Some thoughts…

…following the Chelsea game (sorry for the delay) and the end of the transfer window.

Much better…but left slightly irritated

“Better” was the theme in my head after the 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge last Saturday; a result – and a performance - that I was most pleased with. And so…why irritated? I’ll move onto that shortly.

Better – Manuel Pellegrini’s decision to go 4-5-1 from the start. And seeing as his tactical nous had been questioned in many quarters of late; the unforced decision to go with Sagna and not Zabaleta, whatever his reasons were, show any doubters that he doesn’t just chuck pretty much the same formula into each & every game regardless.

Better – Not his best game by a long stretch but certainly an improved one from Vincent Kompany following his injury and quieter season so far.

Better…from Bacary Sagna. The ex-Arsenal player hasn’t exactly had any particularly bad games in a blue shirt and if anyone had indeed questioned the French right-back, then I feel I would have leapt to his defence in that he’s hardly had a look-in since his arrival; far less than I expected him to following Pablo Zabaleta’s long-running World Cup; and so a lack of game-play doesn’t exactly lend itself to good performances when called upon to step in for Zaba. On Saturday he had an 8/10’er.

Better…from Fernando. There were a couple of moments in the first half where I recall ‘cringing’ (can’t recall exactly what they were to be honest now) but he was visibly far more assured. Hope that continues.

Better…much better from Fernandinho; a very good all-round performance indeed where he defended and helped to attack well in equal measures. Like Fernando, I hope he too can find some consistency.

Apart from his still-horrible crosses for the most part - particularly that awful, AWFUL pathetic excuse for a corner in injury time where we were pushing hard for a winner; where he could have lofted in a ‘beauty’ for one of our players to get on the end of (leaving me beating the arm of the settee in frustration) – it was much better from Jesus Navas in general. He was a right-sided thorn in Chelsea’s side and worked with Sagna very well indeed.

Better…to from the regaining-his-sharpness Sergio Aguero. He’s shifting from 2^nd to 3^rd gear now…

So having watched the whole game on TV at home with the now-usual sound turned down listening to the DAB radio delayed by 11 seconds, to listen to coordinated commentary from Radio Manchester’s Ian Cheeseman and Fred Eyre; I then had to listen to ‘the’ most baffling flood of apparent Manchester City callers (I swear the first one was a red) bemoaning the fact that we “only” got a draw that that our manager was way, WAY too negative.

It lead me to not-only send a txt into the show expressing my astonishment at fans reactions but, the following day, posting this on a City forum:

The opinion of the City fans about the result-outcome against Chelsea is definitely a glass half full / glass half empty fan thing…with a dash of very understandable disappointment having bossed the majority of the game; particularly the second half. I’m definitely half-full.

Away at a team who are the current league leaders; a team who have been destroying most in their wake at home, playing without Samir Nasri & Yaya Toure, still without new-purchase Wilfried Bony, choosing not to play Zabaleta and without our most expensive defender (whether you think that’s a good or bad thing); a draw is one HELL of an achievement.

Yeah of course we had a brilliant opportunity to close the gap having dictated the game for such a long time but I was left baffled and slightly frustrated and the shear amount of fans who were phoning Radio Manchester after the game who were slating our manager for being overly-cautious and NOT going with his often-preferred 4-4-2 earlier in the game. The negativity on display in the phone-in was so over the top, in my opinion, I swear at least one of them was a red.

Good performance – a confidence building performance for many of the players – and a flippin’ good point for me; one we can now build on as the cavalry arrive…

As I say, I can understand those immediate, knee-jerk reactions to some degree; I suppose the way we did indeed dominate and create chances in the second half in particular did leave a small taste of a ‘missed opportunity’. And, I must note, the more time that passed with the callers comments / texts & e-mails the more pragmatic the sentiments got.

To sum up for me – Opportunity missed? Perhaps. A blummin’ good result? Absolutely!

Window activity

Having made just one appearance in his disappointing time on loan at Valencia, Manchester City spent little time since hooking Bruno Zuculini back from Spain in finding him a new home for the rest of the season…in Spain. Cordoba CF – a La Liga side I’m ashamed to admit I’d never heard of until this morning – are the club who are, hopefully, going to give him more of a run-out.

