Cecil the Lion Premier League
Sunday 14th February, 4:15pm KO
Live on Sky Sports
Referee: Mark Clattenberg
So what have I missed? In all seriousness despite the majority of this week spent ignoring the papers, websites and social media, when I finally saw the goals conceded to Leicester it was was bad as I’d imagined it was going to be…and I only watched the 60 second highlights on City’s website where they only showed the goals! It’s our old Achilles heel of being generally gash at set pieces, both attacking and defending them, whilst conceding quick counter attacking goals in a manner we’ve conceded ever since Svennigans was a child. Leicester were fast, quick, tall, strong and streetwise; their football very direct and they had a game plan much better than ours. It’s almost like they were created in test tubes with the specific design on knowing how to beat us. It’s been the same old story for years fill your team with beasts and get the ball forward as quickly as you can.
OK, full disclosure time I wasn’t at the game (I’d actually given my ticket to a Leicester supporting mate so feel free to revoke my legend status) as I was racing down the motorway in the direction of Merseyside with Storm Imogen Thomas fresh on our heels as I tried to convince both management and players that our game at AFC Liverpool was going to go ahead as visibility on the roads was reduced to a distance that even Dietmar Hamann might have covered quickly.
I didn’t see the game but I imagine out thought and out fought will just about cover it. The text messages I received from barryconlonsbaldspot told me all I needed to know. City are currently in a quandary and after last week’s revelation of the world’s worst kept secret that Pep is going to replace Pellers in the summer I had to ask myself why? I actually listened to a few minutes of Talksport following the announcement as I wanted to hear some of the bile first hand from the “we didn’t want him anyway” brigade. However the first comment was from a pundit about how Pellegrini show his arrogance to decide to announce it now as if it were some sort of dissention in the ranks. Of all the managers accused to have an ego in the media this one is the furthest stretched.
At first I thought it was clever, he’s firing up his players who know a new man is coming in and they will be playing for their place in the side next season, Pellegrini could ride that wave to a not impossible or even all that improbable (before Saturday) title challenge and leave reputation at an all-time high. At worst, he could turn round to potential new suitors and say that he had had his legs taken from under him if the team failed to secure silverware and to look at the superb job he’d done in untenable circumstances. If they do manage to win something (I’ll settle for the League Cup now) it will be a triumph for Pellers against the evil Spanish men trying to bring their mate in Unproven in the Premier League Pep. Sadly, I’m a little more worried now that in fact he knows that the game is up and he’s already waving the white flag. Our run of current games will define this season and it looks like this: Spurs, Chelsea, Dinamo Kiev, Liverpool, Liverpool. Currently it’s not inconceivable if City play like they did on Sunday they could lose them all.
Whilst it easy to dismiss the opening four paragraphs as Arsenal levels of hysteria (oh and did you notice the Klopp Out hashtags on Tuesday night LMAO) and I know our form prior to Saturday was relatively decent but we were playing mid table mediocrity in the most part.
My main concern has increasingly become with our lack of a plan A. Plan B in the FA Cup has worked very nicely so far, Kelechi and/or Sergio up front, shed loads of width and fill the midfield with water carriers like Delph and Fernandinho and play on the counter dispatching the dregs of the Premier League so comfortably I’m not even sure if the media realised we had entered the competition such was their lack of coverage. (Sidebar: Congratulations to the Glazer family on their 50th consecutive televised FA Cup tie against those world giants Shrewsbury Town!) However, plan A has been to try and accommodate Silva/Sterling/De Bruyne/Aguero/Toure into a line-up that just isn’t equipped to cope with them. City need to get on the blower to Juventus offer them a blank cheque plus Yaya and secure the services of Pogba tomorrow. I’d settle for Esteban Cambiasso at this moment.
Brian Clough allegedly once said “You need three piano tuners and at least seven piano lifters.” City’s defensive shape is all over the shop, two years ago City would swarm around the ball deep inside the opponents half to try and win it back, now we don’t press at all and we allow the opposition to canter to the edge of our own penalty area at will and without challenge. We’ve no one who can consistently win the ball back and seem to be filled with players who make half-hearted attempts only to get skinned with ease or concede silly free kicks. We started with De Jong and Gareth Barry in midfield to good effect then replaced that with Barry and James Milner followed by a host of holding midfielders Jack Rodwell, Javi Garcia, Fernando, Fernandinho and I’m sure I’m missing some. Toure and/or Fernandinho is a weekly disaster waiting to happen as the Brazilian tries to do all things in the midfield.
