MICAH RICHARDS – Keep Him or Sell Him? VOTE HERE
9 Oct
Micah Richards resembles marmite. Not a conventional opening to a blog concerning Manchester City I’m sure you’ll agree, but for a while now, I’ve been wondering what other fans of the Blues feel about the Academy graduate and his chances of fulfilling his oft-mentioned potential. Returning to that rather bizarre opening quartet of words, I’ve found so far that City supporters have completely contrasting views about Micah, easily separated into two distinct groups: love him or hate him.
Those who are fans point to his athletic ability, his strength, power, pace and agility. For some players, these factors are combined to produce a monster of a player, but whether Micah can harness these attributes and use them to his advantage remains to be seen. The fact that he has already amassed a number of caps for England certainly highlights his potential, but it’s worth remembering that those caps came a while ago, and Fabio Capello has yet to deem the defender worthy of a call-up to a more disciplined and tactical side.
His form at the start of his career was what prompted may to christen him as the ‘next big thing’. And for a season or two, he looked like the real deal. Alongside Richard Dunne, he played centre-back in the Premier League in his teenage years, no small feat in itself, and his form was impressive enough to earn regular inclusions in the national squad.
But then came the departure of Dunne, and Micah suddenly seemed lost. He was, and is still, not able to read a game at any level, relying totally on his pace and power to bail him out of tricky situations. He was shifted to right-back in the hope of recovering his form, and found that he enjoyed the license to roam forward and influence out attacks. No-one has ever doubted his physical presence, but it’s the tactical side of the game that has fans worried.
The great Australian cricketer Shane Warne once said that Monty Panesar, an England spinner, had not played 37 tests, but he had played one test 37 times. This statement was based on the fact that Panesar never thought for himself, never seemed to learn and always relied on others to do his thinking. And I can’t help but feel the same way about Richards.
After a bright start to his career, he hasn’t really kicked on, and many would argue that he is now City’s third choice right-back, behind Jerome Boateng and Pablo Zabaleta. What particularly grates me is his inability to track back quickly after any attacks. He always lopes back at the pace of a tortoise completing a marathon, never displaying any commitment to the cause.
I don’t want to sound overly negative because he’s still a relatively young man, and could develop into a top player. With our resources as they are, we can easily afford to bide our time with him, but only if he looks to be making progress.
Let me know your views below, and please take the time to vote in this poll.
My my, you do like to be contraversial don’t you?
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head there, in the post-Dunne era (if enough time has elapsed to allow the period of time in question to be entitled as such), Richards has seemed all at sea. I think minus the rampaging dash up the field last season (against Birmingham?) his efforts have been contained to poor touches and substandard attempts at passing the ball.
When he burst onto the scene, I wasn’t too fond of him. Now, I am even less partial to seeing him named even on the substitute bench – for the single reason that he is simply not good enough.
VERDICT:
SELL, SELL, SELL.
there is seems to be a new trend amongst fans that players must produce the goods from the age of 18 these days
Players take time to develop mentally and physically. Because richards physical aspects, he was jettisoned into the 1st team at an early age.
god forbid, players are given time to develop. Drogba was only given a prof contract when he turned 21.
Theres nothing controversial about it, hes not good enough
He is good looking by the way.
Im voting ‘Not Sure’.
If he deletes his blog, stays out of the media spotlight and knuckles down then I say ‘Keep Him’
If he don’t then I say had enough and ‘Sell Him’.
Steven, as impressive as it seems, this blog could have been summed up in one paragraph which was >>>
“The great Australian cricketer Shane Warne once said that Monty Panesar, an England spinner, had not played 37 tests, but he had played one test 37 times. This statement was based on the fact that Panesar never thought for himself, never seemed to learn and always relied on others to do his thinking. And I can’t help but feel the same way about Richards.”
That is a brilliant conclusion on its own and a master of a paragraph.
Another thing you should have perhaps highlighted a tad more is the effect Dunne had on him. That was massive and like you say, i would pinpoint his departure as the downfall of Micah.
COuld cut the grade in another side in the premier league, he is good enough, but not good enough when compared to the likes of world cup star Boateng and general boss Zabaleta
Great article, and an idea for the next play feature i think should be a striker….but thats up to you, you are the boss!!
Micah Richards is the most athletics Defender in the world and we would be absolutely crazy to let him go. Putting zaballeta over him onto the field is the most ridiculous thing i have ever heard. Micah consistently plays well when Kompany is back there leading our defense. Micah Richards is the youngest defender ever to cap for England and if he leaves City it will for sure come back to bite us in the ass
I voted to keep him because he is young, home grown, and is needed by the squad. He would not play very often, but is good cover. He will not play for England again because the current manager does not rate him, but Managers change and he may yet improve.
You’re right about the “Marmite” effect Micah ahas on people, and I’m firmly in the love Marmite, love Micah camp (on a totally platonic manly kind of way!).
He has proven he has the ability, he needs to harness it, which he’s shown signs of doing over the last 6 months or so, inbetween unfortunate injuries.
Several well-informed commentators have suggested he “over-trained”, bulking up unneccessarily, which lead to his lack of pace and loss of form all round. If this is true, it will take him possibly years to readjust his body back to how it should be, so we should give him all the time he needs.
He cost us nowt, he’s still a kid, he could be the very best, to hound him out would be lunacy in my humble opinion.