Now we must look to the players

Its fair to say its been a week to forget at Eastlands, compounded by the 2-1 defeat to Wolves. The 3-0 defeat to Arsenal, an injury sustained to our talisman Carlos Tevez, followed by the alcoholic excesses of Adam Johnson, Gareth Barry and Joe Hart all captured perfectly on camera for Roberto Mancini to see for himself. Nice work.

Defeat at Molineux…

In all of this, the killer blow was surrendering a 1-0 lead to capitulate against Mick McCarthy’s men. Victory at Wolves and the exploits of messrs Barry and co would have quickly faded. Victory at Wolves, and the absence of Tevez would not have been so clear for all to see.

But defeat, combined with the arguments of Vincent Kompany and Emmanuel Adebayor on the pitch, added to the fact that James Milner and Yaya Toure were so clearly arguing on the during the Arsenal game (to say Nigel De Jong had to split them apart would be to dramatise things, but he certainly had to adjudicate), and the media find themselves enjoying a nice little feast. And all of this without knowing the reality of what is going on inside that dressing room and inside that training camp.

The BBC Manchester phone in after the game was predictable enough. There were comments of doom and gloom: getting rid of Mancini, our tactics are all wrong, we’re too defensive, why don’t we start with Adam Johnson, why did we withdraw Adebayor and replace him with Zabaleta when we were trying to get us the goal that would’ve drawn the game.

Any comments about sacking Mancini are just wide of the mark - we are fourth in the league and still a strong candidate for Champions League football. Any criticism about his team selection, substitutions or tactical approach to the game do not get to the heart of why we lost. I went to last season’s visit to Molineux, where our discipline and clinical finishing ground Wolves into the ground. We were on the wrong end of things here because we did not demonstrate these qualities, both of which are fundamental to winning a game of football. So what do fans expect?

At the back and in the centre of midfield we lacked the assured air that we had both last season at Molineux and indeed earlier in this campaign. Despite a lack of concentration from Micah Richards, and a lack of cover from James Milner we were unlucky for the Wolves equaliser, a deflected cross landing in the path on the onrushing Nenad Milijas, just high enough for him direct the ball beyond Hart into the far corner of the goal. The second goal was absolute madness. A speculative cross, a defensive header straight to a Wolves attacker, a parry from Hart going straight to another Wolves attacker who did the honest thing and put us out of our misery. I’m not sure exactly how many bites of the attacking cherry we wanted to lavish on Wolves for their winning goal. We simply weren’t good enough at the back, and we were punished for it.

But more tellingly we lost because of how we performed at the other end of the pitch. Wolves were rocking in the opening 10 minutes as chance after City chance went begging. A surging Adebayor run just failed to find the lurking Mario Balotelli. To add to this the Italian spurned a superb, low driven Milner cross, and narrowly shot just over the bar after a neat one-two with Adebayor. In the second half an excellent run by Yaya found Adam Johnson who cut the ball back only for Adebayor to place into row Z. Our other strikers have simply got to start stepping up to the plate. Tevez cannot do it all on his own. We have more than enough in our locker to get by without him against a defence like the one we faced at Molineux.

…and its repercussions

We can harp on all we want about managers, tactics and substitutions, but it was the players that lost us this game, not Mancini. It is they who must now carry the can and bear the brunt of the pressure.

A good start might be to stop remonstrating with each other on the pitch. In a sense it is a good sign, they care about winning. And I’m not naïve enough to think that disagreement doesn’t exist on a football pitch, of course it does, and in every team, but perhaps we need to start controlling our disagreements a bit better. At the moment they are betraying a lack of concentration. There’s a sense that we are complaining about our lot rather than getting on with the job of doing something about improving it.

All eyes now turn to our trip to Poland on Thursday, and perhaps the sterner test of West Brom this coming Sunday. The spotlight will be on us at the Hawthorns and of course the game will be important. But for me nothing has changed and we are still very much in the mix. Chelsea have set the pace, but it is another thing entirely to sustain it. We on the other hand are still up there despite not playing particularly well for the most part.

A tale of three Silva's

If there was any doubt that David Silva could withstand the rigours of English football, then the Spaniard’s last three performances in a blue shirt should have eradicated it. In Silva we have signed a top draw talent, arguably in his prime.

Perhaps we should have seen these performances coming. At the beginning of the month Silva put in a phenomenal performance against Lithuania in Euro Qualifying, capping it all with an amazing headed goal considering the diminutive figure he casts.

