Saturday 1 August, 3.00pm
Barnsley v City
Our first pre season fixture on English soil will sadly not be seeing the debuts of Carlos Tevez or Roque Santa Cruz as they continue to be nursed back to fitness. Micah Richards has recovered from swine flu and is said to be raring to go. It remains to be seen whether Kolo Toure will be joining him at the back.
Personally I wouldn’t be surprised to see our latest capture from Arsenal make an appearance as he was fit enough to player for the Gunners at the start of the week. Like the rest of us, Hughes is looking for an improvement on the South African games as the players improve their fitness:
“We hope to raise the intensity a little at Barnsley but we still have different players at different fitness levels so we have to be mindful of that.
“What we have now are three good games in a week – Rangers and Celtic follow Barnsley- and what we intend to do is spread the workload so that everyone will get up to speed.
There’s little point in speculating on the line-up for this fixture as the players will clearly be rotated to give everyone a run out. However I will be hoping to get a first live glimpse of Adebayor and Barry wearing City shirts. We know results aren’t important in these fixtures but it would still be reassuring to see a victory with a few goals, particularly after the Vodacom Challenge.
There will be cash turnstiles at Oakwell for anyone without a ticket.
Official Barnsley site: http://www.barnsleyfc.co.uk/
Barnsley Football Club
Oakwell Stadium
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S71 1ET
Google map
Given – A spectator for much of the match. Produced one decent save that resulted in the corner for the goal. 6
Vidal – Over eager to chase a ball into the box that lead to an unfortunate injury. 5
Dunne – Skipper looked comfortable prior to leaving the field for what has proved the briefest of tours. 6
Onuoha – Good to see him back and looking solid as ever. 6
Bridge – Got forward well and good to see some link up play with Petrov. 8
Barry – Quality. So comfortable that he looks like he’s played his whole career with City rather than Villa. 8
De Jong – Continues to form a solid barrier with De Jong that looks ready for the Premier League. 7
Wright-Phillips – Struggled to get involved and tended to lose possession when taking extra touches, notably in instigating the move that lead to the goal. 4
Adebayor – Eased himself into the game before showing some quality touches. Demonstrated his mobility in pulling wide to make himself available, then held the ball up better than we’re used to seeing from Benjani or Caceido. 7
Bellamy – Industrious with some good touches, but clearly needs to work on an understanding with Adebayor. 6
Petrov – His best game of the tour. The old quality looks to be back! 8
Subs:
Ben Haim – Came on at right back where he looked good, then moved to centre half and was solid enough till Onuoha went off. He would have wanted to get more purchase on the attempted clearing header that lead to the goal. 6
Zabaleta – Solid enough when he came on at right back in what’s been a busy tour for the Argentinian. Still lacks that bit of quality in the attacking side of his game. 6
Weiss – Has a tendandcy to try too much, but came as close as anyone in the latter stages to making the breakthrough. 6
Robinho – Came on for the last half hour in what looked like an attempt by City to appease the sponsors. Clearly not had a sufficient break since the Confederations Cup and played like he was still on his honeymoon. 5
Man of the match: Petrov.
Tuesday 25 July, 2.00pm (BST)
Goals: Ntuka 45
City missed out on their latest chance of silverware in the final of the Vodacom Challenge with a narrow defeat to the Kaizer Chiefs.
Hughes reverted to a 4-4-2 formation and for the second time it resulted in defeat. The midfield began with Barry and De Jong making a solid pairing in the middle with Wright-Phillips and Petrov supplying the width.
Adebayor made his debut alongside Craig Bellamy and unsurprisingly they weren’t on the same wavelength. All the same this pairing looks to have potential and could be worth persevering with while Santa Cruz and Tevez continue their recoveries.
City started the game slowly and the Chiefs looked brighter than in Tuesday’s fixture. The Blues weren’t helped by a succession of injuries, with Vidal being stretchered off following a challenge on the Chiefs goalkeeper after 15 minutes. Ben Haim came on at right-back, but was soon moved to the middle after Dunne departed for Zabaleta. The captain’s armband went to Nedum Onuoha.