And I am really hopeful that they do give him a good go in the second half of their season – Bruno was plucked from Argentina side Racing Club by us for £2.2M in the summer of 2014, having played 92 times for the Argentine side, along with 8 games and 2 goals for his country’s under 20s, which is no mean feat when you consider the talent I’m sure they have at every level in South America.

I didn’t…but it’s easy to sort of forget these players when we have a first team squad jam-packed with talent and when increasing emphasis has being placed on the EDS and their new Academy across the road from the main stadium. It doesn’t help, of course, that the club you’re a loaned to 972 miles away then, for whatever their reasons, stick you in the shadows with nothing for our assessors / scouts to report back to either Patrick Viera or Manuel Pellegrini on.

I’m no Bruno Zuculini expert but from what I’ve gleamed his an energetic & skilful all-rounder who can defend - and will get stuck in - but who prefers to bomb forward; support, create & score form time to time. A good 5-month run in Spain followed by a good pre-season and this 22-year old (in April) central midfielder could save us-having to splash out quite as much as we might otherwise have done on our midfield department in the summer.

Jordi Hiwula has joined Walsall on an initial 1-month loan deal; presumably with the next option being for the remainder of the season.

Having previously been loaned to Yeovil Town where he didn’t have the best of times – notably being reported that the EDS striker missed a hat-full of chances – Walsall’s Manager has apparently been monitoring the England youth striker and is hopeful that a SECOND loan spell will be more successful for both the youngster and the midlands outfit.

That’s about it really – it was a quiet window to say the very least and it’s not even worth me commenting on Chelsea’s ‘one in / one out’ activity.

Shame…

It’ looks like we’re going to have to wait a little longer for the return of Yaya Toure and to see Wilfried Bony’s debut. It would have be great to have had the option of unleashing them both on struggling Hull City at home on Saturday; but a 3-1 win over Algeria in the African Cup of Nations meant that they stay in Equatorial Guinea into the weekend.

And who do we have to thank for that? Only flippin’ Yaya & Wilfried themselves!

Two strikes from Bony either side of a Toure free kick sent the Algerians packing. Even if the Ivory Coast lose their semi-final on Wednesday (unlikely) against DR Congo they still have a 3^rd place play-off game to play on Saturday. Should they GET to the final, which is to be played on Sunday, it’s being reported that the two players (and their teammates of course) are under the control of the Ivory Coast FA for a further 48 hours and they will be expected to stay for a reception etc. until at least Tuesday late afternoon / evening; virtually ruling them out of our 7:45pm KO (GMT) trip to The Potteries to face Mark Hughes’ Stoke City.

Fully rested / acclimatised it’ll be a home game against Newcastle United for the Ivorian pair as late as the 21^st February (5:30pm KO GMT).

Play 4-4-2 Mr Pellegrini…

…and we’ll lose this one.

Hot topic.

It’s been debated on & off during his time as manager of Manchester City and increasingly so in recent months. Is Manuel Pellegrini too rigid / not flexible enough or, whisper it out of his hearing range, not quite ‘The Engineer’ he’s built up to be?

Often accused of not even having a ‘plan B’ during games (although I disagree with that first and rather harsh assessment) never mind a ‘plan C’; one specific debate & criticism of our manager is whether he is SO fond of the 4-4-2 system [with 2 strikers] that he’ll play that system regardless of who the opposition is / what system they might deploy or whatever the circumstance might be with regards to available personnel.

Well if he plays 4-4-2 this evening at Stamford Bridge (5:30pm KO GMT) he’ll be walking right into another load of condemnation…and rightly so in my mind.

This game SCREAMS 4-5-1!

Why? Well with a slightly envious eye I’ve bleated on enough over the last couple of seasons about the attacking midfield wealth of Chelsea - it might not be the ONLY reason but I’m sure it goes some way in explaining that beyond Diego Costa and others before him, there isn’t too much emphasis at the London club on-having the kind of riches other top Premier League clubs have in terms of secondary / back-up strikers.

And although that comment might sound a little disrespectful to Didier Drogba and Loic Remy; the fact is that Chelsea do rely heavily on their goals coming from their many attacking midfield threats. And that’s my point.

With Mr Angry-Stampy-Man being suspended for this and two more games (have I missed something – why did he not get an extra game ban for a frivolous appeal?) there’s even MORE of a reason for Jose Mourinho to go with 5 midfielders…and mostly attack-minded ones I’m sure. The canny little bugger might even chose to go 4-6-0 for this one, although even their midfield department might be a little too stretched to go the ‘Pep Guardiola way’ as Cesc Fabregas is also set to miss this game (through injury).

