Friday, 29 November 2019

v Newcastle United.


Not been home long, just seen Pep’s pre-match press conference (continued to look very irritated in the first half of it to me; better in the embargoed section) and with time ticking away towards an early KO tomorrow, straight to it...


St. James' Park

Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:
(Number correct from starting line-up in the last game which, for me blog-wise, was the Chelsea league game: 10/11).

Fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-3-3:

____________________Jesus____________________






Sterling________________________________Mahrez

__________D. Silva___________De Bruyne________


____________________Rodri_____________________

Angelino_______________________________Cancelo


_________Fernandinho_______Stones_____________




____________________Ederson___________________


Ed in net.

A back-4, I think, of Angelino, Fernandinho, John & Joao.

Rodders to ‘hold’ in front of those and in front of him, an attacking quartet of Raheem, David, Kevin & Riyad.

Gabriel to get another crack at-showing if he has it in him to compete for a regular, starting place.

Claudio the reserve ‘stopper’; Benjamin, Kyle & Nicolas the defensive replacement options from the side. Ilkay, Phil & Bernardo provide change-options in the creative / attacking department.

Notable absences:

-       Oleksandr Zinchenko – Without confirmation; although still considered injured, I have to assume that, going off the original timeline given, Oleksandr is almost at the stage where he’ll be back in light training and, therefore, not far off a return.
-       Aymeric Laporte – Expected to be back from long-term injury around March.
-       Leroy Sane Possibly back in contention sometime in January.
-       Sergio Aguero – Injured for around 2 to 3 weeks.

Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?


Can’t see any fault with that.

Result? I think, on this occasion, our strength is in our host’s weakness. The Magpies have only scored 11 league goals in 13-league appearances and, tomorrow early afternoon, they face the 4th best defensive record in the Prem. That’s right folks, you heard read it correctly – all this talk of our defensive issues still sees just 3 sides, in the league, with a better record in that particular department.

So, I have to repeat for recent / regular readers, it’s up to our more-forward stars to find their form and deliver tomorrow - that midweek game last Tuesday was the worst 45 minutes, in the 1st half, I’ve ever seen from so many under Guardiola and the 2nd half wasn’t much better. Should they find their 'zing', then I can’t see anything other than an away victory. If they don’t, then we could see a repeat of last season’s away defeat at St. James’ Park.

I’m going for a City win.

Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result…
Prediction: Win
Result: Lost

Monday, 25 November 2019

Blog announcement…

I won’t be doing a pre-match blog posting before the Shakhtar game tomorrow night (the first one I’ve missed this season perhaps?) as I’m entering a busy period work-wise.

I’m hoping I’ll be able to 'do one' before our early KO on Saturday against Newcastle though…

I hope also that we ‘can put this competition to bed’ on Tuesday night so that we can focus on the league over the coming weeks and I hope (there’s that word again) that Sergio recovers well / soon – another flippin’ set back we didn’t need!

C’mon Blues! Keep grafting on…

Sunday, 24 November 2019

Hard work replacing fluidity.


It’s not often I put a post-match blog-posting out but after watching last night’s game, I just felt I wanted to.


Who are we?


We definitely don’t look like ourselves at the moment and while the losses of Laporte & Sane form last season’s BRILLIANT campaign – along with Zinchenko & Bernardo Silva yesterday too – is most definitely a factor; it can’t be to blame for everything in terms of how we look a little ‘off colour & pace’.

Of course most, long-standing City fans would say, quite firmly, that we don’t wanna become all arrogant and expect us to dominate every domestic team we face but I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a side come to the Etihad and control the midfield for that length of time; as Chelsea did in the first half yesterday.

We started brightly enough, which I expected us to, but I felt that Chelsea were good for their lead and, furthermore, our response goal actually came during that period of dominance by the visitors. Still, we got ourselves back into it and then a brilliant goal from Riyad Mahrez turned out to be the goal that sealed the much-needed win. Could / should have been 3-1 at half time in fact, after an awful pass by their keeper to Aguero, who hit the crossbar.

Other factors [other than injuries]?


