Newsletter #1703

With City unlucky not to get a point on Saturday, we have match views and opinions tonight on the game. There’s also frustration from fans travelling from overseas with the fixture changes and opinion on Tevez.

Next up the Europa League as City face Aris in Greece.

MATCH VIEW: MUFC 2 MCFC 1

As soon as I saw the City starting eleven, I knew we did not have the right balance, or in my opinion the right starting eleven.

My bone of contention revolves around 3 positions: centre half, left back and left midfield. I truly believe our best pairing at centre half is Kompany and Touré; I just don’t believe Lescott has ever lived up to his over-inflated price tag, and has yet to produce the performances he used to put in for Everton (look at how easily Rooney nodded on a header from van der Sar’s punt down the pitch for their first goal and look how tall Lescott is).

Then left back; we first got rid of Bridge because we thought he was not good enough, so we go and purchase Kolarov, who after injury, has begun to improve… but do we play him at left back? No! Instead he is played at left midfield, once again using Mr Versatile (Zabaleta) to cover at left back, when everyone knows he is better suited to right back or right midfield. And Lescott and our young German international Boateng have also played at left back?

Am I missing something, or do Mancini and his large coaching staff really know what they are doing? Then we play Milner in midfield, the same guy who played 90 minutes for England in midweek, and was not that great (I really don’t rate Milner at all), in the absence of de Jong. Again, he looked tired and eventually got replaced, due to some injury.

We have Boateng, a big strapping athletic guy with a good left foot; surely he could have played as the holding midfielder and Barry and Touré urged to play higher? Or maybe start with SWP? He has tremendous ability, pace and has previous experiences of derbies; he could have started on the right and Silva on the left – would that not have been a better balanced team? We need two fast and tricky wide men. To an extent that is what Man Utd have in Giggs and Nani, and you saw the problems Nani caused us (boy, will we miss Adam Johnson!).

I truly believe that City have not got a balanced team. We need to have a constant back four, whilst our midfield is lacking one vital cog, a creative goal-scoring player. Look at Meireles at Liverpool, always in and around the box, look at Kranjcar at Spurs. Yaya Touré is a defensive midfielder by nature but we want to use him higher up the pitch, and too often he flatters to deceive.

Maybe I am being hyper-critical but I truly believed that we had a great chance of victory yesterday at Old Trafford, and sometimes having a big, expensive squad is meaningless if you don’t know how to utilise it to its maximum! Look at how Redknapp gets the best out of his big squad! Having said that, he has a better balance of creative midfielders in his squad than we do, plus he always looks to score goals and win games (Mancini take note!).

It will be a travesty if we now lose 4th place yet again to Spurs, but as much as I don’t want it to happen… I really can see us fighting it out with Spurs for 4th place, and just missing out!

Come on City!

OPINION: DERBY GAME

I thank Roberto Mancini for going to try to win this game with some attractive football. We were close, it took what United fans will call a wonder goal from Rooney, but I as a City fan say it was a lucky goal; how many times will Rooney try to score like that and miss?

Two players that might have made a difference for City, Tiger de Jong who could have closed down Nani who in my book was United’s danger man, and Mario who might have scored for City. But I do not want to take anything away from any player who played in this game for City; every player gave 100% effort, I am proud of every single one of you.

The future of the team is in good hands with Mancini; he will only get better for he is very positive about his players improving, and not forgetting himself. At the start of this season MCFC has a goal for a top four finish; this is still possible and we are on target. Winning a trophy is also still possible with the FA Cup and Europa League.

Now every game is very important and with more teams hunting a top four finish, it is an exciting season. City are improving as a team but still some way to go; always room for improvement.

In Roberto Mancini I trust.

Come on you Blues!

OPINION: FIXTURE CHANGES

I have a grumble that may be pertinent to a few subscribers of MCIVTA:

I try to travel from Dublin to Manchester to watch City as often as I can. Having originally booked flights for Manchester City vs. Fulham for the originally-advertised time of 3pm on 26th February, I was annoyed when the game was moved to 8pm on Monday 28th February. Nevertheless, I re-booked my flights and bought tickets on this understanding.

However, the match has now been moved again to 3pm on Sunday 27th February and I have no means to change my flights again.

This is a quite ridiculous situation where a club that is attempting to grow its support base and encourage international fans seems to be doing its utmost to annoy those very fans. Would it be too much to ask that the club would have in place a system of refunding that allows disaffected patrons such as me to compensation in these circumstances?

Grrr, I’m so annoyed with City right now.

OPINION: TEVEZ

In response to Sam Duxbury (MCIVTA 1702), while Super Carlito is an automatic shoe-in when fit and available, your suggestion that we don’t win without him is spurious.

We hammered Villa 4-0 for instance without him. Please get your facts right. No way are we a one-man team.

