Nasri joins the revolution

This week brought the news that Samir Nasri signed on the dotted line to become Roberto Mancini’s fifth signing of the summer. A protracted saga indeed, but what a player to land.

We now have so many options in attack that the mind boggles. Tevez, Dzeko, Balotelli, Aguero, Silva, Yaya, Adam Johnson and now Samir Nasri. In spite of this wealth, you can never have the complete attacking line up. I still think we are short a little bit in the width department. However, this shortage will only be highlighted if we run out of ideas going forward and start drawing too many games. I get the sense that Mancini is probably never going to be a fan of out and out wingers and will probably check their presence to Adam Johnson. Mancini probably thinks his current crop of forward thinking players have the ability to both – play through the middle and round the back of defences. I can’t argue with him. For me he has been an excellent manager for us on balance so far.

What we do have now going forward is intelligence and movement in abundance. I’ve not seen Aguero in the flesh but from what I hear he sounds like a player that operates several moves ahead of most. With Dzeko starting to fire on all cylinders, bringing more movement, and now with us adding Nasri to the likes of Silva in the creativity department, there is no doubt that we have on paper some of the finest attacking talent not just in the Premier League but in Europe.

We’ll need it if we are to navigate what must be the nearest thing to a ‘group of death’ in the Champions League. Bayern Munich, Villareal and Napoli all await as we launch ourselves into the promised land for the first time since 1968. I’m excited and gutted at the same time. We’ve been placed in such an action packed group with some quality teams and players: Ribery, Robben, Schweinsteiger, Senna, Rossi, Cavani, Pandev, Hamsik et al. Of course I’ll be missing the whole lot!

If nothing else, the Nasri and Aguero signings perhaps indicate that we are no longer in the throes of revolution. Rather Eastlands is now home to a full blown, established regime. FA Cup winners, third place Premier League finish, Champions League football and now attracting players on the cusp of entering their prime years (Aguero at 23 and Nasri at 24) – all these things show that players are coming here to win things now rather than solely for the money, as was the criticism during the Robinho, Adebayor and Lescott signings.

Contenders for the Premier League and somewhat of a wild card in the Champions League, Blues fans must ask – have we ever had it so good? Has there ever been a better time to be a City fan?

A day to forget

Well let’s put it this way, there’s certainly better ways to start a season.

It should have been a tale of how a young Spanish goalkeeper withered under the pressure of his first competitive match in English football. Instead what we had was a tale of City’s complete and utter Charity Shield capitulation to Manchester United. A hard and (given last season’s FA Semi final victory) strange pill to swallow. Two goals up at half time and we throw it away. Unbelievable.

It feels worse than the 4-3 loss at Old Trafford and the Carling Cup semi final defeat of a couple of seasons ago. Then, on both occasions we were always up against it. Here we had the foundations of control in our grasp but somehow could not hold on to that control. It’s incredibly frustrating.

This of course was not just another game, not just another run out to sharpen up the limbs before the Premier League kick off this weekend. This was a Manchester derby, played at times with frenetic pace and passion. The reactions on the players and managers faces at the end of the game told you all you needed to know.

What happened to City’s pre-season?

By all accounts the Blues have had a good pre-season on the pitch, no massive injuries to worry about, winning many games (if not all) and dispatching Inter Milan convincingly on the way. But at Wembley we just didn’t turn up. We weren’t in the game for large periods. Joleon Lescott took his header well, and as for Edin Dzeko’s freak goal, well I said at the time that we should’ve been testing De Gea more. We did, and we got our reward, but both goals came as surprises, against the run of play.

United, with the wind knocked from their sails, should have been put to the sword. We should have gone on and finished them, but instead showed none of the composure and defensive steel of the Mancini era to date. Instead we came out during the second half looking even less up for the battle than we did the first. Possession football – another mantra of Mancini – was thrown out with the bath water as we easily allowed United back into the game.

How not to play against United

You would have thought our current squad would by now have learnt its lesson. One thing you do not do against United is give them – freely – the incentive to attack. Without possession you must fight and press as a team to get ball. If you don’t it becomes a mental thing. They build up attack after attack, you find yourself retreating and then suddenly you’re thinking of how United have this ‘knack’ of retrieving even the most irretrievable of causes.

