Tudor
Vital Football Legend
The Guardiola tactical cat has started to crawl out of the bag.
After the most minimalist of pre-seasons in which what we saw on TV taught us practically nothing, Pep`s first real test of the season showed the Blue Mooners a number of things that were in addition to the fare served up over the last season, when it was abundantly obvious from the grades that some important footballers stacked their hand for Manuel Pellegrini once the Capital One Cup was won.
This was potentially an awkward fixture. I agree that since the days when Sunderland produced City`s perennial banana-skin over the festive period, the Blues have given the Monkwearmouth Academy of Disaffected Stretfords a persistent degree of corporal punishment, this despite their managers` attempts to beat City usually by crook rather than hook.
And now they have a disaffected Stretford in charge. Hardly welcomed back to the Premier League other than in parts of Wearside, Moyesout`s first port of call was to invade Sold Trafford for the latest batch who were about to be culled by Moaning Maureen. It was hardly enter the dragon, but enter "The Nineteen Year Old" McNair. He may be older now but when he made his first team debut I was convinced that that was his first name so often was it used by the TV commentator. Enter also a heart disease called "Love". An unfortunate name for an ex-Stretford. Any finally….Adnan Junglejuice, or is it Jammy Dodger?
The latter two of these couldn`t get themselves into a starting line-up with O`Shea seemingly named in midfield. We will recall the days of Moyesout setting up teams to give the likes of City a pre-emptive good kicking when stalwarts like a certain Mr Neville and the likes of Coleman were proponents of the darker arts of Association Football.
An hour ahead of kick-off, eyebrows were getting raised around the Etihad when Caballero was announced as starting net minder for the evening. News soon abounded that England`s number one had allegedly thumped a television set in the bowels of the stadium and was proclaiming that he was heading home. If that is true I hope it was a display of passion and disappointment rather than petulance.
Also raising eyebrow was the selection of Kolarov at centre back alongside City`s latest acquisition, John Stones. In the absence of any new purchases at full back, Sagna and Clichy were given the task today. Across the midfield we found Sterling, Silva, Fernandinho, De Bruyne and Nolito supporting the lone ranger Aguero.
City got off on the front foot with Sterling instructed to use his pace on his orthodox wing and get at Van Anholt. It took him only four minutes to produce the first results of this, skipping past his opponent to lure the foul which Aguero coolly despatched from the penalty spot. All last season the Mighty Atom seemed to prefer the goalkeeper`s right as he looked at it. Today he went the other way and although Mannone is a giant of a man and guessed correctly, he simply wasn`t long enough to get there first.
So now the Etihad expected. A sell-out crowd of 54500 were looking for a landslide as City easily retained the football and had the Black Cats chasing shadows. However, as we saw last season, and not only at the Etihad keeping the ball all afternoon is not always a good thing if it is unproductive. And the 83% possession enjoyed by City was simply that. Time and again they got to that crucial point and last season`s illnesses re-surfaced. Silva refusing to trust his right foot, Sterling finally starting to run into cul-de-sacs, De Bruyne not really establishing a mark on the game, Nolito pretty much absent and Aguero not seeing enough of the ball.
Indeed the most clear cut of chances actually fell to Defoe who must have been ready to head to the half way line before Caballero justified his selection with a brilliant save, as the TV cameras cut to Hart, perched in the dugout.
Fernadinho was probably the liveliest of the midfielders. Keen to throw down his marker to Guardiola that he is a man for the future.
The second half delivered more of the same, but as City refused to score a second goal, Sunderland started to believe they could get something out of a game in which they had hardy been introduced to the Premier League`s new seasonal football. However a series of dead ball situations enable them to generate enough fear in City`s back line that an equaliser was inevitable. Moyesout had already sent on Jammy Dodger whose ability to run with intent started to issue warning signals in the City midfield. After 78 minutes one such sortie found the ball in Rodwell`s court 25 yards out. He drew probably the only mistake of the match from Stones who rushed out to close him down giving Rodwell the chance to prod the ball into the vacated space. Two things we know about Defoe is that he will find a loose ball in the box and he will stick it in the back of the net. End of story 1-1.
With a draw looking the most likely outcome the negative thinking of Moyesout came to the fore. For many a year we Blues have enjoyed the description "typical City". But the, poor in my opinion to replace goalscorer and key dangerman Defoe with the Nineteen Year Old McNair was a typical Moyesoutism.
Within 2 minutes Navas was haring down the right easily getting past Van Anholt, This time his cross was perfect. Although it eluded Iheanacho, City still had Delph waiting patiently before the said McNair intervened and stole the limelight, heading neatly past his own goal tender to reinstate City`s lead.
Although the Black Cats huffed and puffed thereafter, there was to be no final end product and City crawled to the finishing line. There was one more opportunity to enable the scoreline to better reflect the statistics, but when Navas found Iheanacho, he wanted to score himself rather than set up Delph who was unattended a few feet away with the goal at his mercy. It was interesting to see Guardiola play out what should have happened in the technical area.
