Unfortunately, Yaya is abysmal in tracking his players and looks very sluggish in fighting for ball. Garcia is simply to slow. This would leave a gap in our midfield, expose our backline and leave our Merlin unprotected to be pushed off the ball left and right. Basically this would make our midfield incapacitated [as was very evident in our last two games]. Having Rodwell and Milner ,at least on paper, should inject mobility and ball fighting there.

As for Tevez, it is not the case the we have any width and he would take it away. One thing City does not have is width. Tevez , like Milner, has a high work-rate, fights for balls and has great foot-work. And with Yaya in advanced role, our midfield gets the needed steel and that should open up enough space for our little Silva and Augero to do their job.

“Edin has a (much) higher minutes per being caught offside (238 versus 68)”

I prefer to see Yaya playing further forward but in truth, his best play from this part of the park has been later in the second half of games and mostly last season. It has worked when when some of the sharpness has gone from the opposition defenders legs and on a good few occasions it has been after Mancini has brought on a second DMF (last season DJ) in exchange for a forward, and has then pushed Yaya upfield.

If you start with Yaya upfield on his current form and have two DMF, in effect you have 3 DMF for the first half against any side that gets into our faces. To accomodate this you have Carlos (at least nominally) out on the right. If he does what he does best he comes inside and we have no width other than that provided by the FB’s.

It a problem. At present Yaya on a good day is perhaps 80% of his 2011/12 season best. Both Garcia nor Rodwell have failed to show that they can do the job that DJ did but then DJ was peripheral by the time he left. Scaroace wants a footballing DMF in the DeRossi mold and whilst Garcia probably has the footballing bit, he doesn’t have the pace or the bite. Rodwell can play a bit too, but is probably better in the Barry role.

One thing about partnering Milner with Rodwell is that we would get to see whether Milner has the all round vision and ability to complement his other excellent attributes and make a success of the box to box MF role and whether together the pair of them have something to offer that is compelling.

This is what International Business News thinks will be the team:

Probable Line Up:Hart; Maicon, Kompany, Nastasic, Kolarov; Silva, Rodwell, Y.Toure, Milner; Dzeko, Tevez

I think VfaB has better sources