There’s a reason why United do this so many times and that because they have the courage of their conviction. They ask the question, and you must answer it.

Unfortunately last Saturday City didn’t come up with the answer. I do feel that this was a question of mentality, not a question of picking the wrong players, the wrong formation, using the wrong substitutes to freshen things up.

Replacing Balotelli with Barry was correct. The Italian was ineffectual and we weren’t seeing any of the ball, so I can understand why he was sacrificed for someone who was more adept at getting the ball back and giving it. The formation – again I think correct. It served us well last season, but here our two key individuals (Yaya Toure and De Jong) could not impose themselves on the game in an attacking / defensive sense respectively. In terms of line up we went with pretty much our stronger available. Aside from the Tevez circus, the only question marks for me were Kolarov over Clichy and Milner over Johnson. Kolarov did surprisingly well, and Milner will always give you more defensive cover than AJ. I thought it was a side well balanced, as you can’t go gung-ho against United.

Mentality

With so many things appearing to be correct from the outset, the gaping deficiency was the way we went about our business, the way we allowed United to cut through us, almost at will in the second half. At times it was as if we were not up for the battle.

After we had conceded we did muster some resistance. Silva had a glorious opportunity to put someone (maybe Dzeko) clean through on goal, but his pass was snuffed out. Adam Johnson’s ferocious shot was saved by the unimpressive De Gea, and Micah Richards’ header, again forcing a save out of the young keeper, was judged to be a foul. In the end we have only ourselves to blame. I truly believe that in every other way we are now a squad that stands ready to win the league. Only the mentality – not any other football club – stands in our way now.

United will always be United but we are much better than the offering we gave here. Our detractors are having a field day of course – they love to cast us in the mould of expensive strangers, players driven by big wage packets and by the same coin, United as the purists, a team that places never say die team spirit above all else. But for City at least this is wide of the mark and fails to take into account all that was good about us last season. A team of expensive strangers would not have topped the league in December, would not have finished third, and would not have won the FA Cup, defeating United on the way.

Talk of us being taught a ‘footballing lesson’ is pure gamesmanship (I would like to hear how Mr Rooney describes his team's Champions League performance against Barcelona last May). The fact is that last season we were much closer to United than they would like to think, but still the glaring error of Vincent Kompany, our most assured defender of recent years, capped off a day to forget. Mancini must now ensure that this does not set the tone for the rest of the season.

An Asian angle

Admittedly posts have been a bit thin on the ground recently, mainly due to me moving to Jakarta (as you do). I hope to continue posting, if for anything else then to partially compensate for the trauma of giving up my season ticket. What can I say, maybe I’m typical City myself – just as the club is becoming successful I do one to other climbs.

So for the foreseeable I’ll be posting about City from afar whilst looking for a supporters club out here (if anyone knows then give me a shout).

I’ll also be doing my best to let Indonesians know exactly who is the only football team to come from Manchester…

Out of 35 years of darkness, comes light

A day that I will never, ever forget. The 14^th May 2011 is now etched in the club’s history books as the day Manchester City came back from the cold, trophy-less wilderness – the day that saw them return major honours for the first time in 35 years. An unbelievable day, the best I’ve experienced whilst supporting this troubled club.

‘Boring, boring’ City
Its fair to say whilst it wasn’t the best FA Cup Final, it certainly wasn’t the worse. It was clear from the beginning that we were the side with more purpose and drive. Thomas Sorenson was kept busy from the start, producing a good save to deny the buzzing Carlos Tevez early on, and then a top drawer save to deny the curling shot of a (surprisingly) workmanlike Mario Balotelli later on in the first half.

The chance of the half fell to David Silva, who could have more or less picked his spot when the ball fell to him in the area, with the Stoke defence at sixes and sevens. The Spaniard drove his shot into the floor, and it bounced agonisingly high, over the bar. At that stage I must admit I wondered whether it was going to be our day.

And then, in the second half, came Stoke’s big chance. The largely ineffectual Kenwyne Jones wrestled past Lescott and bore down one on one with Joe Hart, but the keeper was equal to the task - just as he has been in the vast majority of big games this season, and blocked the Trinidadian's toe poke. After that Stoke offered little else in the way of a direct threat on goal.

