It is with an air of despondency that the Pedmachine belatedly comes to the crease with his Champions League tidings. I seem to have been writing the same verdict for too many matches in City’s life in Europe’s elite club competition. And from where I sit now I wonder at City’s credentials as far as it is concerned.
Having almost overcome a Bavarian onslaught at the hands of Bayern Munchen, the stage was set set for City’s revival and emergence as runner-up to the Germans in Group E. AS Roma at home was sure as much a banker as any could be?
The disaster for me started when I saw the line-up. In came the experienced Demichelis and Clichy at the back, and out went the industrious and energetic Milner from midfield. The rest of the line-up pretty much self-selected. The three changes above laid a number of the foundations for the outcome.
A dream start with the early award of a penalty in City’s favour and despite the Italian gamesmanship in trying to delay the kick and upset the kicker, Aguero neatly watch the keeper head one way and slotted the ball the other. Base one achieved, now for the home run? And quite how Maicon avoided a red card for his troubles hauling down Aguero remains one of life’s best kept secrets.
Well, no. Cue a difficult evening in which City, once again failed to get to grips with an Italian opponent taking every opportunity to slow the game down, gum up the midfield and seek to hit the Blues on the break, with the Old Master, Totti, a fresh 38-year old at the helm and a newer pretender in the shape of Gervinho, buzzing like an angry hornet at the centre of almost every threat the Romans could offer. Does anyone recall him having that kind of pace when he roamed aimlessly around the Emirates?
City needed to get in front and onto the front foot, with the type of pressing game they have deployed since the Chelsea match and which has seen them ram in 11 goals in 2 matches. But another frustrating night was in store as City’s midfield was found outnumbered and wanting against a lesser talented but seemingly hungrier outfit from the capital of Italy.
With Silva close to his magical best drifting and probing and too often at times looking for support, Fernandinho, intended to be the rock in front of the defence, it was down to Yaya and Navas to take the game to Roma. Yaya was to have yet another of his ponderous nights where he looked like he was playing in lead-weighted incontinence trousers and Navas, finding he had the initial beating of Ashley Cole, often found 3 men lining up in front of him the second he received the ball, none of which were shy to take a lenient translation of the laws of the game.
Hardly ever did a cross find the returning to form Dzeko and hardly ever did that final ball set itself up on the ground for Aguero, this despite Silva’s promptings all along the front line and in between them as well.
And each time a counter attack came it was nail-biting stuff among the sparsely-populated seating deck inhabitants. Gervinho was electric and causing all the kinds of problems we thought Demichelis had left behind. He even caused problems for Kompany and especially Clichy when running out wide right. Indeed Roma seemed to fly through City’s central midfield at times with the minimum of resistance from Yaya which left Fernandinho always susceptible to his customary yellow card, which amazingly didn’t arrive.
The Blues simply could not get going in the treacle-infested midfield where Roma paraded 5 men against City’s 4 and where once again in Europe, City didn’t seem to have the answer. We saw in the Allianz Arena Pep Guardiola recognising City’s lack of beef in this division and adjusting his tactics at will, finally defended with only 2 at the back. Roma quickly latched on to this too, rapidly changing from a 4-5-1 type defensive formation which seamlessly altered to 3-5-2 on offence, the key movement being pushing Totti into the danger areas.
Pellegrini might have felt that Totti was too old to make a difference and Demichelis not quite as old to keep him out. But it is very difficult, once you have surrendered the midfield, to keep a prolific goalscorer at bay forever. And this proved to be the case midway through the first half when the pacy Gervinho led the charge finding Totti unattended in the inside left slot with a limited amount of time to lift the ball over Hart with precision and into the net. The Etihad sounded like the Emirates in disguise, apart from the away section which went ballistic.
Now we had a different game on our hands. Roma knew that City, Silva apart, looked static in midfield and neatly held their formation to consistently present City with a book of horrors as time after time Yaya, Fernandinho and Navas sent passes astray, although the latter was unfortunate to see a good cross catch the arm of was it Nainggolan and get waved away by the Dutch officials. This one looked a bit of a gift, but having given City one penalty, a second was not going to happen.
It really was a mish-mash of a performance in sky-blue. With Roma having shifted their pattern around, City’s simplest solution would have been to match it in terms of formation and energy, but no we plod along with half-speed Yaya contributing little to the attacking threat except the odd long-range pass and cul-de-sac run, with stray passes and lack of attacking threat.
