New signings – opinion

2-new additions to our squad – here’s what I think.

Ferran Torres

Firstly, what kept irritating me as the links with this young Spaniard got stronger and stronger, was the number of pundits an’ the like who kept referring to him as being…’a replacement for Leroy Sane’. Hey?! You only need a computer or whatever and a very small amount of time to find out that Ferran is largely a right winger…and you only need a memory to recall that Leroy was…not.

Now, of course, he comes with the label, something like, ‘…can also play on the left’, or whatever AND, I’m sure, the plan is to coach him to become, perhaps, a more-rounded player; enabling him to play on the left as easily as he does do on the right; as well as through the middle / ‘just off’.

But I just wanted to scream at these people every time ‘the replacement for…’ tag was mentioned…over and over and over again.

Huff…so, now that I’ve got that off my chest…

I really like the look of him – strong, fast, bags of skill ‘n’ tricks and loves to take on / beat his man (or men, as his videos do demonstrate).

And I’m not just saying this because the player himself has said that he admires and largely models himself on this player; but his style really does remind me of Cristiano Ronaldo. Well, I’m certainly not moaning if he turns out to be as good as…

He’s certainly not shy of saying what’s on his mind, which has been demonstrated of late; with a few ‘parting shots’ at some individuals as he left his clearly-beloved Valencia.

Apparently, he likes dogs.

Really good signing is this - £20.8M plus future add-ons is also a really good price these days for a clearly talented, 20-year old who has just signed a 5-year deal with us. Exciting times for him & us at City, I think. Bienvenidos.

Nathan Ake

Firstly, I’m just gonna ‘copy & paste’ what I put in a blog-posting a few months back…

Finally, in this category, a player who-it-feels-like has been linked with us before he was even born! Nathan Ake is his name. I like him…and I think Pep does, or would, too.

I cannot believe the Dutch international has only just turned 25-years of age in February – he seems to have been playing for 5 years longer than that!

Has spent his entire domestic career in England (tick). Has spent the majority of that time in the Premier League (tick). Has 13-full, international caps for the Netherlands (tick). He’s 25 (tick). His contract has only 2 years to run in June (tick). He can – and quite often has done – played at left-back as well as central defence (tick). He’s very calm and assured and also, just like Dan-Axel Zagadou, reminds me a little of Vincent Kompany (tick).

Now he is only 5’ 11” but, from what I’ve seen, he does ‘get up there’ when needed. Perhaps it’s not his biggest (no pun intended) quality but, then again, I don’t think it’s Pep’s number 1 priority in his central defenders either. Besides, for that side of the defending or attacking corners we have Laporte, Rodders & Fernandinho at least. Nathan is a player, though, I have seen Bournemouth thrown into the opposition box whenever they have a corner themselves, so he can’t be too ineffective in the air, can he?

I would be shocked if we didn’t put in a bid for the dreadlocked defender and, as it’s my last central defender entry; I’ll now say that I believe that we’ll attempt to sign 2 centre-halves in the summer and that Ake will be one attempt, at least. Why 2? Well, we already need to fill the gap left by Vinny and I can honestly see both Nicolas Otamendi & John Stones leaving us in a few months’ time.

Chances of making a bid: 10/10

All I’m gonna add to that is that I found it really quite laughable; the sheer number of pundits who were openly shocked at us signing the top-flight-experienced, international, ball-playing, versatile defender. Seriously, I don’t know if you heard but Jamie Carragher an’ the likes were lining up to scratch their collective, empty heads in confusion about us-possibly signing the Dutch, 25-year old.

Now I’m not saying that we don't still need a more-rough ‘n’ tumble, central defender competing for a place with Aymeric & Nathan – a defender who perhaps likes to get ‘stuck in’ and likes ‘aerial dules’ etc. I think we do. And, in sayin’ that, I think we might have one in Taylor Harwood-Bellis. But Nathan definitely adds some much-needed quality to our centre of defence and I, for one, am very happy to see him at City.

Thanks, as always, for taking the time to read.

2nd leg…164 days later!

That’s gotta be a record, hasn’t it?

v Real Madrid

Etihad Stadium

Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:

(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game which, for me blog-wise, was our game against Watford: 8/11).

Fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-6-0:

______________________________________________

 

_____________________Jesus____________________

 

___Sterling___________________________Mahrez___

 

____________De Bruyne_____D. Silva_____________

 

_____________________Rodri____________________

Cancelo_________________________________Walker

______________Laporte_____Fernandinho_________

 

 

____________________Ederson___________________

Subs: Carson, Zinchenko, Garcia, Otamendi, Stones, Gundogan, Doyle, Foden, B. Silva.