Incidentally – and as if to prove my point about us-ALSO needing to add numbers to our attacking / creative, midfield / winger department – Chelsea are about to swell their ranks even FURTHER with the imminent signing of Fiorentina’s right-winger Juan Cuadrado for a reported £23.3M.

So surely…SURELY Manuel you need to be a little wise yourself here and although you have 3 strikers available to you; please leave 2 of them on the bench to start with on this occasion.

Before I predict...

I rarely do a, ‘What I’d go with’, before my Pellegrini predicted line-up etc. but seeing as this is the main topic of this piece, I thought I’d avail myself of that opportunity.

4-5-1 (of course):

_______________Aguero_______________

 

 

________________Silva________________

Kolarov________________________Milner

________Fernando___Fernandinho______

 

Clichy__Demichelis__Kompany__Zabaleta

 

 

________________Hart________________
 

Subs: Caballero, Sagna, Lampard, Nasri, Navas, Jovetic, Dzeko

Regular readers might go…WHAT?! at seeing Aleks Kolarov in my starting 11…and there might be a few raised eyebrows too at the fact that I’ve only got one defender on the bench – a mostly-recognised right-back – leaving our most expensive defender out altogether. I’ll explain…

Firstly, although he blows Martin Demichelis out of the water for pace - and that pace against their attacking midfielders is most-certainly needed on Saturday - can we really pin all our hopes on Eliaquim Mangala having his first exceptional game since we last played Chelsea on 21^st September 2014? Huh…I would say not. Besides, which, we have the pace back there in ‘our Vinny’ and I think we’ll need the wily-ol’ head of Martin next to our Captain for this ‘top clash’.

In not even putting Mangala on the bench; it’s simply because he’s not the kind of defender you want to bring on to ‘sure things up’ / calm thing down if a change is needed - he never leaves me feeling particularly calm anyway…

In Sagna we have someone who can play in the centre if needed; and the rest can be shuffled around too if required. No…I’ve gone for a subs bench largely based on ‘game changers’, which I think’ll be a great option to have this evening.

Why Aleks then? Well I’ve also dropped Navas to the bench and not just because I, amongst many, don’t think he’s been playing particularly well of late. But with Kolarov & Milner ahead of Clichy and Zabaleta it just gives us that little bit of extra protection without completely compromising our attacking threat – Aleks to whip those balls in like Navas should; James on his favoured right foot likewise. And with ‘the Ferns’ in there scrambling it up and Silva ahead of them / a bit behind Aguero, I’d like to think that’s a pretty formidable 11 to face Chelsea away.

But that’s me, this is what I think our ‘Engineer’ will go with…

v Chelsea (predicted line-up, subs and outcome)

 

4-5-1 (phew…):

_______________Aguero_______________

 

 

________________Silva________________

Milner__________________________Navas

 

________Fernando___Fernandinho______

 

Clichy___Mangala___Kompany___Zabaleta

 

 

_________________Hart________________

 

Subs: Caballero, Kolarov, Demichelis, Lampard, Nasri, Jovetic, Dzeko

Hart to return after a short spell on the side – determined and ready to prove a point to those who have been recently ‘pointing their fingers’.

Clichy & Zaba the more solid left & right-backs and Vinny ‘in there’ of course. But if he’s gotten over his reported minor shoulder injury - and although it’s not a trait that I think exists in our manager - I think Pellegrini will be just a little bit nervous to be without the pace of our French central defender for this one. Martin on the Bench to come on and definitely calm things down if / when needed…

4 from the 5 midfielders we agree on but with James on the left and Jesus on the right. I just can’t see him leaving his favourite little Spanish winger out of the starting 11, particularly if he does-indeed sacrifice a striker.

Aguero ‘up top’ on his own – hopefully not feeling too isolated and receiving plenty of support / supply as & when possible.

Willy as back-up to Joe and it’s Bacary who loses out in my predicted squad to face the current league leaders. I’m sure Manuel will want the crossing / free-kick option of Aleks and, of course, Martin there for insurance purposes. Frank to hopefully ‘do it again’ if needed; Samir the very surprising return package possibly making the bench (WAY ahead of the initial injury assessment and having trained with the squad for the last 2 to 3 days) and two very different striker options sitting there too.

