Should Roberto Mancini Backtrack on this Defender?

The loss of Vincent Kompany has made things difficult this month, but I think we have coped pretty well without him.  Youngster Stefan Savic has come into the team and before yesterday was generally doing OK, he had a torrid time against Wigan but kept a clean sheet,  he did give away the penalty against Liverpool but had a decent game otherwise.   Throughout the first half yesterday his confidence seemed to be growing even more, but then, in the 2nd half his frailties were sadly exposed and I fear it could have a pretty big effect on the Montenegrin.  


His woefully misjudged header that allowed Jermaine Defoe to half the arrears at Eastlands seemed to break the man, from that moment he was all over the place and looked like an accident waiting to happen.  That accident nearly did happen right at the death as his dwelling on the ball let in Bale who's cross should really have been turned in by Defoe.

This leaves Mancini with somewhat of a quandary.  At the time of writing we are waiting for a decision on Joleon Lescott's ridiculous forearm smash into the face of Younes Kaboul, but even if the Englishman is cleared of any wrong doing, would it be wise to go into the vital League Cup semifinal second leg against Liverpool with Savic at the heart of the defence?


Many have said all along that the ideal solution would have been switching Richards into the centre, and personally that is what I would have done, but it looks as if this is something Mancini isn't prepared to do, there is someone however that could fill the gap well, that man is Nedum Onuoha.

Clearly the academy graduate has never been flavour of the month with the Italian boss, their relationship deteriorated further when he spoke out against his manager on Soccer AM a couple of years ago.  He spent last year on loan at Sunderland where he performed really well and it would appear City tried their best to find a buyer for him this Summer only to come up short, that fact could now be a real blessing.


It appeared towards the back end of last week that he was on the verge of signing for QPR, this never came to fruition though despite everything appearing to be in place.  There has been suggestions that the player would prefer to stay in the North West with murmurings that Everton could be showing interest.  What of the 3rd option however, the defender has been on the bench for our last 2 outings and he got a few minutes playing time at the end of the Wigan game.

Obviously one reason for that could be a lack of any other options, however we do have youngsters to cover that position Reece Wabara and Karim Rekik for example could do an adequate job if they had to be called upon.  Onuoha's presence must suggest that he is doing something right in training, as well as a slight thawing in the relationship between manager and player.


The ultimate question is this, would you rather see Savic on Wednesday night or Neds?  I am not saying Savic is a poor player, I genuinely believe he has the potential to be a really good defender but at the moment his confidence looks somewhat shot and even during his better performances I have not been entirely comfortable with him in there, there was always the feeling that there was a big mistake just around the corner.  

I personally would love to see Onuoha brought in for a few games just to see if he could do us a job until the end of the season.  Granted this could all be irrelevant as he could be an Everton or QPR player at any time, but if Mancini was willing to back down, I for one would be happy with that decision.

3 Points Can't Always Be Pretty

It is fair to say that the brand of football we are playing at the moment is not in the same league as the stuff we were playing for the first few months of the season, but the question I pose today is, why do we care as long as we keep winning?


In my memory very few teams have been able to play an exciting and expansive style throughout an entire season, really the only club to manage it was Arsenal in their heyday and look what has happened to them. Even our near neighbours have made a habit of grinding out wins when things are getting difficult, so why should we worry?

Last night against Wigan there was an attitude from some that we could just turn up and roll them over 3 or 4 nil, I admire that confidence and obviously that would have been fantastic, but in reality that was never a foregone conclusion.  In recent weeks the Lancashire side have been in a pretty dire run of form, and they haven't won at home for quite some time now.  In the middle of this poor patch though, they have drawn at home with both Liverpool and Chelsea, teams that have given us problems over recent weeks, they may be rooted to the bottom of the table, but they do know how to spoil the party.  Top against bottom matches don't always end in the mauling that many think they will.


On the pitch somethings were excellent, Edin Dzeko was superb and I thought once he scored what was a really nice goal you could see the confidence flowing through him again, he must start on Sunday.  He held the ball up superbly, won everything in the air and put in a real shift to help out his team mates, if it weren't for a greedy finish to a superb run by Aguero in the second half he would have had a 2nd.  He was also unlucky with a delicate curling effort that was superbly saved by Al-Habsi.  

