Thoughts on City vs Everton

For a variety of reasons this was my first visit to the Etihad this season. A few thoughts on the game:

• The first half was fairly even but we dominated the second. During the first half I was worried by the amount of space Everton were getting in midfield, far too much of it.
• A reason for this was Fernandinho. I'm not convinced by him. I put his relative anonymity in the games I've seen on TV down to the type of player he is. I'd assumed he was doing lots of defensive work off the ball but from seeing him live I'm not sure of that. He seemed far too passive and always a yard away from where he should be. And as someone said to me after the game - he tackles from the wrong side. Hopefully this is just while he gets used to the Premier League.
• It was good to have Merlin back. Is there a better creative player in the Premier League? Despite his frustrating reluctance to shoot, his passing is a joy to watch and he ran the game in the second half.
• Most impressive Everton player? Lukaku in the first half. He was a handful. Why Chelsea don't seem to want him I've no idea.
• How bad was the referee? Thankfully his performance didn't affect the result but it was a bizarre performance. There were some tackles in the first half which should have been a yellow card. I'd assumed David Silva had been booked for one so thought he was going to be sent off when he eventually did get a very soft yellow. Late on in the game it seemed every foul got a yellow. There was also a 10 second spell in the first half where he gave Everton a free-kick when it wasn't a foul, allowed them to take a quick one from 10 yards away, then gave a goal kick after a Joe Hart save from Lukaku. 3 out of 3 wrong there.
• The referee's inconsistency extended to the penalty. Either both teams should have had a penalty or neither. The penalty is soft but was for me a foul, as was Nastasic's shove in the first half. See my view of it below:

• And my view of the penalty being scored (Tim Howard a bit unlucky)

 :

• Finally the attendance. Officially over 47,000 but there were never that many in the crowd. I know the attendance is tickets sold, and other clubs have worse issues with this (e.g.United), but I don't understand why some people buy tickets and don't turn up.

Thoughts on City vs Villa

My thoughts on City's loss to Villa on Saturday can be summed up as follows - how the hell did that happen?

Demolition Derby - some thoughts

That was possibly the best 50 minutes football I've ever seen Manchester City play. 4-0 was a fair reflection of the game at that point as City simply overwhelmed and overpowered United. A few thoughts:

• Sometimes Yaya Toure is like a force of nature, just unstoppable and too powerful. Sunday was one of those days. A couple of years ago I heard a good analogy for Toure - he's like the Ents from Lord of the Rings. Slow to get going, can spend much of the time looking sleepy but once roused utterly unstoppable.
• The captain was imperious. It's strange to think that in a game we dominated by attacking, possibly the best player on the pitch was a defender. Vincent Kompany was just magnificent.
• What's wrong with Nastasic this season? Is it just me or is he not playing well? Last year it took me a while to realise how good he was. He didn't stand out because everything was done so efficiently with a minimum of fuss. He was rarely out of position, and in the end this is what stood out for me - how he quietly and efficiently did his job. This season he's stood out more and not in a good way. Arguably he should have been sent off for a second yellow on Sunday. Let's hope this is a temporary drop in form and he's soon back to his best.
• Nasri's best game for City?
• Kolorov demonstrated a perfect example of how attack is sometimes the best form of defence. By attacking he pushed Valencia back meaning he didn't need to do much defending. Kolorov's defending isn't as good as Clichy's but when he attacks like he did in the Derby, he doesn't have much defending to do.
• At times there was a simplicity to City's attacking which is hid how difficult it is to achieve. There was a lot of quick pass-and-move. Barcelona have spent the past few years becoming the masters of pass-and-move but at a slow pace, looking to keep the ball at all costs. Last year Dortmund and Bayern did it at pace. Are City heading down the Dortmund/Bayern route tactically? The team is still evolving but in a very interesting direction.
• I just love the picture of Kompany celebrating the fourth goal above. Sums up the day.

Finally, at the risk of sounding like I'm defending David Moyes, am I the only one who thought his substitution made sense tactically? It was done far too late (should have been at half-time) but it reminded me of how Mancini often used De Jong. I had thought the media had realised from that that bringing on a defensive midfielder is not necessarily a defensive substitution, yet all the reports I've read call it a damage limitation move, trying to stop more goals going in. I don't agree.

