There were so many reasons, I bemoaned yesterday, why I thought we lost against Spurs that it was just too long to put into a whinging text to fellow Blues.
So here goes…
Sick notes
Firstly, let’s get the one out of the way where we’re going
to receive NO sympathy whatsoever from anyone else in the world of
football; be it a fan, pundit or other football club itself. It’s the injury
list.
In direct connection with yesterday’s game we had…
No Joe Hart (on the bench but
still suffering with a slight back niggle).
Did that make a difference? Oh BOY did that have
an impact! The biggest teller, personally, of just what a poor, POOR game Willy Caballero had is that despite 2 and perhaps
even 3 really, really good saves that he made I can give him no more than a 2.5/10 rating. He was shocking!
For a supposedly experienced keeper
his decision making – or lack thereof
– and lack of command of his box at crucial times cost us goals yesterday where
you just KNEW that Joe would have had it sorted.
No Vincent Kompany (just
about recovered from injury; on the bench but then withdrawn at the last minute
due to illness, we heard yesterday).
Did that make a difference? Well considering he was likely
to be paired up with Nicolas Otamendi and,
therefore, would have been in place of Martin Demichelis…and WITH Martin having a very poor game in general then, yes;
WHAT a miss our Captain was! So that’s our best keeper and best central
defender / captain out. Want more issues at the back?
I never thought I’d
be saying this about a player who CAN be so very flaky (and was indeed so in
many ways against West Ham the other week)
but no Eliaquim Mangala (out with a muscular injury with a
return expected to be around the mid to, more
likely, end of October).
Did that make a
difference? Well…for the most part in the first half I’d say “No”. Assuming he
would have been ‘in there’ instead Otamendi – and let’s be honest in the first 5 games of the season both Mangala &
Kompany were playing pretty well together and so most likely would have
featured as a central-two pairing yesterday – I thought Nicolas had a good
first half for the most part. In fact, so poor was Demichelis at times that Otamendi
had to cover a lot of ground and ‘mop up’ for his fellow Argentine.
But he too then
faded badly and joined in the chaos that was the heart of our defence; where
all three Argentineans had a collective NIGHTMARE! And so did not-having Mangala on the pitch
make a difference? I’d have to say, then, “Yes” as a one word answer…but will
add that the ‘combo’ of no Eliaquim & Vinny was more-so missed.
No David Silva (missing for a 3rd game in a row and it is hoped
that he might be back for the midweek
Champions League game but, more likely, the next home game in the Premier League this coming
Saturday).
Did that make a
difference? Do we need oxygen to breath? Okay…we spent a HELL of a lot of money
on the likes of Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne in the summer to be able to, surely, cope with losing one influential
player; even if that loss is of the footballing stature of our little magician.
But, I suppose,
you’re then relying on ‘the others’ to ‘step up’ and make sure that loss isn’t
felt so much and yesterday, for the most
part, I didn’t think they did.
And while we’re having a
whinge about injuries - not directly affecting yesterday’s outcome for a
variety of reasons BUT well worth pointing out also, are…
Gael Clichy -
Has hardly played this season so far and has,
therefore, not been able to relieve nor put any pressure on Aleks Kolarov. Surely our
French left-back would have been chosen in a rotating system to either good or not-so good effect…
Pablo Zabaleta –
Has been missing all of the season so far. However, I suppose following a below-par
season from our right-back stalwart last term AND the fact that Bacary Sagna has been very good for his place this season anyway; we
can’t say that this has affected us TOO much I suppose.
Fabian Delph –
With Fernando ALSO being out / unavailable until the last couple of games
it would have been handy to have-had the England defensive midfielder fit as an
option at least. Has he even played 30
minutes for us?
Wilfried Bony – Continues from last season to be brittle; with various
niggles / injures. This season so far he’s had a virus, a muscular injury, a large
cut to his shin and now a “knock”, which he’s expected to have recovered from
sometime this week. If I ever see him crossing the road near
to the City Football Academy training ground I’m
steering clear! Having said all of that, many
City fans (perhaps NOT taking into
account all of the above illness & injuries) are still very much on the
side that this fella is turning out to be a City-purchase flop. I, personally, still hold some considerable hope for him…
Kelechi Iheanacho – WHAT an opportunity missed for the young, exciting-looking
striker! Not his fault of course – he’s yet ANOTHER victim of injury! Out with
a groin / pelvic problem; he too is expected to return sometime this week to hopefully help take the burden off a
clearly not-quite-right Aguero.
