Saturday 6th October 2012
12.45pm ko Live on Sky Sports
Referee: Lee Probert[/center]
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[center]So where do we begin this week?[/center]
We started with a dominant victory at Fulham where we were close to old selves again and showed some semblance of our old form again. Unfortunately, this was overshadowed by a penalty that the Observer described as “soft” when in fact it was closer to the biggest stitch up in the history of world football.
This gave those on Soccer Saturday the chance to role out the statistic that we were the first defending champions to concede in our first 6 games.
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[/center]Result wise, in the context of the season the victory at Fulham was incredibly important as it bettered the result last season and more importantly recovered the 2 dropped points at home to Arsenal.
Performance wise, we were excellent mostly and dominant almost from start to finish as Fulham were unable to handle Yaya Toure (who seemed to take Halsey’s decision to let every Fulham foul in the first half personally), a resurgent Silva and the incredible movement from Aguero and Tevez.
The pleasant surprise of Spurs winning at Old Trafford in 23 attempts meant that based on equivalent results from last season, last seasons runners up have dropped 4 points from they’re tally of 89 from last season.
[center]Dortmund[/center]
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[/center]So it seems we continue to have problems with this Champions League lark, I must admit I turned to my dad after about 20 minutes and said “This has Napoli written all over it”. The mirroring was scary, they score from a City mistake, we equalise from a set piece.
The difference this season was that we were comprehensively outplayed by a team more settled then ours, who were happy to defend in numbers, confident enough to shoot on sight (22 shots on goal, 10 on target) and were lethal on the break. There is no shame in being outplayed but it was just a shame that we were so poor, Dortmund knew how to stop us playing, they closed down Yaya when he was in possession, with as many as 4 players at times, and because Garcia and later Rodwell were never open to receive a pass from him he barely managed to cross the half way line and was reduced to the lumbering Yaya similar to the first half of his first season with us.
This effectively split the field into two halves leaving Nasri, Silva, Dzeko and Aguero all isolated and starved of the ball and proving yet again why allowing De Jong to leave my cost us the season, more bafflingly why Milner continues to not be used, and also the need for a wideman to be able to square the ball out to.
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[/center][center]“What have you done to upset the boss so much?”[/center]
At the back we’ve become a shambles, the forums’ seem to suggest the new non-english speaking defensive coach is to blame and I’m beginning to agree. In the last minute when Kompany ran across to the corner of the box away from the ball and allowing the Lewandowski to evade Zabaleta and force a wonder save from Joe epitomising the struggles were having at the minute.
So Europa League full steam ahead? As it stands we’re heading for Thursday lunch time kick offs in Minsk, as Real top the group with 6 points, Dortmund sit nicely in second with a win at home to Ajax and a draw at our place. Next its ourselves slightly ahead of the pointless Ajax. The next two rounds will be the most important, ideally we need Madrid to seem them off twice and collect maximum points ourselves but it won’t be easy and to be fair I was more impressed with Dortmund than Madrid (even if they did leave 5 of their best players on the bench) and if they can press like that in the Bernabeu it could shut them down too. I firmly believe that we’ll beat Real Madrid at home, its just important to attain maximum points against twice against the Dutch champions.
[center]Sunderland[/center]
So the new media darlings, based solely on the fact they’ve got 3 wingers, arrive at our place just a stoppage time equaliser away from having taken 6 points from us last season. In the league they’ve drawn 4 and won 1 of their 5 games, scored just 5 times (all Steven Fletcher) and conceded 4. Away from home they’ve drawn all 3 with a creditable 0-0 at Arsenal, a fine 2-2 at a then in-form Swansea and an equally reasonable 1 all at West Ham.
They strengthened well in the summer, spending a lot of money as O’Neill teams typically do, by paying £14m for Steven Fletcher from Wolves and £12m for Adam Johnson from our bench. They strengthened their front line with a potentially very astute signing of Louis Saha on a free from Spurs. They also signed Carlos Cuellar from Aston Villa (free) and Danny Rose (now apparently a full back) on loan also from Spurs meaning the back door will always remain at least slightly open.
