Mario Mandžukić (29 Viewers)

Legend or Rookie?


  • Total voters
    68
  • Poll closed .

DanielSz

Senior Member
Sep 6, 2014
12,196
I don't think bad form was a factor yesterday. He was simply outplayed and beaten like never before. For 180 minutes vs Atletico, he was losing air duels and wasn't even allowed to make a jump. He didn't jump or move differently, he didn't run less, he was just outplayed and destroyed.
No other team can do this, so he's gonna be one of the vital players from now on.
He barely even attempted to win any air duels. Does that sound like Mandzukic to you? He clearly was playing through some sort of injury. Even so, he still dragged Godin away from Ronaldo.
 

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dolph

Senior Member
Mar 30, 2006
2,599
He barely even attempted to win any air duels. Does that sound like Mandzukic to you? He clearly was playing through some sort of injury. Even so, he still dragged Godin away from Ronaldo.
He did not drag Godín away from Ronaldo. Do people really think that Atletico forgot about one of the greatest strikers who ever lived to double up on Mandzu. Or could it perhaps be that Ronaldo has a 1,5m vertikal jump and he is impossible to mark.
All Mandzu did was provide an extra body in the box, a job all physical strikers could do. Apart from that he lost almost all duels he went into, and lost the ball multiple times.

He have not scored a goal in 3 months, in general looks like the weakest link in almost all our games, and people keeps praising him on Tuz, and apparently I am the one who is unable to have an objective conversation about the guy.
 

Gzuz

Junior Member
Dec 1, 2015
168
He did not drag Godín away from Ronaldo. Do people really think that Atletico forgot about one of the greatest strikers who ever lived to double up on Mandzu. Or could it perhaps be that Ronaldo has a 1,5m vertikal jump and he is impossible to mark.
All Mandzu did was provide an extra body in the box, a job all physical strikers could do. Apart from that he lost almost all duels he went into, and lost the ball multiple times.

He have not scored a goal in 3 months, in general looks like the weakest link in almost all our games, and people keeps praising him on Tuz, and apparently I am the one who is unable to have an objective conversation about the guy.
Watch the first goal. Where is Godin?
 

tvrtko

Senior Member
Mar 14, 2019
539
I think that if the team was to play without Mandzu, it would be a lot harder to put the same amount of pressure on their backline (regarding crosses and headers in the box at least). I don't know how Atletico set their defense up, but it appeared to me that Godin was on Mandzu most of the time - and even if Mario had a bad performance it definitelly freed up Ronaldo. It's also reasonable to say that this might have been Allegri's plan.

Imo, if Dybala played instead of Mandzu, Godin would 100% be on Ronaldo the whole time (unless he goes wide). Also regarding just physical presence and aerial threat in the box, Kean comes no where near Mandzu. From what we've seen from Kean so far, I think he'd be great against teams that put pressure and play attacking football. He'd be great at disrupting midfields, counter attacks and creating chances for himself by overruning one or two defenders - very explosive and strong on the run.
 
Oct 23, 2011
3,659
I don't want to see him play for a few games and I am not buying the "creates space" thing, naturally a striker has to move and create space for midfielders and other strikers, that's the very least a striker can do. He has been sitting on the wing for half the second half until he got substituted. If he doesn't get his shit together soon, we need to have a serious look at the striker position this summer.
 

K.O.

Senior Member
Nov 24, 2005
13,883
He's having a tough period no doubt, but he was scoring and assisting plenty in the 1st half of the season. I'm pretty sure he's the least of our problems.

Rest him for a couple of games and play Kean.
 

Pirlo's Beard

Junkie Joe Joyce
Oct 2, 2013
11,216
If Ronaldo isn't playing, neither should Mandzukic. He literally exists to be a nuisance and take attention from CR. If CR isn't on we have a striker who is barely in a position to actually score.

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Funny how when Mario has bad games everyone bash about it, but when Ronaldo had his period of bad games for us, nobody said a word.
Yeah funny how our top scorer, CL saviour, statistically best CL scorer of time, 5 time "world's best player" and potential GOAT gets more leeway than our 10 goal a season striker.
 

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