Archive for the ‘Manchester City’ Category

Manchester City Rely On Sevilla

Posted: December 7, 2015 in Champions League, Football, Manchester City, Opinion
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Manchester City have a European tie on Tuesday night that may allow them to achieve what would be a “first” for them.

If they beat Borussia Moenchengladbach and Juventus fail to beat Sevilla, then City will qualify for the next round as group winners. This will be the first time they have achieved that in their Champions League history, following a failure to qualify and two second placed qualifications.

The more likely scenario is that Juventus will beat Sevilla, THEY will qualify as group winners and City will finish second again. All of which means that, in the first knockout round, City could face Real Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern Munich. They could be lucky and get a team which won one of the lesser groups but that would still potentially put them up against the likes of Zenit St. Petersburg, Porto or Atletico Madrid.

At the moment it is all rather immaterial as City can’t even take a point from a team like Stoke City so, even if they were to qualify as group winners, it is unlikely that they would then progress. (more…)

Manchester United Need Pep

Posted: November 29, 2015 in Football, Managers, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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Pep Guardiola during Barcelona's elimination from the Champions League by Chelsea

(Pep on hearing the news that Louis Van Gaal had been appointed Manchester United manager!)

So if reports are to be believed Pep Guardiola would rather move to England as manager of Manchester United than Manchester City. Understandable, really.

Without wishing to offend any City fans, United are the size of club that Guardiola has become accustomed to managing. After Barcelona and Bayern, City would be a bit of a downwards step at this stage in their evolution.

In fairness though, City are the kind of challenge which should appeal to many managers. Almost limitless funds with the opportunity to create history at a club who crave the attention afforded to the likes of United, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich.

Bear in mind also that Pellegrini, like van Gaal, has a contract running until 2017, although I doubt City would suffer from any pangs of loyalty if Guardiola gave them the slightest indication that his immediate future lay at the Etihad. (more…)

City Win, United Don’t

Posted: November 28, 2015 in Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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Manchester City were looking to avoid losing their third game in a row. With Sir Joe Aguero fit enough to start in a lesser game again and David Silva deemed benchworthy, the game not being important enough for him to start, Wilfried Bony was chosen to sit next to Silva and keep him amused with tales of what it is like to be an expensive substitute at the richest club in the world.

The result was only ever in doubt for about fifteen minutes in the second half when Southampton scored to make it 2-1 to City and there were a few nerves in the crowd. No worries though, normal service was resumed shortly afterwards when Kolarov, who spends nearly as much time in the opposition half as Aguero, scored with a good finish from a very good move.

Prior to all this, Kevin De Bruyne had scored a tap in and Delph had managed a deflected shot to register his first for the club. (more…)

Manchester’s United & City Show How Not To Do It

Posted: November 25, 2015 in Champions League, European Football, Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion
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Manchester City had already qualified for the knockout stage of the Champion’s League by the time they arrived in Turin to play Juventus.

This had been achieved by their fine away form in beating both Borussia Moenchengladbach and Sevilla and was in no way thanks to their patchy home form where they had already lost to tonight’s opponent. Unfortunately, their patchy home form became their patchy away form and they lost 1-0 at the Juventus stadium.

Manchester United knew, when they arrived at the Lowry hotel in Salford, that beating PSV Eindhoven tonight would mean that they would qualify for the next round as well.

Their passage had been based on reasonable home form where they have already beaten CSKA Moscow and Wolfsburg, not their patchy away form where they had only collected one point. Unfortunately, their patchy away form became their patchy home form and they drew 0-0 in a boring game at Old Trafford. (more…)

Manchester’s Mixed Fortunes

Posted: November 21, 2015 in Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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Manchester United managed to beat Watford without ever really playing very well.

In fairness, there were good moments and, with no Rooney to get in the way, they kept possession reasonably well.

A lot of the game was played in a congested midfield so it was nice to see Memphis finish off a good move when the ball eventually went out wide. The wings were where the space was but, with Ashley Young playing totally out of position as usual at wing back, and Jesse Lingard drifting between the wing and linking up with Memphis to form an attacking twosome, the wings were underused.

