Birmingham 0-0 Man City: Searching for Answers

November 2, 2009 by kartik
Filed under: Match Summaries 

Manchester City’s return to glory 2009-10 campaign has officially ground to a halt. Four successive draws coupled with some unattractive football have the critics coming out for Mark Hughes.

But in a Premiership season that has been more competitive at the top than any in recent memory, City’s consistent draws away from home have left the side in a good position to remain in the top six all season.

Hughes clearly has some difficult decisions to make about the squad. Vincent Kompany, whose return was heralded by some, including myself as a solution to City’s defensive woes was regularly out of position on Sunday. Micah Richards has already demonstrated that he has slipped tremendously from being considered for England, to being perhaps only a marginal Premier League player.

In the midfield, City is lacking the essential link up play, and creativity in the center of the pitch to be truly dangerous going forward. The side has been heavily relying on long balls and counter attacks to stimulate any scoring opportunities recently.

A mystery remains as to the status of both Martin Petrov and Stephan Ireland. City spent millions on Garreth Barry, but from where I sit, it is obvious the midfielder fits the England setup under Fabio Capello and Martin O’Neill’s Aston Villa much more comfortably than he does Hughes setup at Eastlands.

Yet, Barry continues to feature as does Roque Santa Cruz whose career at Bayern Munich was a disappointment, and whose form for Paraguay has been missing for sometime.

I still believe Sparky is the man to lead City, but the last four league matches, all of which have seen City outplayed by sides with far smaller payrolls, is worrying.

PLAYER RATINGS FROM THE BIRMINGHAM GAME:

Given 8

Bridge 6

Kompany 5

Lescott 7

Zabaletta 7

Barry 5

DeJong 6

Bellamy 7

Tevez 5

SWP 6

Santa Cruz 5

Ireland 6

Petrov 5


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Comments

2 Comments on Birmingham 0-0 Man City: Searching for Answers

  1. MoreThanJustAGame on Fri, 13th Nov 2009 6:13

    2. A Man-C fan?! How is that even possible? :-)

    I completely agree with you on Barry. Somehow, Mark Huges has not been able to use him in the system as effectively as before.

    Great stuff here though ,keep at it. Hope to frequent updates.

    By the way, are you going to be following the England vs Brazil friendly this weekend? We’ve got a preview on that!

  2. United !! United, 4-3 Owen (90+5) on Tue, 17th Nov 2009 12:19

    3. as i went onto this shit site, i noticed it said Man City blog, the biggest club in M’chester, MY ASS ARE YA’S YOU STUPID CITY DICK HEADS

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