Result? Points shared. Whether that’ll be 0-0 or whether there’s goals in this one I’m not quite sure.

With 15 games to go after this one; just 5 points behind, no League Cup or F.A. Cup to think about and with the returning Nasri, Yaya & Bony and with Aguero getting his match fitness back game by game; I’ll take a draw today to the point where it might-well feel like a victory in some ways.

Movements in brief

• Scunthorpe United have signed George Evans on loan for the rest of the season. The struggling League 1 outfit take the services of one of our most highly rated EDS players and both clubs, I’m sure, will be looking to reap the benefits of moving the central defender come defensive midfielder to Yorkshire.

• Scott Sinclair has finally moved on, with Aston Villa securing his services on loan for the rest of the season. The deal looked dead the other week and a confusing newspaper report in the last couple of days stated that it was a loan-deal for now with it likely being turned into a permanent deal in the summer; where City were hoping to receive a small fraction, at least, of the £7M spent on his purchase from Swansea City in August 2012. Confusing because he’s out of contact on 31.05.2015. Perhaps it’s part of the agreement that Villa can loan him for now instead of an out-right purchase; a compulsory clause as is often ‘tagged on’ to loan deals these days…

• The goals have dried up for John Guidetti in recent weeks and he appears also to be playing his cards close to his chest and holding out somewhat with regards to any permanent move away from Manchester City. I think Celtic would like to sign him – although his wage demands as well as any transfer fee might be a stumbling block for the Scottish side – and now, apparently, Marseille are glancing in his direction.

• The Pepe rumours are back! Apparently Real Madrid are putting their future defensive plans together already and they don’t included the hot-headed one. Worth a punt? Well I did post my opinions on forum the other day, which read…

No doubting his pedigree but at 32 on 26th February it would be another reason for many to snipe at our average-aging squad and to wonder why, as [another City fan] suggests, we don't have a good enough centre back emerging from the EDS right now (although that time will come and I take no notice of those who are too impatient to wait a little longer for youth product results).

For me it's all about his mentality and better informed than me will know whether or not Pepe has lost his 'nutter' tendencies in recent years. If he HAS - and despite his high wage demands, I'm sure - I'd go for someone of his experience; the more know-how we have around Mangala [to learn from] the better and, equally, we need experience to cover for the often injured - and lacking true form - Vinny.

Could be a good move IF his 'red mist' days are behind him...

• Mancini wants Yaya at Inter Milan. I’m sure he does and, I’m sure, if he doesn’t go there in the summer then he’ll be at PSG or somewhere similar. But that’ll be in the summer and not on 3^rd February 2015.

• Devante Cole has joined MK Dons on loan for the rest of the season. The EDS striker - and son of Andrew Cole - moves after a loan spell at Barnsley, where he netted 5 goals in 19 appearances for The Tykes.

• Having recently signed a 2-½ year contact with the club, attacking midfielder Sinan Bytyqi then joined SC Cambuur on loan for the rest of the season.

I’ve got a small feeling that we’ll pick up someone before the transfer deadline at 11:00pm (GMT) on Monday 2^nd February 2015 but I’m less convinced now that it’ll be an Isco or a Marco Reus-type acquisition.

Pepe is a possibility I suppose; I’m sure Pellegrini would welcome him - and would be something of a calming influence ON him - but I doubt the board would sanction a move for a player of his age and with his wage demands after splashing out £32M+ on a central defender just 5 months ago.

Perhaps there’s an 'last contract', £5M to £10M, 2 to 3-year deal player out there that’s slipped under many radars to give our squad a boost heading into the last 3^rd of the season (or perhaps Sami Khedira for the same price?). Having said that, I can’t now see Jovetic moving-on in the next few days and with the returning African Nations players landing soon enough; my instinct is going with the Club being happy with what they have for now / the rest of the season.

 

Mad Monday is nearly upon us though!

Worrying trend continues…

As I’ve advanced in age & experience following Manchester City I don’t take defeats quite so hard as I used to. Gone are the days where I could barely speak to someone for hours following a game that I felt we should have won; gone are the days where it sometimes took until Tuesday morning to get over a Saturday afternoon defeat.

But that one 'stung' yesterday – we continue to look jaded and in many ways completely devoid of creative ideas and for me it’s a concerning, on-going development.

