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Manchester City v Sunderland
Barclays Premier League
Wednesday 12th February 2014, 7.45pm KO
Referee: Lee Probert[/center]
It’s all getting very nervy isn’t it? After months of steamrollering sides just grateful we’ve kept it to single figures (including Arsenal, West Ham twice and Tottenham twice) we’ve been savagely brought back down to earth after 180 minutes without a goal and having dropped 5 points and definite sense of mortality.
How did it happen? Well quite simply the minute they read out the team sheet at the Etihad and Fernandinho’s name wasn’t read out Mourinho when to work on his game plan utilising the mobility of his three number 10s to close down Yaya Toure and shut City down. We didn’t help ourselves either with lethargic and laissez-faire ‘after you’ attitude to defending from Nastasic, Yaya and Demechelis as well as the entire midfield having playing a game of statues every time Demechelis was in possession on the half way line as even Silva looked short of energy and ideas after they’d kicked him a couple of times.
Sometimes though you have to hold your hands and up and admit that the opposition were simply better on the night although I suspect if two or three of Negredo, Milner, Garcia, Lescott, Nasri, Fernandinho and Aguero had been fit it would have been a different game of football. I strongly suspect that if Milner had been anywhere need match fit for an opponent like Chelsea he would have slotted him and moved to a five man midfield and it would have changed the game second half but on a bench filled with half fit players, a goalkeeper, Boyata and Lopes the manager felt he couldn’t change it. The one positive note was how comfortable Jovetic seemed when he came on, and despite a sense that he was trying a little too hard to play the magic ball, had Silva shown a little more composure we might have got something out of the game.
As for the Norwich game, well I’ll admit I didn’t watch it as I was stood in a blowing gale with horizontal rain in a stand with a leaky roof up in Blackpool doing my West Didsbury & Chorlton press officer duties (@WD_CFC) but was being casually updated my text message. I didn’t both with Football First as I’ve learned not to trust highlights especially as MOTD was made to look like Norwich had laid siege to our goal and curiously showed their offside goal in full including reply but didn’t deem our offside goal worthy of even hitting the net cutting away a little too quickly for my liking. However it wasn’t a complete disaster, more a missed opportunity as Arsenal were found out at Anfield, but we will only find out in May whether it was a point won or two points lost. Fortunately the fact that Chelsea dropped points at an awful West Brom side and Arsenal are taking on the vermin tonight has lessened the impact of those drop points…at least for this week.
Sunderland
Squad (from): Mannone, Pickford, Ustari, Alonso, Bardsley, Celustka, Dossena, O'Shea, Vergini, Roberge, Ba, Bridcutt, Cattermole, Colback, Gardner, Giaccherini, Johnson, Ki, Larsson, Mavrias, Altidore, Borini, Scocco, Wickham.
It’s unusual to have such trepidation about the visit of the side in the bottom three in the modern era, although Fulham’s visit used to be a guaranteed away victory, but there has been something about Sunderland over the last four years that has prevented City from taking maximum points of them after a six year period where we registered 12 consecutive wins against them. I won’t bore people by reminding you what those results were as I’m sure there is a centre page spread in today’s DSSC! However I will point out that last season when they came to the Etihad it was City’s best home performance of the season by a country mile.
Disturbingly the marketing department in an effort to get people to part with their hard earned have dubbed this ‘the Capital One Cup Final dress rehearsal’ as if the mere matter of three points in a title challenge wasn’t enough. If we had played this fixture a fortnight ago I think we would be thinking about simply sweeping Sunderland aside like everyone else and marching into the Chelsea cup tie and Barcelona game full of confidence. Unfortunately for us supporters this is where apprehension sets in as the media pray for an upset as Sunderland have come into form since they knocked United out of the cup and beat…err… Kidderminster in the FA Cup.. The Fleet Street hacks will be sharpening their knives, no doubt interviewing Adam Johnson now he is line for an England re-call after 18 months of doing nothing since he left us after Mancini ‘ruined him’ because he’s had a decent performance against Fulham.