So it really is all-change at the Etihad as new sets of tactics abound. Guardiola clearly expected Sunderland to park the proverbial bus, leaving Defoe as the out route. This was pretty much the case. So there was no real need to set up defensively, just to set up to avoid Defoe getting open. They did this with the one exception.
It was the job of Sterling and Nolito to nullify anything that Sunderland might do out wide, as well as provide the width for the attack. Sagna and Clichy together with Kolarov and Stones created a "box" in front of Caballero, designed to limit any kind of penetration close to City`s goal. At times Stones looked as though he defending alone. At other times it looked like three at the back as Fernandinho slipped in there. Sagna and Clichy provided tackling in midfield, higher up the pitch and their job as ball-winners was to get play moving either through the out-of-touch De Bruyne or Silva who was in fact replaced. If they were unavailable then the alternative was to play in the widemen. This meant City could launch an attack in a number of directions and angles, causing the kind of confusion in the opposition defence that wasn`t present for much of last season.
You can see the work done with Sterling and Navas. I mentioned last week that Navas seems to have discovered a new-found ability to drop telling crosses into key areas close to goal. He certainly did this today. One provided a goal and the other should have done.
My expectations were that the full back would provide width and Silva and De Bruyne become the creative department, a bit like Iniesta and Xavi, but there seemed to be a desire to flood the midfield and spring from there, leaving the back two simply on watch.
It`s an interesting box of tricks that is starting to be opened chez City.
Sterling clearly had his best match since he arrived last season. His running had purpose and posed questions of his marker. Fernandinho was excellent and on the basis that Stones might only just have found his coatpeg in the dressing room, he played as if he belongs at Manchester City. Yes he will face sterner tests than Sunderland, and quickly in this division and the Champions League, but for once I feel we have got a centre half who is up to it. Guardila clearly doesn`t like the look of Mangala and one could ask the question..why convert your left wing back instead of fielding a centre back in the shape of Adarabioyo or Denayer, but I suspect we are going to see the effective dismantling of the "old guard" as the "new Guard" get his toes beneath the table.
I think we`ll take a scruffy 2-1 win. If we get another 37 scruffy 2-1 wins we`ll win the title with record points and a record points gap, but as we know, there is a long season ahead and with the likes of Chelsea and Liverpool only needing to stir themselves once a week, there will be more pressure on City.
I think I`ll take Sue for a stroll along Blundellsands Promenade about 1330hours today before settling in to watch her boys commence their season as Klopp`s men take on the Ashburton Grove Bottling Factory. Will she be leaping about the place in celebration or will it be another night hiding behind the couch? Find out in the next Ped Report.
http://www.manchestercity.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=569871
After the most minimalist of pre-seasons in which what we saw on TV taught us practically nothing, Pep`s first real test of the season showed the Blue Mooners a number of things that were in addition to the fare served up over the last season, when it was abundantly obvious from the grades that some important footballers stacked their hand for Manuel Pellegrini once the Capital One Cup was won.
This was potentially an awkward fixture. I agree that since the days when Sunderland produced City`s perennial banana-skin over the festive period, the Blues have given the Monkwearmouth Academy of Disaffected Stretfords a persistent degree of corporal punishment, this despite their managers` attempts to beat City usually by crook rather than hook.
And now they have a disaffected Stretford in charge. Hardly welcomed back to the Premier League other than in parts of Wearside, Moyesout`s first port of call was to invade Sold Trafford for the latest batch who were about to be culled by Moaning Maureen. It was hardly enter the dragon, but enter "The Nineteen Year Old" McNair. He may be older now but when he made his first team debut I was convinced that that was his first name so often was it used by the TV commentator. Enter also a heart disease called "Love". An unfortunate name for an ex-Stretford. Any finally….Adnan Junglejuice, or is it Jammy Dodger?
The latter two of these couldn`t get themselves into a starting line-up with O`Shea seemingly named in midfield. We will recall the days of Moyesout setting up teams to give the likes of City a pre-emptive good kicking when stalwarts like a certain Mr Neville and the likes of Coleman were proponents of the darker arts of Association Football.
An hour ahead of kick-off, eyebrows were getting raised around the Etihad when Caballero was announced as starting net minder for the evening. News soon abounded that England`s number one had allegedly thumped a television set in the bowels of the stadium and was proclaiming that he was heading home. If that is true I hope it was a display of passion and disappointment rather than petulance.
Also raising eyebrow was the selection of Kolarov at centre back alongside City`s latest acquisition, John Stones. In the absence of any new purchases at full back, Sagna and Clichy were given the task today. Across the midfield we found Sterling, Silva, Fernandinho, De Bruyne and Nolito supporting the lone ranger Aguero.
City got off on the front foot with Sterling instructed to use his pace on his orthodox wing and get at Van Anholt. It took him only four minutes to produce the first results of this, skipping past his opponent to lure the foul which Aguero coolly despatched from the penalty spot. All last season the Mighty Atom seemed to prefer the goalkeeper`s right as he looked at it. Today he went the other way and although Mannone is a giant of a man and guessed correctly, he simply wasn`t long enough to get there first.
