Saturday 8 August, 3.00pm
City round off their pre-season fixtures with the Eastlands tradition of a prestige home fixture. Celtic are this season’s visitors and it promises to be an entertaining game with the Scots doubtless in jubilant mood following their Champions League heroics on Wednesday.
Expect to see them singing the praises of none other than Georgios Samaras, and it’s been a while since anyone did that at Eastlands! The opposing fans should also give a warmer reception to Shay Given and Craig Bellamy than we heard on Wednesday night.
Following today’s Champions League draw pitting his side against Arsenal, Tony Mowbray will probably appreciate the chance to give his side a run out against Premier League opposition, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Celtic in fairly relaxed mode following their midweek exertions.
Hughes on playing Celtic:
“It will be another good test for us.
“Celtic’s confidence will be on a high because they had a fantatic win in midweek. Our game at Rangers was at a better level than we had before, and that is what you want. You need a gradual increase in the intensity.”
For City supporters it’s a last chance to see how the team is coming together, with the possibility of Carlos Tevez making an appearance. Given his lack of training I doubt it will be more than a substitute’s role, but it would still give everyone a boost to see the Argentine in a City shirt.
We could certainly do with a lift after what was a thoroughly disappointing defensive display at Ibrox. There’s been much talk of us attempting to crack the top four this season, but after the shambles on Wednesday night, it’s hard to see us challenging Aresnal or even Villa and Everton.
Hughes spoke afterwards about focusing on the defending in training, but with many of the players disappearing for internationals next week, things need to be in place for the Celtic game. I hope it all comes together, but frankly I have doubts about Hughes’ defensive methods. The players don’t look comfortable and the opposition seem able to create chances to easily.
Of course the real test is next week at Blackburn, but if things don’t improve by then, the pressure on Hughes could soon become unbearable. He’s been allowed a free reign to bring in the players he wanted and set the team up as he liked, but with this comes a higher level of expectation. Excuses that it takes time for new players to gel will only pass muster for a short time in a season where Sheikh Mansour’s millions have given City fans every reason to be optimistic.
Prediction: City 3 Celtic 1.
Given – Pulled off a peach of a save prior to the second goal, when he was uncharacteristically caught in no-mans land. 6
Richards – Another game under his belt, and he now needs to forge a better understanding with Toure. 6
Toure – Arguably the pick of the defenders but that wasn’t saying a lot! 6
Dunne – Trademark challenges, but the Hughes method of defenders being left one on one with attackers still doesn’t suit him. 5
Bridge – Suffered a nightmare spell after half time with players continually running in behind him. 5
De Jong – Ventured further forward than we’re used to, but needed to be on his toes against Gers breaks. 6
Barry – A quieter game than those in South Africa, but still showed admirable composure. 6
Ireland – Box to box and took his goal superbly, though less effective once Barry and De Jong had departed. 7
Etuhu – Still doesn’t look good enough despite an improved display. 5
Robinho – At times he looked a class above everyone else even if not everything came off. 7
Adebayor – Some good touches and showed he can play lone striker role, even if his finishing is leaving a bit to be desired. 7
Subs:
Petrov – A cracking goal for the Bulgarian who seems to be benefitting from pre-season more than anyone. 8
Zabaleta – All over the place positionally, this was not his finest hour. 4
Bellamy – A frustrating night for the former Celtic man, typified by just failing to connect properly with a Petrov pass for what could have been the winner. 6
Weiss – A late cameo that produced one beautiful run and one brilliant pass. 7
Man of the match: Petrov.
Wednesday 5 August, 7.45pm
Goals: Novo 20, Miller 53, Weir 90 for Rangers. Ireland 27, Petrov 52 for City.
City scored two excellent goals but they weren’t enough to prevent a last minute defeat that was a damning indictment on a shoddy defence.
Hughes named a strong starting line-up with Adebayor as a lone striker flanked by Robinho and Etuhu. Ireland was positioned in front of Barry and De Jong. Richard Dunne and Micah Richards both played their first 90 minutes of pre season while Toure, Bridge and Given made up the rest of the defence.
After a quiet opening, Robinho sprung into life with a backheel to Bridge who crossed for the Brazilian to flick a shot that was blocked by Bougherra.
At the other end Rangers were starting to create chances and scored the first goal with the City defence all at sea. Toure was out of position at full back and couldn’t prevent a cross to the far post where an umarked Rangers player had a shot which ricocheted around City’s box before falling to Novo who slammed it home.
City replied with Robinho narrowly offside as he produced a delightful finish to lob the keeper. The Brazilian was causing plenty of problems down the left hand side and linking up well with Adebayor. Another Robinho run saw him play the ball in to Etuhu, who with one touch moved it on to Adebayor, who played in Ireland for a cool finish, passing the ball into the net.
