City - Everton post match review.
I think Pep Guardiola is starting to realise that the Premier League is just as competitive as La Liga and the Bundesliga. Everton at home is a difficult game, but a game you would expect Man City to ultimately win. I expected the game to be close, hard thought and City to come out on top in the end. The match itself was ok, I thought City played some nice football, great with possession but seemed a little pedestrian at times, side ways passing until they hit the wings. This game was perfect for Nolito, why didn't he start? I would have started him. He cuts in, good with both feet and very direct and quite aggressive with his play. On the other hand, Everton did their job, their keeper gets a special shout out, saving two pens and holding City to a point, well done Stekelenburg.
The match started how everyone thought it would. City bossed possession, Sane made some nice runs and had a shout for a penalty early on, brought down but was a weak challenge and wasn't a penalty for me, some will agree, some will disagree, but that is football. City came forward but lacked something up front. Is Iheanacho good enough to be second striker. Don't get me wrong, I think he's class but he is young and doesn't know how to lead the line. I think he would be excellent in a two up top, but him on his own?? I'd like to see a midfielder like Silva or De Bruyne moved up top, have six across the line and whoever wants to get forward, get forward. Noted, this is only when Aguero cannot play and we are playing teams who won't allow space, like Everton. Iheanacho is strong, quick and a good eye for goal. He needs space and if teams won't allow space, what does he offer to the game? I agree with Aguero not starting, I would have started with Iheanacho too but Pep needs to learn lessons. He's still settling in so I'll give him time to suss what to do and what not to do and when. If we play teams like Everton, Southampton, West Ham, Leicester and even teams like Burnley and Crystal Palace, then Iheanacho cannot be the lone man, we can play two up top, particularly at home as this works and gets the best out of Kelechi but on his own? He can't do it all himself, he isn't similar to Aguero. Aguero gets forward, Aguero tracks back and acts like a midfielder at times too. Kelechi doesn't, he's a striker who stays at the top.
Only one real chance in the first half, Silva broke through to the byline in the box, Everton don't clear their lines and Silva brings the ball in, past Jagielka, Jagielka goes to make the tackle, misses the ball and with his leg sticking out, brings down Silva. A penalty that doesn't need discussing, it was a penalty every day of the week. Aguero wasn't on the pitch, Kevin De Bruyne, on his return from injury, steps up and puts the ball to his right and the keeper dives to his left and saves. An easy save really, but a good save. The penalty was poor and was very disappointing. Do Manchester City practise their techniques on penalties? They are always are good height for keepers, never in the corner and if the keeper dives the right way then nine times out of ten, in my opinion, the keeper will save the penalties against City. It's predictable and penalty misses are becoming a big concern. City have so much possession, get into the box so much, it's natural that defenders will make challenges and make mistakes. I suspect City will get more penalties this season. They need scoring otherwise they simply won't win games. This penalty was in the 41st minute and a chance to go ahead and bring Everton out in the second half and leave them vulnerable to counter-attacks. The miss gave Everton an added incentive and belief. A critical miss from De Bruyne in my opinion.
In the world's biggest surprise, Everton scored. Man City concede again. If you haven't figured, i'm being ironic. Man City's shamble defending continues, Everton launch a ball (what do expect when they pushed in from City's high line) and Stones misses his interception under pressure. City played a new formation, three at the back with Fernandinho slipping in to make it four when being attacked. With Stones sliding and missing the ball, Lukaku brings the ball away and Clichy is left to close him down. I've been calling for Clichy to start as his defending is better than Kolorov's in my opinion... Maybe I am wrong. Lukaku is renown for being left footed, he shows Clichy his right foot and Clichy doesn't close down his left foot on the edge of the area. Lukaku dribbles the ball along for an extra touch and slots past Bravo using his left foot. Predictable and really disappointing defending from Stones and Clichy. Stones didn't need to intercept the ball, Everton were on the half way line and would have been lukaku against four defenders. Mistake after mistake from City and Everton are too good not to capitalise on it. If City make mistakes each match in the Premier League then they will get punished and they will concede. They make life difficult for themselves and it is really frustrating. Credit to Everton though, they took their chance. They only had one shot on target all match and scored. City had twelve on target and over seventy percent possession. Smash and grab from Everton, literally.
