****Al Ain v City**** Live on OS at 4pm BST

[twosips]

He has so much fucking talent ^

I remember him from a couple of years ago. Just such a natural. Why the fuck hasn't he been given a chance somewhere yet?

All that in 20 minutes. Brilliant.

[Ted Hughes]

He has so much fucking talent ^

I remember him from a couple of years ago. Just such a natural. Why the fuck hasn't he been given a chance somewhere yet?

All that in 20 minutes. Brilliant.

Work permit problems in our case.

Don't know if we could revisit it. He would have to work harder off the ball in order to play for City but it's possible he may have that in him. He can spot, & execute a defence splitting pass as well as anybody anywhere imo.

[twosips]

Absolutely nothing to lose. We should definitely try and grab him for a year at least. He sees a pass like David Silva does...some players just seem to have *it* and he does.

[Dubaimancityfan]

Not sure we learned a great deal from that. Jovetic has real quality and hopefully a full season will prove that. Lopes also has quality and nice though that goal was, as were a few good breaks, he also messed up a good few times more than he should.Huws actually looked neat and tidy. Leigh even in a very short cameo messed up big time once.Bytyqi ia another James Milner type but nowhere near as good.

Plenty to like in Boyata and Nasti but enough to worry at the same time.Richard Wright should be our number one keeper.

Apart from the first 20 minutes, City did not play against a real club side for the rest of the match. The players that came on later were from the UAE League clubs and some even from Saudi Arabia. So we can't really make any solid conclusions about the performance. From what I saw, I can summarise as follows:
-Nasti played 90 minutes and looked composed and so did Boyata . So that's a plus point for us as Boyata is home-grown and we'll need to keep and make use of him (nice Yaya like run in the 2nd half which unfortunately did not end up as a goal).
- Jovetic can play 90 mins !! and he was moving all the time and trying out one twos with Nasri mainly, most of which did not work but he looked interested and fit. Positive.
- Alex played as Alex always does. He was all business like and went in into some tough tackles. Always a pleasure watching that guy play.
- Huws looked good after coming on for Rodwell who sadly was anonymous in the first half. I can see Huws stepping up. He is a big lad and can be a good cover for Ferni and Garcia in maybe a couple of years ??
- It was nice to see some of the young lads come on but didn't play long enough to give a good impression.
- Micah look very disinterested even though he made some efforts every now and then ! He didn't even take the throw-ins and left them to Nasri on a few occasions!!!
- Was surprised Lescott didn't make an appearance. What's he saving himself for ??
- Nasri played well and kept trying all the time. He's very popular in these parts. I'm surprised that after the disappointment of being left out of France's WC squad, he would still want to kick a ball at all (for a while at least). A sign of maturity I guess. Positive !

Finally I was disappointed (although expected) not see some of the big boys such as Kun, Dzeko, Silva and Komps take any part. They could've done an Al Ain and played a "relaxed" 20 minutes just to give the UAE fans a chance to see them in the flesh !
To be fair, Silva, Milner and MDM were warming up before the match which gave us some (false as it turned out) hope.

P.S. Not sure about yr comment on Richard Wright Doug ???

[Ted Hughes]

I would take a different view on some of those points.

1) There were about 30 odd players all well rested, playing short spells v City's 12/13 with a few late subs, who have just come from a title game, a piss up, a parade, a knackering plane journey, a load of promo work, to play a game in very high temperatures, against 30 odd players who are used to playing there, from which you can conclude that City are on another planet entirely.

2) Micah looked anything but 'disinterested' & was one of the hardest working City players on the night along with Kolarov, running the length of the pitch several times & working much harder than any of the 'local' based players who fell apart if he went anywhere near them.

3) Nastasic & Boyata played some very nice touches but demonstrated their total lack of natural defensive ability by leaving players unmarked right in the middle of our box. (John Terry wouldn't do that when he was 10).

4) No way should any of the World Cup players be expected to do anyhing. The comeback on City both from the countries involved & the players themselves if they missed the World Cup because of turning an ankle, being made to play in a game like that, would do untold damage to the club & morale in the team.

I agree Jovetic gave us a glimpse of what he can do, & thought all of the kids looked more talented on the ball than Rodwell.

