MAN CITY 0 – 1 Stoke – MY THOUGHTS
30 Aug
In under a week, we have gone from the delightful high of beating a dangerous Liverpool side when nowhere near our peak to succumbing pitifully to Stoke’s resilient organisation. This was not quite a classic snatch and grab, mainly due to the fact we hadn’t posed a consistent threat to the visitors’ goal, but the feeling of despondency come the final whistle was stinging.
The easy option at this juncture would be to criticise Stoke’s defensive approach. They came to the Etihad to contain and to frustrate and they used tactics which would be painful to watch on a weekly basis, but it was a style of play that worked and we can have no complaints. Their efforts to disrupt play, to remain compact and therefore limit the space in which our creativity could thrive were understandable. It’s not a particularly aesthetic approach, but it placed the onus on City to show guile to break them down and the likes of David Silva, Samir Nasri, Stevan Jovetic and Yaya Touré all failed to do just that.
Stoke defended resolutely, sitting deep, allowing our defenders and midfielders to have the ball, but then pressing collectively when we pushed up the pitch. They showed limited attacking ambition, Peter Crouch acting as a central midfielder for lengthy periods of the second half and their two wide men restricting the forward bursts of Bacary Sagna and Aleks Kolarov, but they were superbly organised and near-impenetrable.
From a City perspective, however, far too much of the attacking play was risk-averse. We needed invention and purpose, drive and guile. We got lethargic, one-paced and predictable football. No-one committed defenders, no-one ran at the opposition and tried to take a direct approach. It was all pretty passing without an end product. Keeping the ball moving and slowly probing is clearly not the problem in itself. When trying to gradually shift defenders around and drag them out of position, it is a clever, methodical way of breaking through, but against Stoke’s bank of ten, it felt like City were retaining the ball for the sake of it. City played comfortable passes, not dangerous ones. There was no obvious plan.
On debut, Bacary Sagna was OK, but nothing more. He defended solidly for the most part, showed an awareness to drop in and cover when others went forward, but equally it would be fair to say we missed Pablo Zabaleta’s penetration down the right. Sagna will surely adapt to our style the more he plays and he has a reputation as an attacking fullback who delivers a lethal cross, yet he was often a spare part in our attacks. He seemed to stand around waiting for the ball on the wing, rather than, as Zabaleta does, make a run beyond midfield to receive the ball from the likes of Silva and Nasri. It may seem a minor point, but with Aleks Kolarov quiet on the other side, it meant we lacked width and played through the middle. It suited Stoke perfectly.
Many more sides will presumably come to the Etihad and line up in a similarly restrictive manner. It is nothing new, of course, and it is a tactic we have overcome on a consistent basis in the past couple of seasons, but more urgency and quality will have to be shown. It can only be hoped that the players learn some lessons from today’s defeat and bounce back strongly. If nothing else, this encounter will hopefully ward off any notions of complacency in our quest to retain the Premier League title.
Spot on with the above comments.
Width nothing kolarov was poor did not look for the ball and no City player wanted to give it him.
Stoke fans were good.
On the plus side plenty of time to sort this out.
the team lacked penetrating runs intnd a parked train of Stoke City. We should not lose sleep and concentration over the sad loss of 3 points.
the team lacked penetrating runs into a parked train of Stoke City. We should not lose sleep and concentration over the sad loss of 3 points.
Surprising that you make no comment about Stoke’s goal which came from a ridiculous series of errors and schoolboy defending having been conceded from our corner. The loss of Fernando was a major blow. The other worry is the lack of sharpness and snap in our play and how many players seemed to be going through the motions. Other teams have had multiple players returning later from the WC without the same issues as ours.
Hi,
i am new to this blog.I am belgian city fan.What bothered me the most at this game (also in several other games last year) is the fact that we consede a lot of goals starting with our own corner.Silva and Nasri have the bad habit to wait until Kompany and Demichelis have arrived in the opponents penalty area and then suddenly play a short ball to each other, lose it and make room for a counter- attack,leaving our defense completely open.
Either you give a long ball for our players to run at,or when you want to play it short at least warn Vinny or Demichelis to stay back
.I wonder why yaya wasn’t by Lampard who always commits himself to the game,whilst Yaya….!