Robinho cut inside for another shot after 30 minutes as City took control for the remainder of the first half. City’s record signing then put Adebayor clean through, but the Togoese had the ball taken off his toe by a last ditch tackle.
We continued to press high up the pitch to get the ball back. It looks impressive until the opposition get beyond this, and then there is way to much space at the back with defenders frequently being left one on one. This was a trademark Hughes tactic last season and proved to be Dunne’s downfall. The question remains of whether Lescott or anyone else will fare any better in such a system.
Unfortunately half-time saw what proved to be a pair of kamikaze substitutions. Both Barry and De Jong departed to allow Petrov to come onto the left flank, while Robinho moved inside as a second sriker and Ireland dropped back into a midfield two with Zabaleta.
The defence was no longer being given any protection from the midfield and Bridge endured a nightmare start to the second half with balls continually being played into space behind him. He’s clearly encouraged to get forward, but someone needs to drop in and cover when he does. Nobody appeared to want to play left sided centre back. We know from last season that Dunne can’t play there and Toure also prefers the right hand side.
Suddenly a great ball over the top to Petrov sent him scampering away. The Bulgarian cut in and rifled it home for City’s second. Great goal.
Immediately Rangers went straight down the middle with a long ranger effort from Davis that produced a fingertip save from Given. City failed to heed the warning and shocking defending followed as Miller ran from deep without being tracked by midfielders, went through a cavernous gap between Toure and Richards, and lobbed the completely exposed Given.
Ben Haim came on for Ireland and at least he looked willing to play on the left of central defence. The downside to this was Toure, signed as a central defender, moving to central midfield alongside Zabaleta, signed as a right back. The lack of positional discipline was clear for all to see.
In the final substitution Weiss came on for Robinho and immediately produced a fabulous run, gliding past a pair of defenders and teeing up Etuhu who saw the ball taken off his toe. The youngster then played a beautiful pass through for Petrov to race onto. Frustratingly, he overhit his pass to the unmarked Bellamy and the chance for a City winner was gone.
Sadly the chance for a Rangers winner was still to come. A corner which Ben Haim headed partially clear landed at the feet of unmarked forty year old, David Weir, who fired home with the aid of a slight deflection. There was still time for Etuhu to hit the post before the referee blew for full time.
Amongst the post match platitudes, Hughes did speak of working on the defending:
“It is more about working with the back four and midfielders as a unit, [than signing a new player].
“That opportunity has really only come up now because Richard Dunne missed a week’s training. We have got to bed down the pairings, it is a week on Saturday that we think about, not this evening.”
With the complete lack of organisation in defence, it looked essential that we play two of Barry, De Jong and Kompany in front of them if we’re to have any hope of solidity. When bearing in mind that every one of our defenders on show have looked decent players under different managers, this asks a lot of questions of the current coaching and tactics.
If City continue to defend like this, they’ll struggle to be in the top half never mind challenge for the top four and Hughes ought to be mindful of Guus Hiddink’s potential availability in the Autumn.
External reports:
Official site
Manchester Evening News
Daily Mail
The Independent
The Guardian
Blog reports:
The Lonesome Death of Roy Carroll
Norstander
Video:
Goals on YouTube
Wednesday 5 August, 7.45pm
City take on Rangers tonight in the first half of a double header against the Old Firm clubs.
Given the ongoing injuries to Carlos Tevez and Roque Santa Cruz, expect to see more of Bellamy and Adebayor trying to forge an understanding, unless Hughes goes for a lone striker set-up.
Gareth Barry looks likely to get a run out after recovering from a minor knock and Kolo Toure should get another opportunity to familiarise himself with his new teammates.
Bellamy and Shay Given are the Blues with Celtic connections who can expect a “warm” reception. Both the Glaswegian giants are known for showing a competitive edge in friendlies, particularly against English opposition, even if Rangers didn’t cover themselves with to much glory in the Emirates Cup last weekend.
Arsenal put three past them and it will be interesting to see if we’re able to do something similar. For all the talk of pre season being about building up fitness, it would be nice to see Hughes’ team bang in a few goals and look the part of top four challengers.
Hughes on tonights game:
“We are looking to step up our preparation now. People have tried to read significance into our results so far because of the focus on us, but those games were more about fitness in the grand scheme of things.
“The players are at different levels because some were still playing internationals in June. You have to be conscious of that. Some will have the majority of the game and others will play a part.
“Don’t imagine that playing the Scots means any less to a Welshman than an Englishman! That old Celtic rivalry comes into it. You look at their stadium and their fans, it’s a great place to play and perfect preparation.”
A convincing result would give everyone that little bit more confidence as we try and shake off the memories of last season’s away form.