Quick reality check

AS that long-time Manchester City supporter I am still somewhat of the mindset that, what's happening to our football club is an amazing thing! Sure we’re disappointingly out of both the League & F.A. Cups at quite an early stage this season; competitions, which, I firmly believe we should strive to win; our ‘bread & butter’ tournaments to help swell our trophy cabinets as other big clubs have tried to win in the past and still strive to today.

I have to remind myself that I am watching a Manchester City team packed full of exciting stars and that we lie 2^nd in the Premier League at just over the half-way stage of the season; we’re in the last 16 of the Champions League and, quite importantly, we are the current champions of England…and have been so twice in three seasons!

But…

…the immediate reality is this. From 4 possible competitions we’re already, in January, out of 2 of ‘em and if we’re being really honest with ourselves, any victories in the Champions League from now on will be a bonus – we’re not going to win that competition. And so what we have left is the league…and we’re 5 points behind, once again, and have to go away to the current leaders next.

Add to that a team that – and I’ve said this before – look jaded and lost for ideas; and all of a sudden that small alarm bell that was sounding at the back of MY head, at least, a few weeks ago is getting a little louder.

Let’s look at the past few results:

• The first warning sign came in the form of Burnley at home. 2-0 up but not playing brilliantly; perhaps if we hadn’t have conceded and had-won this game what was to follow might not have happened; equally, however, a win may have just been papering over some early Christmas-time cracks. The Lancashire outfit not only fired themselves back to finish 2-2 but they were VERY good for their away draw at the champions of England; in the second half they both out thought and outfought us.

• Sunderland at home next on 1^st January 2015 – a 3-2 victory that felt like anything but. Sunderland could - and perhaps should - feel quite aggrieved not to have got something out of that game; like Burnley they looked more ‘up for it’ and it was scrappy &  and poor from us at best…and only a winning strike on 73 minutes from a 36-year old, ex-England man salvaged all 3 points.

 

A festive, fixture-packed blip? That’s what I was hoping it was at the time but, no…

 

• ANOTHER home game; no travelling and no excuses. Championship side Sheffield Wednesday next in the F.A. Cup and ANOTHER lacklustre performance from City. At this stage it was starting to look like they’d been enjoying the festivities too much; either that or some kind of lethargic bug was sweeping the club. It was truly AWFUL…and only a late, LATE brace from a 29-year old England man saw us claw our way gingerly into the next round.

• Everton away next; a ground and a team that doesn’t always suit us. But they had their injuries and were struggling for form themselves; sitting fairly close to the ‘drop zone’ at the half way mark. Some City fans would have, perhaps, taken “a good away draw” before the game and as it turned out, a draw was a fair result…even though that came with a scare or two. But Everton weren’t great on the day and so despite feeling fairly pleased with an away point; it was yet ANOTHER underperforming City side who should really have put the Toffees to the sword.

• Then came a footballing lesson. I think Bayern Munich was the last team to come to the Etihad and REALLY play us off the park it the fashion The Gunners did just a week ago today. They ran the show for the most part and when you look at our players on the day – Hart, Clichy, Demichelis, Kompany, Zabaleta, Fernando, Fernandinho, Milner, Silva, Navas, Aguero (Jovetic, Lampard & Dzeko) – it underlined what an increasing number had been murmuring for a few weeks; in that some of our players, particularly Pellegrini’s purchases, just aren’t good enough!

 

• Then it gets even worse. You’d expect us to have the majority of the possession at home to a Championship side and although the stats say that we did, it sure didn’t feel like it. I didn’t go yesterday but instead I listened to the whole of the 1^st half on the radio and managed to watch most of the second half live (and, of course, have read the reports since). Boro were more organised, looked fitter and, most concerning of all, far more ‘up for it’ than we were.

This is game number 6 of this worry run now; 6 games, 5 of which were at home, 2 of the games against Championship teams, 3 from near the bottom of the Premier League, 2 defeats, 2 draws and NO clean sheets; conceding 10 goals in those half-dozen games…more than half of what yesterday’s opponents have conceded in their league in 27 games!

I got a text after the game from a friend and VERY long-time, VERY dedicated City supporter. It read something like, “Not good enough today but still looking forward to Chelsea & Barca”. I replied, agreeing with his sentiment about us not being good enough but, I exclaimed, WASN’T looking forward to those two fixtures for all of the reasons above.

I later added in a post on-line…

Like his ex-Porto teammate who didn't play today of course, there's still no improvement from Fernando.

