Keep it clean!
By Dave Walker
An inability to keep clean sheets is the
main talking point surrounding Manchester City, as they prepare to face the
team that did them the most damage en-route to becoming champions last season.
Martin O’Neill’s ‘Black Cats’ come to
Fortress Etihad ready to pounce on any opportunity to compound the discomfort
of City’s back line and go one better than the point they snared in a
spectacular 3-3 draw in March.
Sunderland’s four point haul was the most
garnered by any of City’s Premier League opposition, courtesy of that draw and
a controversial 1-0 win at the Stadium of Light, achieved via a blatantly
offside goal in added time.
The irony is that if City triumph in the
Saturday lunchtime kick-off, they will be recording better overall results – if
not performances – than in the corresponding matches in the 2011/12 campaign.
Set against this fact, one wonders why all
the fuss about Roberto Mancini’s men being in dire defensive straits?
The puzzler seems to be why fix a defence
that wasn’t broken in the first place? Under Mancini, City have had the best
defensive record in the Premier League for the past two years.
Joleon Lescott seems to have been singled
out as the fall guy, being omitted on occasions, to enable 19-year old Matija
Nastasic to partner skipper Vincent Kompany.
It’s all the more bizarre because Lescott’s
performances were one of the few highlights in England’s otherwise drab Euro
2012 campaign in the summer. Having Lescott on the bench doesn’t appear to have
helped Kompany whose own form has dipped below its usual imperious best.
Mancini has always rotated his full/wing
backs, but the enforced loss of Micah Richards since injury at the Olympics
hasn’t helped.The consensus is that the Italian should go with a settled
selection as soon as possible to enable new or existing understandings to be
forged or enhanced. City have been blessed in that amid the defensive
conundrum, keeper Joe Hart has been in stupendous form – never more so than
against Borussia Dortmund last time out.
Whoever populates the Sky Blue defensive
ranks will need to be able to combat the threat of Sunderland’s free-scoring
feline force, Stephen Fletcher, the Wolf-turned-Black Cat, following his £12m
switch from Molineux.
There’s also the attacking qualities of a
certain Adam Johnson to contend with – the England winger making a swift return
to his former employers where he often felt so under utilised
Whereas City are crying out for defensive
stability, Mancini’s attacking options remain fluid, and Carlos Tevez will
surely be recalled having made way for Edin Dzeko in midweek. Mario Balotelli
was ice cool when slotting home the last minute Champions League penalty on Wednesday
night, but can any City side be improved by leaving out Sergio Aguero – it’s
doubtful in the extreme.
After the intensity of the Dortmund clash,
aligned to encouraging signs from the Fulham victory, this could be a City side
ready to let rip…and Sunderland could be in the cross hares.
A
confidence-boosting, goal-bagging glut would be a perfect send off into the
international break and edge the Blues nearer to the pinnacle of the Premier
League.
Oh, and lest we forget, a sumptuous crisp
clean sheet would be most welcome, enabling Roberto to sleep more comfortably
and avoid another trip to the launderette.
Player watch
Vincent Kompany vs Steven Fletcher
Manchester City’s defensive malaise can, at
least in part, be attributed to the below par showings of last season’s
outstanding Premier League defender. For some obscure reason Kompany has yet to
hit the heights of 2011/12 but, as the adage goes, class is timeless so he will come good again.
It would do City’s cause no harm at all if
he starts his ‘road to redemption’ by snuffing out the goal threat of Steven
Fletcher – just this week recalled into the Scottish national side.
With five goals already plundered by
Fletcher since his summer switch from Wolves, Vincent & Co will need to be
on their mettle if they are to shut out Sunderland.
(c) The Sky Blue View 2012
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