Merry Christmas everybody
Off
to the land of the Mackems tomorrow, here’s the It’a Fix extract :
19)
WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 26TH : SUNDERLAND (AWAY) KO 3PM
Promoted in 2007 so now in their 6th
season back in the Prem. Last pot FA Cup 1973. 123rd League meeting.
Latest connection Adam Johnson.
This
season so far they’re in 15th place with 19 points from18
games and 2 wins 3 draws and 3 defeats at home.
In
the Capital One Cup they beat Morecambe 2-0 home in the 2nd,
MK Dons 2-0 away in the 3rd, but lost 1-0 at home to ‘Boro in the 4th
rd.
In
The FA Cup they’ve drawn Bolton away in the 3rd rd
It’s
the first return game half way through the season. At The Etihad in October it was a 3-0 City win. Kolarov (5) Aguero (60)
and Milner (89) scoring for the Blues in a comfortable win. Crowd was 47,036
with 1722 Mackems.
Our
form at Sunderland Last season it was that agonising 1-0 loss, Dong –
Won scoring that marginally offside goal in the 90th minute after
City dominated. Crowd was 40,625 with 2101 Blues.
For
City : LLDWWWWLL
Groundwise
They put Newcastle fans in the top tier of the stand
opposite the one we’re usually in but presumably we’ll be behind the goal in
our usual seats. Reduced allocation as we’ve stood up at games there, even
though their fans stand up throughout!
Tickets are £39/£26
Comment
: Always nice to go North for a change but twice in
two away trips is taking the piss.
The magic seems to have worn off Martin O’Neill at
present, though they’ve just had a good win at Saints but the Black Cats are
struggling. Maybe Adam J would’ve been better off staying with us, and sorting
his off field antics out, to play 30 or so games per season and winning
silverware but he’ll be determined to do his stuff against us. Time to get back
to winning ways up here.
Stadium
of Light : Capacity :48,300 (3,000 for City)
WWTWTWShite:
Averaged 13,601 in 86/87, and this season it’s 40,268.
Song :
He could;ve been killed
He could've been killed
Robin Van Persie
He could've been killerd
Pubs/parking:
Plenty of pubs near the ground, street parking but
not easy to getaway
Away
day zine : A Love Supreme
Sat
Nav : SR 5 1SU
For the first fifteen minutes, it looked like Newcastle all over again as we were tearing them apart. But for all our fancy flicks and through balls, let's be honest, they just didn't look like scoring. After that it was a slow build up to every attack we had, giving Sunderland all the time in the world to pack their defense. I have said it before, all Mancini needed to do in the summer was stick with what he had and add a quality centre half to replace Savic. Whoever was responsible, Mancini, Marwood or Father Christmas, we cocked up big time selling our onbly real threat down the flanks (Johnson) and replacing him with Sinclair. Garcia may be better at attacking than DeJong, but he isn't as good defensively. I know everyone will look at united's last minute winner and say that they've done it again, but having watched them against Swansea it was clear to see that they create more REAL chances in the last five minutes + added time than we do in a whole game. According to the stats we created 17 on or off target shots today, but only two or three caused real problems for Sunderland.
ReplyDeleteOnce again city play a team who choose to defend deep & narrow and once again Mancini refuses to use natural width and pace to try open up the opposition. Again I am NOT calling for the man to be sacked but he needs to own up and take responsibility because this is his team playing his tactics and in my opinion the man is getting found out big time. My concern is that even if City purchase 2 natural wingers in the transfer market Mancini would insist as playing them as inside out wingers thus negating any natural width & pace we could add to the playing field. What upset me the most is that city went through this b******* during the 2010 / 11 season. I realize his system worked incredibly well last season but the difference was the pace was 3 times higher as was the passing.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the sports writers at The Guardian we have 8 players in the world's top 100 (Hart, Kompany, Balotelli, Tevez, Aguero, Silva, Yaya and Nasri). All of these players were in the squad last season so what's changed? Not good enough to say that teams have sussed out how to play against us, that's what managers are paid to do and what our management team is paid to work out a response other than battering away at a packed defence then bringing on Dzeko. Couldn't agree more about width and pace but we and, more importantly, Mancini don't know how effective Sinclair might be if he was given a run of games but can we afford to gamble to find out.
