Johnny Baguette
Alert Team
The idea of a stunning victory must have been on the minds of the hardy 2600 City fans in the fabulous Rhinelands as Guardiola, Nolito apart, selected a team brimming with class, pace and goals in Monchengladbach tonight.
Bravo, at least against my better judgement was restored to Champions League net protection duties behind a three pronged Stones, Otamendi and Kolarov. Fernandinho was standing sentry in front of them with Navas, Gundogan, De Bruyne, Silva and Sterling across midfield leaving the lone-furrowist-in-chief, Aguero up top.
However, someone mustn`t have told the team that they were full of pace and goals. True Gladbach sat in deep intent on soaking up a pressure that never came, and for the first 20 minutes the big question was "Has the paint dried yet?". Indeed, in this important period the City attack produced precisely nothing.
And so it came to pass that with nothing to defend, the Germans took it upon themselves to have a go and attack and soon found it was easy to get into space around the perilous City back three, and if you get into space maybe there`s a goal at the end of it.
Indeed it had been becoming clear for a minute or two that the impressive Brazilian Raffael might turn into a handful and with Stindl now pressing forward more, City`s defensive department was starting to feel some kind of heat.
It was Stindl who played a neat ball into Raffael who swiftly changed feet to open up a gap and just as swiftly drove the ball past Clownio to put Borussia ahead after 23 minutes. This was pretty much the first thing they had done. Bravo looked to be diving after a totally different shot than the one delivered up by Raffael and his shortage of real effort left me thinking that both Hart and Caballero might have kept that one out.
Immediately there was a formation change with City reverting to a back four with Navas the unlikely full back on the right. Ahead of him Sterling was switched from the left.
The side had more balance to it now. Sterling is much more a threat on the right as he has showed on every occasion he`s played there. In addition he moves the ball faster on the right as he doesn`t have to change feet or cut inside. So, things started to happen.
First of all, from a build up along the right the ball found its way to Gundogan whose first time shot looked to be heading into the bottom corner. Sommer, however, for the first time tonight realised there was a match on and did well to repel the chance. From the next attack down the right, the ball was squared to give Aguero a routine chance, but the out-of-sorts Argentino continued in his rich vein of misses. When the third chance came, more as a result of direct running, it was the same script. Sterling spotted De Bruyne`s run into the box and played him in. The Belgian quickly squeezed it in the direction of the goal and Silva nipped in ahead of Aguero to equalise, as the half time whistle was about to go.
Surely Pep would send them out with instructions to get the job done and quickly, but instead City continued to serve up the same drivel as in the first half. With Stindl in a nowty mode, randomly delivering the order of the boot to assorted City players, he found himself in the book and in the tunnel. Surely this was what City needed to get up and get a winner. But no, it just didn`t happen. With City looking like the Calais jungle camped outside the Gladbach area, they looked more intent to keep the ball rather than set any fires.
The first time Borussia got out, for some reason the Turkish referee saw Fernandinho commit something wrong and go fishing for a red card to even up the numbers on the field.
This gave the Germans some heart as they went in search of a winner, but the introduction of Sagna made the back line a little more robust and it was back to City keep ball. The Blues seemed to have little more ambition than to simply to play out the match, not lose and avoid injury. But as the game drew to a close, Aguero turned and slipped and Fernando was waiting for about five minutes to come on and replace him. During that same five minutes, City retained the ball and must have played a thousand passes without intervention. Instead of coming on for Aguero, Fernando sat waiting patiently on the floor. His introduction didn`t happen.
With Celtic losing 2-0 against Barcelona, not only were they eliminated from the Champions League, they cannot now qualify for the Stretford Thursday League as the draw now favours Gladbach. City have now progressed once again to the knock-out stages and have the luxury of being able to field squad players against Brendan Rodgers bhoys when they arrive at the Etihad in a couple of weeks.
There is very little else to write about this match as it was singularly uninspiring and unimpressive. But a job got done and City did not have to tire themselves out to get through.
I`m still not seeing a spark as far as Aguero is concerned and that worries me. His sharpness has eluded him and the natural scoring talent for which he is famous is now finding the shots hitting the goalkeeper instead of the back of the back of the net.
I`m expecting a match for Iheanacho at the weekend and for Yaya to be rolled back out. On the showing of tonight, unless the team was under special instructions, there is scope for Yaya to be among the squad for the knockout stages.
From a pure football perspective, tonight was not great. From a game management perspective, it was fine. Not what we have become used to watching, but a result nonetheless. Even Sue said that the only good to come out of this was that City have qualified. My dad said that it is no wonder that City are not consistent. Guardiola pays a different line-up and different tactics every match and even tonight he changed the system at least 4 times. Anyway dear readers…we move on!!