The support of the Stoke fans is to be commended, but they went a bit far in their chanting of ‘boring, boring City’. You try to not be judgemental when it comes to assessing the way Stoke play, you try to see what else they have in their locker, but the truth is they have little apart from a physical, long ball game. We were the team that was trying to win the game. Stoke didn’t appear to know what they were doing at times. I’m sure their fans must feel that their team did not turn up.

Out-stoked

Much was made before the game of what Stoke’s approach would be. High balls into the box, Delap’s long throws, strength, commitment, fight. Pulis would surely have called upon his men to out compete the Blues, rile us up, unsettle us with their aggression.

But five minutes into the match, and it was totally clear who was taking the fight to whom. From the moment Nigel De Jong won his first tackle, the Stoke players must have known that they were in for a battle. As the game wore on, we dominated in this department – De Jong (my man of the match), Kompany and Lescott all gave excellent performances. Perhaps it took Stoke aback that we were so combative, as they pressed little and so had few chances to really dictate the game.

If there is a special element to this Mancini side, it is that very merging of power and skill. We are less of a machine than Chelsea, and we have less attacking fluency than Arsenal, but we have enough of both to make us formidable.

00 years: a moment of huge significance

At risk of sounding completely overawed, this could potentially be the biggest moment in the club’s history. The naysayers will of course say this is nothing, just one trophy, we have a long way to go to match the best, this victory is nothing that other teams haven’t won before.

But whilst this is partially correct, it is only part of the picture. This is a very different Manchester City than the one that returned major honours back in the 1960s and 1970s. And indeed football today is very different to football back in 1976. Our resources are vast. We are far from the limits of our powers and our future is full of promise. There will be setbacks, but the Manchester City moment is getting closer.

Resetting the counter from 35 years to 00 years is also hugely significant. The 35 years hung as an albatross around our necks, the source of endless mocking and taunting. The 00 years banner brought out onto the pitch by the backroom team represents just how much it means to banish that mantle. And whilst we’re talking about the backroom team, we cannot fail to mention Roberto Mancini, who will now go down in the history of this club as the man who started to change our trajectory. The Italian has had his critics, but no-one can credibly argue with him now. He was brought in to deliver Champions League football, but he has delivered more than we could have possibly imagined, with two league games still to play. We usually leave things to the last minute, so it is very un-City like to be going into the last days of the season with our two central targets secured.

And just as important - if not more important - than the man who has delivered this success are the men who had the judgement to bring him here in the first place. None of this would have been possible without Sheikh Mansour and Khaldoon Al Mubarak. Their financial power is a key element, but this season’s successes show that they are also excellent judges of character and ability. It was a big call to sack Mark Hughes, and an unpopular one at the time. But no-one can argue with that decision now.

More than anything else, this victory represents a springboard to success, the first brick of a house that Arabian financial might is slowly building. We now have a group of players that have won together – massively important for our team spirit and togetherness – things that have been questioned so much this season. Before, we were a team of individual winners, now we are a winning team. We are now laying the groundwork for a new era, whilst drawing the curtain on an old one.

If it has not ended already, the era of typical City is finally coming to a close.

BLUE MOON.

The hallowed turf reached, the albatross awaits...

It was an edgy performance, but Tuesday’s 1-0 win over Spurs was enough to see us into next season’s Champions League qualifiers. It was a magnificent night for the club, a landmark night that will go down in our history.

The table doesn’t lie, and this season no-one can argue that we don’t deserve it. Looking back, perhaps qualifying for the CL last season may have been a season too early for us. Perhaps it is better to do things this way, with our better signings bedded in, ready to do battle for next season.

In fairness, Spurs dominated this affair, in many ways a re-hash of last season’s encounter late on in the season, where a Peter Crouch header sealed the CL deal for Spurs. But this was a different City to the one that took on Redknapp’s men at Eastlands last season. Spurs huffed and they puffed, had plenty of possession, but had only two major chances to show for it. When it came to the crunch, City’s defensive qualities showed as they smothered Spurs’ cutting edge. Hart once again proved to be the tormentor of Spurs when he produced a fantastic reflex save from Pienaar’s header.

I felt we were always the more likely to score. Dzeko had a massive chance to make it 1-0 but Cudicini saved at point blank range. Silva’s long range effort would have been one of the goals of our season had it dipped slightly. Vieira’s effort was cleared off the line. Tevez’s break away at the end of the game should have sealed the deal but for another excellent save by the Spurs keeper.