Blackpool

It was always going to be billed a David vs. Goliath contest. Whichever way the media framed the result, we were always going to be loser. A win, and it would be business as usual, nothing special, almost an after thought. Lose, and we would be a slain giant. This is the way it is going to be for many of our games this season. In terms of the respective structures of both clubs, the David/Goliath comparison certainly worked. But on the pitch, it was Blackpool that appeared to be closest to that Goliath.

It was a strange encounter. Blackpool wanted it more than us and their pressure on us when we had the ball made them formidable. We couldn’t get going and almost paid the price when DJ Campbell went through on Hart, only to miss the goal by inches.

It was into this supposed mis-match that David Silva stepped. It turned out to be an inspired substitution by Roberto Mancini. We were an altogether different threat with the Spaniard on the field and, perhaps understandably, Holloway’s men couldn’t handle him. Silva immediately produced the cross for Tevez to nick in – the finish itself an excellent piece of skill even if the goal looked slightly offside.

Then of course came the moment (much like Robinho’s stunning chip against Arsenal) that I will always feel was the moment David Silva arrived at Manchester City. Receiving the ball in the area, the tricky Spaniard’s double feint took two Blackpool defenders out of the game, with his curling shot elegantly finding the back of the Tangerine net. Sublime stuff that would’ve gone down a storm had it happened at Eastlands.

Posnan

Starting against Polish outfit Lech Posnan in the Europa League, in an attacking sense Silva was at the centre of everything good that we did. He linked the midfield with the attack superbly, and provided crosses for two of Emmanuel Adebayor’s three goals – allowing the Togo forward the record of the first City player to score a hat trick in Europe. What struck me here was how the Spaniard was a cut above from the rest of his team mates. The likes of Shaun Wright-Phillips benefited greatly from Silva’s slick passing, but yet could not reward that passing with a good end product, such as a quality cross or goal.

Arsenal

Silva was the best thing about what turned into a frustrating encounter with Arsene Wenger’s men. It was always going to be hard for us after Dedryck Boyata was sent from the field of play for taking out Marouane Chamakh, but even at 0-2 I still felt we had a great chance to get something out of the game. As a City fan this feeling is something that has been alien to me ever since I supported the club. Usually it’s the other way around – you fear that the team might throw away what looks like an unassailable lead, but its players like David Silva that are changing this mentality.

Once again, the Spaniard was at the centre of all our quality attacking play. In the opening minutes a deft Silva back heel from a Tevez cross almost secured us the lead only for the alert Lukasz Fabianski to deny us. Then at 1-0 down the Spaniard almost changed the outlook of the game with a twisting and turning run into the Arsenal penalty area, only for Fabianski to be equal once again. You certainly felt at 1-1 we could even go on and win the game, but in the end it was not to be and the Gunners efficiently closed the game out.

Even though he is known on the world stage, English teams are still getting to grips with the threat of David Silva. But the Spaniard has now had his ‘Robinho moment’, and the key will be to see how he reacts once teams start to get a handle on him. Will the Spaniard thrive where the Brazilian so spectacularly failed? The answer to this question will have a major bearing on whether or not City fans will look back at the 2010/11 campaign as a success.

A fine line: the City career of Malcolm Allison

Former City coach and manager Malcolm Allison has sadly passed away. If there is a fine line between madness and genius, Allison certainly crossed it during his involvement with the Blues. But far from casting a shadow on his City career, I think this paradox will only serve to reinforce his status at the club. The man will always go down as a City legend.

The genius

During the club’s most successful period during the late 1960s to early 1970s. Allison played a pivotal role. Brought to the club as the first team coach by manager Joe Mercer - the manager for the majority of these glory years – Allison soon proved to be the perfect foil to Mercer’s figurehead, the Y to Mercer’s X. Theirs was a symbiotic relationship, formidable when they worked together, but fallible when they were at odds.

Together, the duo took City to heights of which the club has never experienced either before or since. Clinching promotion to the First Division in 1966, winning the First Division in 1968, the FA Cup in 1969, and then the League Cup and European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1970. From the Second Division to European glory in five years was the stuff of dreams. This couldn’t have been achieved without Allison.

Key to this success was Allison’s relationship with the players and his motivational techniques, creating a fantastic team spirit that allowed players to believe in themselves. This ability to get into the heads of players was complemented by his visionary training methods. In the words of another City legend of this era, Mike Summerbee, Allison was “the forerunner of fitness and tactics way beyond his time.” Indeed, according to another City great, the Allison approach appeared to border on the scientific, through studying the physiology of the squad.

And whilst on the subject of former City player greats, we should acknowledge Allison’s role in bringing a fair few to the club. ‘Big Mal’, as he came to be known, was vital to securing the services of Colin Bell, Francis Lee, and Tony Book – names that are now etched into the very soul of the Club forever, as is his own.

