Sunday 18 October 2009

Wigan 1 - 1 Man City ( N'Zogbia 45', Petrov 47', Zabaleta s/o 65') *Video*

We come away from Wigan with a point that could have been three, we were sloppy and disorganised, credit to Wigan though they were the exact opposite.

N'Zogbia put the home team ahead on the stroke of half time, Given's save falling right in his path for him to easily slot home. City fired back immediately after half time, Tevez went down the right hand side before putting the ball across the box where Petrov was waiting to finish well. Goals below!!!!!!!

I am not at all pleased with our performance as a team today and thought Hughes should have done something about it. A professional football team should know how to hold a shape and when they are not doing that, the manager should sort it out. We were all over the place today, I think I remember one instance when we had two banks of four, apart from that one time we were grouping in circles of four and five when trying to close a Wigan attack down.

I have to give Wigan their credit, they were very organised and worked excellently as a unit. If only we would have matched that, then the result could have been different. I just do not see why we must play this silly system where we basically bypass our midfield, why can't we just hold the ball up in the middle until we have some decent options on going forward, Hughes needs to address it and quickly at that.

There was some impressive individual performances today again, Nigel De Jong was absolutely excellent and there is no chance that he is going to be dropped for Stephen Ireland or anyone else for that matter. I also thought Wayne Bridge was good again, he was obviously not fit when we signed him but now you can see his quality beginning to shine through. SWP was a little better today but still has the tendency to want to run through players rather than past them, I just wish the old SWP would come back, he had chances to take people on today and just would not do it.

There was also players that I wasn't impressed with today, Adebayor looked like the Adebayor the Arsenal fans have been talking about, he was pretty much useless. I thought Lescott was very dodgy at times and did not look comfortable when Wigan were attacking. I am also maybe controversially going to pick out our goal scorer, granted Petrov scored today but he did absolutely nothing else. His deliveries were terrible from set pieces and the same as SWP, he had many chances to take people on and did not do it, he is no where near as effective as Bellamy in my opinion.

Now this is a sad moment for me, I have to agree with Alex Ferguson. Alan Wiley was terrible today for both teams, we should have had a penalty, Wigan should have had a penalty when Lescott had hold of Scharner in the box and Zabbo got sent off because of two yellows when the first yellow was never a booking. As well as those things his general refereeing was poor, the amount of good tackles that were given as free kicks against both sides were ridiculous, he ruined the game for me.

I will take that point against Wigan, they were a good hard working organised team and if they play like that for the rest of the season they will do alright.

Next up is Fulham at home in what is a must win for us, we need to stay in touch at the top end of the table.

Goals.

2 comments:

  1. You will soon see the real Adebawhore.

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  2. Great blog Gary. I agree with your analysis but would just add that there is a resiliance about this team that will stand us in good stead in the hard winter months. I'm quietly optimistic and don't worry about Adebayor. He has a lot to lose if he lets this chance at City slip by. He seems a proud boy and I think he'll do his bit. Robinho is another matter. I think it's time to say goodbye to him, despite his talents, for someone who will work harder for the team. He was undoubtedly influenced badly by Elano who created a lot of dressing room negativity last season. Hughes won't stand for that and all this latest tittle tattle in the papers recently about him being flattered by Barcelona will lead to his leaving. Elano was quietly pushed out of the door and I think Robinho will be too.

    Good to be able to see the goals on the videos too.

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