It gets worse for City. De Bruyne plays a lovely pass into Aguero, he does so well to control and turn Jagielka and draws out a rash challenge from him and goes down. Another penalty. Any football supporter would be delighted to get a penalty. Not City fans. you guessed it. Aguero steps up this time, same place as De Bruyne, same outcome. Need I say anymore? What's wrong with down the middle or low and hard? At least make the keeper work for his save. The only way City's penalties could have been worse would have been if they were off target. A keeper like Stekelenburg will save penalties when they are at perfect height. He literally has a 50/50 chance of saving a City penalty as all he needs to do is dive to left or right. He goes to his left twice and saves twice. Why can't City learn from mistakes? You can put a penalty down the middle, in either of the top corners, low into either bottom corner and even hit them low anywhere on goal as long as they are somewhere near to the corner as there is a good chance the keeper won't get there. The four places you don't want to shoot at is off target (over or wide) onto the crossbar or post, straight at the keeper with no direction and to the left or right but at perfect keeper height. What gets me is that there were two German players on the pitch yesterday, Gundogan and Sane. They are German, Germans love penalties. In all seriousness, I remember Gundogan's penalty against Bayern Munich in the Champions League final for Dortmund where Dortmund were one down and had a penalty to equalise quite late on and Gundogan, under tons of pressure, scored an unbelievable penalty. I'd like to see City trial different Penalty takers for each penalty. I know Silva can take pens, Navas can, Nolito too. Aguero and De Bruyne might be City's two best attacking players, but there is more to the art of penalties than just striking the ball. Aguero, De Bruyne yesterday too, treat a penalty like they are one on one with the keeper. You sometimes miss and you sometimes score. They need to watch YAYA take penalties and learn. Maybe that can be YAYA's use this season, to teach penalties. He's awesome at them, like Balotelli is (he missed at the weekend though, losing his touch)... Wink wink.
Anyway, enough rambling about City's inept penalty strategies. City did really well to get a point out of the game. When you've missed two penalties, it's easy to switch off and pick yourself up. Silva delivered a wonderful cross (who else but the magician to deliver a good cross, City's nemesis over the last two seasons) and Nolito nodded in past the keeper. A standard goal but I'll take it. The match finished 1-1 and was really disappointing. We made one defensive error and was punished. We had few chances to score but had two huge chances from the penalty spot. I can accept missing once, but twice in a row, in the same game, not good enough. I hope De Bruyne and Aguero are working on penalties this week in training. Aguero missed a huge penalty mid-week for Argentina as they lost to Paraguay and put Argentina in big trouble for qualification for the 2018 World Cup. Can Aguero pick himself up from missing so many penalties this season? If any striker can, he can. It might be an idea for Guardiola to step in and trial different penalty takers in matches, take some pressure away from Sergio and get him banging in goals from open play again. City have Barcelona on Wednesday night, if they get a penalty in that match, it needs to go as Barcelona are too good to allow City a second chance, or third like Everton did yesterday. I expect nothing from the game on Wednesday night, but if we get something, away at the Nou Camp, we can really build on that I hope. I just want a good performance against Barcelona. Wouldn't it be great to come against Messi, Neymar, Suarez, Pique, Iniesta and co and bring the game to them? I don't know how City go about getting anything from the game, or even beating Barcelona, but no one knows Barcelona better than Pep Guardiola so over to you Pep. Do you know how to beat your own philosophy that you built there? We will have our answer on Wednesday night. I'll do a match preview on Tuesday or Wednesday, with team news, team predictions and score predictions and analysis. Until then, I'm over and out. Have a nice day everyone.