To explain this, think about the following. United had no control of the game, no decent possession. So having 4 attacking players on isn't much of a threat. 3 attacking players with the ball are more dangerous than 4 without. By bringing on Cleverley, it first gets an extra body into a central midfield area that Yaya and Fernandinho were dominating. That should get them more possession. It also allowed Fellani to get forward more (as would happen with Yaya when De Jong came on) and they could change the shape of their team to pose a different attacking threat for the defence to deal with.

After the substitution, United did play better and were more of an attacking threat although much of that could have been City relaxing with the game already won. According to much of the media, it was a defensive move though. Unfortunately they still see substitutions as a 1-for-1 change and don't bother to look at other changes that may follow such as how the shape of the team changes. This is something Mancini used to do a lot, a substitution and a change of formation at the same time. Sometimes it worked, such as the time he replaced Aguero with Kolorov at 0-0 away at Wigan and we went on to win 2-0, sometimes it didn't.

Transfer Window - how did it go?

Now the transfer window has slammed shut (as sky put it), how did we do? The basic changes to the squad are:

• Fernandinho replaces Gareth Barry
• Jesus Navas replaces Scott Sinclair
• Alvaro Negredo replaces Carlos Tevez
• Stevan Jovetic replaces Mario Balotelli
• Martin Demichelis replaces Kolo Toure
• Maicon was sold but not replaced

In addition, Wayne Bridge, Roque Santa Cruz and a number of youth team players have left on loan or have been released. Of the above, I'd argue Fernandinho and Navas are definite improvements. Negrado and Jovetic are different types of players to Tevez and Balotelli so it remains to be seen if that's an improvement. Demichelis should provide at least as reliable back up cover at centre back as Kolo Toure, and Maicon was probably going to be third choice right back and so we can probably cope without replacing him.

The biggest disappointment for me was the sale of Denis Saurez. Although he hadn't made the first team breakthrough yet he was a very promising talent and Barcelona clearly see something there worth investing in. The owners stated desire to see more academy players making the first team has seen a set-back with this.

Although we have a net spend of around £80 million, there will be a benefit from a reduction in the wage bill. Several high wage earners were moved on and either not replaced (e.g. Bridge and Santa Cruz) or replaced with lower wage earners (e.g. Tevez was probably on more than Negredo and Jovetic combined). This should help with FFP compliance.

Overall I think we've had a successful transfer window. Although there was no major name signed, all the new faces look to be good signings and the squad has a fresher, improved look.

Champions League draw thoughts

That's much better than last year. And the year before. That was my initial reaction after the draw but its a dangerous one. Bayern Munich are obviously the big name in the group but the trips to Moscow and the Czech Republic won't be easy. The Moscow one especially partly due to the distance, there could well be a domestic hangover from that which will need managing carefully especially as it's Chelsea away afterwards.

But it's a group we should be capable of getting through if we perform to our ability.

City v Cardiff - some thougts

A tough loss but given how well Cardiff played, not that unexpected. Before the season started I suspected playing a promoted side so early in the season was dangerous and so it proved. At half time I tweeted:

There's a big team going to lose at Cardiff this season. Hope it's not us today #mcfc
— David Lamb (@dlamb75) August 25, 2013

Sadly I was right. Cardiff is going to be a tough place to visit.

A few observations on how City played:

• Garcia isn't good enough at centre back. Sadly with Kompany injured, and Nastasic not fully fit we were down to only one fit centre back. Garcia did play there in pre-season but he lacks pace and doesn't have the experience or instincts needed to compensate for this.
• We've switched from Zonal to Man marking at corners. Is it possible that the two goals conceded from corners are due to the players still getting used to this? On Sky on Monday night, Jamie Carragher made the excellent point that had those goals been conceded when we were using zonal marking, the system would have been blamed. As it was man-marking, Hart and Zabaleta were blamed. Cardiff's delivery at the corners was superb though, so it's possible neither system would have worked.
• At times the game was a return to many games over the last couple of years. Cardiff retreated into the final third and got 10 men behind the ball. The quick passing and movement we showed against Newcastle were less effective here and its in games like this were we will need to show a lot more patience.
• We showed signs of a weakness from last season - being too narrow. Navas should be an important option in games like this but he drifted inside too much.
• Cardiff did take every opportunity to attack though. This is not something most teams do when they sit back and defend against us.

This Season's Chant?

Every season there seems to emerge a new chant or celebration. 3 seasons ago it was the Poznan, 2 seasons ago the Balotelli song, and last season the Yaya/Kolo song. Is this this seasons?