I don't do 'knee jerk' reactions and there's little we can do about it in the remaining days of the current transfer window; but already recent purchases don't look NEARLY good enough for what we're trying to achieve as a progressing football club. In the 'just not good enough' category I'm afraid I need to add [to Fernando] Boyata, Kolarov, Mangala (so far), Fernandinho, Navas, Dzeko & Jovetic.

That's one HELL of a summer re-build!

And in the cold light of Sunday morning I still feel the same – with the exception of Mangala who I still HOPE will come good; I just don’t think any of those players are of the calibre we should expect at our so-called progressing and ambitious football club.

I continued…

I can't take ANY positives from today - it would have been better for us had Chelsea scraped through to round 5; pulling more on their resources with more games etc. But we can't even hold on the that for comfort [thanks to Bradford City]!

Unless we get everyone back together ASAP and we 'click', we'll have a fight on our hands just to finish 2nd and, if we do, perhaps we should be grateful that we managed to finish League runners up this season.

Once the African Cup of Nations is over – although Yaya at least is getting some pretty poor reports – and in addition to Wilfried Bony we get Samir Nasri back, Aguero firing once again and the back 4 can start looking like a defensive unit for once; I really do think that we’ll dust ourselves down in February (I say February because I fear for us on this form at Stamford Bridge on 31^st January) and go on a really good, momentum-building run right to the finishing line.

Ferran Soriano said in 2013 that he expects us to win 5 trophies in 5 years and that he doesn’t mind if that means occasionally having a barren season. I get that; I fully agreed with that statement at the time and still do.

It’s just that…seeing us flounder as we are at the moment feels even more frustrating than years gone by; when we had mostly mediocre players at best. Seeing the sort of quality we now possess somehow makes poor performances and ‘periods of poor form’ like this much harder to take. Perhaps as a supporter of 30+ years that’s just something new I’m just going to have to adjust to...

I hope Ferran & Co. are true to his word in their backing of Pellegrini, however, because if we DON’T improve a lot very soon; if we continue these lacklustre, ‘out of sorts’ displays much longer we WILL be lucky to finish a trophyless 2^nd place in the Premier League.

 

P.S. Should we have come back from Abu Dhabi as late as we did? No, absolutely not!

P.P.S. C'mon Cameroon on Wednesday!

It’s been a weird week…

Defeat to Arsenal last weekend leaving me (and other Blues I’m sure) feeling a little flat; the team away in Abu Dhabi for some apparent winter, warm-weather training / friendly match (who were met with cloud, hail and high winds as they disembarked) and an F.A. Cup game that I’m not even going to.

Yep…those are my excuses for posting a late, late and fairly brief Blog entry.

v Middlesbrough

 

Straight to the day’s predicted line-up, subs and outcome…

4-4-2:

____________________Dzeko__________

 

__________Aguero___________________

 

 

Milner_________________________Navas

____________________Silva___________

_______Fernandinho_________________

 

 

Kolarov__Mangala____Kompany__Sagna

 

 

_____________­_Caballero_____________

 

Subs: Hart, Clichy, Zabaleta, Demichelis, Fernando, Barker, Jovetic

With him being given the game in Abu Dhabi; with him keeping a clean sheet and pulling off at least one very fine save…and with Joe not having his best spell of the season in recent weeks; I think an F.A. Cup home game will see Willy being trusted between the sticks for this one. Don’t suggest this within earshot of Joe - and I very much doubt it - BUT…if Willy has a blinder against Boro then I suppose there’s a small chance the Argentinean stopper could claim a starting place away at Chelsea next week.

At home, F.A. Cup, against a team from a division below us; I think Kolarov will get the nod today. And here’s that word again – I think our manager will HOPE he can trust Mangala to have a good game alongside our captain today. From reports I’ve heard the French powerhouse had another shocker in the friendly against Hamburg; making at least 3 very nervous and clumsy challenges, one of which resulted in a yellow card. What is wrong with the guy? I hope he has a good game but I fear for the lad that it won’t matter; I think it’ll be Martin & Vinny for the Chelsea game regardless. I think Sagna will be called on for this one, as Pellegrini will try to protect Clichy & Zabaleta for the up & coming tsunami at Stamford Bridge.

