James Milner Doesn't Fit In

(Digging for Gold, Aye? Don't worry Man City will give you enough cash)

The England international is a talented player and I can't blame anyone for wanting to buy this player however I looked at Manchester City's lineup on Saturday and thought about any other places that he could be place and I just do not see him getting many games. The midfield and forward line is all but crowded. The only way you could play him is if you play a 4-5-1 and Milner in a wide-role or an attacking midfield role. Who are you going to take out?

Okay if you decide to play him centrally. Then you'll have to take out either Yaya Toure or Nigel De Jong because they do the exact same thing. Or if you wanted to keep both of the field, you'd have to slot Gareth Barry in the left back role. He could do that in emergency circumstances but I doubt that he would love to make that a permanent role.

Milner could be a creative force that is needed in that central midfield spot. When you have hard workers as Toure and De Jong, you'll need that player who can express their creativity. I think on that part Milner could potentially be better than Barry. But you can't have all four in the midfield. I mean you could but if you played that midfield in a 4-4-2 formation I highly doubt that it would work. There needs to be some creativity down the middle.

Plus, if you would play a 4-4-2 then you would leave one of the following out of the lineup. David Silva, Adam Johnson, Shawn Wright-Phillips, Mario Balotelli, or Emanuel Adebayor, and I forgot Robinho. As a manager, you cannot leave that kind of talent on the bench especially when it comes to flair and creativity. Two or three of these guys (with Tevez) could lead Manchester City to the Premier League title. I don't think Milner could do that for you. He is a decent player but I don't think he'll make a splash. He just be one of the squad players in my opinion and within a year, he'll be asking to go to Manchester United or Arsenal (where he could actually be used).

And like I said in the post before in order to have success, you have to be able to maintain the egos in your club. You have to coddle to some of their needs. I don't know about Milner's but some of the players above (Balotelli, Ade, and Robinho) will need that coddling and that'll cost Milner some game-time. Love it or hate it, it's still how this game works.

You cannot play him out-wide in a 4-5-1 or a 4-3-3 for those players above. The only player he might be better than is SWP if anyone on that list but I wouldn't trade a David Silva, Adam Johnson, or Mario Balotelli for him. I think I would take my chances on them. So where does that leave him? Pretty much out to dry. Of course he'll get his chances to show his worth and I don't mind if he proves me wrong because I am not blaming him for making his decision, I am more on the head-scratching side of why Manchester City decided that they needed this player. I think they were perfectly fine after getting the likes of Yaya Toure, Jerome Boateng, and David Silva. Any other team would love that type of summer transfer season but not Manchester City. They want to creative their own FIFA 11 soccer team that could potentially alienate players on the team and no team needs that in the rough and tough Premier League...