RESULTS AND TABLE

13 February 2011

Bolton Wanderers      2 - 0  Everton               22,986

12 February 2011

Manchester United     2 - 1  Manchester City       75,322
Arsenal               2 - 0  Wolverhampton Wndrs   60,050
Birmingham City       1 - 0  Stoke City            23,660
Blackburn Rovers      0 - 0  Newcastle United      26,781
Blackpool             1 - 1  Aston Villa           16,000
Liverpool             1 - 1  Wigan Athletic        44,609
West Bromwich Albion  3 - 3  West Ham United       23,916
Sunderland            1 - 2  Tottenham Hotspur     40,986

League table to 13 February 2011 inclusive

                            HOME          AWAY        OVERALL
                    P  W  D  L  F  A  W  D  L  F  A  W  D  L   F   A  GD Pts
 1 Manchester Utd  26 13  1  0 39  9  3  8  1 18 16 16  9  1  57  25  32  57
 2 Arsenal         26  9  1  3 29 12  7  4  2 27 15 16  5  5  56  27  29  53
 3 Manchester City 27  8  3  2 21 10  6  4  4 22 14 14  7  6  43  24  19  49
 4 Tottenham H.    26  7  5  1 19 10  6  3  4 18 18 13  8  5  37  28   9  47
 5 Chelsea         25  8  2  2 24  8  5  3  5 22 14 13  5  7  46  22  24  44
 6 Liverpool       27  8  4  2 23 11  3  2  8 12 21 11  6 10  35  32   3  39
 7 Sunderland      27  6  5  3 18 14  3  5  5 15 19  9 10  8  33  33   0  37
 8 Bolton Wndrs    27  7  5  2 25 17  2  4  7 13 20  9  9  9  38  37   1  36
 9 Stoke City      26  7  2  4 19 14  3  1  9 12 19 10  3 13  31  33  -2  33
10 Newcastle Utd   26  4  5  4 30 19  4  3  6 10 19  8  8 10  40  38   2  32
11 Blackburn R.    27  6  4  4 17 11  3  1  9 17 31  9  5 13  34  42  -8  32
12 Fulham          26  5  5  3 17 14  1  7  5 11 14  6 12  8  28  28   0  30
13 Everton         26  4  5  3 19 18  2  7  5 14 18  6 12  8  33  36  -3  30
14 Birmingham City 25  4  7  2 13 13  2  5  5 12 20  6 12  7  25  33  -8  30
15 Aston Villa     27  5  5  3 18 15  2  4  8 13 31  7  9 11  31  46 -15  30
16 Blackpool       26  3  3  6 19 23  5  2  7 20 27  8  5 13  39  50 -11  29
17 West Brom A.    26  5  4  4 21 22  2  2  9 13 29  7  6 13  34  51 -17  27
18 Wigan Athletic  27  3  6  5 16 26  2  6  5 11 19  5 12 10  27  45 -18  27
19 West Ham United 27  3  4  6 14 20  2  6  6 16 28  5 10 12  30  48 -18  25
20 Wolves          26  6  2  5 17 19  1  1 11  9 26  7  3 16  26  45 -19  24

MCIVTA FAQ [v1011.01]

[1] MCIVTA Addresses

Articles (Heidi Pickup)          : editor@mcivta.city-fan.org
News/rumour (Alex Rowen)         : news@mcivta.city-fan.org
Subscriptions (Madeleine Hawkins): subscriptions@mcivta.city-fan.org
Technical problems (Paul)        : paul@city-fan.org
FAQ (David Warburton)            : faq@mcivta.city-fan.org

[2] What are MCIVTA’s publishing deadlines?

Deadlines for issues are nominally 6pm, Monday and Thursday evenings by email. Unfortunately we cannot accept email attachments.

[3] MCIVTA Back Issues and Manchester City Supporters’ home page

http://www.mcivta.com/ is the unofficial Manchester City Supporters’ home page. Created in 1994, it is the longest running of the Manchester City related web sites. Back issues of MCIVTA are also hosted on the site. You can also follow on www.twitter.com/mcivta to get the latest updates.

[4] What is the club’s official web site?

The official club web site can be found at http://www.mcfc.co.uk/ and the official club Twitter page at www.twitter.com/mcfc. The club also has a facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/mcfcofficial

[5] What supporters’ clubs are there?

The Official Supporters’ Club and the Centenary Supporters’ Association have merged to become the Manchester City Supporters’ Club (http://www.mcfcsupportersclub.com/). The club also recognise the Manchester City Disabled Supporters’ Association (http://www.mcdsa.co.uk/).

[6] Where can I find out about Points of Blue?

The committee operates as an interface between supporters and the club. Points of Blue appears on the club website under the “Fans” heading (http://www.mcfc.co.uk/Fans).

[7] What match day broadcasts are available on the web?

Live match commentary can be found on the club website. The Radio Manchester pre- and post-match phone-in is available on the web at http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/manchester/hi/tv_and_radio/.

[8] Where can I find out if City are live on satellite TV?

http://www.satfootball.com/pl.html provides a listing of Premier League games being shown on UK domestic and foreign satellite channels. Useful sites for North American viewers are http://msn.foxsports.com/, http://www.soccertv.com/.

[9] Do we have a Usenet newsgroup?

Yes we do: uk.sport.football.clubs.man-city is our home on usenet. If you are not familiar with usenet, a basic explanation is available here: http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,289893,sid9_gci213262,00.html

[10] Do any squad members have their own web pages?

There are a number available and direct links can be found at http://www.mcivta.com/players/

[11] Where can I find match statistics?

Statistics for the current season are available from the club site, but for a more in-depth analysis try http://www.mcfcstats.com/.

DISCLAIMER
The views expressed in MCIVTA are entirely those of the subscribersand there is no intention to represent these opinions as being thoseof Manchester City Football Club, nor of any of the companies anduniversities by whom the subscribers are employed. It is not inany way whatsoever connected to the club or any other relatedorganisation and is simply a group of supporters using this mediumas a means of disseminating news and exchanging opinions.

Heidi Pickup, editor@mcivta.city-fan.org

Editor: