Thursday 11 February 2010

One man team?

One of the criticisms you can level at City this season is that we're becoming a bit of a 'one man team', so dependant is our goal return on one man. Danny is on the money with his post yesterday:

Tevez and Adebayor therefore have accounted for 47% (22 of 47) of our Premier League goals so far this season, and whilst we will undoubtedly have a more solid, stoical feel to the side it is a real worry that the lack of goals from elsewhere in the side could hinder aspirations of a top four finish.

Of course a 'one man team' doesn't actually mean that they only have one good player. It's fair to say that United's attacking prowess rests on Wayne Ronney without impugning the abilities of Patrice Evra and Darren Fletcher, just as Javier Mascherano and Pepe Reina prove that Liverpool's stable of world class players is not limited to Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard. 'One man team', when taken to mean 'one man attack', is still a relatively useful term.

And the point is that if it's true for United or Liverpool (or Arsenal, in the case of Cesc Fàbregas) then it's certainly true for City and Tévez. Just imagine if he ruined his knee ligaments in training tomorrow. It would be the end of our season. No fourth place, no FA Cup run. His ability to create goalscoring chances ex nihilo has been crucial to our success, such as it has been, in the last few months. His third at Bolton, his flick at Old Trafford, his karate kick in Mancini's first game, the curled finishes against Blackburn. Take him out of our team, and with Stephen Ireland's poor form there is so little spark in our side. Maybe this will change with Adam Johnson, but after one start I'm going to reserve judgement for a while.

So let's hope Tévez's knees hold up for the next few months.

9 comments:

thomas said...

well there's one thing i would say, if tevez was injured it would facilitate ireland to play in his favoured position.

I would i also like to see some roles reversed adebayor play link man to tevez upfront, may prove fruitful.

I think one missing link would be the much derided elano who even without playing every game last season still bagged 7 goals and was our top scorer the season before.
I was hoping barry would be bale to score a few for us, but he hasnt been too effective in the final third!

thomas said...

oh and i dont like all of the blue links!

TLDORC said...

Me neither. No idea what happened there. Last time this happened it magically fixed itself. Hoping for the same outcome this time.

Johnny Crossan said...

Roque to the rescue!

Why has your blog text suddenly gone smaller, are you discriminating against old people Lonely?

Lee F said...

I personally wouldn't worry too much about Tevez being the current talisman of the team. In the first part of the season we had Ade in great form and then Bellamy seemed to be the one drving us forward. Tevez has been incredible for 2 months but as you said yourself, his purple patch may be coming to an end and we may see someone such as Johnson, work the magic. I agree with Thomas, having Ireland who could play in his favoured role is a great option to have and one I hope to see soon.

ruffers said...

Given Ireland's poor form is down to him being played out of position a Tevez injury could be the making of him under Mancini who doesn't seem to 'get' Ireland.

pjdemers said...

I think Thomas is on to something with the idea of Adebayor playing link man to Tevez. While his workrate is exceptional the one problem Tevez has when in the hole is his tendency to hold onto the ball too long while players like Adebayor, Bellamy, SWP, and Ireland are making clever runs into the box.I've even gone so far to suggest trying Adebayor as the attacking Central midfelder in Mancini's preferred diamond four. A risk absolutely but one worth trying as we are sorely lacking a creative passer in the center of the pitch.

One of the main reasons Ireland has suffered this season is because we have we have no one playing centrally with the vision to spot his clever runs behind the defense. Until this is addessed I think Ireland will not be as effective until we find someone capable of filling the void left by Elano.

Alphonso said...

testing

Alphonso said...

I disagree with the suggestion that City have but one striker simply because one of the strikers is currently on fire. Ade has done well too since he returned from the western front and Santa Cruz is a better than average alternative to Ade.
If Carlos were to be injured for a while either Ireland could play in the creative forward midfield role in a 4231 or Bedlamy as support to Adebayor in a 442. A 433 with Bedlamy, Ade and Jonners(2) as the front three with a narrow midfield of Barry, DeJong and Viera would not be without goals. Johnson had 12 for Muddlesbrough before he joined us and Bellers knows where the goal is.
The article smacks a bit of trying to find a problem where none exists. If you want to worry about something then wring hands and wail about our lack of a box to box midfielder of any sort since Jonners(1) picked up his latest injury.

Alph