Lech Poznań 3 – 1 MAN CITY – MY THOUGHTS
5 Nov
At the start of writing any blog, I’m normally full of enthusiasm, bursting to write down whatever thoughts take my fancy. Even after a defeat, I’m quite happy to notify others of my feelings, describe what went wrong and discuss possible solutions. But there’s none of that excitement or eagerness at the moment.
As I sit here, listening to ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’ in a valiant effort to raise my spirits, I can only reflect on another hugely disappointing defeat, one in which the scoreline doesn’t do justice to events on the pitch. With five minutes to go, it was 1-1 and both sides would have been content to escape with a point.
It had been a fairly balanced contest, both sides threatening on occasions and looking decidedly shaky at others, but when the luck is against you, it really is against you. Lech Poznan took a free-kick, a harmless one into the box where Dedryck Boyata headed the ball away.
Problem averted, you would have thought. But much to the delight of the media I’m sure, Boyata’s header rebounded mercilessly off the back of a Lech Poznan player who wasn’t even looking at the ball, and nestled in the back of the net. 2-1. And that despair turned to pure deflation moments later when the home side added another, this time courtesy of a superb 30 yard strike. 3-1 and it looks like a battering.
We hoped that the pair of defeats, to Arsenal and Wolves, would serve as a catalyst to inspire us on, but alas not. The first half matched a similar style to that of recent fixtures, notably the Blues making an impressive start, creating chances galore but failing to score that all-important goal.
And then the killer blow. The ball came 25 yards out from goal and Injac rifled home to give the Poles the lead. Half time came and went, before Adebayor scored his fifth in just four games, striking home from two yards after his header from Milner’s corner was well saved. But galvanise us, it did not.
David Silva hit the bar with a volley, whilst he missed a gilt-edged chance to make it 2-2 later on, slicing over from inside the six yard box. And then came the two goals for Lech Poznan. Despair for Mancini, an undeserved result, one that will be served no doubt with a dollop of criticism and a side order of pressure.
The Italian handed opportunities to a number of his fringe players, and it is them whom I will now focus on. SWP looked rustier than the B of the Bang, slower than the M25 on a Friday afternoon and about as confident as Vanessa Feltz on a pair of scales. Patrick Vieira has been one of our best performers in this competition, but looked his age yesterday, really struggling with his passing and movement.
Wayne Bridge deserves his own paragraph. As one of my good friends, Matt Jones, so eloquently put it, ‘Left foot, left foot, left foot, fall over, left foot, left foot, fall over, left foot, give the ball away with his right foot, left foot, fall over, give away a clear penalty which was never given, left foot, misplaced pass, hit the ball too hard, left foot, fall over.’ And that really sums him up. Trying to think of a clean, family friendly way to describe his performance is difficult; the best I can come up with is ‘utterly dire.’
The only positives to come out of the game, in my humble opinion, were the displays of Joleon Lescott, who looked more solid than in previous matches, David Silva, who added creativity and desire, and the long-awaited return of Aleksandar Kolarov who impressed in his brief showing as a substitute.
My final message is for the fans. Keep the faith. We are doing this the City way. It wouldn’t be City if we weren’t.
Well said. Fourth in the table, without having fielded our full first team, is not the crisis the media are pitching for.
Very well said. SWP, Bridge and Santa Cruz need to sold in this January window. I also believe that Adebayor should be sold and instead we get a quality left back and a target man such as Dezko.
Siamack we have a quality LB in Kolarov; City fans need to get content with the very fine players we have and give the management the time needed to make this into a team. Please stop trying to buy every player in the mind of man every transfer window guys! Stop blowing off our players at every opportunity, give the manager and players time.
Adebayor is quality and he’s getting back to his best maybe 85% now and climbing. Balotelli is only just getting fit and has to learn the PL, he is quality.
I agree with Alphie, Alek looks class. Mario will be a star for us, David already seems like the next fan favourite (hes the man on fifa as well) so mancini’s signings have been great. We can not let these setbacks get us down. We know that half of the stories we hear are made up, i think it would be so stupid to sack him. We just have to keep the faith…. Forever blue…. CTID
Good article, I agree with all you say
Asolutely love this >>> “SWP looked rustier than the B of the Bang, slower than the M25 on a Friday afternoon and about as confident as Vanessa Feltz on a pair of scales.” That really did make me laugh!
I would like to, however, pick up on the point raised about Kolarov. It has cauaed debate in the comments above, but I really didnt think he did too great either? I accept the fact he has not played for a very long time, but still he seemed quite careless on the ball dont you think?
I also love the ending here, and I feel it is the best ending you have ever had to a blog >>> “My final message is for the fans. Keep the faith. We are doing this the City way. It wouldn’t be City if we weren’t.” That gave me a literacy orgasm.