Three Key Players
Marcos Alonso – Formerly of Real Madrid via Bolton Wanderers and Fiorentina I was quietly impressed with him against ‘Them’ in the League Cup Semi’s. The in the first leg he bombed down the left hand side putting in several dangerous crosses and was arguably the best player on the field. In the second leg he showed he was a capable defender until Antonio Valencia came on and realised there was no longer a need to bother defending and exposed United over and over again on the overlap. On the other side Phil Bardsley has having the season of his life ever since nothing that goal against us that shouldn’t have stood and provides Sunderland with similar sort of width to ourselves.
Ki Sung-Yueng
Easily the player of the round in the League Cup SF (can you tell it’s the only time I’ve watched Sunderland) and I was shocked to discover that this man was on loan from Swansea City. There were rumours that he had had a fall out with Michael Laudrup circulated when the deadline to trigger his return to Swansea expired despite them being down to 11 fit players and a 17 year old ball boy. Ki is the player who makes Sunderland tick and I would have thought Swansea would have brought him back if only to scupper Sunderland.
Jozy Altidore
Not in this list for his ability, he will play because Steven Fletcher is injured, but for his size and bulk and the fact that of the two Premier League goals he’s ever scored the first was against City in a 2-1 win for Hull at the KC Stadium in 2010. For Sunderland he’s doubled that tally with a goal against Chelsea at the Stadium of Light but more importantly made himself memorable for the NFL tackle he performed against us this season and was adjudged to have been fouled!
Manchester City
Squad (from): Hart, Pantilimon, Wright, Boyata, Clichy, Demichelis, Kolarov, Kompany, Lescott, Nastasic, Richards, Zabaleta, Garcia, Milner, Navas, Rodwell, Silva, Toure, Dzeko, Jovetic, Negredo, Nimely.
Let us start with the injuries; Nastasic – knee (15th Feb), Fernandinho – thigh (22nd Feb), Aguero – hamstrings (22nd Feb), Garcia – Muscle (15th Feb) and Nasri – Knee (15th Feb) just that we know off as Milner, Dzeko, Toure and Negredo have also all been playing with significant knocks. Unfortunately it doesn’t leave us with a lot of options and almost completely threadbare in midfield.
What is the plan? It’s funny that last season when writing the previews how the team was set up and who was in the starting line-up was (In my opinion) crucial to how the team might perform and whether or not we would have a positive result. In most cases the team I feared most was the team Mancini selected as we ground out results with the front men increasingly isolated from the rest of the team. This season the most challenging part of writing match previews has been how discuss the upcoming game as team selection has mattered less because as long as 7 or 8 of the top quality players that we have had at our disposal this season has seen us through. For the first time this season I feel Pellegrini has to get his team selection right to produce a result as well as manage playing time with Chelsea and Barcelona checking into Manchester hotels in the next 7 days.
Well if I was picking the team I might be tempted to go with a five man midfield to counter the fact that Demecheils is hopelessly over exposed in a midfield four. At the back I would pick Lescott to partner Kompany with Clichy (bear with me Kolarov fans) on the left and naturally there is only one man ever going to be on the right, Pablo Zabaleta.
In midfield I would utilise a midfield three of Toure, Milner and Demecheils or Silva depending on the fitness of the latter two with Jesus Navas on the right and either Kolarov or Silva on the left dependant on the whether or not Silva could slot into the middle without having to play 70% of the game as water carrier.
Up front I would be tempted to rest Negredo for Saturday, not too much temptation though as we have three huge home games in seven days and start Jovetic on his own. As for Dzeko it all depends which Dzeko turns up and if he has a knock I don’t fancy him against John O’Shea and whichever ex-United Repulic of Ireland international fills in for the suspended Wes Brown who will no doubt have a free pass to kick and cheat their way to a point tonight.
Prediction
Tempo. If I am the manager for the night I’m telling the team in my pre-match team talk to start the game well, get into the higher gears early as Sunderland will struggle and make mistakes. If we start sluggishly like we did against Watford then I foresee it being a difficult evening against a side that is playing its way back to form. This is a great chance to land a real psychological blow to our cup final opponents but three points and a title challenge is more important.
3-0 City.
