BLOG POST
Posted Mar 5th 2007, 11:01am
Lifeless City in freefall
Watching Manchester City's pathetic performance against Wigan on Saturday made me worry. It also made me furious.
City's strikers have taken the brunt of the criticism for the team's lame displays and dismal goal return this season, but in mitigation they were not given any chances to miss at the weekend and that has been the story for some time.
Wigan dominated from the first whistle and City were over-run in midfield, despite playing 3-5-2. They were third to every ball until Joey Barton came to life in the second half, but by then it was too late.
This is not just a team that can't score goals, it's a team that can't create opportunities to score goals. The only hope of beating the shaky John Filan on Saturday was through Micah Richards' aerial presence at corners. How many goals has this tactic produced this season? None at all.
Stuart Pearce admitted afterwards that in the first half hour it was just a case of when Wigan would score, not if. So why do nothing to change things?
I should point out that I'm not embarrassed by losing to Wigan. I'm embarrassed by the manner of losing to Wigan. Again. Pearce said the performance in the 4-0 defeat at the JJB Stadium was the worst of the season, now he has a new yardstick.
Since adopting the 3-5-2 formation before Christmas in order to shore up a humiliating away record over the past 12 months, City have never looked like scoring at home, save for a 2-1 win over Everton on New Year's Day, when the Merseysiders were marginally more hopeless than City.
If Barton doesn't provide chances, City simply cannot score. Georgios Samaras and Bernardo Corradi look increasingly immobile up front, while Pearce's policy of selecting defenders to do his attacking at home is laughable. Tottenham, Bolton, Blackburn, Reading and now Wigan have all come to Eastlands to collect their easy pickings.
My chief concern until recently was that Pearce's team was boring. Defensive, negative and attempting to mask a lack of creativity by not giving away goals. Now I can't see where they will get the two or three wins they need to stay up.
If this awful team loses to Charlton then it's all over. And as for the FA Cup, I wouldn't take them to beat Blackpool at the moment, never mind Blackburn.
FA chief executive Brian Barwick was in the crowd on Saturday - for all our sakes I hope he quickly realised that Pearce is not the man for England further down the line.
Comments
Matt Harrison
Wigan bossed the first half, and should have been two or three in front before City had even begun to rally.
I agree entirely about how City went about the game - every opportunity HAD to be turned into an aerial attack. I lost count of the number of hopeful/hopeless (delete as appropriate) balls lumped into the box. Latics were missing De Zeeuw and Hall (although at times, missing Hall isn't actually a bad thing) but still City couldn't get through.
To see Wigan dominate in midfield these days is a rarity. We are normally completely overrun in the middle of the pitch. Skoko battled for everything, and never gave City time on the ball. One other thing: Luis Antonio Valencia was dreadful, and if City cannot take advantage of that kind of weakness in an opposition team then they must be poor.
Fair play to Wigan though - we put in another gritty and determined performance, and it's battling to 1-0 wins like this that may well just keep us up.
MB