The Watford equaliser came from the penalty spot when Rojo, on as a second half substitute, made a late, clumsy tackle well inside the area and Troy Deeney scored. (more…)

Arise Sir Joe Aguero!

Posted: November 20, 2015 in Football, Manchester City, Opinion, Premier League
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(Sir Joe celebrates on learning he has now been injury-free for half an hour!)

David Silva, Vincent Kompany and Wilfried Bony are the three main casualties for Manchester City. Samir Nasri is a longer term injury. Fortunately they have a decent replacement for Bony as Sergio Aguero is fit for the game against Liverpool at the French looking Etihad.

Now that City have Kevin De Bruyne to pull some strings, Silva isn’t missed as much as he once was. Make no mistake though, City are a better team with Silva than they are without him.

Vincent Kompany also isn’t the miss he used to be. Since buying Nicolas Otamendi and the return to form of Eliaquim Mangala City actually have an embarrassment of riches in the middle of defence where once, whenever Kompany was missing, they just had an embarrassment. (more…)

Manchester Unity, Manchester’s United

Posted: November 5, 2015 in Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion
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For anybody who hasn’t read any of my articles before, particularly the pre-blog ones in HITC and Pundit Arena, the above fictitious team is a blend of players from Manchester United and Manchester City.

In order not to upset any United fans, the name is made up of the first three letters of United and the last two of City. In order not to upset any City fans the name is made up of the first two letters of United and the last three of City. I hope that is clear.

I think this is the article in which this team first appeared:
http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2013/09/23/how-many-of-manchester-uniteds-players-would-have-got-into-the-c/

As I write on Thursday 5th of November, 2015, Manchester City sit top of the Premier league on goal difference from Arsenal and Manchester United sit in 4th position, four points behind. (more…)

Manchester’s European Winners

Posted: November 4, 2015 in Champions League, European Football, Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion
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Well, that was better! United actually attacked at Old Trafford and won a game by scoring one more than the opposition. They also managed to win by scoring one more than zero so no need to get too carried away. Being quietly optimistic I would say that the garden has one more rose than it did before.

Louis van Gaal’s theory was proved to be spot on. No one really believed him when he said that, to win a football match, you just had to score one more than the team you were playing against, but tonight his genius was demonstrated emphatically.

His decision to replace Martial with Fellaini was also inspired. Mere mortals, at this stage, thought that if a forward was to be taken off it should be Rooney, who had done very little, rather than Martial who had caused one or two problems to the CSKA defence. In fact, mere mortals wondered why, when a goal was needed, a striker was taken off for a midfielder at all! Worry not, King Louis had everything under control. (more…)

Manuel Pellegrini’s Perfect World

Posted: October 30, 2015 in Football, Managers, Manchester City, Opinion
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Manuel Pellegrini has a fully fit squad. How does he know? Because his trusty Argentinian valet, Ruben Cousillas, has just told him so.
“Sergio Aguero is fit?” asks an incredulous Pellegrini. “Yes,” says Ruben, “Would you like your toast buttered against the grain or with the grain?”
Manuel turns over to face Ruben and, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, tries to come to terms with this startling piece of news.
“You bring me breakfast in bed and tell me that I have a fully fit squad, what’s the catch?” Manuel is starting to get a little suspicious now, too many good things are happening in one day, and he’s only been awake for two minutes.
“There is no catch, just like the toilet doors at the Etihad.” soothes Ruben, for he knows his boss of old. All this good news is likely to have a very negative effect on Manuel. (more…)

The Truth About The Manchester Derby

Posted: October 23, 2015 in Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion
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As anybody who has read the mini-bio on the “About the Author” page will know I am from Manchester and have been a supporter of Manchester United for more than 50 years. During my formative years, in the sixties, I was taken to Old Trafford one week then Maine Road the next for many years. In fact, I was chaperoned until I was deemed old enough to go unaccompanied by an adult. At this stage I stopped going to Maine Road because I was actually a United fan and wanted to watch Law, Best and Charlton all the time. It didn’t help that City were in the old second division in those days, so that also influenced my decision somewhat.

Given this upbringing, I like to think that I am entitled to an opinion, borne of experience, on the importance of the derby game nowadays. (more…)

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