Saturday 2 May 2009

Man City 3 - 1 Blackburn Rovers (Caicedo 27' Robinho 34' Elano 45'(pen), Andrews 66')

I knew we would win today, we weren't amazing but luckily for us Blackburn were a very poor side, either way another important three points for us.

We started slow today and Blackburn had a lot of the ball in the opening minutes of the game and surprisingly to me they were knocking it around quite well. Once we settled a little the game became more even, City were not at their best and were probably edging being the better of two poor teams. City went ahead through a close range Felipe Caicedo goal, Robinho then added a second with a nicely placed finish and our third was scored by Elano from the penalty spot after Gael Givet was penalised for hand ball. Blackburn also scored from the penalty spot. Diouf had the initial penalty saved, unfortunately after some great goalkeeping from Shay Given, Keith Andrews managed to put the loose ball in the back of the net.

I was a bit disappointed with our performance today particularly the first half showing, we could of really battered a very poor team but our players did not take the chance and strolled through the first half. The second half was better, we stretched them at the back more and looked a little more like our usual attacking self. There isn't really anymore detail to go into about the performance today, we weren't terrible but at the same time we didn't play anywhere close to our ability levels and will not get away with playing like that against better teams. There is a straight forward conclusion, we need to be much better than we were today in our remaining games if we are to grab 7Th place.

I did pick out some positives in relation to certain players performances from today's game. Firstly the job that Kompany and De Jong did today was really good, they go about what they do in a very quiet but very effective manner. I don't think people who aren't City fans realise how good these two guys are when you talk about them, the way they quietly go around the pitch picking pockets and disrupting the oppositions play is class, Hughes certainly made two fantastic signings when he brought them in. The other player I was really impressed with today was Wayne Bridge, his defending seemed to have improved by 200% over night. He was intercepting, tackling, his positioning was a hell of a lot better and his forward runs were excellent. I have been a big critic of his but for good reason, I hope he continues to play as well as he did today because it will be a welcome boost to our charge for 7Th.

To round up, we didn't play our best, we took three points and the race for 7Th is still on. They say its the sign of a good team to win when playing badly, hopefully the bad performance is behind us and we will be at our very best next week.

4 comments:

  1. Bridge a guy living on borrowed time getting worse match by match.
    The guy is living on reputation and its wearing thin .
    De Jong seems incapable of finding a pass and flatters to decieve.
    First home win against Blackburn at Eastlands and boy did we struggle, despite the score line a wretched match.

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  2. I agree with your summary of the game except with Bridge.He was better defensively today,but more then a few times today he had trouble clearing/had to go back to the keeper as he is very left footed as such and can find himself in trouble. Certainly an improvement on a couple of his recent efforts though.

    Good sum up of the game though, far from our best performance of the season but we did more then enough to win.

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  3. Yeah not sure about the first comments opinion, I was the same and thought Bridge has to go but he played well today so give him his credit.

    Matt,I know what your saying about going back to the keeper but Bridge wasn't the only one going back all the time, nearly everyone was if they had to. I think too much can be read into going back to the keeper or holding it in midfield and City fans inparticular are always moaning and groaning about it. If you watch the good teams though and Barca are a great example they will go back all day long and wait for the right time to go forward, its not as bad as it seems at the time.

    Bridge was good today and even though I have not been a fan of his and wanted him gone a couple of weeks ago, if he starts playing better every week I don't have a problem with him.

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  4. going back to the keeper is a solid tactic as any are. its a tactic to calm things down reorganize, and then attack again. Its like giving it to the post man in basketball. Back to safety, so u can reorganize, nothing cowardly about it. Though clearing is sometimes the better option, obviously.

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