Nasri the form he is in, surely. However, Wilshere was very impressive against Barca. He showed experience beyond his years.
Read the article and it was a good read one of the best blogs? out there
On replacing Cesc. Arron Ramsey looks like he the best for the job. If we sign Edin Hazzard from Lille maybe he could play there aswell?
Thanks for the feedback, guys! Good to get some discussion going =)
@Tharros - I don't think Nasri is anything like as effective in the central position as he is as a sort of half-winger on the right, or an inside-forward on the left. The game against Stoke was the perfect example of this.. He wasn't used to it, and no one took responsibility so there was a lot of confusion & players got in each other's ways...
I think it's a common misconception to undervalue the importance and difficulty of Cesc's role. It's not so simple as just staying in between the lines and being involved wherever possible - he's such an intelligent player and he loves to control games and dictate the tempo, meaning that a lot of the time he drops into deeper positions. Nasri doesn't have the tactical awareness to do this, and would be better suited to playing it if Wilshere (a distributor, rather than destroyer) didn't play behind him.
It's mentioned in more detail on the blog but part of the reason Song and Wilshere work so well is because they're polar opposites - not many sides play 4-2-3-1 without two deep "destroyers" behind an attacking midfielder.
@Calum - Thanks!
Ramsey is probably the best option in the LT IMO.
Hazard says he'd rather go to Spain (don't we all?) so that doesn't look like a very likely transfer at the minute...
But does that mean you think we should replace Cesc with a signing, rather than promoting from within?