Saturday 5th January 2013
Etihad Stadium 3pm ko
Referee: Phil Dowd
Magic of the Cup[/center]
There is no pretending that the FA Cup has not lost some of its grandeur in footballs modern era as the Premier League and Champions League dominates the club game but there is still something special about 3rd round FA Cup day. A lot of sides from opposite ends of the football pyramid still have a chance of meeting and for myself the draw poses a chance to visit new grounds (Middlesbrough, Leicester) or discover historical ones (Sheff Wed, Sheff Utd, Notts Co).
For me the main factors in the devaluation of the FA Cup are the ever increasing gulf in class between the top and bottom teams, the decreasing novelty of televised games and, most importantly, the ridiculous ticket prices forcing supporters to pick and choose their games and happily skipping cup ties if there side has very little chance of winning the cup. At City, home ties in front of sparse crowds and huge away ends breaking up our most vocal home support voiding the game of any atmosphere when the team hasn’t been that good to watch have lessened their appeal.
Price is a huge factor and it is commendable that the club have realised how much money supporters spend already and have adjusted their price accordingly. In return they’ve been rewarded with a second consecutive sell out home FA Cup tie and I bet that has a positive effect on the players rather than running out to closed stands (admittedly usually just the 3rd tiers).
[center]Luck of the Draw
[/center]Since we’ve moved to the new stadium we’ve rarely been blessed with a Saturday 3pm kick off home tie in the third round; especially against opposition we’ve rarely faced so playing in front of a full house should make it a pretty special occasion. Since we moved to the new stadium we’ve been drawn at home just 4 times (out of a possible 9) prior to the Watford games and brought 3 third round ties back for replays.
For the record they are:
03/04 Leicester City 2-2 winning the replay at the Walker Bowl
05/06 Scunthorpe United 3-1 Fowler hat-trick
06/07 Replay Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 after 1-1 at Hillsborough
07/08 Replay West Ham 1-0 after 0-0 at Upton Park
08/09 Nottingham Forest 0-3 (the day Wayne Bridge was unveiled)
10/11 Replay Leicester City 4-2 after 2-2 at the Walker Bowl
11/12 there not worth a mention by name 2-3 80 min with 10 men
[center][youtube]h5pmeIQLn5E[/youtube][/center]
The day is also made a little more special by the fact that this will only be our 19th meeting against Watford since our formations. We last met in the FA Cup back in 1997 where we beat them 3-1 thanks to goals from Heaney, Summerbee and Rosler (24,031). We’ve met twice in the league at home since then; the first was the curtain raiser on the ill-fated ITV digital where we kicked off the Keegan era at 6.15pm on a Saturday night in front of packed house of 33,939. I’ll always have fond memories of this game as you could tell everyone had had a beer or two as the noise was electric and when Goater put us 1 up the place erupted. We played 3 at the back with Laurent Charvet as a wing back (who was terrific that night) and murdered a Watford side who were pretty ambitious themselves at the time laying out big money for Gianluca Vialli as a manager and experienced internationals like Ramon Vega. City were superb, especially Eyal Berkovic, so if you have a Back to the Premiership DVD of that season is worth digging out and having a watch.
[center]
[/center]Our last meeting came at the Etihad in Dec 2006 that finished 0-0 in the darkest days of Stuart Pearces reign played in front of a crowd of just 35,915.
Just to show how far we have come here was the team last time we met:
Weaver, Richards, Dunne (c), Distin, Thatcher, Trabelsi, Barton, Reyna (Hamann 80), Vassell, Samaras (Miller 64), Corradi
Unused subs:
Isaksson, Onuoha, Dickov
Watford
[center]
[/center]The summer was a peculiar time at Watford as they were bought out by Italian businessman Giampaolo Pozzo who has only been found guilty of match fixing the one time. The Pozzo family already own Granada and Udinese and made headlines in 2011 by being promoted to La Liga despite fielding a team consisting solely of players on loan from Udinese (and also being in administration).