Read more: http://www.manchestercity.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=574467#ixzz4QsJYwXg6
Bravo, at least against my better judgement was restored to Champions League net protection duties behind a three pronged Stones, Otamendi and Kolarov. Fernandinho was standing sentry in front of them with Navas, Gundogan, De Bruyne, Silva and Sterling across midfield leaving the lone-furrowist-in-chief, Aguero up top.
However, someone mustn`t have told the team that they were full of pace and goals. True Gladbach sat in deep intent on soaking up a pressure that never came, and for the first 20 minutes the big question was "Has the paint dried yet?". Indeed, in this important period the City attack produced precisely nothing.
And so it came to pass that with nothing to defend, the Germans took it upon themselves to have a go and attack and soon found it was easy to get into space around the perilous City back three, and if you get into space maybe there`s a goal at the end of it.
Indeed it had been becoming clear for a minute or two that the impressive Brazilian Raffael might turn into a handful and with Stindl now pressing forward more, City`s defensive department was starting to feel some kind of heat.
It was Stindl who played a neat ball into Raffael who swiftly changed feet to open up a gap and just as swiftly drove the ball past Clownio to put Borussia ahead after 23 minutes. This was pretty much the first thing they had done. Bravo looked to be diving after a totally different shot than the one delivered up by Raffael and his shortage of real effort left me thinking that both Hart and Caballero might have kept that one out.
Immediately there was a formation change with City reverting to a back four with Navas the unlikely full back on the right. Ahead of him Sterling was switched from the left.
The side had more balance to it now. Sterling is much more a threat on the right as he has showed on every occasion he`s played there. In addition he moves the ball faster on the right as he doesn`t have to change feet or cut inside. So, things started to happen.
First of all, from a build up along the right the ball found its way to Gundogan whose first time shot looked to be heading into the bottom corner. Sommer, however, for the first time tonight realised there was a match on and did well to repel the chance. From the next attack down the right, the ball was squared to give Aguero a routine chance, but the out-of-sorts Argentino continued in his rich vein of misses. When the third chance came, more as a result of direct running, it was the same script. Sterling spotted De Bruyne`s run into the box and played him in. The Belgian quickly squeezed it in the direction of the goal and Silva nipped in ahead of Aguero to equalise, as the half time whistle was about to go.
Surely Pep would send them out with instructions to get the job done and quickly, but instead City continued to serve up the same drivel as in the first half. With Stindl in a nowty mode, randomly delivering the order of the boot to assorted City players, he found himself in the book and in the tunnel. Surely this was what City needed to get up and get a winner. But no, it just didn`t happen. With City looking like the Calais jungle camped outside the Gladbach area, they looked more intent to keep the ball rather than set any fires.
The first time Borussia got out, for some reason the Turkish referee saw Fernandinho commit something wrong and go fishing for a red card to even up the numbers on the field.
This gave the Germans some heart as they went in search of a winner, but the introduction of Sagna made the back line a little more robust and it was back to City keep ball. The Blues seemed to have little more ambition than to simply to play out the match, not lose and avoid injury. But as the game drew to a close, Aguero turned and slipped and Fernando was waiting for about five minutes to come on and replace him. During that same five minutes, City retained the ball and must have played a thousand passes without intervention. Instead of coming on for Aguero, Fernando sat waiting patiently on the floor. His introduction didn`t happen.
With Celtic losing 2-0 against Barcelona, not only were they eliminated from the Champions League, they cannot now qualify for the Stretford Thursday League as the draw now favours Gladbach. City have now progressed once again to the knock-out stages and have the luxury of being able to field squad players against Brendan Rodgers bhoys when they arrive at the Etihad in a couple of weeks.
There is very little else to write about this match as it was singularly uninspiring and unimpressive. But a job got done and City did not have to tire themselves out to get through.
I`m still not seeing a spark as far as Aguero is concerned and that worries me. His sharpness has eluded him and the natural scoring talent for which he is famous is now finding the shots hitting the goalkeeper instead of the back of the back of the net.
I`m expecting a match for Iheanacho at the weekend and for Yaya to be rolled back out. On the showing of tonight, unless the team was under special instructions, there is scope for Yaya to be among the squad for the knockout stages.
From a pure football perspective, tonight was not great. From a game management perspective, it was fine. Not what we have become used to watching, but a result nonetheless. Even Sue said that the only good to come out of this was that City have qualified. My dad said that it is no wonder that City are not consistent. Guardiola pays a different line-up and different tactics every match and even tonight he changed the system at least 4 times. Anyway dear readers…we move on!!
Read more: http://www.manchestercity.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=574467#ixzz4QsJYwXg6
