The Best 3 Strikers Manchester City will face This Week (Top)
Manchester
City had rather a big game in midweek which was a Champions League Semi-Final
against Real Madrid which was on the whole, very very boring which is somewhat
remarkable given the cost of the attacking talents on display. Cristiano Roanldo was missing for Real but
Aguero, de Bruyne, Bale and Benzema couldn’t come up with a goal between them
and nor could Wilfried Bony. I’m
reluctant to take the piss out of any City fringe players because the 2nd
leg is in three days time so they’ll no doubt be Fringe City today. Have no fear though as whatever side they put
out will have cost millions.
It
appears that Yaya is injured, probably sulking about something so we won’t have
to worry about him. If they rest Aguero,
de Bruyne, Silva and Kompany then I’m happy.
They’ve had a pretty average season to be honest, brilliant in patches
but not great in others. Overshadowing
it all was the announcement that Pep Guardiola is to be their manager next
season so it’d be pretty amusing is Pellegrini does manage to win the Champions
League next season. Guardiola is a great
manager but he’s managed Barcelona in the Spanish League and Bayern in the
German League which in both cases is a bit like turning up for an arse kicking
contest and being the only contestant with two legs. He’ll of course have more resources than
anyone next season and City have the best squad in the league anyway but he’s
never managed in a league where a Leicester City can win it. Watch City win it by 30 points next year.
This
year though, some ‘big’ players that they signed haven’t really done it –
that’s you Raheem and in the frequent absence of Kompany at the back, they’ve
relied on Otamendi (not bad), Mangala (shite) and di Michelis (past it). They did beat us pretty easily up at
Eastlands, in a game that was remarkable for Stephen Caulker having a decent 45
minutes. I expect that Pellegrini will
pick some kids against us so expect Iheanacho to feature. He’s looked like the real deal whenever he’s
played.
Manager
Pellegrini has been kicking off about the kick off times because Real Madrid
have had an extra day off before the second leg. I’m not really into the politics of TV times
but this game I’m about to watch started off as Saturday at 3, went to Sunday
at 4.15, then got put on hold for the Champions League Draw, then got moved to
4.30 on the Sunday. It’s a complete
farce. Mind you, if you are still in any
doubt who the game is being run for – the fans or the money men, then you
clearly haven’t been paying attention.
Do I have any sympathy for Pellegrini, who wanted this game played on
the Saturday? Nope.
It’s
been a quiet week off the pitch as far as the Saints squad is concerned with no
real news that didn’t originate from 40 years ago. 1976 and our day in the sun at Wembley –
McCalliog, to Stokes, who’s onside, one nil.
I like it that the club put this on and took time to mark the
anniversary of the FA Cup win. It was
nice to see the bus with the boys on board and bring back vague memories from
when I was a 7 year old who didn’t really understand what all the fuss was
about. I’ll admit to having a tear in my
eye when the names were being read out on the pitch before the game. It also made me think about the times when we
lost the final in 2003 and also, some of the times when we’ve blown it in an
earlier round when the players could have been heroes, like Channon, Osgood,
Stokes etc and the manager could have been revered like Lawrie Mac. More on Pochettino later.
Back
to today and Ronald has changed it up again with Martina coming back in for
Cédric, Mané for J-Rod and Clasie for Romeu.
There is no Graziano on the pitch or the bench which is apparently due
to him not putting it in, in training this week. No slacking off with Ronald chasing the
Europa League places it seems. All the
focus was of course on the City line up and how ‘weak’ it would be. Hart, Zabaleta, Kolorov, Mangala, Otamendi….
Well that’s a first choice isn’t it aside from Kompany missing. Midfield of Delph, Nasri, Sterling and
Fernandinho. OK, well Delph cost
millions, Sterling and Fernandinho are first choice and Nasri probably would be
if he wasn’t just back from injury. Up
front is Iheanacho and Bony… ok, that’s not great, especially Bony and Mr
Aguero can stay on the bench, thanks very much.
With Yaya and Silva having knocks, the only other one they’ve left out
is de Bruyne but he’s rubbish... not really, he’s a superb player so I’m
pleased he’s missing.
We
tear into them from the start with Virgil striding ouf of defence with the ball
and eventually feeding Tadic who combines with Bertrand to rip Zabaleta a new
arsehole in the first few second before seeing his cross cleared. The move eventually ends with Clasie putting
Long away and he tries a first time shot on the run and hits the side netting. It’s fair to say that we look up for it.