[Dubaimancityfan]

I would take a different view on some of those points.

1) There were about 30 odd players all well rested, playing short spells v City's 12/13 with a few late subs, who have just come from a title game, a piss up, a parade, a knackering plane journey, a load of promo work, to play a game in very high temperatures, against 30 odd players who are used to playing there, from which you can conclude that City are on another planet entirely.

2) Micah looked anything but 'disinterested' & was one of the hardest working City players on the night along with Kolarov, running the length of the pitch several times & working much harder than any of the 'local' based players who fell apart if he went anywhere near them.

3) Nastasic & Boyata played some very nice touches but demonstrated their total lack of natural defensive ability by leaving players unmarked right in the middle of our box. (John Terry wouldn't do that when he was 10).

4) No way should any of the World Cup players be expected to do anyhing. The comeback on City both from the countries involved & the players themselves if they missed the World Cup because of turning an ankle, being made to play in a game like that, would do untold damage to the club & morale in the team.

I agree Jovetic gave us a glimpse of what he can do, & thought all of the kids looked more talented on the ball than Rodwell.

Ted, let me reply point by point:
1- Agree mostly on this apart from the temp which was about 28 and dry, actually pleasant so not really that energy sapping.
2.- I think it's a well know fact is what you see when you are in the stadium is different than what you see on TV. I did say Micah did make some runs every now and then but in the first half I was sitting right behind our goal and could see him holding back when the play went forward and didn't make his usual runs ahead of his winger (Nasri). He did that one or twice and with one I think he hit the post ? (I haven't seen a match replay yet). Giving the ball to Nasri to take the throw in is very atypical of a an RB !! Maybe he's not fully fit and is taking precautions now that he might be on the move ??
3- Agree on Nasti and Boyata but both haven't played for a long time and are clearly not very match fit (especially Nasti). Considering it was an exhibition friendly, I didn't really expect them to exert themselves too much.
4- Agree on this and it was to be expected. What I wrote was from the point of view of an overzealous fan who was hoping to get a glimpse of his heroes !! Still what about Lescott ?

[Douglas Higginbottom]

I would take a different view on some of those points.

1) There were about 30 odd players all well rested, playing short spells v City's 12/13 with a few late subs, who have just come from a title game, a piss up, a parade, a knackering plane journey, a load of promo work, to play a game in very high temperatures, against 30 odd players who are used to playing there, from which you can conclude that City are on another planet entirely.

2) Micah looked anything but 'disinterested' & was one of the hardest working City players on the night along with Kolarov, running the length of the pitch several times & working much harder than any of the 'local' based players who fell apart if he went anywhere near them.

3) Nastasic & Boyata played some very nice touches but demonstrated their total lack of natural defensive ability by leaving players unmarked right in the middle of our box. (John Terry wouldn't do that when he was 10).

4) No way should any of the World Cup players be expected to do anyhing. The comeback on City both from the countries involved & the players themselves if they missed the World Cup because of turning an ankle, being made to play in a game like that, would do untold damage to the club & morale in the team.

I agree Jovetic gave us a glimpse of what he can do, & thought all of the kids looked more talented on the ball than Rodwell.

Ted, let me reply point by point:
1- Agree mostly on this apart from the temp which was about 28 and dry, actually pleasant so not really that energy sapping.
2.- I think it's a well know fact is what you see when you are in the stadium is different than what you see on TV. I did say Micah did make some runs every now and then but in the first half I was sitting right behind our goal and could see him holding back when the play went forward and didn't make his usual runs ahead of his winger (Nasri). He did that one or twice and with one I think he hit the post ? (I haven't seen a match replay yet). Giving the ball to Nasri to take the throw in is very atypical of a an RB !! Maybe he's not fully fit and is taking precautions now that he might be on the move ??
3- Agree on Nasti and Boyata but both haven't played for a long time and are clearly not very match fit (especially Nasti). Considering it was an exhibition friendly, I didn't really expect them to exert themselves too much.
4- Agree on this and it was to be expected. What I wrote was from the point of view of an overzealous fan who was hoping to get a glimpse of his heroes !! Still what about Lescott ?

Lescott as I heard is injured so couldn't play. 28 degrees compared to the weather we are used to would be like an oven!!!