Everton 2 – 0 MAN CITY – MY THOUGHTS
17 Mar
A trip to face Everton at Goodison Park. Did anyone, deep down, expect anything other than a hugely disappointing City performance in which we were outbattled by the home side who treated the encounter like a cup final? Well, no, but that doesn’t make this defeat any easier to accept.
It was the usual fare when travelling to take on David Moyes’s side. They’re a decent outfit – nothing special - but their desire and workrate, combined with our lethargy and startling absence of fighting spirit, meant that once again we left with nothing but a concoction of anger and frustration. The title race, if it wasn’t already, is over and the only hope is that this campaign doesn’t peter out completely. Psychologically, a 20 point gap come the end of the season would be hard to overcome.
Of course, it is easy to overreact after a defeat, but it is far from melodramatic to suggest that this was one of our most alarming performances of the season. Roberto Mancini had an awful day, both in terms of his selection and tactics during the game, whilst the performances of a number of players were shambolic, bordering on inept.
In terms of the manager’s selection, devoid of the spine of the team in Vincent Kompany, Yaya Touré and Sergio Aguero, he opted for the oft-criticised 3-4-1-2 formation. It can work and I can definitely see the benefits of the system in terms of providing width and a different threat against sides who pack the midfield and defence, but simply put, the idea has to be shelved until we sign players capable of performing in specific, demanding roles.
It is a system that requires pace and mobility. It requires the wingbacks to be both defensively sound and also able to contribute in the final third, and have the engine to bomb up and down throughout. It requires central midfielders who can turn defence into attack in seconds.
Instead, we had Aleks Kolarov on the left, a player who gives hope to all those out there who are painfully slow, unable to defend, tackle or pass. He’s stealing a living from City. Moreover, I’ve seen more mobility at a geriatric convention than there was in our central-midfield partnership yesterday of Gareth Barry and Javi Garcia. The former is an excellent protector in front the defence but needs a more dynamic presence alongside him to be effective, while the Spaniard hasn’t heard of the words ‘purpose’ or ‘intensity’. It was a shambles.
They weren’t the only culprits (see also: Edin Dzeko) but our absence of energy in midfield cost us dearly against a side brimming with intent. Able to dominate the battle in the middle of the park, Everton moved the ball quickly, feeding their rampaging fullbacks whose constant bursts forward caused us problem after problem, and in Victor Anichebe, they had a powerful front man with the attitude, strength and desire to inflict a demanding afternoon on our centre-backs. Dzeko, take note.
The only period when we started to exert any real pressure was after the Toffees had been reduced to ten men, Steven Pienaar correctly receiving his marching orders for a woeful challenge on Garcia. It was about the only decision the referee got right all match. Lee Probert’s award of a free-kick to City when Marouane Fellaini handled a good two yards inside the box was laughable, but we can feel fortunate that Everton had a goal ruled out incorrectly for offside earlier on. From all on show except the home side’s enthusiastic players, it was a match to forget. Sadly, the same is said about this fixture every year.
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Everton treat it like a cup final and its not fair ! boohoo ! Best excuse in the world ! Haha love it !
When did the author say it wasn’t fair Everton treat it as a cup final? They do and it is.
If you think we got rid of Joe, then think again! we have his Avatar Kolarov. He is an insult and embarrassment to every footballer. He embodies everything that a footballer can not be. Just as you can not call every man daddy because your father is a man, you can not be called a footballer because you can kick a ball.
You perfectly bring up an excellent point that Gareth Barry is excellent protector in front the defence but needs a more dynamic presence alongside him to be effective. I believe the same applies for Garcia. Jack Rodwell was a living example of such case. But Barry/Garcia together is disaster to happen.
Our midfield was flat with no pace, but quite frankly I can not get over how abysmal Kolarov was and has been majority of times. He is a leech that makes a living out of City and offers nothing in return.
PS- You may find some of the comments here similar to ones in Bitter and Blue [put under Mack71], I am not plagiarizing content, but reusing my own comments
As an Everton supporter, I found this an excellent article, with nothing in it to argue against. Against another article from a City website which I read earlier today, wich claimed that Everton were a complete team of thugs, who set out to inflict the maximum physical damage to City players. Maybe if some of your foreign imports realise that this game of football is a simple game, if you have the right mindset and show a bit of passion for their club. Which they didn’t show yesterday.