We’re at home and, therefore, need to be on the front foot for the most part for this one. It’s for that reason that I don’t think we’ll have an out & out defensive midfielder in the starting 11. Fernando to sit on the bench; the slightly more attack minded Fernandinho to start. Ahead of him in the middle is, of course, Silva and with no Nasri & Toure the midfield pretty much picks itself with Milner and Navas on the flanks.

At home and with all 3 strikers finally fit & available, it’s two ‘up top’ for this clash. Aguero is a must; he has to regain his match fitness and he’ll want to get that feeling of hitting the back of the net before the Chelsea clash. And I think our manager will want to mix it up against Boro with a bit of a little ‘n’ large act and, so, Dzeko to get the nod ahead of Jovetic.

Joining the Montenegrin on the bench – and working backwards – should be EDS left-winger / attacking midfielder Brandon Barker. The lad has been highlighted in recent weeks for his fine performances and goals in the EDS and after a slightly nervy start in Abu Dhabi, he did himself proud by all accounts. And with no Samir & Yaya - and with Frank taking a knock and, therefore, probably being wrapped in cotton wool for next weekend’s ‘top of the table’ fixture – Brandon will be hoping for his first team, competitive match debut.

“Security” is the name of the game with the rest of the bench in case we need to shut things down – and, for me and in Kolarov & Mangala’s case, CALM things down – with Fernando, 3 defenders and Joe on the side-line.

Update (2:25pm):

Well my predicted team was a load of ol' tosh, with only 7 from 11 correct.

4-1-3-1-1 (probably); possibly 4-2-3-1 with Milner & Fernando in a 'central 2' behind 3 attacking midfielders (Jovetic one of them) BEHIND Aguero:

_______________Aguero_______________



_______________Jovetic_______________



___Milner________Silva________Navas___


______________Fernando______________



Kolarov____Kompany___Boyata___Zabaleta



_______________Caballero______________

Subs: Hart, Clichy, Sagna, Demichelis, Fernandinho, Lampard, Dzeko.

Hopefully my predicted result won't be quite so 'off' as my predicted starting 11 and subs...

Although still concerned about Kolarov as ALWAYS as a defender - and rarely do I feel very confident with Boyata 'in their' either (although he's not had any worse displays that Mangala this season) that's a slightly stronger side than the one I thought he'd go with; with Zabaleta and Jovetic starting instead of Sagna & Dzeko, which is no 'slight' on Sagna there at all.

Result? Well these are flying in the Championship at the moment, with only 1 league defeat in the last 10 games and that being against (also) high-flying Ipswich Town.

They don’t concede many at all either…and that’s an understatement! In 27 league outings this season they have only conceded a very impressive 18 - I’m sure a lot of that is down to the fact that they have Aitor Karanka as head coach; a Spanish defender who has played at the very highest level and, who, was Assistant Manager at Real Madrid for 3 years before moving to the North East. Boro also have an ex-Blue in their ranks in the form of youth-team-player and midfielder Adam Clayton and we all know what that often means…

So what am I trying to say? Well putting it bluntly, even at home this’ll be a real toughy. I say that not just in continued praise of a clearly well-organised North East team, I say that not JUST because we are (still) without the craft of Samir & Yaya but, and I’ve said this quite recently, I just think we look a little ‘off the pace’ at the moment; a little jaded and in need of reinforcements / ALL our top players available and firing.

And I think it’ll come – I’ve got a good feeling that from February onwards we’ll mostly go on an impressive and momentum-building sprint towards the finishing line. As for today, if we had no Aguero to, hopefully, cut through the Smoggies I would be saying a draw; and a unwanted return trip to the Riverside Stadium. However, at home and with patience & hard graft I think we’ll come out on top. It’ll be close but I think we’ll be in the hat for the 5^th round draw without the North East team sharing our ball number.

Thanks for your patience [for the late Blog posting] and thanks, as always, for taking the time to read.

Sometimes…

…you have to leave the ground and say that the opposition was the better side; sometimes we just weren’t good enough. Both applied equally well on Sunday after the Arsenal defeat.

I’ve said it before…

…and I’ve said it recently; it might sound ‘crazy talk’ to some but I still firmly believe that we don’t have the quality in depth of attacking / creative midfielders at the club to FULLY compete as consistently as a trophy-chasing team should. Lose two of those types of players – Samir Nasri & Yaya Toure on this occasion – and we simply don’t have enough to ‘step in / step up’ to fill the gaping holes.

