6 Hopes for MAN CITY This Season
1 Aug
With the start of the season just a fortnight away (the Community Shield is a completely pointless match but more on that later in the week), I thought I’d take the time to detail a few of my hopes for City this campaign. Some are hopes for individual players, others the team, and a couple are slightly more light-hearted, but feel free to let me know below whether you agree with what I’ve written or would like something different to happen this season.
First of all, it is imperative that David Silva doesn’t get injured. We have a hugely talented squad with competition for places in the first team high, but no player is as tough to replace as the Spaniard. Despite the vast array of talent we possess, he is the one player who controls the way we play, the tempo we play at and is central to our hopes this season. A serious injury to the creative maestro and our Premier League aspirations, along with our hopes in the Champions League and FA Cup, will take a major blow.
Talking of the Champions League, I firmly believe we must not ‘do a Spurs’ and perform well in Europe but let our domestic form suffer. Of course, if we can have some success in the Champions League, that would be fantastic and it is something of which we are capable, but it would be awful if our league form took a hit and we failed to finish in the top four. We need to remain in the Champions League for a number of years on the trot if we are to make a serious impression, not just attain third place once and drift away.
Apart from Silva, the one player I’m particularly looking forward to strutting his stuff in a City shirt is Sergio Aguero. If he can settle quickly and forge a partnership with Silva/Balotelli/Dzeko, we could be in for a treat. The Argentine comes highly recommended and if he shows just what he is capable of, we stand a chance of performing well both domestically and in Europe. Time will tell, but I’m confident we have a world class player on our hands.
One possibly controversial wish of mine is that Adam Johnson actually does something when he starts a game. Fans of other clubs who only watch Match of the Day can’t understand why he doesn’t feature more regularly for us, as all they see are his tricks around the box in a two minute highlights package, but City fans recognise his weaknesses. Johnson is so effective coming on from the bench in the second half of games, exploiting tired defenders and often winning games with his trickery and directness. But whenever given the chance to start, he disappoints. Whether it’s a fitness issue and he can’t perform for longer than 30 minutes, I’m not sure, but he needs to buck up his ideas if he is serious about being a key figure for club and country.
One player who should be more settled this season is Edin Dzeko. The Bosnian struggled a touch last year after joining in January but with a full pre-season under his belt and a couple of goals to boost his confidence, I hope he can fulfill some of his promise. He has much-needed Champions League experience and it’s clear he knows where the goal is. A few early strikes and I expect him to have a fantastic goalscoring campaign.
A blog can’t go by without mentioning Mario Balotelli and, in a sense, I hope he doesn’t mature, because he’s brilliantly entertaining as he is. Football needs characters, and boy is Balo one of those! When he’s good, he wins games and when he’s bad, he makes headlines for the wrong reasons. And there’s not a lot in between. So forgive him his foibles, because watching Man City would be that much more dull without him around.
I could not agree with you more on each of these things, especially with Balotelli. Balotelli is a joy to watch and I hope he doesn’t let the media ruin his creativity. The only other thing I would add is that I hope we find a center back to partner Kompany. We have plenty of players on the squad that it could be, but we need someone to step up and take over the position. It could be Joleon Lescott, Kolo Toure, Stefan Savic, or even Micah Richards, Nedum Onuoha, or Dedryck Boyata. I do not know who it will be yet, but hopefully one of them steps up
hello? joleon is the obvious choice? he’s been f…ing brilliant!!
Good posting, particularly with reference to Johnson-he is a cracking player when coming on as sub. I’ve lost count of the occasions I have had to patiently explain to fans of other teams why he isn’t an atomatic starter. He just doesn’t do it when he’s on for 90 minutes.
Among all points you have mentioned, the lack of a central med-fielder to fill David Silva’s shoes ,when needed, can turn out to be our Achilles’ heel. We can not expect him to play every game or go uninjured during the season. His vision, talent and tempo glue the whole team together and not being able to play , for any reason such as injury, may prove to be very costly to the City.
Mancini needs to sign at least one more capable central mid-field player to fill this gap [my preference is Nasri]
Dzecko and Balo were imperious against Inter and seemed to be on the same wavelength. I have not seen the two play like that before so that gives me hope if Tevez goes. As for Silva, he is brilliant and is rather like the battery for our intricate machine but if he was to get injured I would love to see Wright Phillips get some proper game time. And then we could restore Milner to his rightful place in midfield. The side wound not be as effective on the eye but I think this is the way we could see the best of Milner.
As for saying the charity shield is not that important, i would love to win it especially as this is as a derby and the new Wembley could become a lucky stadium for us!!
All your points spot on mate, but the community shield is far from pointless it’ll kick them arseholes from round the corner into touch just before the season starts, let everybody know who’s gonna be dominating the PL next year.
Couldnt agree more about adam johnson!!!!!!
I definitely agree about Silva. He’s one of the few players I’ve seen play football beautifully.
What about Bellamy? He’s a really good player, I mean, he plays with his heart! And Wright-Phillips? Mancini should definitely consider him!!!
No chance of Beller’s having a come back by the looks of it. It’s a shame as he was class when Mancini took over and always wanted the ball. As much as Silva is brilliant (and he is brilliant) he does not posess the ferocious determination that Craig had. Shame i guess
Yeah, that’s true. Silva’s an extremely skilled player, but he needs some fire, u know?
I think Nasri would probably come to City. He’s a skilled midfielder, which fills the hole. And what about Tev?? Leaving or not???