After three disappointing results City find themselves on the precipice of a relegation dogfight. Not having a recognised strike partnership really showed last week against spurs, and with Corradi serving the second game of his two match suspension, things do not look that great.
Vital Quotes:
Stuart reflects on last week:
t could have been even worse at half time than being just two goals behind, and I felt as though we needed to change the formation and get another body in the midfield area to stop them dictating the game.
think it worked quite well after the changes. We certainly passed the ball a lot better than we had done in the first half, I think we competed better, but we couldn`t have competed any worse.
he frustrating thing for myself as a manager is that we never gave ourselves a platform to go and win the game because for the first 45 minutes we were so poor.
Moving on to Bolton;
t`s a local derby and we will have to be at our best for 90 minutes today to beat a Bolton side who have done well away from home, only the top two have won more games on the road. They`re a good side, very competitive and fully deserve to be up in fifth place in the league table at the minute.
ut so far, whenever we`ve needed a result, because the away form wasn`t good, come the home games the lads have delivered. Again, we have to come out on our front foot this afternoon and not let Bolton settle and play our football from there.
t`s an important time of year with so many games coming up, because of that everybody within the squad needs to be ready, at this time of the season even a little knock sees you miss one maybe two games. Then depending on the form of the lads who come into the side, you could end up missing even more games, so it`s an important time also from that point of view.
Manchester City Team News:
Corradi is still suspended, but the much improved Ben Thatcher returns from a harsh toting up suspension because his card was already marked. City will be without the services of Reyna and Hamann. So Dabo and Ireland will be vying for the place alongside Barton in midfield. There has been no mention from the club about Beasley in recent weeks and Jihai Sun has only returned to light training in the last week or so.
Player to watch: Joey Barton
Has been City’s best player this season by a long way and will want to prove to all the lazy journalists out there that he is happy at City by running the show against his England wannabee; Kevin Nolan.
Bolton Wanderers Team News:
WANDERERS WILL be without the services of Kevin Davies for the pre-Christmas trip to Manchester City on Saturday but will welcome back an in-form El-Hadji Diouf.
Davies will complete a one-match suspension against the Blues but the Yorkshireman’s loss will be tempered by Diouf’s inclusion.
Defenders Tal Ben Haim and Ricardo Gardner are pushing for starting places, but Quinton Fortune is out.
Abdoulaye Meite will resume is role in the heart of defence after being withdrawn last weekend with a rib injury.
Player to watch: Ivan Campo & Nico Anelka
Ivan likes to score against City, especially if given too much space. Anelka returns against his old club, will he come back to haunt us?
Match Facts & Stats
Bolton have done the double over City for the past two seasons, where the season before City did the double over Bolton with a great 6-2 victory at COMS. The year previous saw us both win 2-0 on home soil. So in recent years the upper hand goes to Bolton and after last year’s amazing 1-0 victory where Bolton could not believe their luke with a last minute converted penalty by Gary Speed after not having a meaningful shot on target all game.
Ref Watch:
Mike Riley – the Manchester United loving Yorkshireman – enough said!
Match Prediction:
City to give it a good go – but Bolton to shade this 2-1 and put Pearce and his men in real trouble.
Next Fixtures:
Sheffield Utd away – Boxing Day – Dec 26th – 3pm kick off.