The fear of the supporters was that they, a club very proud of its academy and ability to bring players through to the first team, would become a feeder club similar to Granada. Udinese’s philosophy, who the Pozzo’s have owned since 1986, has been to bring players through and later sell for huge profits to Europe’s top clubs such as Alexis Sanchez, Gokhan Inler, Christian Zapata, Kwadwo Asamoah, Mauricio Isla and David Pizarro. Detractors of the takeover sneered that Watford would become the feeder club of a feeder club to the top Serie A clubs.
In defence of the new ownership they’ve been serious about their ownership of Watford and replaced popular manager Sean Dyche with Gianfranco Zola and also brought in Gianluca Nani, formerly the technical director at West Ham, into the same role and their two transfers of the summer were to bring Manuel Almunia (who is still eligible to play for England) in from Arsenal, as starlet goalkeeper Scott Loach was sold to Ipswich, and ‘One Size’ Fitz Hall from QPR (we were linked with him once when he played for Oldham).
They’ve also taken full advantage of the loan system as they’ve brought in 14 players on loan including 10 from Udinese and 2 from Granada giving their side a very cosmopolitan look.
[center]How are they doing in the league?[/center]
Watford are currently sixth in the league with 40 points from 25 games, 16 points behind leaders Cardiff and level on points with 7th placed Millwall so they will very much be keeping one eye on the league when they visit the Etihad.
Their away form is quite impressive in a league where most sides do very well at home as they’ve collected 6 wins and 2 draws from their 12 away trips and have scored 27 times; the most in the division. They’re also currently on a 7 match unbeaten run, of which they have won 5 including 6-1 at Elland Road and 4-1 at Sheffield Wednesday, so sections of the media will be hoping for an upset.
[center]City
[/center]So we find ourselves with a selection crisis as Aguero pulled a hamstring in the final minutes of our victory over Stoke on New Years Day. Aguero’s injury was the only black mark on an otherwise fantastic team performance where everyone contributed to breaking down a Stoke side content to sit 10 men behind the ball and when waste time…even when behind.
It is difficult to single out individuals as it would do serious injustice to someone not mentioned and it was a true team performance that if it had come from someone else would have been talked about for years. Credit must also go to Mancini for his selection also as the balance of the team was spot on, I can’t remember the last time I saw a City full back knock a deep pass down the touchline to a wide player to run onto, and we put them under continuous pressure for the entire 90 minutes.
Unfortunately Aguero’s injury adds him to the ever growing list of casualties that include Kolarov, Rodwell, Maicon and Micah. Nasri is still suspended (2 more to go) and Razak has joined up with Yaya Toure in preparation for the African Cup of Nations so the line up could be interesting.
In goal it wouldn’t be unexpected to see Pantilimon but personally I’d keep Hart in. At the back Kolo is the only Ivorian that has not travelled to Africa yet so I imagine that he only stay behind if he was being asked to play tomorrow. Mancini may want to blood Rekik again and not risk cup-ting Lescott if he still intends to sell him in the transfer window. The flexibility of the back four means that Rekik and Toure might both play at full back allowing both Kompany and Nastasic or Lescott to start.
Midfield could be a very interesting situation without Yaya and Nasri. The smart money is Barry and Milner in the middle, Silva in his usual role and Sinclair getting a rare start. My fear is that he starts Garcia in the middle, Milner on the right and we’re over run in the middle by a quicker more mobile Watford but Mancini will no doubt have watched Watford more than I have. In a perfect world we will be 3 up with 15 minutes to go and he’ll bring Suarez on to see how he fits in with playing with Silva, Barry and Milner. George Evans may be a candidate for the bench.
Up front Dzeko and Tevez may start and as always eyes will be on Mario after the most talked about training session in the history of English football if he’s even selected. Marco Lopes may be considered for the bench in the absence of Aguero. Lopes is only 16 and impressed on the pre-season tour in the summer but less so in the Next Gen tournament. Does anyone know what’s happened to Alex Nimely?
[center]Prediction
[/center]This has got a true cup tie feel to it, sold out crowd, huge away following, proper kick off time and opponents who are useful away from home. Mancini’s record in domestic cup competitions speaks for itself and most of our team know how to win this competition already.
3-1 City
