As Newcastle United made it into Round 3 of the Capital One Cup by beating Morecambe two-nil thanks to goals from Shola and Sammy Ameobi, I couldn’t help but think that Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa reminded me of someone – none other than the calamitous Jean-Alain Boumsong.
I think it would be fair to say that Yanga-Mbiwa hasn’t exactly had the best of starts to his Newcastle career following his move from Montpellier in January.
The transition from Ligue 1 to Premier League hasn’t been the smoothest to date and this was further illustrated by his performance yesterday evening.
Given the captain’s armband by Newcastle manager Alan Pardew, convincing and composed are two words you couldn’t use to describe the Frenchman’s performance.
The 24-year-old time and time again was playing himself into trouble at the back and, while he is strong, fast and has great athletic ability, he just doesn’t inspire his teammates or Newcastle fans to have any confidence in him.
Now the comparison to Boumsong is clearly a little bit harsh, but Yanga-Mbiwa was signed for a fee in excess of £5 million (Jean-Alain cost £8m) and both have played international football for France (and both have a double-barrelled name!)
A couple of things in Mapou’s favour are that he was scouted by Graham Carr (who is a pretty decent judge of player), respected football experts in France who have seen a lot more of him rate him very highly, and he is only 24 – he still has time to learn.
There is no doubting that Yanga-Mbiwa has plenty of potential but I’m just not sure he is the man to play first team football right now alongside captain Fabricio Coloccini in the heart of the Newcastle defence.
I hope I’m wrong, but the early signs aren’t great for Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa…
PS: He’s amazing in FIFA, so that’s something!
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Really cant see your point.
Only criticism i have of him is that he does try to over play, but its better than hoof ball, he just needs to learn which he will.
Hes reading of the game is excellent, he makes some crucial blocks at times because the extra yard is in his head. Prefer him to taylor CB, except against a direct team as him and colo lack height together.
Comparison is valid but hopefully this was a one of naff performance, but frighteningly it does beg the question.
Harsh
True he can be guilty of overplaying. I remember the grief Collocinni got from many around me when he first started at the toon. “Why doesn’t he just get rid of it”
Boumsong was awful, £8m after one good season at Rangers, I’m sure Souness made a few quid on that deal!!
Collocinni came good, Mapou is class, given time and support
He’s like Shola in defense. Lacks concentration alarmingly and loses the ball too often. I’ll give him time though and hope he comes good.
What poor journalism. One slightly iffy game (in which we still kept a clean sheet!) and you are writing him off as a flop.
MYM is going to be an awesome player for the Toon.
I would give up the sports writing as a bad job Tom Jones- maybe stick to singing as you are quite good at that.
One slight iffy game? Have you ever been to watch newcastle in the last 6months? Actually probably not judging by your comments you dont have a clue about football, terrible player dwells on ball takes to much time always late in tackle cant communicate and gets booked very often. Infact all the players bought in january are pretty poor to be fair, sissoko had one good game, gouffran might aswell sit in the stands, need some non no name french players in the team if where to survive this season.
What a load of garbage. The defence was cobbled together so barely knew each other. the guy is young and relatively new to the Premiership. He captained his club in France and had a good reputation.
You’ll be saying that Steven Taylor is top quality next instead of being a limited liability who should be playing in the lower leagues.
I’m sorry but I’m not too sure in Graham Carr I trust, I want to see more home grown players seems to me our boys lack the fight for the premiership but that is IMO
Lets hang him out to dry like we normally do!!! Why can’t we ever give players time to settle in, it annoys the piss out of me!!
Noooo!,yanga mbiwa 2 me deserve a first place 2 play with colo in defence than s.Taylor who goes 2 da field ,as if he iz a wrestler.yesterday he had a bad day,since we didn’t conceed i think he iz better.
NOT TRUE!!! HIS SPECIALITY WAS SEEN AS RB!!!!!!!!