Performances
Decent:
Thankfully both
Aleksandar Kolarov and Bacary Sagna in particular had good games
yesterday. Had it not been for them TRYING, at least, to glue the rest of the
failing defence together then God knows what the score might have been.
Fernando, I thought,
had a terrific game yesterday; particularly in the first half where he made at
least two crucial tackles and did his best to be a ‘protective shield’
throughout.
His partner in the
middle Fernandinho also ran his socks off
and made some vital interceptions. However, needing to protect a sieve-like
defence trying to stop soup;
his heavy defensive duties then nullified any chance of him going forward to
help Yaya Toure create.
Asked to play in a
more-advanced position just off the striker – his territory in many ways – Yaya himself played pretty well for
the most part (before
he TOO went off with a hamstring injury – no
word yet of how serious / an expected return date).
Pretty poor:
Martin Demichelis - so often the calm, reassuring 'steadier'; yesterday he was pulled all over the shop and got unnecessarily booked as the players left the pitch at half time for arguing with the referee too much about their first, off-side goal.
Kevin De Bruyne continues to be a very good threat indeed and, for the most part and aside from a few wayward passes / crosses in the first half, was our second-best player in my opinion [behind Bacary].
However…if we’re going to heap well-deserved praise
on our new signing from Wolfsburg then we
have to point out, also, where he failed.
What the HELL (yes I have found a new
font on my PC) was he thinking of with that pass, which lead to their
equaliser (oh yes…don’t forget we were once
leading in this eventual 4-1 defeat)!
Anywhere…ANYWHERE he could have kicked the flippin’ ball when
he passed it straight into the middle of the danger area and, from memory, he had acres of room to run
it safely into to his right and perhaps, even,
had a colleague in a safe position on that same side to pass to! And this, let’s not forget, was
a minute before the break; a CRUCIAL, game-changing decision from the young
Belgium.
Did he redeem
himself in the second half? Did he ‘eck – he went into hiding and, therefore, didn’t
help to fill the huge, creative gap left by the missing David Silva.
Raheem
Sterling haters will have loved
this game…and I’m talking about both non-City AND City fans alike. Quite brilliant
against Sunderland just 4 days earlier; he
ran into brick walls and blind alleys against both Juventus
and West Ham…and yesterday his [usual] high efforts produced little end product
again yesterday. Lively looking but just didn’t hurt the Spurs defence when he could / should have done.
Aguero looks like
he’s playing with an injury that’s niggling him / causing him to worry and,
therefore, not push himself beyond 80%...and
/ or is very low on confidence. A shadow of what we all know he can be.
Awful! Truly,
truly awful:
I’ve already
covered ‘our Willy’ – he most definitely gets into this category from
yesterday.
Jesus
Navas. The fact that our ‘Forrest Gump’ was only on for 38 minutes and STILL managed to put in such an appalling display is a new low even for him.
He just cannot…CANNOT flippin’ beat a
man or cross a ball – surely two prerequisites for a winger, no?
Not worth rating / slating…
Nasri & Roberts
on too late to change things in a game that was looking more and more lost and
the seconds ticked on…
Other factors in yesterday’s defeat…
Straight away I’ll
point to the off-side goals. However, equally quickly I’ll then point to the
fact that if you scratch off those three poor decision (although our goal was very, VERY tight indeed and, therefore, I
suppose we can forgive the ‘lino’ for that one) the score-line still reads
2-0 to Tottenham.
And the old ‘Manchester
City factor’ came back to haunt us. What do I mean? Well if you’re a long-time
supporter of the blues then you’ll know exactly what I mean when I say that in
their last 4 games Spurs managed to score just 1 goal in each of 3 games and
failed to score in the other one. Put another way, 3 goals in four games and we
then allow them to then break that form by letting them smash 4 past us
in just one game!
Not convinced
that the old City trait came back yesterday? Then I give you Harry Kane – couldn’t score in a house of ill
repute all season (I think someone said it was over 1,000 minutes) and then…BANG! He almost-inevitably gets one.