Congrats, Barney, on yet another Everton win over our Blues. We’ll have a very different looking squad and a new manager and staff next season.
See you then…
Mancini must take full responsibility for that awful display yesterday, the decision to go with 3 at the back in a game away to Everton mystifies me, I know that everyone says that the players should be able to adapt to the system but the simple fact is that they can’t, so why keep trying it, perhaps if he tried it with 3 center backs instead of 2 plus 1 full back it might pay better dividends. To top this our 2 worst players on the day (Dzeko and Kolarov) “played” the full 90 minutes, whilst other players with more heart, talent and desire were taken off.
I’ve never given Mancini other than my full support but yesterday was truly abysmal.
Can’t bring myself to comment.
A truly horrible performance.
Disgrace, utter disgrace, i expected us to lose, because it was Everton and because i have lost faith in this campaign. Serious questions have to be now asked about Mancini’s tenure at the club. People are probably going to shoot me down for saying that, and sure if we lost the title this season hard luck, but to be so far behind at this stage and exit the champions league in the manner in which we did, it’s simply not good enough for the financial investment gifted to us. Has he hit the ceiling in terms of how far he can take us?
Fair points. Only counter would be if the transfer signings were not his fault as he constantly reminds us.
He shouted from the rooftops over and over again that he wanted Dzeko, Nasri, Milner, Kolarov and Balotelli. And please don’t give me any malarkey about how those were Marwood signings…!
Of course, if Bobby had any idea how to properly deploy those players, or any idea of how to adequately man-manage his squad, these very same players might surprise us.
I don’t disagree. Although tellingly I don’t recall him shouting from the rooftops about Kolorov. He wanted him and bought him easily – the other ones didn’t come easily as their clubs wanted to keep them, as opposed to Kolorov….
Knives will come out for Mancini. I actually like him generally but he does make odd decisions and the lack of width for 3 years is baffling, as is his complete lack of man management and utter aloofness. Plus we have had a piss easy run in the FA Cup barring Stoke away and last season should never have been as close as it was. That said – who is the REALISTIC alternative???
I am with Crispy on this one. Let’s say this year we only get a top 3 spot. Then Mancini has delivered a FA cup, league title and a community shield during a 3 years period and I would take the same for the next 3 years in a heart beat.
totally agree re. Dzeko he was awful yesterday. Frankly his game is not suited to our style of play full stop. Hes a great finisher who would thrive in a team that plays direct football into the opposition box picking up second balls etc but his touch, link up play, penetration are nowhere near what we need. We don’t look a threat at all for me when Aguero is absent – he is the only one able to commit defenders in one on one situations and run into the space behind- the team in general I feel lacks attacking pace big time and I agree its baffling that Sinclair has not been given more of a chance. Before Pienaars sending off Moyes kept pushing his players up to half way line coz he knew we had no to get in behind them. Barry had a poor game yesterday and Garcia was Garcia- I know he was not a first choice buy but £25 mill puts him the bracket of worst buys of all time for me and given FFP regulations a huge mistake. He lacks so many key attributes of a modern holding midfielder its frightening. Starting Kolarov was baffling too given the quality of Coleman & mirralas. Summer transfer window will be interesting to say the least – lets hope Txixi does a good job of getting the right people in and out.
Agree with the article and comments. The only use Kolorov has is free kicks. He has scored the odd one but the attempt yesterday near the end was woeful. The decision making of the whole team while in possession was embarrassing. I hate this tippy tappy style of play across the pitch. It invites the opposition to come at us and gives the impression we are afraid to attack which does seem to be the case. No belief. No pace. No desire. If our squad of player’s, with the talent they have, put in the same work rate as Tevez and Zaba we would walk the league. That’s what hurts. They can but don’t.
What is clear is that with our ‘spine’ of Aguero, Yaya and VK all missing, we are clearly not a strong enough unit to win the league. I thought we had a very good team last year that we could build on and improve areas like the wing, and extra support in MF but that didn’t happen and now we look a weakened side compared to last year.. This summer is going to be very interesting..