Meanwhile City had established a foothold in the game when, after 25 minutes, a good cross from Petrov picked out Bellamy on the edge of the area. The Welshman laid it off first time for Barry to wrongfoot two defenders and fire a shot straight at the keeper.
This tour has seen Petrov steadily rediscover some of his old form and he continued to look sharp, linking up well with Bridge. Adebayor was providing a few nice touches as he eased his way into the game.
Shay Given was required to make his first save after forty minutes when Wright-Phillips lost possession in the middle of the park. The Chiefs scored from the resultant corner, as Ben Haim wasn’t able to fully head clear and the ball went through to Ntuka who slotted home.
After 52 minutes Adebayor blasted over after being put through by the excellent Gareth Barry. The miss brought to mind those Ade-barn-door comments by Arsenal fans.
For the final thirty minutes Robinho took a break from his honeymoon and came on for what looked like an exercise in keeping the sponsors happy. Sadly it was Petrov who made way. Finally Weiss came on for Onuoha (not the most obvious change that one). Barry dropped into the back four and gave the impression he’d be comfortable playing anywhere.
An Adebayor header drew a save after 77 minutes, then great play from Weiss resulted in a shot from Robinho that went just wide. The final few minutes saw Bellamy and Robinho linking up well but still no goal for the second time in three matches.
Given that Hughes isn’t averse to the odd long ball and letting the game get stretched, it really is essential to have someone who can hold the ball up, and Adebayor was that man. Bojinov failed to make an appearance, which is ominous for his future, and a shame after he looked to have finally found his fitness in the first game.
All in all, a good workout and the team lasted the 90 minutes better than in the first two games. In the post match interview Hughes looked like he’d rather be back in the UK. Adebayor described his fitness as 70%, and he’s already looking light years ahead of Benjani. Another 30% on that could well prove to be happy days!
Hughes:
“I thought Emmanuel was excellent today. For his first game, obviously when you combine a player of his quality and standing in the game, then you expect a certain level of performance and he certainly provided that for us.
“He showed the qualities that we all know he has, which will be invaluable for us this season, so we’re absolutely delighted that he’s here. He’s going to be a huge player for us this season once the team understands the best way to play with him.
“He plays in a way that enables him to get the best out of his team-mates, so we’ve got an exceptional player.
“So we’re delighted with his performance today and sure we’ll be really happy with his performance right through the season.”
A couple of final points. Firstly, I did have some concern today about the form of Wright-Phillips, the final ball still isn’t there often enough and I couldn’t help feeling Elano would have offered more of a threat on the right flank.
A plus on the tour has been the form of Bridge. There was a lot of speculation about the training and lack of fitness under Scolari at Chelsea. Watching the former Chelsea left back bombing up and down, he did look a different player to last season and interestingly linked up better with Petrov than Robinho.
External reports:
Official site
The Times
Taylor – Kicking was more erratic than Saturday, but demonstrated his abilities with a low fingertip save in the second half. 7
Zabaleta – Competitive at right back though he was done for pace a couple of times. 7
Mee – An improvement on Saturday’s showing and no silly penalty conceded. 7
McGivern – Strong and assured. It was good to see him in the first team. 8
Bridge – Bombed forward when he could and linked up with Petrov in the second half though not Etuhu in the first. 6
Wright-Phillips – Started very brightly and appears to be over his injury despite tiring in the second half. 6
De Jong – Looked strong with Barry alongside him. This could well be the pairing for the start of the season. 7
Barry – First of the Summer signings to make an appearance and very assured it was to. 8
Ireland – Captain was at the hub of everything. 8
Etuhu – Good run and cross for the goal but I fear his future is elsewhere. Missed a great chance late on. 4
Caicedo – Strong but still lacked the necessary finesse as was the case last season. 5
Subs:
Benjani – Forlorn looking. Didn’t always receive great service, but still should have done a lot better. Clearly he’s for sale but I’m not sure what his level is on this showing. 3
Petrov – A big improvement on Saturday, linking up with Bridge and putting over some crosses that the strikers in the stands would have been noting. 7
Vidal – Looked more comfortable than Saturday and wasn’t unduly tested. 6
Garrido – A brief run out late on and slotted in without any problems. 6
Man of the match: Barry