In the end it didn’t matter. An own goal by Peter Crouch was enough to get us the three points and send us into the hallowed turf of the Champions League. Not since September 1968 have we been able to compete on this level. Back then – in the old European Cup - we were knocked out in the first round against Fenerbahce. Now, we must ensure that we do not have a repeat performance of that debacle. We must do all in our power to really go on and make some headway into Europe’s elite competition. With the players we have, this is the place where we must now belong.

We have accomplished the ‘bread and butter’ element of our season. Now we must put the icing on the cake. Most fans would have settled for Champions League qualification at the beginning of the season, but Champions League football and FA Cup winners? That would be one hell of a season at this stage in our development. History has already been made with the win over Spurs, but to remove the 35 year albatross would be something special yet again.

It will be a tough encounter, much tougher than the Semi Final against United. Irrespective of Stoke’s recent form, we all know what they can do to us. They’ve done it countless times in the past. There is no way at all that we are massive favourite, despite what others may say. This is one game, and anything can happen. More than anything else, we need to match Stoke’s drive and desire – only then will we stand a chance. For Tony Pulis, manager of Gillingham in the 1999 Division 2 playoff final, there is that added dimension of revenge. We also must not forget that Stoke have the chance to make history too. We’ve been in the wilderness for 35 years, Stoke for 39.

They don’t come much sweeter

It was a glorious day in every sense of the word. The sun was shining, the Blue Moon rising as we issued United their first proper derby defeat since Arabian riches flowed into Eastlands. Oh how long this victory has been coming.

Build up to a spectacle

Obviously no Tevez for this encounter, I when I saw the City team I feared the worst, - no Micah Richards and the inclusion of Alexsandar Kolarov. United have serious pace from wide positions, and with the selection of both Nani and Valencia I thought we were going to be in for a rough ride. The omission of Anderson gave me hope that we would give as good as we got in the middle of the park.

The City fans though had clearly brought their voice with them, contributing to a fantastic atmosphere that saw us rarely hear our opposite numbers (although I’ve since spoken to some of those and they assure me the feeling is mutual). The majority of City fans had taken their seats well before kick off, indicative of what this day meant to the hordes of Blues that had come down from Manchester. For United the enthusiasm was less – Wembley is obviously less of a novelty for them than it is for us.

An encounter to remember

It’s a cliché but this was indeed a game of two halves. United were the quicker out of the blocks but by the 90^th minute there was no doubt who had stamped their authority on the game. Credit should go to the players for their mental strength. It’s never easy to start off on the wrong in any game, never mind in an FA Cup Semi Final against our greatest rivals. But Mancini’s men pulled it around in stellar fashion – a complete reversal of our endeavours at Anfield the previous Monday night – and proved Ferguson wrong along the way.

City grew into the game and by the end of the first half were beginning to make real headway on the United goal. This was all not before Dimitar Berbatov had missed two glorious opportunities to score in quick succession – the first producing a magnificent save by Joe Hart, the second miss more down to Berbatov’s inept finishing.

No doubt though we had got away with it here, but this is football, and chances must be taken. As the half came to a close, Gareth Barry lashed a shot into the side netting and Vincent Kompany – my man of the match – curled a shot just agonisingly wide from the end of the area.

Into the second half, and we came out all guns blazing. With Yaya Toure pressing higher up the pitch, he dispossessed Michael Carrick and bore down on Van der Sar, slotting a neat shot under the Dutchman to draw first blood. I will never forget the reaction in the crowd after that goal had gone in.

As for the players, they had started to believe. We began to dominate and swarmed forward, winning 50-50 balls all over the park. The desire that had evaded us completely against Liverpool was with us in abundance here, as we pushed United back for a good 15 minutes after Yaya’s strike, and indeed could have had more goals if it were not for some poor crossing from SWP.

The sending off of Paul Scholes was correct, but I felt we would have held out at any rate. This was our day, and this was certainly not the United of last season, where they swarmed around us in the dying embers of the Carling Cup Semi Final. There was a sense that United could have played for much longer and still not have scored, so blunt was their cutting edge. Uncharacteristically, as the game wore on, United lost more and more attacking rhythm. All the talk beforehand was of us missing our talisman. In the end, United missed their much, much more.

