MAN CITY 1 – 1 Everton – MY THOUGHTS
2 Dec
A point against Everton, our bogey team, especially having come from a goal down, is not a poor result by any means but the feeling lingers that there are still a number of gears yet to be found this season. Our unbeaten run continues but this was not a vintage City performance, rather one that was lacking in any creativity or attacking spark.
We all know how the Toffees have caused us numerous problems in recent years and thus, having fought back from an early conceded goal, we should be pleased with the character and spirit of the team, but there is a sense of disappointment that, once again, we looked bereft of ideas in the final third. There was a general lack of sharpness to our play, a comfort with passing the ball around in midfield but there was no-one capable of stepping forward and conjuring up one piece of magic to win the game.
It was a static City performance, with plenty of possession but little drive or purpose about our play, and that has been the case too often during this campaign. On many occasions, we have been victorious despite not playing well but Everton were effective in restricting our endeavours and we could not quite find that extra spark to secure the win. It was disappointing but there were enough positive signs to carry forward into next week’s Manchester derby. We lie three points behind them and it will be intriguing battle. City look powerful in defence but lacking an attacking ingenuity whilst United are seemingly the opposite.
Carlos Tevez scored our equaliser from the penalty spot but in open play, we struggled to make inroads into what was a stubborn and organised visiting backline. The movement and interchanging of positions, something we have become accustomed to seeing, was not in evidence, nor was the one-touch play or the quick tempo to open up Everton’s deep-lying defence. They are not an easy side to break down but we didn’t really test them as well as we could have done.
Aleks Kolarov’s early departure resulted in a loss of width on the left and perhaps curtailed any Roberto Mancini plans to switch to a 3-5-2 formation, a system which would have allowed David Silva more freedom and given us a threat from the wings. As it was, we remained fairly narrow throughout and that made it simpler for the Toffees to defend. With neither Silva nor Nasri at their best, we had no creative element, no-one capable of committing defenders, dragging them out of position and no striker to make the run in behind.
On the positive side, we did bounce back well from conceding in the first half and we controlled possession after the break without ever finding the breakthrough. Vincent Kompany and Joleon Lescott looked an assured pairing and with Gareth Barry doing his usual, highly effective job in front of them, there was a solid look about City defensively. They provided the foundation in the game on which we were unfortunately unable to build, but we have such quality of attacking players that it will only be a matter of time before they click and we start to recover our blistering form.
Opposition View: In contrast to their efforts last season at the Etihad, this was an Everton side brimming with attacking intent. They were impressive for the opening twenty minutes or so, getting the ball out wide and using the physical strength of their strikers, but after their goal they sat back and tried to defend their lead. It was an understandable, if not entertaining, way of operating. As usual, they were resilient at the back, defending narrowly and limiting the space in which our creative outlets had to work. Not pretty, but effective once again.
As for City, we face Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday in the final Champions League group game before the Manchester derby next weekend. It may not quite carry the significance or hype of the previous one, at the end of the last campaign, but it’s an important fixture and one we are more than capable of winning. For that to happen, however, we will need to rediscover our attacking spark.
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Our derby’s game next week has lot more importance than our midweek game against Dortmund. Good to know Yaya is out and Mancini should rest Barry, and possibly Silva. If there is one game I wish City would neither win or lose is the mid-week game. Hopefully by staying out of Europa league. We can focus on FA and premier league while risking less injuries and Thursday night games.
I disagree with your s.out of the Europa League theory for the simple reason of playing the younger players (i.e Rekik/ Suarez/Evans/Guidetti/Razak/Nimley… ) who did not rcv game experience due to the early league cup exit and the end of the NEXT GEN series. Add to that the fringe players like Sinclair ,Rodwell ,Garcia .How on earth are we to improve our European results if we stick to playing with a focus on domestic games.
Looking 4WARD to TWO sucessive wins .
If Mancini were to play fringe and Youth players in Europa league, I would be 100% up for it but somehow I doubt he would do so. And for this reason I am against it.
And for this reason, im out
The thing that frustrates me when I watch us is that there are many games (way too many!) that we start dreadfully slow and just go through the motions. We just cheated ourselves out of the first 1/3 of the game, and got out-hustled and outplayed. It’s like we start out matches going at about 70%, and only turn it on after we hit adversity. It’s just annoying to me because when I watch United they almost always assert themselves from the off, (probably going at like 90% to compare).Anyone else see this, or am I crazy?
Also, James Milner gives us so much drive IMO that matches like these (and starts like these) show just how important he is to City. Hope he’ll be in the derby.
Also, I’m not talking about dominating matches and scoring a bunch of goals, we lacked a cutting edge yesterday, but we still played SO much better after the first 30 min ( after the goal), played hungrier like we wanted it more. I’d just like to see that instinct from the start always.
Difficult for me to agree with the comment that matches like these show us how important Milner is. As he has never played on a regular basis, and we have done well for prolonged periods when he hasnt been in the team. Having said that I would like to see him given a go in central midfield more often. Also the united asserting themselves early comment is also difficult to agree with as theyve gone behind 12 times i think this season and its been much publicised. Its difficult to dominate from the first minute to last especially when your a little off form, although in an ideal world we would start fast and play well from the start.
@ Blue Bullet
Fair enough about Milner, the sample size isn’t great but I love what I see when hes in there.
About your United comment, I wasn’t really thinking about goals.. that’s true they go down quite often but its usually against the run of play..or they at least dictate some of the play and have a sort of authority over the game. City didn’t have either of those until after 30min
Seems like it takes us to concede a goal before we wake up and have some intent!
In general team tempo is slow and we do not play fast tempo game like Tottenham and United and that is due to the type of players we have. None are speedy type like Bellamy which is okay as long as we can get the results and obviously we are getting them.
As for United, Much of the “asserting” that you talk about is not because of their playing style but a physiological factor they have on opponents due to their not-distant past great reputation. And Unless something drastic is done to replace some fossilized players and aging squad as well as finding a worthy Sir Alex replacement [which I doubt would happen], they would be nothing more than a team with inferiority-complex that would be bitch-slapped every season by City in a few years.
Haha man I hope you’re right. I’m all for more bitch-slappings
They way we play certainly does make up for not having many particularly speedy players. Although sooner or later it would be good to get some speed options in side MF or attack. Maybe Sinclair was that?
Who does everyone think are the top3 fastest city players?
My guess would be Mario, Aguero and maybe Clichy / Sinclair.
(Slowest: Barry Garcia Lescott possibly)
Worrying me with the attacking talent we have that we’re not scoring from open play – Will take a penalty any day but would like to see more goals from open play! Seems as though the best starting attack hasn’t been discovered yet, although I think statistically it’s the aguero & balotelli partnership?