MAN CITY 2 – 0 Hull – MY THOUGHTS
1 Sep
This is a guest post by Howard Hockin, part of the award-nominated BlueMoon podcast and author of This Is How It Felt To Be City, now available on Kindle. He also blogs about City, with wit and insight, here.
Skill, guile, ruthless attacking, fluid movement and devastating interplay, imperious defending and sublime ball control. All characteristics not displayed by Manchester City against Hull City. Despite last week’s defeat, I fully expected a return to normal service and a comfortable home victory, the type that has become the norm in recent seasons. This was a rude awakening.
If last week’s defeat signalled the end of Pellegrini’s honeymoon, then this week was akin to him getting back off the holiday to find he had left the iron on, a burst water pipe and that his cat had deposited a huge poo on the lounge rug.
The line-up provided one surprise, with Clichy dropped for Kolarov. I am amazed that Kolarov is still at the club especially after the Norwich game that closed out last season, and to see him in the starting line-up raised a few eyebrows. Clichy may have been punished for Cardiff’s first goal last week, and perhaps Pellegrini has decided he needs a wake-up call, and that it was safe to make the change at home to a promoted club. And as it turned out, Kolarov played ok, and made one crucial tackle. Clichy is a player I find hard to assess. He hasn’t made many mistakes and has undoubtedly been a top-value buy, but he seems to perform fine without excelling, and has been treading water for some time. Could City do better?
It’s strange how such small changes to a team set-up can leave it looking so disjointed. The formation was a mess, with little understanding between players and for much of the match they played like strangers. Let’s not get arrogant and expect to turn over every “smaller” team we play, but to watch us hanging on at the end until the Toure free kick was bordering on embarrassing.
Does David Silva have a role in this formation? He is less effective out wide, but he has no place in this 4-4-2 of sorts. Pellegrini may have to consider changing the formation to fully utilise some of his players. I doubt the likes of Silva and Aguero are out of form at the moment, more likely that they are struggling to prosper under a new system. Likewise, the Fernandinho and Toure axis continues to underwhelm. But they need time to develop an understanding.
The change at half-time, introducing Negredo, paid dividends. It is ridiculous to suggest that I know 1/100th of what Pellegrini does about football or picking teams, and I don’t see the players in training every day, but it mystifies me that Dzeko is being picked ahead of Negredo. Neither did much wrong pre-season and Dzeko has not been playing badly but Negredo seems to offer more and he is a goal-machine. He has come off the bench three times and scored three legitimate goals, and is stronger and links play better. Hopefully he will start against Stoke – he should relish that challenge.
Where is Stevan Jovetic? It seems he may have been injured, and thus isn’t fully fit, but I have read very little about him. I wouldn’t expect him to start away at Stoke, so it could be some time before we see him in a City shirt.
Time for the weekly discussion about Joe Hart – for all of Hull’s threat, he didn’t have much to do – the decision to punch a couple of crosses was fine by me. A quiet day for him, which was needed. In front of him however, Joleon Lescott didn’t endear himself to a new contract. City’s defensive wobbles continue. Vincent Kompany is treated like the messiah at times, but City could really do with him back by the time the derby rolls round.
City should have had a penalty when Aguero was taken out after a jinxing run. I doubt it’s mentioned in any match reports. That first goal was sublime. It seems we have finally found a free-kick taker, at least for kicks to the left of centre. Now all we need is a corner-kick taker.
Highlight of the day off the field was the self-deprecating chants of the City fans in the 2nd half. If opposition fans continue to mouth these pathetic playground insults, then it’s best to beat them to it.
Hull, like Cardiff, were impressive. Or did City just make them look that way? They show the classic characteristic of a promoted side that goes straight back down – an inability to score goals, something Bruce alluded to after the match. Still, at least he didn’t have to admonish the team on the pitch at half-time.
