Thursday 6 May 2010

City 0 - 1 Spurs

  • They always let you down. They always let you down. One of the most infuriating aspects of being a post-takeover MCFC fan is having various football fans and pundits telling you that this is a different Manchester City, a new Manchester City, that Manchester City started on 1 September 2008 and that there is no continuity between pre and post-Robinho MCFC. Everyone who follows City knows this to be false. I hope we gave a good demonstration to the world this evening: we needed a win against a side yet to win at a top ten side this season, and we just choked.
  • At least it wasn't dramatic. Those stoppage time losses to United were bad enough. To have gone through this tonight would have been too much. As painful as Peter Crouch it merely sealed what we already knew; that we were not good enough. I'm a fan of Roberto Mancini and I think he's tactically very astute but we were not near being competitive enough this evening. We can create chances against poor defences, but faced with the totemic and titanic Ledley King and Michael Dawson we had nothing.
  • Our two main avenues of attack - having Carlos Tévez drop deep and run with the ball at defenders, and having the wide players sling balls into the box - have both worked against bad defences. Just remember the routs of Blackburn, Birmingham, Wigan, Burnley and so forth. The problem is that King and Dawson did not panic with Tévez charging at them. Just as they did not falter when Craig Bellamy, Adam Johnson and Pablo Zabaleta swung in aimless cross after aimless cross. With Emmanuel Adebayor typically passive we had no magnetic target in the box, and ceded possession with every attack. We had a lot of the ball, in some decent positions - but our best three chances all came from corners rather than open play.
  • If you can't create chances at home you don't deserve to play in the Champions League. By the last fifteen minutes it was clear we weren't going to score. And with no goals and no win we would have to rely on Brian 'two relegations' Laws to get us into fourth. This meant that when Peter Crouch headed home he doubled Spurs' cushion but no more. And it had been coming. Our failure to deal with Crouch all evening was just shameful. It's not like Spurs have the element of surprise on their side. Whenever they were under pressure they hit Crouch from distance. He must have won every single ball, sometimes keeping it, sometimes giving to to Jermaine Defoe, but never once losing out to Vincent Kompany or Kolo Touré. He missed a golden chance in the second half, as did Defoe. Better chances than we created all night.
  • It's easy to get melodramatic and downbeat. Don't. The fact is that this was a bigger game for Spurs than it was for us. This was perhaps their best chance to make the Champions League for many years to come. But the fact we all know is that eventually the weight of Sheikh Mansour's cash will be enough to break down the castle walls of the top four. I didn't think we would do it this year, and we haven't. But the spending will continue, the squad will improve and we'll be stronger for this experience next season. 2010/11 could be the season we break the siege. And if it's not 2011/12 is even more likely to be our year. Keep the faith.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

I tried to remain positive all day but at half-time the knot in the pit of my stomach grew larger and larger. It is nice to have had our best finish in the Premiere League however.

Administrator said...

you can't complain. considering
this is the first time Man City
achieved 5th after so many years
it's like us just when Martin Jol
brought us to finish 5th. Not a
bad job done by Mancini, right?
What happened if Mark Hughes is
still in charge or Thaksin is
still Man City boss? Bleahh... :P

Mancini is a master tactician.
I've always respected him as a
great figure of influence when
he was playing with Vialli at
Sampdoria. Considering his limited
English, it's good enough that
Man City finished 5th in his first
try. You guys must really start to
worry if his English starts to
improve.

-Spurs Loyal Fan-

Anonymous said...

Hello. First you hit us with "They always let you down. They always let you down. One of the most infuriating aspects of being a post-takeover MCFC fan..." and then you counsel us not to get down on MCFC. Yes, it was a massive disappointment, but in truth, the fourth spot was lost in the league matches against United and all the points dropped in the eight-game draw skein. If you want to create chances, even at home against the top sides, you need a creative central midfielder, and we haven't got one. Maybe with some more time and his own players, Mancini can continue to foster the development of our side.
Congrats to Spurs for a job well done and good luck to them in the Champs League next season. I'm glad it was them, and not Pool that got the final spot.

satis said...

A good game and a great atmosphere. Spurs deserved to win.
Here's to a summer of intelligent spending by Mancini and a tilt at third next season.
And we're now in 3 cups we have a realistic chance of winning.
All is not lost.

Paul Doleman said...

This season has been another massive step up.

A side that still hasn't got the right balance has reached a cup semi and achieveed 5th.

We undoubtedly will be stronger next season and I'm old enough to remember and be at the games where we won League Cups, Eufa cups, FA Cups and the title.

They don't always let you down - it's just the biggest adrenalin roller coaster in football and in 2-3 years we'll be at the top of the big dipper.

wizzballs said...

'they always let you down'

sums it up.

right there is the cause and effect of 'typical city'

because we are used to it and talk about it so much, we expect it to go wrong. we fear it. twenty plus years or memories of football without a cup or a final, without a league success in the top division. this would have been a success as substantial as any cup. we desperately need it to go right. the tension rises as the match goes on. it is transmitted to the players. one or two bottle it and that is bloody well that. again. I know this because I wobbled badly as soon as a couple of players wobbled. I saw the fans with their hands in their mouths. too much tension. the only hope is either to curtail the spending and grow more organically, or ship out all the players who don't already have that ruthless, rock solid mentality.

I'm depressed but 5th has to be good enough. at the start of the season I couldn't see us having anything better than a 50/50 chance. all that I asked for was that we gave it a real shot, didn't flatter to decieve. tonight's loss was bitter because we'd improved our chances progressively. after getting this far it feels like we should have at the least taken it to the final day. but in the bigger picture, it's as much as I could have asked for.

please let sanity reign this summer. the owners are killing me. no league titles next year. no more change than is neccessary. one bloody step at a time. that's how it should have been from the start. 6th was a realistic target but once we spent the money it was never going to be good enough. the problem is the better players bring more expectation upon us, and we don't, as a club, have the recent memory of success, the ingrained winning mentality, to cope with it.

stick with mancini. swap some of the nearly men, and those not up for the challenge, for a handful of dazzling young talents ravenous for success and a handful of highly experienced and capable operators.

please don't sack him, get another manager, throw more money at it and think it will solve everything.

by changing managers, we've been flip flopping between footballing philosophies and managerial styles. that's why we've come up short, it's always because the same players lose their composure, because they are simply not suited to playing tactical football under pressure, they are hare 'em, scare 'em, do or die characters. so let's not flop back to an english style coach and undo the last six months. let's not put the house on getting mourinho. let's finish the job we've started, and build that solid base.

Unknown said...

We have had a good season and although we are all disappointed, we didn't lose 4th with last nights result. IMO we lost it in the run of 7 consecutive draws, especially Fulham, Burnley and Hull at home! The last thing we need now is more change, we should stick with Mancini, learn in the Europa League and be fully ready for CL in 2011/12

Will said...

Good to see everyone here is remaining relatively optimistic. I agree, four years ago I wouldn't have dreamed we'd ever get into the Champions' League - I can wait another year.

Also, as much as I'd like to see Torres in blue - I've had enough of the team changing so rapidly, if a year in the Europe league is the price of keeping Nedum, Michael Johnson having a shot at making our midfield 50% young English players called Johnson and not shipping out Ireland, SWP and Richards (as rumoured) then I can live with that.

Well done to Spurs, they deserved it. Stepped up at the right time and after lasagne-gate, deserved a go. I have no doubt we'll be there next year.