Bayern Munich 1 – 0 MAN CITY – MY THOUGHTS
18 Sep
It was the worst possible way to lose a game. After a performance full of dogged resistance and determination, to concede such a late, deflected goal was desperately crushing. In itself, a loss away to Bayern Munich, one of arguably the top two sides in the world, is no disgrace, but the manner of defeat resulted in a feeling of pure emptiness. This was City’s chance to show that we are learning and adapting in the Champions League, yet rather than concentrate on a battling display that hinted at improvements, the focus is once again on our European struggles.
Would that be fair? Well, there are two ways of looking at this game. It could be said that City were good value for a point having defended solidly, posed an attacking threat and with Joe Hart in inspired form, Bayern were fortunate to grab the victory. On the flip side, it would be no exaggeration to say that despite missing a series of key players, the home side dominated possession, took advantage of City’s fatigue in the second half and their goal had a measure of inevitability attached to it. I appreciate this makes little sense, but I believe City deserved a draw and Bayern deserved their win.
Nevertheless, on a broader scale than just the result, perhaps more important was that fans wanted to see signs that Pellegrini and the players were learning from previous mistakes. And those signs were evident. This was far from City at their fluent best, but the gameplan – of crowding the midfield, sitting back, defending deep and then springing into action on the counter-attack – was sound. It was in complete contrast to the first encounter of last season’s group stage when the manager selected two up front, tried to attack Bayern and then watched the Germans deliver a footballing masterclass.
In the first half last night, we were able to soak up pressure and then, thanks to Yaya Touré’s powerful runs from midfield, Fernandinho’s brave dribbling and David Silva’s brilliance, we posed problems going forward. Our attacks were sporadic and never resulted in clear opportunities, but at least we gave Bayern something to think about.
Our threat, however, dried up after the break. It is hard to know whether that is simply down to tiredness or whether the home side just increased their intensity and urgency, but Bayern swarmed forward, dominated possession and never allowed City a sniff. There was no outlet for our under-pressure defence. And as the half wore on and Hart’s workload increased, it felt as if we were doing nothing more than hanging on. Jerome Boateng’s goal, via Mario Gotze’s back, didn’t come as a great surprise.
As needed to be the case if City were to claim anything from the game, the side’s best performances came from defensive-minded players. Joe Hart produced a display to rival his effort two seasons ago at home to Borussia Dortmund, Bacary Sagna showcased that he will be more than just an occasional deputy for Pablo Zabaleta and Fernandinho, forced to sit a touch deeper than he would have liked due to Fernando’s absence, stood out with his energy and composure. It was just a shame his central midfield partner didn’t buy into the team spirit.
Much of the post-match attention has focused on Yaya’s rather half-hearted performance, but the most surprising thing is that people are surprised by his struggles. He may well prefer operating from a more advanced role – and we know he views defensive duties with utter disdain, as if affronted that a man of his stature should be asked to track back – but in a midfield two in such a challenging fixture, he had to accept responsibility.
On his day he can virtually win a game single-handedly, but yesterday, as his teammates battled to close down, to harry and to disrupt Bayern, it would not be wrong to say that City played the second half with ten men. Yaya’s utter nonchalance was frightening. And yet it would be no surprise if he were to now run the show against Chelsea and score the winner…
What City can take from the trip to Germany is plenty of confidence. The hardest group game is out of the way and if City can show similar levels of commitment and unity in future matches, and add more frequent splashes of quality, qualification awaits.
Yaya’s a f*cking disgrace…
Quote: “crowding the midfield, sitting back, defending deep and then springing into action on the counter-attack”
Well I agree that is what City WANTED to do, I think what you had was Toure making things happen in the first half to generate an attack on the counter. With the runs (as you mention) but also with his relatively underappreciated (IMO) skills as to ball control, retention, and passing.
To my inexpert eyes, in the second half we were playing much more conservatively, sitting back a bit further and Yaya did not really get into things at all. Not defending Yaya’s effort – which did seem to drop off – but maybe this was not the environment for him. In “Football Manager” world you sub him off early in the second half and then crowd the midfield. I’d have put Milner in and used him centrally at this point.
But my essential point is really that we did at no time “crowd the midfield” last night. We were getting passed around and bypassed quite often in the first half and at pretty much all times in the second.
I think the “City needs to play less with two strikers” is an utter canard and just gets trotted out every single time we play ANYONE away. Or even at home. Against LIVERPOOL two weeks ago. Liverpool without Suarez and set up defensively themselves and 80% of the City-o-sphere is cowering in fear at how big bad Liverpool was going to overrun us.
Yes, in a perfect world with Fernando + Fernandinho available for me it is those two plus Yaya in the midfield and one striker up top last night.
But everyone who wants one striker next time we play Burnley away really needs to check themselves and look at our offensive output. We had two shots on target last night I think. This is a team that often plays slowly, deliberately, and without a lot of tempo on the attack. When you have one striker all lonely in the box as Navas or Kolarov tries to cross in to him and the defense has had all day to set up there often isn’t much of an end product.
Just look at what we did all last year FFS. Pellers does not fancy a two striker setup because he does not know what he is doing. He does because the reality is quite the opposite.
City has to play quicker.Players like Nasri and Yaya are are slowing down our game;Against quality teams like Bayern and Chelsea you must play more direct towards their goal.We give them too much time to reorganize themselves at the back.If you have the speed of Navas and Clichy or Kolarev ,use it.Aguero was completely out of the game.His work ethic is very poor. Dzeko works much harder.
Both the article and Marc’s reply are interesting. I do have to say that Yaya did well last night. He was pushing forward in the first half and, due to managerial instructions, held back in the second. When a match of such importance stays 0-0 in the first half, it’s quite normal to hold back in order to get a positive result. It’s what managers do.
Bayern’s midfield, as well as their backs, were pushing forward as much as they could because they wanted the win. Man City was just not creative enough. Silva, Nasri… they hardly touched the ball.
Yaya is often criticised for his play. I don’t understand why because usually he’s the one with who breaks open an opponent’s defence and who has the intelligence to see what’s going on in the pitch really fast.
Roma will be equally hard to beat, I feel. Their performance yesterday, even if CSKA was not impressive, was good. They have fast players. I do think City will beat them, but… a tough match. Unfortunately, City will most probably finish 2nd in the group again. I don’t think it matters because in the knock-outs you have to beat everyone anyway. Doesn’t matter if it’s Barcelona or Real Madrid. If you can’t, then you’re just not good enough.
You forgot to mention that this was a weakened Bayern that had 5 or 6 main players injured[who are in staring line-up when not injured].
I do not think we should pat ourselves on the back that we did well. I believe it was a shame and an absolute failure we conceded in the last minutes and could not see the game through. The manner we lost the game is unacceptable not the loss itself per se!