Cardiff City 3-2 Man City. Who saw that one coming? Manuel Pellegrini suffered his first Premier League defeat as City boss on Sunday when the Blues took a trip to South Wales to take on newly promoted Cardiff. Just like most other football fans (and especially as a City fan), I expected the Blues to return to Manchester with all three points. Not comfortably, but I still expected a win.
My confidence soon diminished when the team sheet was released; Pellegrini would play Javi Garcia alongside Joleon Lescott in central defence. No matter which way you look at it, Garcia has had a largely unsuccessful first year at the club. He’s failed to adapt to English football and it wasn’t long before he became an unpopular figure among the fans due to his lacklustre performances.
Garcia is a central midfielder. Last season, that’s where he was deployed when Mancini played him. Having failed to adapt to English football in his preferred position, you can probably understand why I was skeptical seeing him named as a centre-back on Sunday afternoon. Pellegrini played Garcia in defence for the majority of pre-season, and having watched many of City’s pre-season encounters, it’s clear to me Garcia isn’t suitable or comfortable playing in defence.
It wasn’t just Garcia who was responsible for Sunday’s disappointment, but given City’s dreadful defending, I think he was a factor. In a post-match interview with Fraser Campbell, the Cardiff striker said he was aware of the possible weakness in the City defence before the game had started and tried to exploit them. For me, Dedryck Boyata would have been a wiser option to play along side Joleon Lescott. He might lack Premier League experience, but he’s quick, strong, and most importantly, he’s a defender and not a midfielder!
Joe Hart was, in my view, another contributing factor to the Blues defeat. On his day, he can be the best goalkeeper in the world, but he makes far too many errors and misjudgements. Why is that? In the 2010/11 season and 2011/12 season, he was generally outstanding in the City goal. That was because he was determined to prove that Mancini was right to chose him over Shay Given, and he wanted to become England’s number one goalkeeper. As a result, he was focussed on goalkeeping and goalkeeping alone.
Now he has cemented his place as Man City and England’s number one, and with nobody challenging him for the number 1 jersey at City in particular, Hart’s head seems to be elsewhere. He’s too busy trying to make it as an actor instead of focussing on his ‘day job’ as a goalkeeper. I wouldn’t have any problem with the ‘Head and Shoulders’ advert if Hart was putting in excellent performances without making ludicrous mistakes, but it’s evident to me and several others that his mind isn’t fully on football. If I was Roy Hodgson, I’d drop him from England duty until his club form improves. England have a perfectly good goalkeeper in Ben Foster waiting in the wings to replace him.
On Sunday, Cardiff scored two identical corners. Hart could have easily come and collected both, especially the first where he seemed to be more interested in pushing a Cardiff player instead of retrieving the ball. Last season, Hart cost City valuable points. The Blues need to sign a top quality goalkeeper who will push Hart, because Costel Pantilimon and Richard Wright aren’t challenging him for the place between the sticks.
Another area where City were poor on Sunday was up front. Dzeko scored a screamer but remained largely anonymous for the rest of the game. As did fellow striker Sergio Aguero, who found himself in several good positions but opted to pass instead of shoot. Cardiff defended relentlessly, and it wont be the last time a team plays with 10 men behind the ball against the Blues this season. City need to take chances when they get them, and the defence needs drastic improvement.
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