...even Bertos in his playing twilight was faster than Manny today.
Wow. Different positions, different types of players. I usually don't mind your analysis on things but I think you've lost it on this one. Bertos at RB was a not-so-successful Ricki experiment.
Perhaps we should bin Mossy because of his inability to make runs into the opposition box and hit the target?
Thanks for the backhanded compliment... I usually "don't mind my analysis on things" either, but equally I don't claim to be a know-all or to get it right every time. However, I don't think I "lost it" here. I was not comparing Bertos with Muscat as right-backs, as Bertos clearly was an attacking winger / midfielder with lots of goal assists, and Manny is a defender, mostly a fullback or an occasional CB.
I simply compared two players who are over thirty. At that age, players in this relatively fast and increasingly skilful league need to have some inherent speed to remain useful as they age, or to limit the ground they can safely cover without leaving their area exposed. Bertos kept up with speed until he was 31, which is what age Manny is now, before he went to that hub of skill and excellence, the Indian league.
Bertos was a faster player than Manny so even as he aged he was able to track back and be useful defending if necessary. Muscat is taller, heavier and slower, so I would prefer not to see him run up the pitch so far that he can't track back in time, especially that he is foul-prone. He might have been able to track back fast enough in the past, he can't do so as easily now. That does not make him a useless player of course; but it makes him a more limited player and he needs to recognise it, unless the team gets the word that it's an all-out attack time and damn the torpedoes (much like against the Jets where we saw Siggy as an attacking mid all of a sudden in the dying minutes).
Harsh on Mossy! I would like to see him take some penalties before he's binned.