Tougher tests

This victory will count for something even if we are unable to return the FA Cup next month. United were building up a worrying string of victories against us, but to defeat them in a game of such magnitude has exorcised the ghosts of last year (the 4-3 and the second leg Carling Cup Semi). This game mattered to Ferguson’s men, as could be seen so clearly when the toys came out of the prams after the final whistle. Of course defeat hurts, but defeat to City is still worse, even now, after all the success that they have had.

But United are small fry compared with what we have to face. This victory should give us great heart, and we should bask in it, but we should not allow it to detract from the major tasks that are still at hand – winning the FA Cup against a talented and stubborn Stoke side (the manager of which will surely want revenge for our exploits against him in the 1999 Division 2 playoff final!) and of course securing Champions League football. These will be the real victories of this campaign. Only then will we be able to say that the squad of 2010/11 was the one that really began to change the history of our club.

We’ve seen the worst, now let’s hope for the best

And so we arrive at the biggest weekend of our season so far - an FA Cup Semi Final against the old enemy. Some might even say this is the biggest game in City’s recent Arab-centric history. Of course, in true City fashion we prepared for this test in the worst possible way.

Despair at Anfield

What happened? We can talk about line ups and formations – and they do play their part of course – but I can’t understand the abject performance of the 11 players on the pitch. Absolutely unbelievable in a game of such magnitude. Significant for the ‘Mancini out’ people – I think this is the first time under Mancini’s leadership that I’ve seen us completely unable to live with the opposing team. The positive is that we don’t do this very often. The negative that now Spurs are within three points of us with a game in hand. Not what we want at this stage of the season.

We were weak defensively, particularly in full back positions. We were second best in midfield and we were blunt up front. Adam Johnson provided us with little outlet. Edin Dzeko’s touch looks to have deserted him. In fairness we got away with 3-0. It could have been a hammering. We were overrun.

We shouldn’t be rotating selection on games like this, and for this Mancini must take the blame. At the very most perhaps I would’ve rested Silva, but for me De Jong was vital to give us that extra cover. Mancini admitted he made mistakes after the game – uncharacteristically unsavvy of him to do so I think as this just heaps more pressure on him keeping his job. Perhaps he was trying to take the pressure off the players, who knows.

Saturday, 5.15pm

Just as this Saturday represents a massive chance for Mancini to redeem himself, it is also an opportunity for him to fall further. Defeat to United could well hinder our push for forth, but victory…well, that could change things significantly. It’s a fine line, and Mancini could well live or die on these next few days.

The injury to Carlos Tevez is a severe blow, there is no point in masking it. His loss means more to us than United losing Wayne Rooney to suspension, no doubt about it. Micah Richards seems to have made an unlikely return – if he plays it will be a boost for us defensively, allowing us to switch Zabaleta to left back and shore up our suspect full back positions. Due to United’s considerable threat from wide positions we need to be watertight at full back – and show a bit of footballing savvy. Richards and Zabaleta are our best bets here.

Up front though, the worry remains that without Tevez we will struggle. Mario Balotelli has yet to put in a performance worthy of his own boasting mouth. To start with the enigmatic Italian would be a gamble in a game of such magnitude, but then again, at the moment Dzeko doesn’t foster confidence. The unpredictability of Balotelli could be a factor here. He is somewhat of an unknown quantity against Ferguson’s men, and he is capable of producing the bit of magic that we need. The question is whether the lad can keep his head in such a super charged game. I want to believe in him but he gives us little to go on.

‘Changing history’

Mancini has talked about the opportunity to change the club’s history through arriving at the final of a major cup competition. Of course he’s right, but in this semi we also have the opportunity to change our recent history – and here I’m talking about our record against United since the Arabs took over. Strangely we’ve yet to defeat our rivals since we started signing top quality players. I’m sure there’s a typical city angle on that somewhere. Bring back Shaun Goater and Benjani.

I’ve always thought that the winners of the FA Cup this year would have to defeat United, and now that task has fallen to us. Lose - and the mental block will go on. But there’s always two ways of looking at it. Win – and we claim the scalp of our greatest rivals at Wembley. This is a massive opportunity. They don’t come much bigger than this.