Monday 15 December 2008

Has Benjani played his last game for City?

Even more bad news from Saturday: Benjani picked up a hamstring injury which will put him out for "a number of weeks". That's pretty ambiguous language, but I imagine it will take us through most of January at the least. With rumours that Roque Santa Cruz will be tied up soon after the window re-opens, and that Valeri Bozhinov should be back by mid-January, Benjani could find it difficult to get back into the team with those two ahead of him. In fact, the poor form of Benjani and Jo could lead to our buying two centre forwards in January: Owen, Heskey, Crouch or whoever.

Excited as I am by the prospect of having better strikers than Benjani, it does put in a difficult position for the next four games. The three in the league (West Brom away, Hull at home and Blackburn away) are really quite important. Benjani is probably our least incompetent striker. So we're left with Jo, Evans, Sturridge (illness permitting) and, I suppose Vassell to lead the line. My preference would be for a fit Sturridge, but I don't have much confidence we'll get that soon. Even then, the physical nature of our next three opponents suggests that Evans could be the best bet. Or could this be the chance for Jo to justify that obscene price we paid for him?

3 comments:

newsoftheblues said...

^ how about playing two upfront for once...we dont have the right players for loan strikers.

sturridge or robinho actually playing with JO and sturridge or robinho playing on the left side of 4 that would be komp, ireland, swp.

Mr Glum said...

Has Caicedo sunk without trace? He's big enough to play against the type of opponents we have in the next few games.

Evans has scored goals at every level he has played, but I bet he's never played as a lone striker except this season.

Sturridge has disappointed in the first team, but has the potential to become a very good player.

Vassell's had too many chances and taken none of them. His only assets are pace and workrate but that doesn't compensate for a lack of finishing ability. He can, however, control the ball which puts him above Jo and Benjani.

Jo has shown no ability at all to cope with English football.

Not good reading is it. My guess is that Vassell will lead the line at WBA and that Robinho will partner him. Hamman and Kompany will play in front of the back 4 and SWP and Ireland will make up the midfield.

Anonymous said...

I think our team is the best in the premiership, the players just need a good hug thats all. It does get quite cold out there and you have to remember they're in shorts and t-shirts.