Spurs
First of all, what on earth is a quarter past four kick off? It’s Liverpool v Arsenal followed by Manchester City v Spurs which Sky are doing their absolute best not to call Grand Slam Sunday as their beloved United aren’t involved.
In fairness whilst I normally despise Spurs it’s hard not to admire how they’ve just got on with it this season. Under Pochettino they seemed to have eased back on the wheeling dealing days of Redknapp & Levy by actually selling 26 players between July and January most notably Aaron Lennon, Andros Townsend and Roberto Soldado. Spurs have always seemed flash to me ever since they rocked up to Maine Road in October 94 with Klinsman, Petrescu and Popescu but seemed to buck that trend in the summer when they booked Kieran Trippier from Burnley and, one where we missed out big time, Toby Alderweireld from Atletico Madrid via Southampton and an out of court settlement. Gone are those that have flattered to deceive whilst receiving huge and unwarranted hype: Paulinho, Holtby, Capoue, Kabou and Stambouli just to name a few.
In Hugo Lloris I think they’ve got the only goalkeeper in the league who could hold a candle to our own number one whilst the central defensive partnership of Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen has been really impressive. Kyle Walker and Danny Rose are what you need in modern fullbacks…quick enough to recover from their mistakes.
Eric Dier seems to have excelled in the middle of the park whilst Christian Eriksen and Erik Lamela have been decent this season. Obviously the media hype is on Dele Alli whose already been compared to a young Steven Gerrard. To be fair to the lad he’s been excellent, done some special things already but I think it’s unfair for him to be compared to Gerrard…he might win the league.
Up front they’ve got saviour of England Harry Kane whose defied expectation, and me making him my fantasy captain in a direct attempt to sabotage him, and has 15 goals in the league. In fact, if he’d have recovered his form before y our thrashing at White Hart Lane or £22m signing Son Heung-Min had more than 3 goals to his name we might be welcoming the league leaders to the Etihad today.
City
Let’s start by listing the current injuries:
David Silva (Ankle), Jesus Navas (Hamstring), Kevin De Bruyne (Knee), Equilem Mangala (Hamstring), Wilfriend Bony (Calf), Vincent Kompany (Calf), Sami Narsi (Hamstring).
Source: physioroom.com
Who does that leave us with? How are we supposed to pick a side from that? For all the good they’re doing we should probably pick the medical team as they’re clearly not healing anyone! Get Eva in! I never thought I’d say this but I really miss Javi Garcia, the beauty of his heading was second only to the beauty of his wife. In all seriousness, our failure to bring in a centre back in the winter window is borderline criminal and I fail to believe there wasn’t one Premier League calibre centre back available on loan anywhere in the world.
I think we can expect Kolarov to have sufficiently played Clichy back into the team should the Frenchman be fit for Saturday, the natural speed of Spurs probably dictates that needs to be the case. If it was me in charge I’d be tempted to move Sagna inside to centre back and put Zabaleta on the right or even move Zabaleta into the holding midfield position he once rocked so well. Otamendi has been given a load of stick recently but Demechelis is a liability for me. Pellers will stick with Martin and the Otter at the back and it’s a toss-up between Pablo and Sagna for me.
As for midfield, well where is there to start? whose fit? Sterling and Jesus Navas will be our wingers by process of elimination whilst Sergio will be forced to play up top alone. The leaves us with fitting three into two from Delp, Fernandinho and Fernando and who would have thought that Delph would be a keep man in City’s side coming into February? I hope James Milner is enjoying his retirement.
Prediction
Negativity. I don’t mean to be negative people and especially not for negatives sake. I want to be constructive but I do like to roll out the gallows humour from the 90s, we can’t ever lose that. I’m going to close with something really positive and predict City will win. The last nine Barclays Premier League matches between these two sides have seen 41 goals scored. So naturally it will be “backs to the walls” counter attacking stuff as we win 1-0 stuffily and help our Leicester brothers romp to the title.
p.s. do we remove the stars from the thread title when we get the new badge?
