Alex Song

[Daemul]

So many people obviously did not watch Song at Arsenal, he's still trying to adapt to our system. If you think new players can just come into a winning team and just starting having 10/10 performances from the get go then you don;t know anything about football.

 

[Trickykid]

He had a rather nervous beginning to the match, but his second half was great. Perhaps it was due to us controlling the match at that point, or perhaps he was part of that reason, I don't know. Solid as a rock in either case.

 

[Ursegor]

I don't expect much from him. Except allowing Busquets rest in fixtures like today.

 

[Barcaman]

Was solid tonight. Does more than Busi at the back too. Still makes a mistake here and there but overall looks a good backup option.

 

[GiantKiller]

I wonder if he'll get to play in the midfield once he improves his passing ability....

 

[barcanuck]

I watched Song very closely today and he had a diaster of a game. Handfuls of times he got us in trouble by either a) Holding on to the ball too long and losing it b) Not going forward with the ball and turning backwards and passing back to put our defense under pressure c) Losing 50/50 duels with 3rd divison players.

At one point in the second half Xavi, Masche and Pique were all doing long passes to avoid him.

I'm going to have nothing but patience for someone who is still learning the language, style and culture. Just sayin' not a good game.

 

[Semi-Neutral]

I'm going to have nothing but patience for someone who is still learning the language, style and culture. Just sayin' not a good game.

Completely agree with this, it's so unreasonable that people expect him to be an instant success. People are already going "why did we buy him" and it's just ridiculous. Once he figures out how to play for us he'll be excellent.

 

[Malappapper]

He was very good last season with Arsenal, but I am not sure why we bought him and for such a high price (20m if I am not mistaken) He does not seem very confident in the few occasions that he played.

I hope he succeeds and becomes able to provide cover for a) Biscuits, b) the CBs

 

[mitkoa7x]

He's growing on me, hope he keeps improving.

 

[kostasgtc]

that man is a part of a team which has 22 wins in 26 games and already played 13 games as a starter while learning the language.goood job for me.

 

[Deco 20]

I watched Song very closely today and he had a diaster of a game. Handfuls of times he got us in trouble by either a) Holding on to the ball too long and losing it b) Not going forward with the ball and turning backwards and passing back to put our defense under pressure c) Losing 50/50 duels with 3rd divison players.

At one point in the second half Xavi, Masche and Pique were all doing long passes to avoid him.

I'm going to have nothing but patience for someone who is still learning the language, style and culture. Just sayin' not a good game.

Completely agreed. Might add that he could've been sent off and making bad passes that lead to Xavi/Thiago losing the ball cause they were already swarmed. Hopefully he'll come good in the second half of the season.

 

[jiopi]

Completely agreed. Might add that he could've been sent off and making bad passes that lead to Xavi/Thiago losing the ball cause they were already swarmed. Hopefully he'll come good in the second half of the season.

You mean the passes like Xavi and co. constantly make to Messi?

Solid game for me.

 

[jiopi]

But he still seems like he's thinking too much, as he seems to freeze time to time with the ball, little bit unnatural still. But that can only improve.

 

[sabby]

Completely agree with this, it's so unreasonable that people expect him to be an instant success. People are already going "why did we buy him" and it's just ridiculous. Once he figures out how to play for us he'll be excellent.

Its not that he is not a very good CM but the fact is we always had Mascherano for backup for busi and he's very much assimilated with our system. Instead of spending 20m on keita's back up, we needed a future back-up of Puyi.

 

[Trickykid]

Its not that he is not a very good CM but the fact is we always had Mascherano for backup for busi and he's very much assimilated with our system. Instead of spending 20m on keita's back up, we needed a future back-up of Puyi.

It should be clear as day to everyone by now, that Masch isn't a DM anymore, and most likely won't ever be again. At least not for us. Masch just doesn't have the basic skill set that's required for a DM in our system. Whether Song has this is probably debatable, but he's a much better fit, on paper at least, than Masch is.