Sunday 27th August 2012
Anfield, Liverpool
4PM ko live on Sky Sports 1
‘The 3-2 Specialists’
I will admit that over the summer I began to wonder whether football would ever quite mean as much to me after winning our first league title. I began to imagine a life where a poor performance or result didn’t reduce my week to misery or planning a life without football, shopping on a Saturday, attending the odd family function rather than spending a solid 10 hours in the pub either side of a City game presented by Greek television. Thankfully City answered all those questions in 12 minutes as ‘our blushes were spared’ as for second consecutive home game we battled back from behind to win a game.
The performance was what you would expect from a team of internationals after a summer tournament, players were clearly at different stages in building up their fitness and match sharpness.
The big surprise of the day was the full debut of Jack Rodwell in place of Nigel De Jong. Mancini’s argument was that De Jong had played in the charity shield and for his country and in fairness to Rodwell, if you are going to start in a game it should be against recently promoted opposition at home. How did he do? There was a mixed reaction to his signing on the forum and it was unclear where he would fit into our side. Simon Curtis wrote on his excellent Down the Kippax Steps blog:
“After coming through the Goodison ranks as a central defender, he has mainly played as a defensive midfielder for Everton’s first team. Perhaps Mancini and his staff see him as a reasonably priced back-up for both Gareth Barry and Joleon Lescott. If so, there are problems. For all his height, Rodwell has been unable to dominate convincingly in the air. He tackles well, but he lacks the 90 minute concentration that will be required in a title-challenging side. He can pick out a pass, but it is often sideways or back to central defence.”
He had a solid debut; he completed 89 of 93 passes (the new favourite statistic of football pundits) of which 33 were forward passes; he will be blamed for giving away the ball on the edge of Southampton’s penalty area that led to their second goal, but the whole defence is guilty of failing to close down Steven Davis.
The interesting statistic was that the two players he passed two the most on the field were Yaya Toure and Vincent Kompany. Passes to Yaya were often short and sideways that took Rodwell out of the game rather that playing forward or diagonal balls in front of Yaya releasing him into the final third. It bodes the question what did he add to the team that De Jong or Milner could not have done? Once he picks up on the style of our play, he may adopt a more expansive passing range.
Man of the match on Sunday by an absolute country mile was Sami Nasri. I wasn’t his biggest fan last season, I thought he was weak, didn’t put himself about enough, drifted in and out of games without contributing a great deal. He got a rousing reception at the Charity Shield when he was taken off, on Sunday he was like a new player, passed the ball well, tracked back, harried for the ball, put in two full blooded tackles and came away with the ball, and deservedly scored the winning goal. It must be something about French City players after they’ve fallen out with their national team…
The Opposition
I’m always interested when a side tries to re-invent itself into a football team, my favourite memory was when Sammy Lee decided that Sam Allardyce’s percentage men that had just finished outside the Champions League places needed to play more attacking football; the result? One point from 8 games and Sammy Lee’s sacking, followed by the arrival of percentage man Gary Megson to save them from relegation. The critics lament percentage football and praise sides that attempt to play football even if it costs them a place in the Premier League. Sam Allardyce and co. don’t choose to play the game a certain way because they want to, they’ve indentified a way to maximise efforts from their team whilst working to a budget. Players are picked because they are usually big, strong, fast and physical. They use this to grind footballing sides down; being able to actually play football themselves is an added bonus; it’s not easy on the eye but ask most fans if they prefer a pretty 4 nil thrashing at Old Trafford, or a kick and rush 1 all draw.
At the Hawthorns on the opening day of the season Liverpool looked like a side that had been designed and set up to play a certain way and were not begrudgingly trying to play a more fluid way for which they weren’t designed. Under Dalglish Liverpool were a huge physical side that suffered from a natural lack of width and quality up front. Dalglish knew this so attempted to make them tough to beat and to try and grind out results. Rogers included his star man from Swansea, Joe Allen but for him to be effective he needs to play with others used to playing in triangles. Liverpool will claim mitigating circumstances due to Daniel Agger’s red card early in the second half but in reality Zoltan Gera’s wondergoal had already settled the game. Having offloaded Kuyt and Bellamy in the summer, having failed to sign Adam Johnson, they had little natural width to try and stretch West Brom, left Andy Carroll on the bench whilst Borini and Suarez toiled up front with little service. Probably most saddest/satisfying of all was how little influence both Downing and Gerrard on the game, I genuinely did not realise Downing was playing til I read his name in the paper the following day, and Gerrard, the captain, played like a man who’s injuries have finally caught up with him, failed to put in a tackle, block or interception despite leading a team who played with 10 men for 40 minutes.
So, a piece of piss then? Well, no far from it, Liverpool fan’s heightened sense of outrage will be at maximum setting on Sunday for their first home game and the crowd will probably be on the manager’s back and behind the players from the kick off.
On paper the team the Guardian believes Liverpool will field should beatable provided City play to their best. Aguero’s injury has thrown some doubt over the striking option’s, will he play Mario, Dzeko or push Yaya further forward behind the striker?
Key Position
I believe the key will be in the midfield selection as I would replace De Jong for Rodwell; De Jong not only provides a better screen for the back four, which is important given last weeks showing, but also distributes the ball better from the back four. If we compare Rodwell’s passing on his debut to Nige’s last away league start (Norwich last season) although De Jong’s completion percentage was lower his passing is a lot more direct and brings others into attacking positions whereas Rodwell take’s a safety first approach which is not necessary to win the game.
Including De Jong also gives us the oppourtunity to utilise Yaya Toure more effectively as De Jong carries the ball forward and provides Yaya with a pass to attack, starting further forward up the field, unlike Rodwell where Yaya came to collect the ball from him.
Upfront I’m tempted to go for Dzeko over Mario, he’s had a longer pre-season, can hold the ball for others (if he will is another matter) and his goal last week should bring him the confidence. In nothing else Mario provides a better option and variation from the bench. I’m sure Carragher would love nothing more than trying to mark a fresh Mario after trying to catch slim line Tevez for 70 minutes.
The game is ours to win, team selection will be extremely important though, one I trust Mancini to get right, and if we play to our best we’ll win.
Prediction? 3-2 naturally