Not being fully enamoured with the Champions League competition; I also found last night’s game a bit odd in some ways.
Fairly brief assessment…
Flaky again
How come, more often than not, can we look so cohesive in
the Premier League and so fragmented, more
often than not, when faced against European teams. Are they really so much better
than teams in the Prem? Is it just their style that’s different / difficult to
adapt to?
We’re SUPPOSED to be
in the best league, if you listen to certain pundits, so perhaps it IS the ‘system
adaptation’…
With Radio Manchester
airing the UEFA competition for the second
time running on FM rather than DAB and, therefore,
not allowing me to delay the radio by 11 seconds so that I didn’t have to
listen to [this time] BT Sport commentary
and, in particular, scathing Danny Mills; I was left having to listen to Mr
Mills and his co-commentator begin by slagging off Manuel Pellegrini for playing a 4-4-2 system.
Having seen the line-up I then squinted my eyes and
scrutinised the formation for a while. While it was true that it appeared as though
Raheem Sterling was being pushed quite far up
near to Wilfried Bony; it was hardly the
4-4-2 being suggested. A fluid 4-4-1-1 / 4-2-3-1 at best.
Our defence too was being given a hard time not only by the Sevilla attacking players but also the same, BT
Sport commentators; the over-egging of, in
their opinion, a frantic display by Messrs Sagna,
Mangala, Otamendi
& Zabaleta was really starting to get on
my nerves!
Okay…so we’d all like a calm-looking defence that was fully
in control and barley-appearing to be hassled by the opposition.
But if – and indeed
WHEN in West Ham United’s performance at the
Etihad fairly recently – another team
faces us and throws bodies in the line of shots and are sliding all over the
place in timely fashion to make vital blocks as we were doing last
night; THEY get a huge pat on the back and told they defended
like lions against City’s expensively-assembled, highly paid stars!
I don’t normally do
the ‘anti-City’ rant-thing because I find that to be an overly-paranoid
viewpoint more often than not. But it certainly does exist in a few forms, I
will not deny; and it was apparent for all to hear last night on BT Sport.
However, I have to say that Danny & Co. were then somewhat
backed-up by Ian Cheeseman’s comments
towards the end of the half-time break; where he said that ‘during a visit to
the loo’ several Blues were bemoaning the defence performance from the first half. The M.E.N. too gave all defenders (& Joe) 6/10.
I’m just not having it. I do 0.5s whenever I do my ratings and although I’ll agree with the
local newspaper’s rating for Mangala; I’m giving Otamendi 7.5 and the rest of
the outfield defence 7s.
However, collectively it was a jittery performance to say
the least. Yaya was fairly calm & commanding
and Navas looked like he had something to
prove / was desperate to score. Both did well.
Raheem looked good at times and not-so on other occasions and De Bruyne was by far our best player – scoring the vital winner right near
the end; another flippin’ close, ‘smash & grab’! Perhaps this is going to be “our
year” in some sick way…
After a slightly-above-average and two-goal game against Bournemouth on Saturday; Bony did himself no
favours last night. He looked a little dazed at lost at times against the
Spanish side.
But we were without 3 key players down our spine [again] last
night and the 3 points, I suppose, were
more important than the performance itself.
Conspiracy theories
I said before the Bournemouth game that our manager was clearly irked – and quite rightly so – about our Captain being chosen to play for
the Belgium national side after Vinny being
out injured for about a month AND having joined his international teammates
with a note from City explaining that, in our medical staffs’ opinion, he wasn’t
right to play.
 |
| Gone in 60 seconds... |
Crucially, though, I also said that I didn’t think
our manager was ‘the type’ to take his frustrations out on the player himself;
a player, let’s not forget, that has two bosses and has to follow instructions
in a classic ‘between a rock and a
hard place’ scenario.
I’m not so sure now…
Having wrongly predicted ‘our Vinny’ starting against The
Cherries last weekend; having seen him on the bench I then became convinced
that he was being rested ready for the Sevilla clash. Besides, it was ONLY little
ol’ Bournemouth at home who had 4 or 5 key players out injured…
So what the hell was that last night? Is Pellegrini
NOW saving him for Manyoo on Sunday (2:05pm
KO BST)?
Again, I’m not so sure now…
I think he IS, perhaps, trying to make a point to our
Captain and others that he means to ‘react accordingly’ if any of his player’s
National Coaches / Managers start to disrespect the clubs’ wishes in those-same
circumstances…and bringing Kompany on
with mere seconds remaining last night sort of adds weight to that ‘making a
point’ theory.
Then again apparently our manager has since been quoted as
saying that he believes the pairing of Mangala & Otamendi are doing well
and that he’ll look at it all again just before Sunday’s game; suggesting that
Vinny might not start in Trafford. I’m
not so sure about that Manuel – they both leave me a little jittery at times…
Then again our manager could be the genius
we sometimes think he is / hope he will be – with a ‘rip-roaring’ finish to the
game last night, what better time to bring your team’s Captain on as the crowd
are still ‘buzzing’; then singing his name for the few seconds he’s on before
facing your next-borough-over’s
neighbours just 4 days later.
In Pellegrini we trust…
On Bony…
Recently I posted
this on a Manchester Evening News article forum:
Aguero & Silva are, of course, real hammer blows! However, and like
others have said, this is why we have assembled a squad of expensive &
talented players and IF they can stay fit (worse injury period I can recall in
30 years) then we should have enough to cope well in October and come out of it
well.
On Bony, I will only join his detractors if he now gets a proper run in the team throughout the next 5 or 6 games and fails to make his mark / take his chance. I think a lot of people are forgetting that he got injured when he joined our squad in Feb '15 following the African Cup of Nations; barely kicked a ball at the back end of last season and has SINCE had a virus, a muscle strain, a large cut to his shin in training and then a knock. Not ideal at ALL of course but that terrible run of bad luck HAS to be taken into consideration when analysing him with any serious intent.
He's got the skills, strength and excellent passing ability / teamwork-interplay and I'm convince he'll come good. However, and as I say, I will look at it again if he now gets a run over the next 6 games and fails to produce.
Looking forward to seeing more of Iheanacho too - shame he's not in the Champs squad...
On Bony, I will only join his detractors if he now gets a proper run in the team throughout the next 5 or 6 games and fails to make his mark / take his chance. I think a lot of people are forgetting that he got injured when he joined our squad in Feb '15 following the African Cup of Nations; barely kicked a ball at the back end of last season and has SINCE had a virus, a muscle strain, a large cut to his shin in training and then a knock. Not ideal at ALL of course but that terrible run of bad luck HAS to be taken into consideration when analysing him with any serious intent.
He's got the skills, strength and excellent passing ability / teamwork-interplay and I'm convince he'll come good. However, and as I say, I will look at it again if he now gets a run over the next 6 games and fails to produce.
Looking forward to seeing more of Iheanacho too - shame he's not in the Champs squad...
4 games to go on
that assessment period / promise; with 2 goals and about a 6/10 rating over
those two games so far…
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