ReplyDeleteThing is virtually every City fan wants Mancini to sort it out, stay another ten years and see Fergie off. No one wants to give him the satisfaction of being able to say that he has seen off yet anbother City manager and our most succesful for forty years at that. But as has beenb pointed out, these are HIS signings and HIS tactics so there is nowhere to hide. Geof, I wish Sinclair was the answer, but from what I have seen of him when playing for us, he is nowhere near as good as Johnson. Who apart from his goal was kept well quiet yesterday.
ReplyDeletePart of our issue is that team's are afraid to attack us with any numbers therefore there is so little space in behind them when we win the ball. We are afforded a little too much respect. The way to counter that is with intricate but quick passing and then in and out running off the ball which Aguero and Tevez are the best in the business at (in the EPL) Unfortunately it is not bringing goals at the moment. Plan B therefore has to be through the middle, pass out wide at pace and then whip in low, hard crosses to strikers that try to flick or deflect the ball goalward. The best at this near post finishing was Lineker or Mark Hughes and there hasn't been a forward able to do this bar Torres in 2009/10 for a long while.
ReplyDeletePerhaps Falcao will be the man but at $45MM he will not be cheap. Balo and one or two others could perhaps be offloaded to facilitate this deal. Beyond a finisher and a real wide player, Milner one on side and AN other, we are doing just fine if a little shy of goals lately.
Geoff,
ReplyDeleteI respectfully disagree that other teams sussing us out it's not good enough of an answer. City are not experiencing bad luck. The fact of the matter is that city are struggling because of Roberto Mancini obstinate refusal to deviate from his system of the midfield diamond. I for 1 have been worried about this system since Borussia Dortmund came to Eastlands and played us off the pitch in every aspect of the game. Look at the way they varied their play, they were miles ahead of us in terms of movement pace and tactics. It gives me no joy to say this but name me 1 game where city have played quality opposition and played them off the park. In every big game this season so far city have not showed up mentally or tactically. The midfield diamond works wonderfully when City get an early goal, but it has clearly been shown this system does not work when City have to chase a game against teams that defend deep and narrow. Let the chips fall where they may but this team and this coach just are not pulling their weight. Imho it is Mancini's obstinite refusal to vary his tactics which may cost him dearly.
Also I am curious as to why so many City fans feel the solution is to buy new players whenever City struggle. Bringing in new players is not the answer, especially as they need time to adjust to a new league and new players.RM has more than enough high quality players to succeed. Every epl team would secretly kill to have a squad as good as ours
ReplyDeleteI don't think that anyone is suggesting that we sell half the squad pjemers, but we do need some GOOD wide players as the only two we have are Sinclair and Milner and he rarely uses Milner as a winger and never plays Sinclair at all.
ReplyDeleteTony
ReplyDeleteI agree. The point I appear to be making in vain is that we do not need to sell nor buy any other players. Duffman for example made a reference to Falcao, a talented player yes but how ishe going to score goals when we're playing pretty little triangles and square passes outside of the opposition's penalty area. You & I both seem to be in agreement that RM does not know how to utilize natural wide players. Johnson was a prime example. He was wasted by RM because he always played him as on inside out winger on the right which negated his speed and effectiveness.Kolarov gives us natural width when he plays wide left as a midfielder in front of clichy but I'm quite sure when he becomes available again RM will play him on the right so he can cut inside onto his left foot and cannon the ball thru the 8 defenders congesting the penalty box.
Sorry my good man, I mean no disrespect, this season has convinced me that RM will not deviate from his precious midfield diamond that he has used from day one at Inter, and now here at City. I so want him to prove me wrong but he I see no evidence to the contrary. Prepare for another game against Norwich where City insist on playing thru the middle against two banks of four just outside their own penalty area. God damn how I miss Bellamy.
Yes, I'll go along with that, even if we buy two wide players, he probably won't use them as he should. It has taken the guy this long to realise that his two best forwards are Aguero and Tevez, so unless he changes his tactics soon I fear we'll be out of the title race before long. And you are right this squad is the best in the premiership.
ReplyDelete