You
know that City are going to have their moments whatever they’ve got out on the
pitch and they have one when Virgil initially does well to win the ball off of
Iheanacho but then gets burgled and the young Nigerian makes his way intot he
box before feeding Sterling and the £50 million man has a free shot on his good
foot from 8 yards. He of course should
not be missing but he tamely hits it goalwards and Fraser makes a good reaction
stop. Everyone is saying ‘great save’
but it really was quite easy once the man who runs like a penguin tickled it at
the goal.
Sterling
can’t have been very happy a few minutes later as Martina was allowed to chip a
ball over Kolarov on the right and Tadic reacted quickest to chase it and hook
it back into the middle first time. Otamendi
is in front of Long but there’s only one player who wants it the most and Long
sticks out a foot and pokes it past Hart for 1-0. Brilliant from tadic and great desire shown
by the goalscorer and none of those qualities shown by the City defenders.
Within
three minutes it’s 2-0 as Sterling crosses from the City left and it’s headed
clear by Virgil. It falls to Big Vic who
clips a ball which really should have been intercepted by Kolarov but like
Janmaat for Newcastle a few weeks ago, he does nothing and lets it go by to
Tadic out on the right. One sliderule
pass behind Mangala later and the sprinting Mané arrives in front of the
jogging Kolarov to fire first time past Hart.
Get the fuck in. Is Aguero
warming up yet?
We
are playing some great football and a bout of that sees Davo teed up on the
edge of the box but his shot is hilarious as from dead centre about 18 yards
out, it’s nearer the corner flag than the goal.
Truly woeful.
We
are the better side and we look to have more urgency and like the Villa game
last week, we need to get to half time at 2-0 and like the Villa games last
week, we fuck it up as City have a bit of possession and it eventually finds
its way out to little shit Nasri on the right and his low cross flicks off of
Fonte and hits Martina who can only spoon it up in the air and Iheanacho has a
free header from 6 yards which he is never going to miss. He doesn’t and it’s 2-1. Shit.
Half
time and out of the tunnel stride Matt le Tiss and Sir Rickie to talk about
Superkelv’s testimonial and the fact that the two of them will be having a
penalty shoot out at half time. Kelvin
is going in goal for it so this could really go on all night and someone might
have to put an extra coin in the meter for the floodlights. I feel very privileged to have watched the
entire Saints careers of these two and never felt like either was going to miss
from the penalty spot. I remember ‘the
miss’ from Matt. Utter disbelief as it
was saved and he smashed the rebound into the Archers Road End at The
Dell. The only other player who came
close to being in the same company as far as penalties was James Beattie and
with a few more seasons he could have really been up there. Then of course there was David McGoldrick… he
was shocking and the ball barely reached.
The
second half starts with some City pressure and it looks for all the world like
we’re going to conceded again. Iheanacho
gets a shot away after a 1-2 with Bony but it’s barely got any power in
it. The kid is by far and away City’s
main threat. What the fiuck has happened
to Wilfried Bony. Far from being the
next Didier Drogba, he’s looked like the new Michael Ricketts. £30 million they paid for that.
We
eventually relieve the pressure and build up on the left, winning a
corner. Davo’s corners so far have been
uniformly shite but he gets this one right and Virgil muscles Mangala out of
the way and flicks a header goalwards which Hart tips onto the bar. It bounces down and fonte misses it before
Mané reacts and slams it into the net from practically one yard out. Against the run of play but who gives a shit…
3-1.
It’s
reached Clasie o’clock so he’s off to be replaced by Oriol Romeu and the new
man makes an immediate impression, charging forward and putting ain a good
cross towards Mané which is headed behind.
Davo delivers again and it gets headed up in the air but Virgil adjusts
and flicks in an overhead kick which Hart tips over the bar. It’s remarkable how dangerous we can be from
corner when it clears the first man, doesn’t go to the keeper and doesn’t loop
miles into the air.
A
Joe Hart bomb forward is bouncing around and Iheanacho picks it up, gets closed
down by Davo and then binned by Virgil as the ball runs away from him. Away we go again and Tadic picks it up and
slides another wonderfully weighted pass behind Kolarov and Mané arrives again
and slides it past the sprawling Hart and just inside the post for 4-1. This is mental. We are completely steamrollering them.
