. I agree that he played too many sideways passes and I agreed with substitution. But I can't recall him losing possesion many times. I think Vaughan got stronger as the game went on and overall our midfield dominated........finally, these two are far better than cattermole, whom I just don,t get.

I'd agree with most of that. He's there for the ball and keeps it moving, changing the angles for the opposition to defend against. The other thing I noticed today when you compare him to Cattermole was how much better his first touch is.

Cattermole always worries me. Yes he harries but then he's like a dog with a ball and goes chasing it leaving gaps for others to cover as he's not quick enough to recover. A shed load of his bookings could be cut out if he wasn't left chasing a man but not being able to get there.
 
The reason the 2 in the middle went sideways most the day yesterday was twofold:

1) Blackburn crowded out the area in front of them. They must have had 5 players within 15 yds of each other yesterday, plus 2 narrow fullbacks and 2 very narrow 'wide midfielders'. The centre of the pitch (in Blackburns half) was way too congested - particularly in the second half. They had nowhere to go, eacept go out wide. When they did try and go down the middle, they were finding 2 or 3 blackburn shirts up against each sunderland player

2) As someone esle said, the movement in front of them doesn't really lend itself to a 'defence splitting' pass. neither Sess nor Whickham (or any other forward we have at the moment) really look to get in behind the opposition defence.

Get used to this style of play under O'Neill anyway. He likes wingers with big centre forwards and the two/three lads who end up playing in the middle of the park will be there to break up play and move the ball on. Yesterday, we didn't use the width well enough. The 2 fullbacks were particularly poor and the 'centre forwards' didn't attack the penalty spot enough. Honestly - we should have put 5 or 6 past that team yesterday. They were the worst opposition i've seen in the premier league at the SOL.

Aye, that's the point I was trying to get at with my response. The only player I can think of who fits the bill (and isn't THAT quick) is Yaya Youre. He is absolutely world class though.

By the way, Y Toure is the second quickest player at City. Only Micah Richards beat him in their sprint tests. Hes quicker than Sergio Aguero. I was surprised to read that the other day :eek:
 
I thought he did his job well enough. He contributed to our massive possession and territorial advantage, which we were incapable of taking advantage of thanks to some wayward shooting by Richardson and Sessegnon.

He won some very good tackles as usual. Then when we threw caution to the wind, we took him off and put on a more attacking player to force the matter, which worked That's how it works, but we can't start a game like that. He should start again alongside Vaughan next week. He's the sort of player who would do well against a player like Modric.
 
Last edited:
I thought he did his job well enough. He contributed to our massive possession and territorial advantage, which we were incapable of taking advantage of thanks to some wayward shooting by Richardson and Sessegnon.

He won some very good tackles as usual. Then when we threw caution to the wind, we took him off and put on a more attacking player to force the matter, which worked. That's how it works. He should start again alongside Vaughan next week. He's the sort of player who would do well against a player like Modric.

Remember Catts tackle last year on Modric? Class tackle imo.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Back
Top