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.
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