It was also great to see Silva back in the team, he may not have been at his glittering best but he offers so much, we are really not the same team without him.  I also felt it was a much more improved performance from Samir Nasri, he again was neat and tidy with the ball, he hardly ever gave it away and used the ball effectively.  At times he slowed the game down a bit too much but I am sure that with time that will improve, he may be experienced in the Premier League but that doesn't mean he doesn't need time to adapt to a new team.


The downside for me was the back line, or to be precise the centrebacks.  Generally Zabs and Clichy did a good job in the full back areas but Lescott and Savic really struggled and to be quite honest we need our captain back as soon as possible.  It isn't that either of them are bad players, Savic has bags of potential and for me Lescott has been superb this season, I just feel they need a calming influence and a communicator alongside them, without Kompany in the backline there is no real organisation.  Victor Moses gave us problems all night long, neither of the centrebacks seemed to know how to deal with him and they continually dropped off, this invited a lot of pressure.  It may be time for a rethink on Sunday against Spurs, granted they won't have Adebayor, but it might be time for Richards to switch to centre back with Zabaleta retaining his place at full back.

What of the bigger picture though? I have always said that January was going to be a particularly difficult month, Yaya Toure is clearly a massive loss and his influence is lacking in the midfield, as well as Milner and Barry are playing they don't offer us what the big Ivorian did.  The loss of Kolo hitting harder than expected too with the loss of Vincent Kompany.  I always said that there was a big chance we would fall behind United in January, I felt that if we could stay no more than 3 points behind them we had a great chance of crossing the line in first place, well so far things are much better than that.  We have 1 more league game this month (and Everton on the 1st) and we lead by 3 points with a far superior goal difference, yes it was a shame being knocked out of the FA Cup and we still may exit the League Cup, but in terms of league performance things are looking good.


It is vital I think that we don't panic over what is a clearly dip in performance levels, we are without 3 of our most influential players, something that any time would struggle to overcome and for the Liverpool game it was 4!  Spurs is clearly a huge challenge on Sunday, and we will have to improve if we are going to win that game, I am sure we will raise ourselves but it could still go either way, a win and everything looks fantastic, a defeat would mean United could close the gap again, but do not underestimate their trip to the Emirates they are not guaranteed anything there, if we can win at half 1, the pressure on them will be immense when they kick off at 4.

Granted we aren't hitting the high levels of the first few months, but if we win games does it really matter? Very few teams would be capable of hitting those heights throughout the entire campaign, if this is our 'bad patch' i'll definitely take it!

Match Report: Club America - City

One of the things that I set up this blog for was to write match reports and deliver ratings on each game that City play, most of these in preseason will be more accounts of players that impressed me as opposed to actual match reports as personally I think performances are more important than results at this stage of the season.


As expected the side was entirely changed at half time with only Weiss playing the full game.  In fact as I understand it the only members of the traveling party not involved were David Silva (slight knee problem), Mario Balotelli ('unwell') and young Spaniard Denis Suarez who has to sort some transfer formalities.

Weiss looked lively throughout, and having not seen him play for a while I was surprised at just how quick he actually is, I remember him being fast but he demonstrated some explosive pace against the Mexican giants.  There are still some problems with his game, he had a tendency to over complicate things and sometimes his final ball was lacking, but the direct running that he demonstrated for the 90mins could have its uses this season.  If he continues in a similar fashion in the remaining friendlies he could be well worth a place on the bench this season.  His loan spell at Rangers has hopefully done him a lot of good, he made 23 appearances for them and that will have greatly improved his match sharpness.  

I suppose the man currently blocking Weiss from the first team is everyones favourite winger SWP.  It says a lot for his attitude that he is on the trip at all, he is clearly willing to knuckle down and there have been no complaints from the England winger unlike those left behind to train with the reserves.  He was one of our star performers, he appeared everywhere down the right flank, putting in some great tackles in our own box as well as giving their full back a torrid afternoon.  He wasn't as quick as he once was,  but his energy made up for his slight loss of speed.  He scored City's second and it was a lovely strike from the edge of the box reminiscent of times past.  I still question how effective he is going to be for us in the Premier League, there is no commitment lacking, and we all love him, but is that enough for him to remain?

Edin Dzeko played the first half and after a slow start he began to impress, maybe it was just me, but he appeared quicker and more mobile than he did at times last season.  His hold up play was impressive although he was aided by players getting closer to him, something that we didn't do particularly well last year.  He still didn't have the best service, the only crosses came in from debutant Gael Clichy, they were pretty impressive and it looked like a route to goal that could be quite fruitful this season.  The Frenchman fitted in well, he played behind Ryan McGivern who played in quite an unnatural left midfield position, this allowed Clichy to race up field and join in the attacks, his speed and pace were impressive and I really think he will prove to be a great signing.

