MAN CITY 4 – 3 Wolves – MY THOUGHTS
16 Jan
I do pity fans of Man City. Forced to watch such boring, soporific football week in, week out. It must be maddening to see your beloved club line up with just the one striker and three defensive midfielders. 90 minutes of negative tactics, producing not one iota of entertainment nor excitement. We can all dream of turning up to the ground and witnessing a pulsating game, full of chances and goals… Fortunately for Blues’ supporters, that dream is a reality.
This was an action-packed seven goal thriller, during which Wolves deservedly took the lead and dominated proceedings in the first half. A Kolo Touré equaliser gave City some momentum heading into the break and at the start of the second period, a pair of stunning moves culminated in goals for Carlos Tévez and the younger Touré brother, Yaya. The Argentine added a fourth later in the half as City oozed class and control, but the visitors fought back with a brace of their own to make the final few minutes rather nerve-wracking. We held out for the win, and continue to maintain the pressure on the sides around us.
Roberto Mancini opted to hand new signing Edin Džeko a début from the start despite the striker not having played for quite some time due to the German winter break. There was a welcome return for David Silva after missing the past couple of matches, although the Spaniard had to settle for a place on the bench with doubts over his fitness. Pablo Zabaleta and Aleks Kolarov were the fullbacks chosen, with Tévez adopting a slighter wider starting berth on the left, but with license to roam.
When it comes to the opening few minutes of a match these days, there doesn’t seem to be much middle ground for City. We either tear sides to pieces or are torn to pieces ourselves, most notably against Everton and Arsenal. And unfortunately, it was the latter of those cases on Saturday as Wolves raced out of the blocks and could have scored twice before they actually did. The goal itself resulted from a piece of sloppy defending, as Kolo Touré’s clearance from a cross struck Vincent Kompany and landed in the path of Nenad Milijas. The Serbian saw his first effort saved brilliantly by Joe Hart, but his second one crept in to hand the visitors the lead.
Kolarov was having one of his better days in a City shirt and produced a stunning block to deny a surefire Wolves second goal as both sides impressed going forward but looked suspect at the back. And against the run of play, towards the end of the first half the Blues drew level, thanks to Kolo Touré bundling the ball home at the far post from a corner. On the balance of the play up until that moment, we certainly didn’t deserve the equaliser, but it gave us the lift we needed heading into the second period.
Carlos Tévez, whose hitherto performance was a touch avaricious, then showed just why he is rated so highly. Picking up the ball quite deep, he ran at the Wolves defence, twisting and turning, his quick feet tormenting the poor souls. Making three of them look like fools, he bore down on goal and coolly slotted the ball home to send the crowd wild. But the noise level reached fever pitch just moments later.
Starting the move in our own penalty area, Yaya Touré found Džeko who, in turn, found Tévez. A return pass from our captain to the Bosnian striker advanced the move, before the killer pass forward to Yaya, who delivered a perfect finish to cap off a perfect move. It was a counter attack of the highest quality, a goal which highlights the potential we now possess.
Tévez added a fourth later on, this time a header from a Zabaleta cross, before Wolves displayed their fighting spirit by drawing to within one goal. A clumsy Joleon Lescott challenge on Kevin Doyle inside the box handed the Republic of Ireland striker a chance to score from the spot; a chance he duly took. Ronald Zubar then headed home from a corner despite the best efforts of Nigel de Jong on the line as the visitors piled on the pressure, but City held out for a valuable three points.
Overall, it was a pulsating encounter, with great heart on show from both sides. Edin Džeko made a hugely impressive début, with his hold up play and spatial awareness particularly catching the eye, but yet again, it was the brilliance of Carlos Tévez that fired us to victory.
It only takes a moment to kill the momentum and Lescott did it perfectly. I strongly believe that Boyata or Boating will form a much better partner with Kompany or Toure. I have never been a fan of Lescott, who is prone to big goofs.
We have a big leak in our 18 yard box in set-pieces. This was evident both in Blackpool game and Wovles game and Mancini need to patch it up. But overall, I am happy we patched all 3 points.
I’d play Boateng and Kompany at CB….having said that Lescott had been faultless in the numerous games he had played prior to being dropped for this game. Its hard for anyone to come on as a sub and get the pace of the game straight away.
Though Dzeko oozed class and Kolarov played maginificently. Delightful to watch the blues, and anohter highlight was THE WHOLE GROUND DOING THE POZNAN! Brilliant!
Can we have lescott Please? He’s a legend!!
So we’ve had a couple of dodgy games at the back, we’re still joint top of the league and at home in a cup replay so things could have gone worse. Thought the referee and linesmen had another shocker again though, and now I seem as concerned who is refereeing us than who we are actually playing against. Lee Mason did not set any alarm bells ringing when I found out he would be the official, but he and his two mates with the flags seemed to be conspiring against us from where I was sitting. I still do not think their third was a definite goal as I’m not sure the whole of the ball crossed the line, and that is with the benefit of replays so I do not know how the linesman could be so sure. The amount of times Mason blew for a foul when we touched one of their players but kept his whistle clutched in his hand when they clattered into one of our players was disturbing also. All’s well that ends well I suppose and I thought the crowd were excellent yesterday, and I particularly enjoyed it when we did a ‘Mexican Poznan’. A win’s a win and as long as we come out on top I’ll take another couple of 4-3′s this season, as long as they are in our favour.
Good match report.
Better than that nonsence sprouted at…
http://thisisourcitymanchester.blogspot.com/2011/01/wolves-reaction-doyle-is-cheating.html
Up the Wolves!
Thanks for all the comments: Lescott had done quite well in previous games so I felt it was the right decision to bring him on to replace Touré. Hindsight is a great thing though. Perhaps Boateng is worth a go. It’s his favoured position and he looked impressive there against Juventus.
Lurch, as for that link, I had the misfortune to read it earlier. Please don’t think all City fans are like that. It was a horrible article and made me embarrassed that he is supposedly a fellow City fan.
View from a Wolves fan: Thanks for an objective view – you’re absolutely right – the main difference on the day was Tevez – he was close to unplayable – when he went on that mazy run, our lads couldn’t tackle him without giving away a pen. Our big problem was having two attacking midfielders in the centre of the park – they were always in your box and when the move broke down, City broke with alarming speed and our back four had no protection from the runners – typified by Ya Ya’s run for the killer goal. And thanks for condemning that idiot who thinks Doyle is a cheat – it was and obvious penaly – Lescott made a completely unnecessary (and very clumsy) challenge. Anyone who knows anything about football knows that Doyle is as honest as the day is long. We lost, but we had a good day out anyway !