Ederson, of course, in net.

Now here we go – I was gonna put Eric Garcia in the starting line-up; continuing his good partnership with Aymeric. But then…BOOM! The young lad tells his employer that he doesn’t want to extend his contract beyond next season, which basically means he 'wants out' (and wants to go back to his beloved Barca). Pep, understandable, didn’t look pleased when-having to announce that in his pre-match press conference yesterday and although some may have suggested that he might not have started this evening anyway; I’m now dropping him in my predicted 'starting 11'. SO…having been given some game-time on the left flank recently, Joao to fill the left-wing back slot vacated by Benjamin Mendy’s 1-match Euro suspension; Kyle on the opposite flank and I think it’ll now be Fernandinho who partners Aymeric in the middle of our defence (could be well wrong here – we could see Pep deploy 3 central defenders for this one).

Anyhoo…I think we’ll see Rodders as the defensive midfielder and if I’m right with a back-4, I think we’ll see him nip back on occasions to swell the centre of defence when the pattern of play dictates.

An attacking 4…or 5 ahead of him, with Kevin & David in the middle, Raheem on the left, Riyad on the right and Gabriel perhaps not being used RIGHT up front but, instead, floating / rotating with both Raheem & Riyad.

Scott continues to be the back-up stopper to Ed; Oleksandr, Eric, Nicolas & John make up a fairly large, defensive force from ‘the 9’. The remainder of the bench sees 4 midfielders / wide men in the form of Ilkay, Tommy, Phil & Bernardo.

Notable absences:

-       Claudio Bravo – Injured.

-       Benjamin Mendy – Suspended for this game.

-       Sergio Aguero – Still recovering after knee surgery…and still in Barcelona with the Doctors doing so!

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

That looks good to me!

Result? I often find European games so hard to predict – similar to some domestic cup games; form seems to go out of the window on occasions and upsets involving so-called ‘should win / lesser teams’ are aplenty.

On Friday night, we have two top teams both top of their own form league tables and packed with talent. What separates us? Home advantage, albeit with no fans, and a 2-1 lead to us.

It’s gonna be very difficult, of course, and I’m sure they’ll do their very best to supress the likes of Kevin De Bruyne & Raheem Stirling. If that’s part of their plan, they’ve-then still got to find a way of dealing with an in-form and hungry David Silva; not to mention Riyad Mahrez, Gabriel Jesus & support-attacking wing-backs.

I think they’ll score…and I think we will too. I also believe that there’s a reasonable chance that we’ll win on the night as well…but I’m going for a draw on the night and, therefore, a trip to Portugal in a few weeks’ times for the final stage, knockout tournament.

Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result…

Prediction: N/A

Result: N/A

Expected weather conditions during the game: Very warm! For a second Friday on-the-trot, a heat surge from the south sees the 8pm KO time (BST) start at around 73F, which’ll be more like 80+F inside in the stadium I’m sure; following a hot & sunny day in Manchester. Even after the sun disappears behind the largely-empty Colin Bell stand and then Earth’s horizon; it’s not gonna drop below 70F with high humidity predicted and, so, those drinks break may well be welcomed by the players, unless they interrupt a good spell in play by either side.

Jekyll & Hyde City.

Will the real Manchester City please stand up!

Frustrating.

Just as I was gushing about how well we’re playing, using words like “Machine” in one post to describe what a force we are amidst 3 back-to-back wins and a largely remarkable restart return; we produce a performance like that last weekend. In a lot of ways, we were well managed by our opponents at Wembley on Saturday and I’ll give them more credit soon enough.

But we just had no sparkle about us at all, particularly in the first half. The passing from our lads was largely awful for most of the game and it says a lot about just how off-colour we were on the day when Kevin De Bruyne was one of the biggest culprits.

No fizz at all – pass, pass, pass-backwards; pass, pass, pass-sideways…go nowhere, lose ball. That’s basically what I can remember watching for most of the first half. No-one penetrating with any real intent or threat.

Second half was better – the intensity increased and at least we forced Arsenal to defend in numbers. But even then…at Wembley and with another final within our reach, we could only manage 4 shots in anger and, here’s that tiresome story again, just 1 of those shots were on target! 71% possession…and just ONE shot heading between the posts in 97+ minutes.