Well, we have to be mindful of the fact that we have only just played ‘Week 13’ of the domestic league season and that being the case, we have new players in Joao Cancelo & Rodri who are still getting used to the pace of the Prem and style / system of Pep; a system that has had to adjust due to issues we have in the middle of the defence. Both of those signings are doing okay – I would say a “fairly solid” 7/10 form both so far.

But that’s part of the problem.

Okay, at right-wing back we had a Kyle Walker who was well out of sorts last season and was the reason we went into the transfer market for Cancelo. But the season before, Kyle proved to be an excellent replacement for Zabaleta in our ‘Centurions season’. As for the introduction of Rodders as defensive midfielder; last season we had a quite-brilliant Fernandinho in that position so it could very easily be argued that, for the time being at least, that area has been slightly weakened. The idea, of course, was to rotate the two; giving Fernandinho rest time, rather than asking him to adapt to a central defensive role (that decision not to purchase a central defender in the summer really has damaged us badly).

Form.


But it’s the poor or, at least, below-par form of so many that’s a concern for me.

For a start, our central defensive issues haven’t been helped by some dreadful displays from Nicolas Otamendi; a player who has quite rightly lost his place in recent weeks. John Stones too rarely produces a performance-rating of better than 6/10 – he looks like he’s playing in a daze, with his head somewhere else. I mean…if / when Laporte comes back this season, I’d like to think that we can revert to ‘Plan A’ with regards to the defensive midfield pair but if John isn’t going to improve by then; then there’s a good argument to use Fernandinho next to Aymeric for the rest of the season, if his legs can stand it (very doubtful).

Then there’s Mendy.

I’m not a fan. He just can’t defend and his passing, for the most part, is predictable and poor. Even his attacking threat has disappeared. He just looks nothing like what most of us expected / heard of before he signed and I’m not putting that down to his injuries – he just looks like he’s not got a footballing brain! I watched him closely yesterday and he did 3, half-decent things. Other than that? Woeful…and not for the first time.

There ya go – a pretty damming report on the whole defensive unit(s) there!

But it goes further…


Absolute City legend; David Silva, after a really bright start to the season, looks to be struggling lately. He did okay yesterday before cramp got the better of him but he’s looked off-colour for some weeks now. And after an amazing start to the season, Kevin too is quiet by his standards. Still…he worked so hard yesterday and got his reward.

Raheem too seems to be having one very good and then one very quiet game – yesterday was the latter, although VAR robbed the England man of a goal AGAIN as the game came to a close!

Sergio – now injured again (yet to discover details) – also seems to be labouring at times.

As I say, just too many players looking slightly off pace added to injuries = scrapping a win at home (albeit against a very good side) and losing 3 league games from 13, as we sit 3rd in the table and 9-points off the top.

How’s the boss?


Well I actually think he looks frustrated as hell and although, for all the reasons above, that’s very much understandable; it’s very unusual to see.

I think he’s still stinging from the Liverpool encounter to be honest but the post-match interview, after a win let’s not forget, on Sky Sports, he looked positively at the end of his tether; almost demented in fact! Thankfully, the interview that I saw on MotD this morning he looked much calmer / more like himself.

Serg…


And now we have injury news to wait on about our main, top-scoring striker – 1 of just 2 strikers we have at our disposal, which is surely a situation we have to resolve next summer at the latest. At least if we have to use / rotate Raheem Sterling with Gabriel Jesus as a striker and use Riyad & Bernardo on the wings it should give more ‘game time’ to Phil Foden. The young midfielder is still to prove himself, of course, but I think we need an injection of his energy now…

But, if we’re going through all of these issues now and we don’t continue to get even MORE injuries, then I suppose we can’t grumble at being 3rd in the Premier League and still-in-all cup competitions.

And if VAR decisions start to even themselves out over the rest of the season, our rivals hit their little ‘bumps in the road’ and we get some key players back sooner rather than later; then I’m quietly confident - especially as our lads are still working so-very hard in every game - that we’ll be back to our brilliant best and will see the rewards.