[center]How will they line up?[/center]
They’ve got the solid Simon Mignolet in goal who, reduced Britain’s most expensive goalkeeper Craig Gordon to a free agent, and at the back they’re fairly steady if unspectacular (the media term is experienced).
In midfield they can line up with width on either side in McLean and Johnson, they’ve also got the impressive Sessegnon and Sebastian Larrson who will try to get forward as often as possible and they’ll be protected by their Ice Hockey-like enforcer Cattermole. Fletcher, the fantasy football dream player as he’s both cheap and scores goals, will play the loan man up front as Sunderland will try to get the ball up to him as often as possible using this foreign concept of trying to play to his strengths as much as possible.
[center]What about ourselves?[/center]
Well in goal, this man…
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[/center]I genuinely ask this question…Is there a better goalkeeper in the world at the moment?
[center]Can we keep a clean sheet?[/center]
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[/center]In defence it seems that clean sheets were a thing of the past and we’re unwilling to keep one even for old time’s sake. The full backs are a no brainer, I think Maicon’s signing means Richard’s injury is worse than feared, as Clichy has played terrifically all season, has been working on his final ball as too has Zabaleta who’s relishing his run in the first team (I have doubts about his positional discipline though). Hopefully the full backs will work on closing down crosses from McClean and prevent Johnson from cutting inside and allowing him to shoot on his stronger foot.
At centre halve it’s a different matter as Vincent the captain seems hopelessly out of form and for whatever reason Mancini will not pick Lescott choosing instead to bed in Nastasic.
I think the bigger issue as to our defensive issues is that the back four just isn’t protected well enough by the midfield if Milner or Barry are not in the team.
On Wednesday when Garcia went off I would have considered bringing on Lescott and pushed Vincent the captain into midfield as admittedly, with the benefit of hindsight, Rodwell wasn’t the right substitution. Rodwell seems more concerned about not making a mistake then anything else, as soon as he got the ball he immediately passed it backwards or sideways never taking the time to take a touch, look up and try to play a pass under pressure.
On Saturday it’s time to go back to defensive basics, put the handbrake on slightly, I’d pick Milner and Barry in the middle to sit in front of the defence and protect the back 4 from deep lying Sessegnon who troubled us so much last season. It would give Yaya Toure the opportunity to start the game further forward and push Larsson and Cattermole deeper. This would also allow a free role for Silva to locate the space in the final third.
Up front I don’t think we can’t go wrong with any combination of our strikers. Tevez and Aguero have been the preferred partnership as they have excellent movement. Dzeko has been in terrific form lately, and also produces an outlet for holding up the ball when under pressure. Mario is Mario and always worthy of a game if his mood desires.
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PhysioRoom.com injury table
City
Sami Nasri – knock – no return date
Javi Garcia – thigh injury – no return date
Maicon – Ankle/Foot Injury – 6th Oct
Micah Richards – Ankle/Foot Injury – 6th Oct
Sunderland
Wes Brown – Calf Injury – no return date
Carlos Cuellar – Hamstring Injury – 6th Oct
Phil Bardsley – Ankle/Foot Injury – 21st Oct
Prediction?[/center]
Honestly? I don’t know, their width gave us real problems at home last season and they’ve added to that this year. Martin O’Neil teams are always well organised and extremely motivated. For ourselves its 7th of 38th consecutive league games where if we play to our best we’ll win regardless of how the opposition perform. Mancini’s team selection is important, Sunderland will be set up so that they’ll try and put our midfield under as much pressure as possible so I’d start without Rodwell and Javi Garcia. I’d make sure that Trevor Sinclair is at least on the bench to provide us with as much additional width as possible later in the game.
*I wanted to end this preview with the goals of the man who scored the last City goal at Maine Road but they weren’t on Youtube so instead I leave you with Sunderland at home in 90/91”
[center][youtube]Qp4f7-u-SWU[/youtube][/center]