And before anyone thinks I’m being too harsh on our team; this is a problem Pep himself has bemoaned more than once this season, as well as 2 or 3 seasons ago, I seem to recall. It’s a weird spectre that keeps coming back to haunt us for some reason; where we certainly see enough of the ball but then forget how to use it to devastating effect, as we know we can do so very well most of the time. I suppose, put another way, anyone can have an off day…it’s just that we’ve had far too many this season for such a talented squad of players.

I thought Ederson was good again though - pulling off some fine saves. One bad pass from him [also] certainly didn’t warrant a low’ish mark of 6/10 from the Manchester Evening News, in my opinion.

I must admit though and just to finish off looking back at our performance, I wasn’t too happy with Guardiola’s decision to start with Ilkay Gundogan and not include our best defensive midfielder, Rodri; nor with his decision not to introduce the creativity & threat of Bernardo Silva at any stage. Very odd…

Well done.

But ‘well done’ Mikel Arteta and the whole Arsenal team – I thought they largely stopped us from ‘playing out from the back’ whilst, at the same time, managing to copy our style of doing-just-that, so very well indeed. In fact, their first goal from back to front (19 passes!) was just sublime and very City-Pep like indeed.

The Gunners then managed to do what they’ve largely struggled with for most of the season, which was to defend so very well before they sucker-punched us with a 2^nd, as Aubameyang exposed us for pace to kill the game off.

They definitely deserved to go through to the final and good luck to ‘em, I say. Shame…if we’d have done ‘our bit’ it would have been an all-blue Wembley after all! 😊

v Watford

So, we now enter a game where we can influence who survives in the Premier League and who, sadly, gets relegated – not a fixture, then, I can see our manager wanting to make massive changes for in term of ‘integrity for the game’. In fact, I’m just wondering if he’s going to ask most of his players to ‘go again’, in order to try an’ reset; put things back on track and get it out of their systems. There’s always next Sunday’s game at home to already-relegated Norwich to rest / protect players before the Champions League…and perhaps include a few youngsters in that fixture too.

Vicarage Road

Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:

(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 9/11).

Fluid 4-1-4-1 / 3-6-1 / 4-3-3:

­­_____________________Jesus____________________

 

 

Sterling_________________________________B. Silva

 

____________De Bruyne______Foden______________

 

_____________________Rodri_____________________

Zinchenko_______________________________Cancelo

 

______________Stones______Otamendi_____________

 

 

____________________Ederson____________________

Subs: Carson, Mendy, Walker, Laporte, Harwood-Bellis, Fernandinho, Gundogan, D. Silva, Mahrez.

Ederson keeps the gloves for this one.

I think we’ll see a completely different back 4, with Oleksandr, John, Nicolas & Joao all getting starting run-outs.

Rodders, who as I’ve said didn’t see a second of our weekend defeat, likely to start, I would suggest.

Ahead of him in attacking midfield and on the wings, I can see Raheem & Kevin being asked to put in at least 45 minutes, with Phil & Bernardo joining them in ‘the 11’.

Gabriel gets another start again too, I would think.

Scott is the back-up keeper at the moment (I wonder if he’ll get a start on Sunday?), with Benjamin, Kyle, Aymeric & Taylor the reserve defenders on the side. Fernandinho, Ilkay, David & Riyad are the midfield / wing options from ‘the 9’.

Notable absences:

-       Claudio Bravo – Injured.

-       Eric Garcia – Not selected / rested.

-       Sergio Aguero – Recovering from knee surgery.

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

Yep – for this fixture and in the current circumstances…yep.

Result? I find myself thinking that this game is all about how each team reacts and the more I think about it the less certain I seem to be about the potential outcome.

How will our players respond following the disappointment of last Saturday? How will Watford’s players respond to the bizarre timing of the sacking of their manager; with rumours also that some of the players knew days before Nigel Pearson did!

So, I’ve tried to brush past all of that and just at look at it as an 11v11 and in doing so, it’s a City win for me. I think they’ll fight like crazy and may well score in, what could also be, a closely fought game. But I’m going for us to move onto 78 points by around 7:50pm (BST).

Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result…

Prediction: Win

Result: Won

(Pre-match blog posting from that game)

Expected weather conditions during the game: Lovely evening for a match. It should be around 70F as the game starts with some sunshine too.

Announcement:

There may well be no pre-match blog-posting before our last league game of the season against Norwich on Sunday and on the day of the match itself, I'm going away for around a week and, so, won't be blogging during that time either.