Hart – Oddly not TOO much to do despite Arsenal having the lion’s share of attacking possession. 6/10

Clichy – One of the better players in a blue shirt. 7/10

Demichelis – Decent enough and solid all things considered. 7/10

Kompany – Good returning performance from our skip. 7/10

Zabaleta – MotM for me. 8/10

Fernando – I made a point of watching this fella for large parts and, in the first half, witnessed him put in several successful tackles. He dispossessed several Arsenal attacking players; his decent timing of tackles and those long legs of his do come in useful.

However, “faded” wouldn’t be doing justice to what happened to the Brazilian in the second half – he was woeful to say the least. He looked lost and whenever he did manage to get hold of the ball his passing was pitiful. I look at Fernando as our main defensive midfielder; I look at what we’re trying to achieve and where we’re trying to head as a football club and I can only come to one conclusion, which is that his guy is just not good enough for us; this was a £12M mistake…or at least is proving to be at the moment.

I hope he proves me wrong and I gladly wait for him to do so but, sadly already, I can see him leaving in the summer if a better option becomes available (Sami Khedira anyone?) 3.5/10

Fernandinho – I find THIS Brazilian a little more useful…but only just. He shows flashes of quality but not enough for me especially as, looking back before the F(not-so)FP imposed sanctions, we coughed up £28M for him! Decent display yesterday…but he’s no Yaya or Samir. 6/10

Milner – On a day when we needed more craft it just wasn’t for him. A rare, lowly 4.5/10

Silva – Tried and tried to be our main creative player but struggled alone for the most part. 6.5/10

Navas – I’m losing patience. HOW MANY TIMES has it been said that this wee, fleet-footed chap appears to have the ability to tear teams apart but apart from his pace…he just can’t flippin’ cross or shoot?! Huhhhh…another very frustrating and very average 5/10 from the Spanish winger.

Aguero – Like Silva, tried and tried… 6/10

Subs...

Jovetic – Similar to Navas; has all the apparent ability but with often little to show in terms of results. 5.5/10

Lampard – Quality shone through immediately and appeared to be changing the game. For the 30 minutes he was on the pitch he gets a 7/10 from me.

Dzeko – First pass to his feet was, in fairness, a little on the strong side BUT...what a shock; he failed to control the ball (again)! Did nothing after that of any note. 4/10

Tick-tock…

If I have done my maths right then we do have some spending power in the remaining transfer window. I have already gone through who we might target but I will add the following / change my mind slightly.

1. If Juventus (or whoever) really DO want Stevan Jovetic then, providing we can bring in an attacking / creative midfield / winger option in the winter window with the additional cash from the sale of the Montenegrin, then I’d go for it. If not, I think Stevan has to move on in the summer…
2. If there’s someone who wants him AND we can bring in another striking option (Alexandre Lacazette?) then I’d also consider off-loading Edin Dzeko before the summer as well, which would leave us with Aguero, Bony & ‘A.N. Other’. If not, Edin surely has to go in the summer too…
3. He’s travelled with the first team squad to a strangely-timed trip to Abu Dhabi and has been getting rave reviews in the EDS. It’s a HUGE step up of course; but if Brandon Barker can make that leap in quality then we might be wise to include the home grown player in our squad. We need a creative, goal-threat down the left and Manchester-born lad might be able to fill a hole left by the injured Nasri, who might be out for up to 4 weeks. Other EDS players who have travelled include attacking, central midfielder Bersant Celina, defensive midfielder George Evans, and Striker Thierry Ambrose.

I hope the warm, summer weather does them good ahead of our home, F.A. Cup game against Middlesbrough.

‘Catch up’...again

I take considerable heart from the fact that we’ve done it time and time again; not least in our last two Premier League winning seasons, as well as pulling back an 8-point gap already this season. And I do, of course, bear in mind that Aguero will (probably) get better again with time following his time-out on the treatment table and that we have Bony & Toure to come back; as well as the recently injured Nasri.

But Chelsea are a different animal this season; a machine with an attacking engine room that appears to be relentless…and that leaves my spider sense tingling. That’s why – not wishing to look like I'm panicking at all nor appear greedy – we need to add that additional attacking / creative ‘spark’ to push us right up against Jose’s men. Push ‘em hard and I’m convinced they’ll be the ones to crack first; let ‘em get an 8-point gap once again and I think we’ll struggle to catch them for a second, successive time this season.