The uncomfortable start to the season has led to the inevitable reopening of the debate about the decision to sack Roberto Mancini. To repeat myself for the 50th time, Mancini was not sacked for results alone, and there were numerous games last season that were just as bad as the Hull match, but they tended to be away from home. There’s no time in modern football for players to find their feet or managers to implement new ideas. Fans and the media expect immediate returns and a seamless transition, but it doesn’t work like that.
At least I could access the internet at the ground for once. It seems improvements have finally been made. No free pie this time though. Disappointing City. Disappointing.
As I left the ground I heard a tirade from an elderly Hull fan about the evils of money buying success. If only our club could be run with the class and decorum of the Hull Tigers.
I think Silva is the only player actually trying right now. On numerous occasions his team mates in front of him didn’t offer him an option. Where was the movement? Lescott has got to go. Kolarov is so poor and runs as if he’s got a parachute on his back. Maybe he thinks he looks cool? He doesn’t. Now, Toure & Fernandinho. Downright awful. No running. No tackling. No domination of midfield. I’ve said on other posts that I believe Jack Rodwell should be in there, or at least given his chance to impress. For me, he’s better than either of those two. If his injury issues have cleared up then get him in there to give us some bite & drive. We’ll certainly need him against united on the 22nd. Negredo has got to start instead of Dzeko. Edin is a good super sub at best but we won’t win the league with him as first choice forward. Then lets hope Jovetic is our new Tevez when he’s fully fit? And poor Jimmy Milner! He must be really racked off that he’s been pushed aside as we’re desperately missing his work rate.
Only three games so I caveat this statement; however it is becoming abundantly clear that Fernandinho isn’t the player we expected —whoah– wait a minute, no one expected anything as I can’t remember anyone crying out for another defensive midfielder – Milner must be wondering what is going on. We have shelled out £30m when Milner can do the same job but of course he is English so he possibly can’t !!! We needed a quality centre back. Left winger too anyone? Silva is best in the middle. I’m sure Navas will come good. YaYa, oh YaYa – laughably shit/lazy (for someone of his ability) for 90% of the average games and 50% of the big games – it must be in his contract to start. If Negredo doesn’t start against Stoke then it’s (to coin our chant against them) an effin joke. Aguero – either we ain’t plaing o his strengths or he’s been out of form – for c.12 months……..
My worrIes having watched the pre-season games is that in Yaya an and Fernandinho we have two players who can’t tackle and are often caught upfield. They provide little support for an understrength defence and we are therefore much weaker at the back. Yaya is not and never will be a captain…we miss kompany as much for his leadership as his ability. We need drive and passion and must give Rodwell and Milner a chance….but being English they obviously don’t gave the ability!
An underwhelming performance and everyone was relieved to get the win which we hardly deserved. The defence looked bad – Lescott looked completely out of his comfort zone playing on the right side of the centre half pairing. Kolarov always looks one paced and although he might occasionally cross the ball it is obvious he struggles against any decent winger. Yaya and Fernando don’t seem to be on the same wavelength and at the moment Rodwell and or Milner would be better in this formation.
All in all vast improvements are needed for the United game – let’s hope Demichelis adds stability.
>>I am amazed that Kolarov is still at the club especially after the Norwich game that closed out last season
You are not the only one but I am not sure that there is any team that is willing to take him even if City cuts its losses to more that 50%. He is an absolute liability. He is that sort of player that has an 1 average game in 10 games. In other words, 9 out of 10 is horrible.
As for Negrode, Pellegrini should definitely start him. It is no brainer [with all due respect to my man Dzeko]. I also somehow fancy playing two center forwards (Dzeko and Negrode) with some good classical direct English football of sending long balls in the box in games like Cardiff and Hull
U agree that city have no defensive midfield. Get Gareth Barrie back from Everton. He was MAGNIFICIENT for Everton against Chelsea. You fools at City!!! Who made that decision to loan him out? Get him back – he is better than any defensive midfield player at CITY!!