Football Special Report: Previewing Manchester City's squad ahead of the season
The premier league season is just about to kick off and Manchester City are still in a limbo, moreover, they’re still in the market trying to woo their desired targets to the club.
A tactical transfer strategy is something that is an alien concept to Manchester City but if given a close look, the squad is beginning to take shape, at least for now.
Roberto Mancini has said himself that the team that face Valencia in City’s final pre season game could be the team that will face Tottenham in the opening game of the season. If that’s the case, the 11 are bound to be Hart in goal, Richards, Boateng, Kompany, Kolarov as the defense, De Jong, Barry and Yaya Toure and Silva in the midfield and Tevez and Adebayor leading the attack.
If there are any changes to be made they will most likely be made at the back, where Shay Given might come in for Joe Hart, its only a 50-50 call between Given and Hart to be City’s numero uno goalie this season.
Although Jerome Boateng started the game against Valencia as a right back but he was switched with Micah Richards only after 20 minutes. City’s back four are still undefined as Kolo Toure and Jolean Lescott (both expensive buys from last season) failed to impress last term and are now fretting over their selection in the first team. The only thing certain in the City back 4 is that Kolarov will start as a left back, while all the other three positions still remain up for grabs and will be chopped and changed throughout the season. The telling lack of a world class centre back in City’s rank is one of the most obvious shortcomings in City’s title challenge.
With or without the super hyped and to an extent over rated James Milner, City’s strength is in their midfield and the manager has at least two options for every midfield position. It is generally expected that City will be playing a 4-1-3-2 formation at home, while they will employ 4-2-3-1 away from home, the midfield quartet in the game against Valencia was diamond shaped, with De Jong playing the anchor, Barry and Toure as the wings and Silva at the apex. There is no doubt that Mancini will be rotating his squad on a game to game basis, as he has no other choice given the number of players he has got and given the pounds that his team have. The only permanent fixture in the City’s squad this season will be a holding midfielder and City has 5 players, who can play in that position if Zabaleta is included.
Beyond this humbly conservative note, there are no pre season selection guarantees for anyone in the squad. Yaya Toure, on the basis of his outrageous 200k pounds per week wages is likely to be present, and that also includes the likes of Silva, Tevez, and kolarov. However, with this squad, City’s title challenge is more than likely to falter. They have no on pitch leader and given the rotational policy of the manager, coupled with the lack of a world class central defender and a lethal goal poacher, they might struggle. Adebayor only scored 14 goals last season and the odds would have been significantly higher if they had secure the signatures of David Villa, Fernando Torres or even Edin Dzeko but Mancini’s faith in Balotelli might prove to be City’s undoing this season.
One man who appears to be losing out in all this is the talented Adam Johnson, who looks certain to bear the brunt of excessive spending by the City owners.
However, it only remains to be seen how the newly assembled team gel together and they will be given an acid test of their title credentials by Spurs this coming Saturday.
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