Sorry, once again, for a delay in ‘posting’. Not for
the first time have situations [since the Roma
game on this occasion] got in the way of me ‘Blogging’. Huh…life hey?
Inflexibility and disappointment
I rarely have a go at our manger – why would I, he’s done
very good by us in the main since his arrival. But, like many, I said before the Roma game that he should adapt a
different mentality – and certainly formation – when playing in Europe and his failure to do so cost us.
An injury-hit Roma side were, okay, but they were no Bayern Munich
and were there for the taking at home on Tuesday night. We missed an
opportunity to make amends for the travesty of the last-minute goal in Germany
What is “fearing the worse”?
Well for me it’s the often-dreaded possibility of finishing
3rd [rather than 2nd or 4th] and slipping into
the Europa League. Now I need to be very clear
here in that, unlike a heck of a lot of footy fans of ‘top sides’, I do not
pour scorn on this competition. For me, as a Manchester City
No, instead my fear is also one shared by many, which is
that your team is then flung into the Thursday night Europe / Sunday afternoon Premier League scenario; often the cause of
disruption to domestic affairs (for whatever strange reason). As I still hold ‘all
things domestic‘ in higher regard than European ventures at this moment in
time, this would be a bad thing for me personally.
Back to the game…
Why did he go 4-4-2, especially knowing that one if his
strikers is less than mobile? We use to have a player at City many years ago
called David Brightwell (brother of Ian…and “son of
Ann Packer & Robbie Brightwell”) and for his lack of
mobility and general ‘statue-like’ performances, a few of us used to nickname
him “lamppost”. In my mind – and in most
games – Edin Dzeko is starting to adopt
that less-than-flattering nickname.
And at the back…didn’t we bring in the pace & power of Mangala for these very occasions? What the ‘eck was Pellegrini thinking in choosing Martin over Eliaquim for this one? Please tell me it
wasn’t a reaction to his ‘off day’ at Hull City
3 days earlier.
At home – and with a thin midfield against theirs – Yaya was largely ineffective again, as was Fernandinho. How much of that WAS down to them and
their general, sluggish start to the season or their manager’s choice of
formation in this game is open to debate.
T’was good to see Jovetic
get a small run out.
It was a bit of a shocking [low] crowd too; a bit of an
embarrassment to be honest. This is a good piece
regarding that and the night in general.
Roma fans behaved from what I observed, which was good. But I have never seen
that level of pre-match security at our ground for the away fans. It was
“proper”. I counted 37 (minimum) different Police vehicles in the main, away car park
alone; a lot of riot-clad officers, larger than normal barriers and a
couple of airport-like detectors that fans had to walk through as well as being
searched. My suspicions about their rumoured reputation was certainly a shared one
but, thankfully, nothing transpired as far as I know.
So…back to ‘bread & butter’ then
Aston Villa in the Premier League and, so, 4-4-2 right? Well I’m sure
our Manuel will want to deploy that formation but, as is becoming the theme lately, I’m not sure I
would.
Despite ‘goals from
the pair’ over the last few seasons whenever they’ve played together, I’m
becoming less and less convince that the Aguero
/ Dzeko ‘combo’ is as effective an attacking force as we can have – and isn’t
it all about putting your most effective team out?
There’s a red (one who actually goes
to games regularly!) in my place of work; a rather eccentric fellow who
is so anti 4-5-1 / 4-6-0 he appears to be genuine when he repeatedly says the
line,
Mind you we’re also
talking about the same chap who believes that fullbacks shouldn’t cross the
half-way-line…
Don’t get me wrong, I love a good 4-4-2. A perfect
combination for me, in fact, is a tricky, skilful winger on one side and on the
other, a fella with blistering pace! Both must be able to cross a ball with
accuracy most of the time too, of course, and then sticking a couple of different-sized,
quality strikers in there to receive those crosses and I too would like to
think it’s a formula that works. Sometimes it does.
