Newsletter #1580

After a poor performance at St Andrews on Sunday we were lucky to come away with a point. However, thanks largely to Shay Given and other results, City have moved to 4th in the table.

Tonight we have opinion on yesterday’s performance, the tactics of Mr Hughes and a view on an ex-Blue.

OPINION: TACTICS

In justifying his team selection, Mark Hughes has said that he picks a specific team to play specific opposition. That being the case, if plan A isn’t working, he needs to have a plan B.

City have now rolled out four consecutive draws, three of which could have been wins if Hughes had shown any imagination with his substitutions. Sunday’s game for example. He leaves Ireland on the bench and goes with one up-front player in Santa Cruz. Bellamy, Tevez and SWP huffed and puffed but made little impression on the Birmingham defence. What was called for would have been a Plan B where Ireland, Petrov and maybe even Johnson come on together and totally shift the team’s attacking strategy.

But no, Hughes brings on Ireland with 20 minutes to go and Petrov with 12 minutes to go, leaving them little time to make an impact on the match. Chelsea aside, there isn’t a team in the division with City’s bench strength yet Hughes, in the past four matches, has failed to play his trump card and employ a different strategy in the second half. Ultimately these dropped points are going to be costly. Thank heavens for Shay Given, he has probably salvaged about nine points alone. One thing though, the back four looked a lot stronger on set pieces and corners with Kompany in the back four. Sub Lescott with Toure and I believe we will plug a big hole. Moving forward, the first name Hughes should write down on his team sheet (beside Given) is Ireland. His midfield skills were sorely missed for the majority of Sunday’s game. Let’s hope Sparky gets his line-up right for Burnley!

OPINION: BIRMINGHAM PERFORMANCE I

But for Shay Given City would have lost to Birmingham. A brilliant penalty save and much more; definitely the man of the match. A clean sheet for City but not exactly because of our defence.

Credit to Birmingham who never gave City any time to settle. City never ever got into a rhythm of passing the ball to each other. Birmingham not only disrupted City’s game but came very close to winning the game.

Today City played as if they had never played together before as a team, and just could not make that fast counter attack.

I feel sure that there will be many who will not be as kind as I have about this game. The only positive from the game is that the point City got from the draw, takes City up to fourth in the Premier League with a game in hand.

So we can say that we were lucky that other teams lost this weekend, and that a draw is better than losing. Maybe Mark Hughes said to the players “I want three points for my birthday”, but the players misunderstood him and thought he said “I want three pints for my birthday”.

City have just got to do better than this if we are to get into Europe.

Come on you Blues!

OPINION: BIRMINGHAM PERFORMANCE II

Thank God for Shay Given!

Enough said, we were b****y awful against a bunch of no-names (sorry Birmingham) who gave a hundred per cent, and could have, should have won.

OPINION: BIRMINGHAM PERFORMANCE III

Good job we have plenty of money ’cause the next Manager will need it. Hughes has lost it; well I always said he never had it and as soon as he goes we will then see an improvement. We will not be in the top 4 or the top 6.

OPINION: EX BLUES

Nice to see Daniel Sturridge getting a full game. He hasn’t changed, looks the part but doesn’t pass; evidently he doesn’t realise it’s a team game.

No great loss with hindsight.

RESULTS

1 November 2009

Birmingham City       0 - 0  Manchester City       21,462

31 October 2009

Arsenal               3 - 0  Tottenham Hotspur     60,103Bolton Wanderers      0 - 4  Chelsea               22,680Burnley               2 - 0  Hull City             20,219Everton               1 - 1  Aston Villa           36,648Fulham                3 - 1  Liverpool             25,700Portsmouth            4 - 0  Wigan Athletic        18,212Stoke City            2 - 2  Wolverhampton Wndrs   27,500Sunderland            2 - 2  West Ham United       39,033Manchester United     2 - 0  Blackburn Rovers      74,658

League table to 01 November 2009 inclusive

                             HOME          AWAY        OVERALL                    P  W  D  L  F  A  W  D  L  F  A  W  D  L  F   A   GD Pts 1 Chelsea         11  5  0  0 15  1  4  0  2 13  7  9  0  2  28   8  20  27 2 Manchester Utd  11  5  1  0 13  7  3  0  2 10  4  8  1  2  23  11  12  25 3 Arsenal         10  5  0  0 20  4  2  1  2 12  9  7  1  2  32  13  19  22 4 Manchester City 10  3  1  0 10  5  2  3  1  8  6  5  4  1  18  11   7  19 5 Tottenham H.    11  3  0  2 10  6  3  1  2 11 11  6  1  4  21  17   4  19 6 Liverpool       11  4  0  1 17  4  2  0  4  8 12  6  0  5  25  16   9  18 7 Aston Villa     10  3  1  1  7  4  2  2  1  7  5  5  3  2  14   9   5  18 8 Sunderland      11  4  1  1 15  9  1  1  3  5  8  5  2  4  20  17   3  17 9 Stoke City      11  3  1  2  8  7  1  3  1  3  6  4  4  3  11  13  -2  1610 Burnley         11  5  0  1 10  5  0  0  5  2 17  5  0  6  12  22 -10  1511 Fulham          10  3  0  2  7  5  1  2  2  6  8  4  2  4  13  13   0  1412 Wigan Athletic  11  2  1  2  5  8  2  0  4  7 13  4  1  6  12  21  -9  1313 Everton         10  2  3  1  9 10  1  0  3  4  6  3  3  4  13  16  -3  1214 Birmingham City 11  2  2  2  4  4  1  0  4  4  8  3  2  6   8  12  -4  1115 Bolton Wndrs    10  1  2  3  8 13  2  0  2  6  6  3  2  5  14  19  -5  1116 Wolves          11  1  2  2  4  6  1  2  3  7 12  2  4  5  11  18  -7  1017 Blackburn R.    10  3  1  1  8  6  0  0  5  3 18  3  1  6  11  24 -13  1018 Hull City       11  2  1  2  4  7  0  1  5  4 17  2  2  7   8  24 -16   819 West Ham United 10  0  2  2  7  9  1  2  3  6  8  1  4  5  13  17  -4   720 Portsmouth      11  1  0  5  7  8  1  1  3  2  7  2  1  8   9  15  -6   7

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