Manchester City in the last week did not pick up a win out of it’s three matches. In their defense they were facing some extremely difficult challenges in Premier League heavyweights Arsenal and Chelsea, then in the Champions League faced the might of the German champions; Bayern Munich.
Other than Liverpool, City have been having extremely difficult times against top four opposition. They look unable to find the target. This is especially true against Arsenal where the post stopped City twice from taking all three points in the last ten minutes of the match. Not to mention how wasteful they were with corners against Chelsea, City just could not find their strikers for the life of them.
City’s strikers have been a known issue this season. Manuel Pellegrini’s preference for three strikers two of which are extremely injury prone, has resulted in a strike force struggling for goals and rest. The loaning of Alvaro Negredo has fallen under question as to whether it was a good decision especially when the team is struggling for goals at the moment.
Both fans and media have had faint recollections of the 2012-13 season when City again, were struggling for goals. The issue of team motivation saw the firing of the often colouful Roberto Mancini as manager, and while his replacement Manuel Pellegrini is tightly secured in his position, his inability to motivate a certain star in his midfield damaged the star studded sky blue side against Bayern Munich.
Yaya Toure, vice captain and talisman, played poorly. He looked unmotivated and poorly positioned for most of the match. More times than not he was not playing directly parallel from Fernandinho, forcing the Brazilian to run around trying to cover Philip Lahm and David Alaba. The worst part about Toure’s poor defense though, was that he did not even attempt to make it up on the offensive side.
Yaya Toure’s presence in the first half looked decent. He made some runs, and some key passes that almost created something. Sadly, the almost-passes or near-goals do not determine football matches, so when Toure came back out in the second half he decided to look absolutely pedestrian. It was not until James Milner was introduced later in the game, that Toure looked to have a pulse again.
Against Chelsea, Toure looked rejuvenated, but it was not enough to grab a win for City. After the second yellow card for City fullback Pablo Zabaleta, following a clumsy challenge against Diego Costa, the ten men were quickly punished after a swift counterattack that left Andre Schurrle a deep run to slide the ball into the back of the net.
The midfield did quickly adjust after the goal though and the lack of an extra man. Edin Dzeko made way for Bacary Sagna and Aleksander Kolarov came off for Frank Lampard. Pellegrini than switched around his team to allow Lampard to make a signature run into the box late in the match to notch the equalizer against his former club.
The biggest positive in the Chelsea match, was James Milner progressing even more into a swiss army type player. Milner is a player you can play on either wing, or help out in the middle. He can even play in defense, and he is the man Pellegrini leans on heavily to get him out of a tight spot. Milner is looking to become more and more a mainstay in the starting eleven especially due to his conditioning allowing him to play most ninety minutes in Premier League games when called upon, and then followiing it up with a midweek fixture without seemingly tiring.
City needs to work on set pieces. City needs to work on Yaya Toure’s motivation. Most importantly City need to start gaining points. In the Champions League they have been dealt a tough group with AS Roma, CSKA Moscow, and Bayern Munich. The Premier League is again looking like an unpredictable season as Liverpool were trounced by West Ham, and Manchester United seem to return their losing ways against Leicester City. Still it is too early to take results and make insane predictions on them but so far no team remains perfect.
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