I rarely do a post-match posting but whether it’s for personal therapy or not, how can I possibly not make comment after something like that – our heaviest home defeat in 17 years?!
Where to begin…
May-as-well, at least, start with some player analysis and, therefore, start at the back.
Ederson:
Can’t fault him for anything. In fact, if memory serves, he was very close to most of the balls that flew past him – he just didn’t quite have the reach.
Benjamin Mendy:
He must surely be thinking, following his move from relegated Bournemouth, Out of the frying pan and into the fire. Did nothing wrong, from what I can recall, and got his debut goal to make it 2-4. I think, though, that once Ruben Dias arrives and settles in AND we get Laporte up back up to speed; if we DON’T also sign a new left-wing back before the “summer” transfer window shuts; then I’d like to see him at least shuffle over to that position. I know he’s not the kind of left-back that ‘gets up & down the pitch’ but at least he can flippin’ defend a bit.
Eric Garcia:
The irony! The only defender who has expressed a desire to leave the club and, just like he did against Lyon, had a stand-out performance at the back. I don’t even blame him for giving away 1 of 3 penalties; where as 2 were down-right naïve by his colleagues, his was simply a case of being done by a clever-thinking Vardy. That one was, for me though, a soft penalty and I was venting my disapproval at the TV as soon as the England forward went down.
Kyle Walker:
Again, apart from a case of ‘should have known better’ – and what I mean was just let the flippin’ attacking player go in those circumstances, as the Leicester player still had Ederson to beat from a narrowing angle and we had another defender bombing in also – he probably just about edged out Garcia as-being our best “defender”. And when HE got forward, it looked more promising; in that something would come of it in the opposition’s box. Apart from giving the penalty away, I can’t really fault him.
This is where I think it gets a little yuckier though…
Rodri & Fernandinho:
I’ve put ‘em together because…I actually don’t think either of them had a particularly BAD game and if I was to separate them, I’d say Fernandinho had the slightly better of the two. But, for me, what appeared to work so very well at Wolves last Monday - creating an extra defensive shield and allowing other players to ‘run riot’ - not only just didn’t work yesterday but I think it was largely our undoing. There was no ‘attacking thrust’ or urgency through the middle. Instead, after our opening goal it was all fairly slow, side-passing, which largely allowed the opposition to just ‘sit & watch’ our metronome passing before bursting out and causing damage to us. I don’t know if you saw the post-match talk on Sky Sports but Micah Richards was particularly scathing of Rodri; basically, saying that all he was contributing was slow & short side passes. Pretty much what I’ve just said really – metronome.
Phil Foden:
I don’t know whether, as my eyes slowly deteriorate with age, I need to consider getting a larger television but I was struggle for a long, long time to see him on the pitch. He was, of course, operating in a left-hand-side-attack role but Leicester’s 5-man defence simply smothered the young lad. Nothing more to say really – he was completely ineffective out there yesterday and was duly substituted.
Kevin De Bruyne:
What a surprise – our best player on the pitch! Even then, though, for all his hard work once again, where he was popping up all over the place probing the Foxes’ defence; he was getting little joy and that same, local news outlet could “only” manage to give him a 7.
Riyad Mahrez:
…and I say his name in my head with a sigh. Regular readers will know my firm opinions of the Algerian winger – he’s either practically unplayable when he’s ‘on it’ and because he’s got skill & tricks aplenty…but then he has games where he looks like he’s never had a ball at his feet before; where nothing seems to come off for him and before he vanishes completely out of the game. Yesterday’s performance was a PERFECT example of that – a WONDERFUL strike on / around 4-minutes but then…nothing. I swear that for a good while after his goal he was walking around with an expression on his face that said, Look at me, look at me! I’ve scored a great goal against the team a I used to play for! After a while, though, that facial expression turned to a heavy frown; as nothing he touched came off. A perfect Mahrez display in so many ways!
Raheem Sterling:
Quiet game, snuffed out. Sometimes I’ve seen him have decent games when asked to cover in a central striker role…but not often. This one certainly didn’t work but I can’t bring myself to blame him in this one.
I’m a bit reluctant to go beyond the ‘starting 11’ but I will say a little bit…
I thought seeing the imposing figure of Liam Delap come on the was a refreshing sight and he got a header in quite excellently, which skimmed the top of the crossbar not long after coming on. Other than that, though, just like they did with the rest of our players; he was largely snuffed out by Leicester.
And as for Ferran Torres, I just don’t think that the situation has been right in both Premier League matches for him to come on and shine…and, so I’m led to believe, he was asked to play an unfamiliar narrow role in our cup win over Bournemouth? Either way, he’ll have better opportunities to show us & all what he can do. Personally, though, I’d like to see him on his preferred right with Sterling on the left wing whenever we get all our personnel back…
Pep:
Peed me off a bit, I have to be honest.
Now, I’m not sure if you’ll believe me but Mr Guardiola gets paid FAR more than I do. No? Okay.
But I’m sat on my settee with my senses slightly effected by a few beers while Pep, presumably sober, had a far closer view than I had; and I could see, quite clearly, that despite largely controlling the ball with huge amounts of possession in the first half, Leicester’s probing, break-away attacks were getting more and more dangerous as time ‘ticked on’. And, just as Micah was saying afterwards, that plodding, side-passing was doing nothing to either threaten the visitors nor supress those increasing bursts of threat. WHY, then, did Pep do nothing to change it?!
Foden was doing nothing out on the left so bring him inside, I was screaming in my head, to inject some dynamic pace in the middle to help Rodders & Fern; put Raheem in his preferred left-side role and give the overloaded Leicester defence no-one specific to focus on. I reckon that if we’d have done that before they scored their equaliser, we’d have got around / behind them more with Phil & Kevin then-running onto balls from deep. It might not have worked but, before we made any subs, something like that would have been worth a flippin’ try at least!
It sometimes baffles me that for such a great manager – and he is – when it’s not going to plan, he looks so deep in thought, at times, that I swear he’s already thinking how he can fix it for the next game rather than sorting it there & then. I know that sounds mad, but…
We’ll get better…won’t we?
We won’t see too many 2-5s again this season and we were missing key players who can - and would have - made a difference, I'm sure. But you won’t find too many non-City fans feeling sorry for us with our injury plight and I don’t think we should either, with the vast amounts of money we’ve spent.
This Ruben fella looks decent and with him coming in, Aymeric returning very soon and likely to partner the Frenchman, then-perhaps Nathan ‘shuffling over’ and with Joao Cancelo not THAT far off a return himself; things will settle down at the back. But I still hope & pray that we sign a flippin’-good left-wing back before the current window slams shut.
However, Pep has got to find that devastating pace again that we’ve seen so many times – that quick-passing, dynamic blitz that’s left us open-mouthed in awe.
I know the current situation isn’t ideal and that it hasn’t exactly been the best pre-season preparation time but, of course, that goes for the all the other sides too.
And I acknowledge also that there have been some CRAZY scores in the league so far already, which includes yesterday’s disaster-day at the office for us.
But if we’re not careful, we’re gonna see another league campaign, at least, slip from our grasp. The pattern from last season is already starting to show itself once again (in all comps) – W W L…
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