But that formation / structure is also reliant on having
two, quality, disciplined and energetic central midfielders ‘in there’ these
days and whenever it WAS that teams started to play with more than 4
midfielders – or having one of their two
strikers come deeper as a kind of ‘link man’ in an almost attacking, advance
midfield role – whenever faced with that you sometimes have to accept that
you may get overrun and will, therefore, be forced to adapt; almost ‘fighting
fire with fire’ if you will.
Magnifying glass out…
Before their recent back-to-back, 3-0 defeats at home to Arsenal and away at league leaders Chelsea, it’s notable that Villa kept 3 clean sheets
when winning 3 and drawing 1. Now you could, of course, analyse each of those 4
games (and Villa players) and try to assess how they did it. Certainly Manchester City
I’ve had a quick
look at what I wanted to focus on, which was the possession.
- Stoke City 0-1 Aston Villa: Villa 38% overall game possession
- Aston
Villa 0-0 Newcastle United: Villa 40% overall game possession
- Aston Villa 2-1 Hull City: Villa 45% overall game possession
Conclusion? Well it says to me that they defend very well
and, again without digging too deep, it could mean that they DON’T, in fact,
play with great numbers in midfield…or it
could mean that their midfield is just pretty bobbins.
Either way, their lack of possession does strongly suggests
that they don’t hold onto the ball too much in the middle; DO defend
very well and, perhaps, then hit teams on the break. Well…we certainly felt the force of that one ourselves last season in that bizarre 3-2 defeat at Villa Park; where we destroyed them for the most part
but just didn’t kill ‘em off.
That day we played with 2 strikers in Alvaro Negredo and Edin Dzeko in a very-much old fashioned 4-4-2, as both strikers aren’t ones
who like to ‘come deep’ and are, instead, very much ‘in front of goal’ men. Milner & Nasri
were the wing men that game with Toure & Fernandinho providing the only
central midfield substance (notable absentees that day were Silva & Aguero).
Leading 2-1 as the game approached the last quarter of an
hour, Villa slammed in a well-placed free kick and 90 seconds or so later; they
broke, sliced through us like the proverbial hot knife and they ‘smashed and
grabbed’ 3 points.
Getting to the point, then…
Despite having ALL THREE strikers available today I’d start with
just one, with David Silva the more ‘advanced floater’ just behind. And do you
know what, I’m going to stick my neck out and suggest that ‘The Engineer’ might
just be tempted to do so too.
My Pellegrini-predicted line-up:
v Aston Villa
4-4-1-1:
_______________Aguero_______________
________________Silva________________
Milner____Toure___Fernandinho___Navas
_________________Hart________________
A decent side and 'set up'...and one I mostly agree with.
I, personally, would go with Clichy & Zabaleta as the
stronger of the two defenders away from home and, in particular, with the pace
Villa seem to have down their right-hand-side it worries me a little to start
with Kolarov. But having played both Gael & Pablo from the start against
Roma, I think our manager will have half-earmarked this one for Aleks and Bacary in advance.
He’s got to go with Mangala and Kompany here – they need to
start ‘bonding’ now.
With Fernando probably not quite right yet for a ‘start’, his longer-named colleague gets the
nod again next to Yaya in the middle of the park. With him looking over his
shoulder at the emergence-from-injury of the ex-Porto
midfield; I expect a good game from the Brazilian today. I think Yaya might
show last season’s colours too; anything less and recent pundit calls for the
Ivorian to be given some time off to ‘reflect & refresh’ might soon be on
the cards.
Milner deserves his start; he and Navas on opposite sides
should cause the home side some serious issues.
Silva to be a ‘key player’ in an advanced role behind
Aguero, who I hope can muster more than one goal today.
A very strong bench that sees ‘Super Frank’ set aside for Fernando, I think. Good defensive cover there
and TWO very different strikers on the bench.
Result? As I’ve
indicated they are ‘stingy’; can (and have) hit us on the break. And there’s a
rumour that the powerful & dangerous Christian Benteke
may even make a return-from-injury start!
But I’m going for comfortable away win for us in the end,
despite the fact that I think they may nick a goal against us.
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