Vincent Kompany said we should lay off Yaya as time and again he comes up good in important matches. In the important matches so far this season he has come up empty. I find it astonishing that the high-energy Milner time and again gets relegated to the bench when time and again he puts in shift after shift contributing in both attack and defence. We are not seeing that off Yaya right now and I suspect that when Fernando returns we might see him rested. Why can he simply not have a couple of matches out with Milner covering.
Also a constant source of frustration is that when for instance Dzeko is replaced by say Milner, that is the signal for Yaya to forget his defensive and collection duties and get amongst the opposition defence. It just never seems to happen and Aguero is left to toil alone in the land of the giants, the ball being an all-too-infrequent visitor.
It must be equally frustrating for David Silva. City’s magician-in-chief never seems to suffer from stage fright in this competition. This polished performer from the Canarias is often forced to take one extra touch because nobody other than Aguero, often surrounded by 3 enormous defenders, is making the intelligent run and Silva cannot find anyone open, so we go back and start again.
Yaya’s indifference is not the sole reason for City’s life on the continental shelf. I alluded to selection issues earlier in this epistle and for this match I wanted to see Mangala and Kolarov on the left of City’s back four. Not only is Kolarov more robust than Clichy, but he also offers more of an attacking threat when going forward. Despite his indiscretions last weekend, Mangala is equally robust and much more muscular and athletic than Demichelis and may well have been better equipped to compete with Gervinho.
The midfield lacked zip, Silva apart. Not enough use was made of Navas who did have the beating of Cole but often made the wrong decisions once past him, finding himself crowded out by huge Romans. All of this meant Dzeko and Aguero saw very little quality ball and consequently hardly ever got a sniff.
City needed to get a fifth body in there, just as they did at the Allianz, to cement the competition in midfield and then seek to launch themselves at the Italians defence which was as robust as any that has visited the Etihad in recent times. Yang-Mbiwa has never taken prisoners, the ageing Cole is still a wily performer, Maicon too showed there was still something on offer, however generous the referee and Nainggolan is no mug either. The Blues didn’t move enough to drag them anywhere meaning that on every occasion Dzeko and Aguero were outnumbered and behind that so were Yaya and Fernandinho. We actually had spare men at the back so why didn’t we use them more effectively?
City can no longer claim to be newcomers to football at the top table. There has now been a reasonable run especially if you include the Europa League and by now City should be wisening up to the needs and requirements of the competition. It doesn’t seem to be happening when a team from Italy can roll up and play a typically Italian game against typical City. Crowding the midfield, slowing down the tempo, taking the sting out of the play, quietening the crowd and then springing like lightning on the break causing problems all around City’s penalty area.
The maligned Joe Hart, held in some quarters as responsible for the Roma goal, at least three times made top quality saves to keep City with one foot in the competition. If it wasn’t for the continued hard work and class of Silva, I had Joe for man-of-the-match from City’s point of view, but maybe he was just shaded by Silva.
When he came on Milner put in his signature effort to try to get things moving, but it was in many respects the introduction of Lampard, however late that seemed to get City ticking as they laboured towards the final whistle.
Of course the Stretford-littered broadcasting media enjoyed their shots at City. Old Carrot Bonce, the quiet man, is suddenly piping up at every turn whilst his former employers seek friendlies to raise money, and the ghastly creatures on TalkRubbish immediately started touting Pellegrini for the sack. The same man who helped his side win 2 trophies last season and was robbed of the Manager of the Year title, sorry, Sue.
Fernando is a great loss in these fixtures. His purchase was to star in this tournament and his injury after an excellent start has been a major loss. That said Roma have Bayern back-to-back now and if City can max out against CSKA then the table will have a different look on November 7. Bayern will be through and City ahead of Roma making the return in Rome the decider, although it could run to the last match if the match in Rome is a draw or home win.
It’s never a dull moment at the Etihad. Why should it be? It never was at Maine Road. The fitness of Jovetic is important now at this level. He tried hard when he came on but shooting from forty yards was never going to work in stoppage time. But the front line needs the variety this excellent young man can provide.
So for now, the Pedmachine is tucking his bat under his arm and heading back to the pavilion as we await the visit to Villa Park, the scene of one of City’s tragedies last season. Maybe this season it will spark off City in the Barclays Premier League. The Blue and White hoards and Blue Empty Seats await and expect.
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