So now the Etihad expected. A sell-out crowd of 54500 were looking for a landslide as City easily retained the football and had the Black Cats chasing shadows. However, as we saw last season, and not only at the Etihad keeping the ball all afternoon is not always a good thing if it is unproductive. And the 83% possession enjoyed by City was simply that. Time and again they got to that crucial point and last season`s illnesses re-surfaced. Silva refusing to trust his right foot, Sterling finally starting to run into cul-de-sacs, De Bruyne not really establishing a mark on the game, Nolito pretty much absent and Aguero not seeing enough of the ball.
Indeed the most clear cut of chances actually fell to Defoe who must have been ready to head to the half way line before Caballero justified his selection with a brilliant save, as the TV cameras cut to Hart, perched in the dugout.
Fernadinho was probably the liveliest of the midfielders. Keen to throw down his marker to Guardiola that he is a man for the future.
The second half delivered more of the same, but as City refused to score a second goal, Sunderland started to believe they could get something out of a game in which they had hardy been introduced to the Premier League`s new seasonal football. However a series of dead ball situations enable them to generate enough fear in City`s back line that an equaliser was inevitable. Moyesout had already sent on Jammy Dodger whose ability to run with intent started to issue warning signals in the City midfield. After 78 minutes one such sortie found the ball in Rodwell`s court 25 yards out. He drew probably the only mistake of the match from Stones who rushed out to close him down giving Rodwell the chance to prod the ball into the vacated space. Two things we know about Defoe is that he will find a loose ball in the box and he will stick it in the back of the net. End of story 1-1.
With a draw looking the most likely outcome the negative thinking of Moyesout came to the fore. For many a year we Blues have enjoyed the description "typical City". But the, poor in my opinion to replace goalscorer and key dangerman Defoe with the Nineteen Year Old McNair was a typical Moyesoutism.
Within 2 minutes Navas was haring down the right easily getting past Van Anholt, This time his cross was perfect. Although it eluded Iheanacho, City still had Delph waiting patiently before the said McNair intervened and stole the limelight, heading neatly past his own goal tender to reinstate City`s lead.
Although the Black Cats huffed and puffed thereafter, there was to be no final end product and City crawled to the finishing line. There was one more opportunity to enable the scoreline to better reflect the statistics, but when Navas found Iheanacho, he wanted to score himself rather than set up Delph who was unattended a few feet away with the goal at his mercy. It was interesting to see Guardiola play out what should have happened in the technical area.
So it really is all-change at the Etihad as new sets of tactics abound. Guardiola clearly expected Sunderland to park the proverbial bus, leaving Defoe as the out route. This was pretty much the case. So there was no real need to set up defensively, just to set up to avoid Defoe getting open. They did this with the one exception.
It was the job of Sterling and Nolito to nullify anything that Sunderland might do out wide, as well as provide the width for the attack. Sagna and Clichy together with Kolarov and Stones created a "box" in front of Caballero, designed to limit any kind of penetration close to City`s goal. At times Stones looked as though he defending alone. At other times it looked like three at the back as Fernandinho slipped in there. Sagna and Clichy provided tackling in midfield, higher up the pitch and their job as ball-winners was to get play moving either through the out-of-touch De Bruyne or Silva who was in fact replaced. If they were unavailable then the alternative was to play in the widemen. This meant City could launch an attack in a number of directions and angles, causing the kind of confusion in the opposition defence that wasn`t present for much of last season.
You can see the work done with Sterling and Navas. I mentioned last week that Navas seems to have discovered a new-found ability to drop telling crosses into key areas close to goal. He certainly did this today. One provided a goal and the other should have done.
My expectations were that the full back would provide width and Silva and De Bruyne become the creative department, a bit like Iniesta and Xavi, but there seemed to be a desire to flood the midfield and spring from there, leaving the back two simply on watch.
It`s an interesting box of tricks that is starting to be opened chez City.
Sterling clearly had his best match since he arrived last season. His running had purpose and posed questions of his marker. Fernandinho was excellent and on the basis that Stones might only just have found his coatpeg in the dressing room, he played as if he belongs at Manchester City. Yes he will face sterner tests than Sunderland, and quickly in this division and the Champions League, but for once I feel we have got a centre half who is up to it. Guardila clearly doesn`t like the look of Mangala and one could ask the question..why convert your left wing back instead of fielding a centre back in the shape of Adarabioyo or Denayer, but I suspect we are going to see the effective dismantling of the "old guard" as the "new Guard" get his toes beneath the table.
I think we`ll take a scruffy 2-1 win. If we get another 37 scruffy 2-1 wins we`ll win the title with record points and a record points gap, but as we know, there is a long season ahead and with the likes of Chelsea and Liverpool only needing to stir themselves once a week, there will be more pressure on City.
I think I`ll take Sue for a stroll along Blundellsands Promenade about 1330hours today before settling in to watch her boys commence their season as Klopp`s men take on the Ashburton Grove Bottling Factory. Will she be leaping about the place in celebration or will it be another night hiding behind the couch? Find out in the next Ped Report.
http://www.manchestercity.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=569871