It’s simple for me, it’s the same problem we’ve had the last couple years. This system Mancini likes, with no speed and no wingers, just asks way too much of our strikers and Silva. If they are not brilliant, we really find it difficult to get a good performance.
This is as upset as I have been as a supporter since the spring of ’08 when Sven was getting done in (and the 1-8 disaster at Boro that I actually attended.)
Goodison Park stewards took the wrong “impostor pretending to be a footballer” off the field. Should have taken Kolarov instead.
Up to now I looked upon the “Mancini out!” people as being the next thing to completely insane. A theoretical 2nd + Cup season and these nuts want to run out a manager who has done so much for us. Stupid, right?
Well given the tactical cluter-&%$#@ and the overall lack of effort by the squad with the Spurs and Chavski breathing down our necks for the automatic UCL slots, yesterday’s performance was almost inexcusable. A manager needs to both motivate the players and not “shoot the squad in the head” with tactical decisions that are self-evidently wrong even to people like me whose expertise is limited to Football manager and playing in weekend rec leagues.
No, I don’t want to fire Bob just yet. Successful organizations in all walks of life, business, and sport generally do not change things up willy-nilly. But yesterday’s performance cost Bob quite a bit of goodwill on my part. And when managers start to lose (hopefully) sensible people like me, that is not a good sign
Exactly, even though he has done things that have annoyed me previously, such as taking ages to make substitutions, i now think that this is one of the last remaining straws. He has been here quite a while so it is not a knee jerk reaction, he has delivered too. But the City job is also about evolution of our goals.
Take last season for example. United did not win a shit and on few occasions Sir Alex’s line up was questionable and not to mention their unprecedented 6 – 1 humiliation by City. Does it mean Sir Alex should have been sacked? It took United 5 years to only qualify from Champions League group stage when Sir Alex took over. What club needs is stability. This does not mean that I , much like many other fans, am not frustrated and pissed over the lack of team desire and team selections/tactics by Mancini on numerous occasions; however, I believe it is too rash to ask for Bobby’s dismissal. We are not Chelsea to change managers as soon as we hit a road bump.
Your right, but it is also a risk to stick with a manager who could fracture the squad mentality further, we should be doing much better then we are, oh a semi final win against United might just do us all a world of good.
Lets hope Manchester United players get fatigue, and drop some points.
The question that City fans need to start asking is whether Mancini is getting found out. Once again, no natural width or pace to counter a team that play an aggressive, high pressure style. This season has been too eirly similiar to the 2010-2011 season for my liking, when too many teams could either park the bus,or apply high pressure. In addition the build up as been too slow too many times. City have also seem to reverted to defending way too deep.
While I agree Mancini can be a very clever tactician, he can also be incredibly predictable as well as obstinate. When a team has to chase a game, one of the more effective ways to break down the opposition is to get to the byline at speed to get behind the defense. This can be achieved by direct wing play or players making diagonal runs, something I have rarely seen from City under Mancini’s reign. My point being is that he over elaborates far too often, and his insistence on solely using wingbacks to provide width is risky business against teams playing an aggressive high pressure system (something the author astutely has remarked upon here as well). The bottomline is Mancini has to shoulder the blame on this performance. These are his players playing his tactics. He cannot keep throwing the players under the bus for his mistakes. For all my frustration with the man I do not want him to get the sack but for that to happen he needs to evolve tactically and find a series of systems which utilize width and pace as well as improve his poor man management skills. Rant over
Proper tactics are definitely necessary to win games but not enough. Unfortunately, some players desire to fight and put some work on the pitch have been non-existent and some others much like Kolarov are dead-wood much like a stick covered in shit, no matter where you grab, same shit. No tactics work with them.
Come guys cheer up a little? I’m starting to get depressed reading some of the comments
We are still in the top4 man! We’re not playing like Barcelona every week and we do have our problems but what team doesn’t?
It’s just not our year that’s all. I mean look at the summer transfer, it was a shambles before the season even started! Sacking Bobby? Let’s worry about that when we’re being outplayed every week and are out of top4. In the meantime I don’t think changing managers is the answer. No rush..
agree with keeping him, however if he doesn’t realize the need to change to a system that utilizes wingers (not fullbacks), I think he will pay for it next year