The madness

In his fictional account of the Mercer-Allison relationship, 'The Worst of Friends', Colin Shindler indicates that these men let greatness slip through their fingers. He could well be right. Everything seemed in place: the right managerial set up, the right tactics, the right team spirit, the right players who were beginning to win things. All that was left was the objective of sustained success.

But in the end this did not materialise, and it is not exactly clear why. The club of course will say that the Allison-Mercer relationship remained strong through their tenure, but I fear the reality was different. The prolific City Author Gary James has indicated that relations became strained when both men supported different sides during the club's early 1970s takeover battle. Allison supported the winning side and eventually became manager whilst Mercer was gradually forced out of the club. For Shindler, Allison’s ambition to step out of his manager’s shadow, and Mercer’s refusal to let go of the controls, was the root of the problem. The truth is probably a combination of both scenarios.

The result soon became clear. With Allison at the helm, City missed out on the League title by a point and won the Charity Shield the following season, but never again did they hit the heights of the late 1960s and Allison resigned in 1973. A fine line between success and failure indeed.

But ‘Big Mal’ was reinstalled at Maine Road in 1979 with the dubious title of ‘coaching overlord’. It was during this period that the madness of Allison really set in. In his book ‘Lows, Highs and Balti Pies: Manchester City Ruined my Diet’, Steve Mingle captures the eccentricities of Allison’s second spell in charge. Perhaps guilty of believing too much in his own judgement and ability, Allison set about dismantling what was potentially another City side capable of great success. The likes of Asa Hartford, Gary Owen (then England under 21 captain), flying winger Peter Barnes, and probably the best defender ever to grace Maine Road in a Blue shirt – Dave Watson, were all jettisoned. In their places came players of inferior quality, demonstrated most clearly with the now infamous £1.5m signing of Steve Daley. This was a horrendous gaffe - and an expensive one at that. Ten years earlier Allison had left a heroic legacy at the club, but his actions during this period threatened to undermine all his previous efforts – as Gary James quite rightly points out, these expensive replacements dogged City’s finances for the next decade.

With his judgement way off target, Allison’s once legendary motivational methods now seemed to border on the absurd. There’s a great example in Gary James’ recent ‘The Big Book of City’. In 1979, City had reached the fourth round of the UEFA Cup against Borussia Monchengladbach. In the previous round the Blues had dispatched AC Milan. Since that victory Allison had been installed and City went on to lose 4-2 to the Germans. Kenny Clements was a player on the sidelines at the time. He attributes the Blues' exit to the return of Allison, indicating that ‘Big Mal’ ruined everything during his second spell:

“I think he’d become too hung up on new ideas that he forgot about the basics. I remember he used to give us homework. He’d tell us to go home and write ‘I must win’ or ‘I will win’ a thousand times, then the next day he’d ask us if we’d done it. I always used to say ‘yeah’ but some of the younger, more impressionable lads would produce their lists and some would even write out twice as many lines! He insisted we drank coffee before a game to keep us alert, and brought in lots of motivational people. It didn’t motivate me I’m afraid!”

The legend

Clearly the motivational methods went a bit too far, but in the end this just adds to the Malcolm Allison aura. We must not forget of course that Allison went on to manage around the world and delivered real success in Portugal with Sporting Lisbon by winning a league and cup double in 1982.

But somehow I feel Allison’s heart will always be at City. Of course he was flawed. Of course he eccentric, over-confident and greedy. He wanted the plaudits of the Mercer years all for himself. But City fans will allow these excesses because they recognise that he was a foundation to the Club's glory years. Hopefully, we are going back to that place soon.

As Gary James shows, perhaps Blues will also allow Big Mal his shortcomings because he understood what it meant to be a City fan, and what it meant to beat United:

“In December 1970 he walked up to the Stretford End prior to a League derby match and held up four fingers to indicate how many goals he expected City to score against the Reds. Understandably, the United fans hurled abuse at him, but by the end of the match the confident Allison was laughing as City won 4-1.”

I can’t find a more fitting tribute to Malcolm Allison than that.

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References

I’ve relied on some fantastic City authors to write this article. I’d highly recommend all of the books below, each of which provide a unique angle on the Club.

Gary James, Manchester City: the complete record (2006)

Gary James, The Big Book of City (2009)

Steve Mingle, Lows, Highs and Balti Pies: Manchester City ruined my diet (2008)

Colin Shindler, The Worst of Friends: the betrayal of Joe Mercer (2010)

The first quarter

With another international break now over and the Premiership ready to begin, it’s a good time to reflect on how the first quarter of the season has panned out. Firstly, a word on our two encounters with the black and white shirts of Juventus and Newcastle.

