Wednesday 16 February 2011

Aris 0 - 0 City

  • I've actually already written about the game here, so please take a look if you're interested. So just a few more thoughts here:
  • This was worryingly similar to too many recent games. Facing a team that, for the first half at least, defended deep and in numbers we looked short of ideas and pace to get round them. It is possible to pick the lock, of course, and we've succeeded in doing so this year. But it requires fluency and trust in attack and again we didn't have it.
  • For now, playing all three of Edin Džeko, Carlos Tévez and David Silva does not work. Two of them, fine. But all three squeezes out Tévez - he was barely present yesterday. We had most of the ball yesterday, and managed to put Džeko into goalscoring positions a few times. But in his quite understandable enthusiasm to score, he turned down passing options and snatched at shots. Integrating a new centre-forward into a previously coherent system was always going to be difficult, and so it is proving.
  • That all said, Aris were bright and lively on the break. Darcy Dolce Neto (best name left in Europa League) was a very handy right winger while Raúl Bobadilla could handle himself up front. It was a new centre-back pairing, again, for City, with Kolo Touré and Jérôme Boateng together. Playing Boateng there is a new thing for Mancini but it's his natural position and he did well, again. I wouldn't mind his accompanying Vincent Kompany more often in future.
  • While 0-0 in the first leg is a good result, Aris could cause problems at CoMS. They're a good unit with some exciting individuals and if they steal a goal on the break then progress might be difficult. We'll have to start well next Thursday, with as strong a team as possible. Even if that means playing Jô against Notts County.

4 comments:

נועם said...

how much longer do we have to put up with "super " Mario and hisluv for milan.
He should concerntrate on playing and suceeding with his current team .

Mark the Spark said...

...Until Mario plays at Milan and wears out his welcome there (too).

Anonymous said...

Too many attackers, I believe semolestan each other. We need another game system.

Unknown said...

How about playing them all together? Oh, he tried that last night... :)