Don't see why you've spent £4m on him when he's never played in the prem before but you let Toure leave for nowt?

couldnt agree more, a strange piece of business in an otherwise flawless window from our directors

Kolo has been great for us, so I'm not complaining but it does seem strange!

Kolo couldn't speak Spanish so he had to go.

Think its a case of Players following managers so they have a friendly face in the dressing room. Remember RM brought Vieira with him for a couple of seasons and that worked out fairly well for us. Hughes brought in Bellers so its a natural sort of thing.

We only need him for cover, and what we seem to be missing in the absence of VK is leadership at the back so with his experience hopefully he will bring that.

Said a few times on here I find it strange we let Kolo go just to bring someone in the same age, but it's done now.

Would be nice if he has an eye for a pass too, VK and Nasty can both start moves from the back, that's an essential attribute of any modern CB. Lescott was pinging some horrible balls around yesterday.

Lescott was awful yesterday!

I've often thought that Lescott comes in for some unfair criticism. He's never pretended to be anything he isn't and he's a good honest player. I think he compliments Kompany well.

However, without Kompany, Lescott is horribly exposed as we've seen last season and this. On Saturday, he was very poor and his lack of pace is badly exposed as we try to play a higher line to press the space.

His distribution is very poor and when he pings in those lofted 40 yarders with backspin (having got under the ball) to Aguero I could scream!

The new signing today doesn't make sense to me and I know I'm not alone in thinking it. He doesn't look like an improvement on Kolo but it's not his age that bothers me, it's the reports that he's not lightning quick that has me worried.

Us playing this pressing high line makes us exposed to pace. Our first choice pairing of Vincent and Nasty aren't the quickest across the ground but Vincent's positional sense keeps us honest most of the time. Without him, the lack of pace in the rest of the defence is going to see us struggle even against the lower table teams who have a fast centre forward.

I'm a little concerned.

Demichelis is just the type of player we needed to bring in,whenever Kompany is out we really lack a leader at the back and that's what he is,a leader
I expect him to make himself first choice partner for Kompany with Nastasic as the cover rather than the other way round

PPLF,
I would be delighted to be wrong on this one!

To be fair to Lescott he was played on the wrong side, which you could see he hated.

I'm with Paul tho - an experienced CB is what we need. The new system will expose our back four much more than last year - however it will hopefully also expose the oppositions back four quite a bit too.

Have to say, the pace worries me as well Bell.

I think we have to trust that Pellegrini knows what he is doing with this one though. He had Demechelis with him at Malaga who also played a high line, and he got into the La Liga team of the year.

What is even more important than pace is that all of the team close down very quickly (something that didn't happen in the first half). Got to give it a bit of time yet though, still early days and I can see exactly what he is trying to do.

From what i can see he can attack the ball in the air. The problem he might have is doing that when having to put in a run to get to it. Good protection from set pieces is needed but is it worth the holes that might be created in defence.

Melton,

spot on that the pressing needs to come from everyone. When we've done this (last season too) we have looked exceptionally good as we have the players to then use our possession creatively.

I just don't understand why we can't press in every game. To me, all it takes is players being up for it as well as having good positional sense so they cover for each other and we don't run around like headless chickens.

And that should be a given at this level.

Cardiff and Hull were pressing us from the first whistle and never let up. Both games we started like we were out for a Sunday stroll with the dog, we need to be sharper when games kick off and press much more.

Nastastic is our first choice in my opinion. He is the fastest among all options currently available including Kompany. So I think it will be unwise for Pelegrini to drop him. My view is that Demechelis has been brought in for the right side centre half to cover for Kompany while Lescot will continue to cover for Nasty.

Completely agree bell. We did it against Newcastle and it worked a treat, for some reason, we just didn't do it against Cardiff or hull. It's against those teams that sit deep that its vital we do it, otherwise we don't create any space.

It's an eye opener for Pellegrini though, we will see now if he learns from it and gets the team to change. I have a feeling he will.

Melton,
I share your optimism with Pellegrini,
He appears to be one smart hombre.