Now THAT’S the
old ‘typical City’ kind of thing I remember with not too fond-a-memory…
And we have to also
chuck in…
…the Sergio Aguero / striker factor
I have heard Manuel Pellegrini being asked on more than one
occasion in his pre-match ‘pressers’ whether he was concerned about not
bringing in a 4th striker in the summer. Every time and without
hesitation The Engineers’ response is to say, ‘No, because in addition to Sergio, Wilfried and Kelechi we also have Raheem
who can also play there’.
Now where I thought I agreed with the manager in us
not-needing another striker (and let’s not forget that if we HAD-have spent £30M+ or whatever on a
decent striker as well then we, most probably, wouldn’t have been able to get
De Bruyne without risking more UEFA sanctions) is that we had such a wealth of attacking /
creative midfielders; any ‘striker crisis’ could have been more-than covered
in-playing a 4-6-0 formation or using a makeshift striker, ‘a la’ James Milner [to reasonably good effect] last
season.
However…where I
definitely DON’T agree with our manager is his assessment that Raheem Sterling
can ‘slot in there’ if needed.
Even when I was
debating whether we should sign the young England man from Liverpool I never once disagreed with the Raheem
doubters when talking about his finishing ability. It’s not quite as bad as
Jesus Navas’ ability to find the net (is anyone’s?) but it’s not very good at
all. He’s a creator; a tricky, pacey menace who will, more often than not, get
somewhere in the mid-teens in the final ‘Assists’ column but will, more often
than not, only achieve about 7 or 8 goals-a-season.
He will never admit
it of course but our manager must secretly be ruing the decision not to have
purchased an additional striker in the summer. Emmanuel Adebayor is available on
a free! I am joking of course…
In our manager’s
defence I will point out that he had to bring in more creativity to the side in
already-popular Kevin De Bruyne &
whatever-you-think-of-him Raheem
Sterling. He just had to.
And, I have to add,
a lot of us were talking in the summer about extra cover / competition in the
heart of the defence which, again due to injuries, the purchase of £30M man
Nicolas Otamendi has proven vital…despite his overall poor performance
yesterday.
But then again
you could quite rightly counter that argument in that we already had a free and
very good defender on our books in Jason Denayer;
a player now on loan for the season at Galatasray who got RAVE reviews from both his time at Celtic
and from both the Belgium Manager / media as well as his countryman and ‘our
Skip’, Vincent Kompany.
Regardless of the
‘if onlys’ & ‘buts’ etc., the facts are that Aguero is nowhere near 100% due
to either injury, post-Copa America /
international fatigue combined and / or confidence. Wilfried Bony
is steadily going through the ‘tick list’ of injuries and not necessarily in alphabetical order; Kelechi Iheanacho burst onto the scene at Crystal Palace after some promising displays in
pre-season only to-then burst into the physio / medical room…and Raheem ISN’T, Manuel,
a ‘stand-in’ striker by ‘any stretch’.
And, erm, did Spurs play well yesterday too? Yeah I’ll give
‘em a solid 7/10.
What a difference just TWELVE days makes!
We City fans were
quite-rightly ‘gushing over’ and pronouncing to all who cared to listen about our
opening 5-game record in the Premier League, which read…
Played 5. Won 5. Drawn 0. Lost 0. For 11. Against 0.
…that included 3 away games and a 3-0 home win against
last season’s champions, Chelsea.
Bile Quinn, following the Juventus defeat (our FIRST defeat of the season and
following 11 back-to-back wins including last season) sprayed out of his gob
the ridiculous, sour and departing line / something very close to, ‘All of a sudden the start of the season for
Manchester City seems like a distant memory’.
THAT, at the time, was a LUDICROUS comment to come out with that left me scrambling for the
remote…and I only JUST about used it to turn off the TV rather than launch it
at the contemptable, ex-City man’s head!
If only the man / TV pundit - who, for some WEIRD reason,
just doesn’t like us and hasn’t done-so for years - could
have kept his comments until after yesterday’s game; at least then he’d have had
some credibility. Because in sharp contrast to that opening 5-game record our
last 4 games in just 12 days and in all competitions reads an appalling…
Played 4. Won 1. Drawn 0. Lost 3. For 7. Against 9.
Oh dear…
