Muamba Our New Savage

Fabrice Muamba believes he can do the same sort of job that Savage used to do for us.

Steve Bruce has in the past likened him to a young Patrick Vieira.

Speaking to the local press the youngster said:

‘It’s always nice when the manager says something like that.

‘I have heard what he (Savage) did for Birmingham, but I am a bit of a different player to him – let’s say we’re not exactly the same!

‘I am a ball-winner, that’s my main job, and I do try to keep the team going. When I have the ball, I try to move it on quickly and pass it simply.

‘That is what the manager asks me to do, to play my normal game. If I can help the team by doing that kind of job, which I believe I can, then I will be happy.

‘I understand that there is a lot of competition here so when I got my chance again I told myself to do myself justice and that meant giving my all.

‘The manager wanted me to keep the team going and make sure they couldn’t come at us.

‘I have played with Nafti before, I am with him every day in training, so I know what kind of player he is and it wasn’t a problem.

‘We try to balance things between us for the good of the team. If one goes forward, the other stays and sits. I thought we worked okay.

‘The longer we play together, you can see us changing and getting better, we look stronger, more powerful and more as a team. And we will improve more as the season goes on, I’m sure of it.

‘Leicester was one of those days when things went against us. It happens. What we have to do is keep working at it, keep working hard as a team.

‘It’s better that we go through this sort of stage now and get it out of our system.

‘We looked very solid against Leicester, the back four was very good and in midfield we helped them. We played really well as a team, we were together.

‘Defending-wise, we had no problems. I think we are okay there. It is just making sure that when we attack we finish teams off. We had chance after chance but couldn’t put them away.

‘We have to keep our chins up and move onto the next game. There are plenty left to play and we are in a good position in the league.’