It would be wrong to not say a little about McGivern as well, he has been around City for ages but has never really had a chance to shine.  He was probably the least likely scorer on the pitch but when he calmly slotted a right footed strike into the far corner that theory was disproved.  It was a hard working performance and he covered for Clichy well, but it was apparent at times that he is a left footed central defender being played grossly out of position at left midfield, he wasn't poor by any means but don't expect to see him in the role when the season begins!

The stand out performer for me was Micah Richards, on twitter someone made a reference to him playing like Maicon and that isn't far from the truth...except Richards can also defend.  He looked even quicker than last year, stronger, and he beat players with ease, knocking the ball past them and scampering round the stranded defender to pick up the ball.  The technical side of his game also seemed better.  He was a real threat and I hope to see him galloping down the wing in more competitive games.  He caused no end of problems and I can't help but think it was an option that we under utilised last season, hopefully on the evidence of last night that will soon change.

Honourable mentions should also go to Stefan Savic who was calm and collected at centre back, he didn't look out of place at all.  He played the ball well and looked effective, I look forward to seeing more of him.  James Milner continued his resurgent form in a central midfield role, not that Barry was poor, bit I can't help but feel the former Leeds and Newcastle player should have that position nailed down.  Any names omitted is not through lack of quality, with the exception of Andrea Mancini everyone looked solid.  This was always going to be the least interesting friendly, I am sure as we get closer to the season a team will settle and there will be less tinkering during the games.  This was essentially a glorified training session, but for what is was worth, there were a fair few positives.

Who Is Stefan Savic and What Could His Signing Mean?

It seems that transfer activity will finally begin this week at Eastlands with the possible signings of both Gael Clichy and young defender Stefan Savic.  We know all about the former but who is Stefan Savic and what sort of player are we signing?

Talking to the media in Italy today his signing was more or less confirmed by Roberto Mancini, the 20 year has been courted by many teams across Europe and is lauded as one of the rising stars of European football.  This appears to be further evidence of the club looking to the future and attempting to sign future stars securing the teams well being for years to come.

The central defender was born in Montenegro and began his career playing for BSK Borca in Serbia, he spent two seasons with the club before he moved onto bigger things and signed for Partizan last Summer.  It was during that season that he began to demonstrate his immense potential and clubs around Europe began to notice.

At 6'1 the defender is a commanding presence in the air and he has good strength that will help him adapt to English football relatively quickly, his pace has also been praised and he is surprisingly pacey for a taller defender.

Savic is expected to cost the club around £7million, a figure that seems acceptable when you consider the supposed potential that he possesses.  He has previously been on trial with Arsenal and in fact he claimed that a deal was in place that would have taken him to the Emirates, but this proposed transfer never came to fruition, it was reported at the time that Arsene Wenger was unwilling to part with the required money to secure him, where have we heard that before?

Chelsea and Tottenham have also been linked with swoops but it now appears that City have won the race.  So what does this signing mean for the rest of the squad?  I would imagine that at just 20 years of age it is unlikely that he will be a regular in the first team, and he may even spend some time playing with the reserve team initially to get used to a new country.  I would expect that we will begin the season with Lescott and Kompany at the heart of the defense with Dedyrck Boyata offering cover and with the return of Kolo Toure in September it seems unlikely that we will be in the market for any more defenders if this deal proves successful.

The 2 players who could really lose out are Nedum Onuoha and Jerome Boateng, although whether the latter would view a move away from Manchester as 'losing out' is clearly questionable.  Savic is comfortable playing at full back as well as centrally so with him providing cover for Richards, Zabaleta, Kolarov and potentially Clichy you can't see there being much of a future for Neds or Boateng come the start of the next season.

I hope this deal goes through in the end, I have always been keen for us to move for future talents rather than taking the Real Madrid approach to transfers.  Earlier in the Summer we were linked to a huge move for Gary Cahill a transfer that would have cost us £17million and when you consider United recently paid £16million for Phil Jones, the money we might pay for Savic could really make it a massive steal and a fantastic piece of business.  On the other hand he could be dross, but lets not worry about that for the time being....