JWP
is on for Davis and the game remains pretty much unchanged and then we doze off
from a throw in and allow Iheanacho to make his way infield from out left and
curl a shot past Fraser and into the far corner, in similar fashion to the way
we allowed Andros Townshend to do the same for Newcastle a couple of weeks
back. With just a few minutes to go,
J-Rod comes on for Tadic and looks every inch, a player who hasn’t played for 2
years. He’ll get there.
Get
in. Marvellous performance, especially from the strikers. Long, Mané and Tadic are going to be in the
nightmares of the City back 4 when they sleep.
It’ll be interesting to see if Ronaldo, Bale and Benzema cause them as
much trouble as our three. I’ll start
with Tadic who was brilliant. I’ve dug
him out plenty of times for being all fart and no shit but today he delivered and
was unplayable. Strength on the ball and
vision and today, his touch was wonderful and the weight of pass was spot
on. Three assists in one game is great
stuff and even gets you in Garth Crooks’ Team of the Week... oh no it doesn’t
because Garth is a fuckwit. Of course to
get all those assists, you need others to hit the target and Mané and Long did
that, aided it has to be said, by some slack defending. It’s not as if City couldn’t deal with the
two of them, it was almost like they didn’t want to. The City back 4 weren’t helped in the
slightest by the midfield… did you ever see Nasri or Sterling helping out in
the wide areas? Having said that, the
defenders just couldn’t be arsed to defend.
Long had one of those games where it appeared that he covered about 10
miles further than anyone else.
Elsewhere,
Big Vic was awesome again and everyone else put in a shift. Of course, it increases the likelihood that
we’ll lose Big Vic and Mané in the summer but all we can do for now is enjoy
today. Ronald called the first half the
best we’ve played in his two years here – so if you can’t enjoy today for what
it is, a complete dicking of one of the big boys, then there’s no hope for you.
Our
quest for more Days in Europa as helped by Klopp putting out a 2nd
string side at Swansea and Liverpool getting beaten 3-1 by a Swans side playing
in beach towels and flip flops. Jack
Cork scored a really good goal which tells you how surreal the day was. Man United had Leicester at home and they too
dropped points and van Gaal won the ‘Post Match Comment of the Year’ award when
referring to ‘Sex Masochism’ when talking about Huth pulling Fellaini’s
hair. The man clearly doesn’t give a
fuck.
So,
Leicester got a draw which meant that our friends Spurs had to beat Chelsea
away in order to keep their dream alive.
2-0 and they fucked it up as Chelsea roared back and got a draw thanks
to one of the best goals you’ll ever see from Eden Hazard. Spurs lost the plot and had 9 booked and our
mate Twattenburg has been universally praised for keeping 11 on the pitch which
is not his job. His job is to give the
right decision and failing to send of Eric Dier for two horrific lunge tackles
and Dembele for gouging Costa’s eye, is poor refereeing. It would be funny however if the FA review
the Dembele gouge and let him off because it was against Diego the
Bastard. If they’re doing their job
properly however, the FA disciplinary committee will see us playing against
Spurs reserves next Saturday. Pochettino
should also have been red carded for running on the pitch and laying hands on a
Chelsea player. It’s nice that he lost
the plot and probably incited his players to do the same. Don’t get me wrong – I think Toby
Alderweireld is a wonderful footballer but I had to smile when he made a
mistake when he got rolled by Costa in the build up for Hazard’s goal.
All
this means that Leicester have won the League.
A team with no big money players, who play 4-4-2, who work hard as a
team, with a likeable manager – have won the league. It’s brilliant that in the age of Sky with
all their focus on big money and individuals, it’s a reminder that it’s a team
game after all. Fantastic achievement by
Leicester which is better than any Man United treble or any Chelsea or Man City
petro-cash title. This is Leicester City
who like us, have been in the shit and down to League 1 and back, nearly
getting relegated last year and this year, having the perfect season. They haven’t imploded like everyone said they
would and have only lost three games all season. They give us all hope and I hope that they
can keep their players and give the Champions League a right good go next year.
Next
for us is a trip to White Hart Lane where we will be attempting to keep the
Europa League charge on track and also to help Spurs finish in their natural
place below Arsenal.
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