Life in the Old Lady yet

They may not be the force of old but I was mightily impressed with Juventus. For me they were probably the best team to arrive at Eastlands so far this season and this encounter was probably the most interesting game to grace the pitch since the 2010/11 campaign began.

Juventus seemed well up for the game and pressured us on the ball at every opportunity. We couldn’t seem to get a grip on the game at first but gradually came into proceedings. Although Juventus seemed to have more control in the first half, it was still a surprise when Vincenzo Iaquinta powered them into the lead with a blistering effort from some way outside the area. I believe the shot was slightly deflected off Kolo Toure’s head, but nevertheless Hart was at fault here. England’s number one should not be letting in these kinds of speculative efforts. To be fair to him though, Jerome Boateng was the real culprit, standing off Iaquinta and allowing him sight of goal for that split second. In retrospect, the warning signs were there when the Italian striker had a powerful shot from a difficult angle saved by Hart in the opening minutes.

Our other dependable Argentinean Pablo Zabaleta, later injured with hamstring trouble, simply could not deal with Milos Krasic. The Serbian winger rampaged down the right wing for the entire first half. Although he was eventually booked for diving in the area (the referee could’ve easily caved in here) he was easily the most dangerous player I have seen at Eastlands this season. Mancini must take the credit for gradually nullifying the Krasnic threat, switching Boateng over to left back in the second half to keep the Serbian quiet.

Flashes of the potential brilliance of our attacking play shone through with Adam Johnson’s goal. An excellent through ball from Yaya Toure connected perfectly with Johnson veering run, and the winger took his goal fantastically well.

In the second half we had our chances but as the game approached 60 minutes Juventus had already decided upon their strategy. Playing against a bank of four and five is hard at the best of times, but it was made even harder against the defensive discipline of Luigi del Neri.

And then of course came the biggest let off of the night. Alessandro Del Piero is a player who needs no introduction, and whilst he is far from the player he was, he was a central element of Juve’s strategy at Eastlands – defend to the hilt, counter attack when possible and if the opportunity presents itself, draw fouls around the edge of the penalty area – then give the ball to Del Piero. So it was that this scenario played out in the dying embers of the game, with Del Piero’s resulting free kick smashing against the bar and crashing onto Joe Hart’s line in the style of Geoff Hurst 1966. Replays confirmed that the ref had got it right. Looking at the game as a whole, we had certainly got away with a point.

Newcastle

We didn’t really perform well against the Geordies either. Early on, after Tevez had once again stepped up to the plate by converting a penalty, it had looked like Newcastle were going to be on the end of a hammering. But credit must go to the Tynesiders in the way they fought themselves back into the contention and levelled the score line with a strike from Jonas Gutierrez. Defensively I felt we were looking a bit like we did in the Hughes days, when the team was unbalanced and schizophrenic.

With a forward quartet of Tevez, Silva, Milner and the supporting Yaya Toure, we lacked ideas. At this stage in the season I can only put this down to lack of understanding, with Yaya had a particular off day. I have written previously of my concern that we don’t have enough versatility up front and that a quality target man might give us this. But still, with the quality of that forward four we should be doing better against a team like Newcastle.

It was left to our boy wonder of the moment, Adam Johnson, to provide the answer. Benched after the Juventus game, he came from the sidelines into the limelight seconds after being introduced by Mancini, driving a low shot from the right into the corner of Newcastle’s goal, giving us the victory we required to build on the Chelsea win.

Adam Johnson

Mancini may well focus on Adam Johnson’s shortcomings, but the Italian must also admit that the winger has saved our blushes on a number of occasions this season. After Tevez, and in the absence of a second striker, Johnson represents our next best goal threat. And although his crossing is not yet the best, his trickery often unsettles teams and ups the tempo of our play. The crowd also love him. And given his recent 1^st half England performance against Montengro, the nation is growing to love him as well. All players need to improve but we should be careful not to dim the glow of Johnson’s start to the season

‘Winning ugly’

When all is said and done, we cannot complain too much about Mancini either. Seven games into the season and we are a clear second in the league, having already played Spurs, Liverpool and Chelsea. I know a lot of City fans grow frustrated with the Italian’s approach. You can hear the frustration in the post match phone ins and I do agree with some of it. I agree with the charge that we should be going for it a bit more at home. Sometimes we’ve too many defensive minded players in midfield clogging up our play, sometimes we’re not able to give enough support to Carlos Tevez.

Mancini’s caution may well be because of injuries, and with Kolarov, Boateng and Balotelli firing on all cylinders we could see a more adventurous approach. Whatever the reason, the fact remains that as we turn our attention to facing Blackpool, we are second only to Chelsea in the league – a much better return than at this point last season. Brian Kidd talked of ‘winning ugly’ against Newcastle. Whilst this may not be the traditional City way, it is something we may have to do for a bit longer in order to keep in touch with the leaders – at least until personnel return from injury and the team begins to gel.

On the radio

This week 'Without a Dream in our Hearts' made a brief guest appearance on BBC Manchester's weekly Manchester City show - Blue Tuesday. Click here to check out this week's show, which features the legendary Paul Lake, Ian Cheeseman and an interview with former City player and Chief Executive Colin Barlow. A very big thanks to all the team at Blue Tuesday for the invitation to the show.

A very productive weekend

After the midweek despair at having exited the League Cup, this weekend has provided a much needed restorative tonic. It certainly feels like we are back on track now. In truth, in league competition we were probably never really that far off it.

From one extreme to the other

Mancini will probably have breathed the biggest sigh of relief. He may well argue that injuries forced him into fielding the young, inexperienced side that failed at West Brom. But this is a results business, and whichever way you look at it, it was a shocking result in a competition where we had an excellent chance of getting to final, a chance that would’ve been all the more realistic by the fact that Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham also crashed out. To add to this, the team did include some experienced names: Given, Adam Johnson, Vieira, Santa Cruz and Jo. It wasn’t a bunch of kids playing out there, and we capitulated.

Defeat to Chelsea this weekend and I think there may have been murmurings of discontent amongst some elements of the fanbase. All the more important then, that we deliver the performance and the result. And I have to hand it to the lads, they delivered both with flying colours.

Carlos Tevez

When this era is over, I wonder how Carlos Tevez will be looked upon. Is he a City legend in the making? His contribution since donning the Blue shirt of Manchester certainly points towards this eventuality. And of course, Tevez’s contribution is made up of endeavour and goals – coupled with the ability to do it when it really matters. Against Chelsea he proved this yet again, with an excellently taken goal as City countered Chelsea’s attack.

Yet our strongest asset highlights an emerging vulnerability: a lack of versatility up front. Our attack is highly mobile, but it is small, which means we can only realistically go forward one way – on the deck. Adebayor is not the striker we need and he seems unable to challenge in the air. I don’t see what he offers the team that is different / better to what we already have. Santa Cruz is much more of a target man but yet his performances so far – combined with his injuries – suggest that his future lies elsewhere.

I’m not sure whether this lack of versatility is something the January transfer window can right, but its clear we need further options. If nothing else the home draw against Blackburn lends weight to this view. Teams that attempt to suffocate us will always stand a chance.

Keep calm and carry on

The other massive positive in performance terms was the way we defended. We look solid at the back, much more so than last season. This is something Mancini must take the credit for. This runs against what I am used to watching City, but for the moment at least we do not seem to be panicking when we take the lead and we do not look like conceding. Kompany continues to massively impress, but also Boyata deserves a mention for the way he dealt with the likes of the marauding Ashley Cole and awkward figure of Didier Drogba. He may well have been lucky to stay on the pitch, perhaps you could say the same of Pablo Zabaleta who also dramatically mistimed a couple of tackles, but our aggression was part of the reason why we emerged victorious. There’s not many teams that strong arm Chelsea into defeat, but we certainly did that on Saturday. And of course we did all this without - for the most part - our new defensive signings, with Kolarov still out of action and Boateng finally making his debut late in the game as a substitute for Boyata.

Having not panicked, we must continue to remain calm and pick up maximum points. This weekend was productive not only in our performance but also in terms of other teams’ performances. With Spurs and Arsenal both losing, and United and Liverpool both drawing, the top four seems to be taking shape (we hope). But we need to keep on winning. Extract 6 points from our next two games against Newcastle (home) and Stoke (away), and we will be consolidating our position. And that is where we need to be because otherwise, great victories of the kind we witnessed this weekend will only feel hollow.

New film documents City's rise

The recent rise in the fortunes of Manchester City have been captured in a new docu-film that is due for release this week.

'Blue Moon Rising' promises to be a unique insight into the club, charting the progress of the team during the 09/10 campaign through the eyes of a group of diehard City fans - all of whom also happen to be friends. There's also commentary from key changing room and boardroom personalities.

The doc-film has been produced by production company Endemol. A short trailer can be viewed by clicking here. Check the club's website for further details on where and when to see the full version.