Predicting starting 11 for Manchester City, Goalkeeper analysis
Manchester City has been a part of the English Premier League for 13 years since their inception in 1992. There are only two teams in the history of the English League, who have managed to qualify for the UEFA Cup through Fair Play rankings, one of them is Manchester City.
They qualified for the UEFA Cup back in 2002-2003 when Stuart Pearce was trying to establish the club. During their run in 2007-2008, Sven-Goran Erikkson helped the club build up and brought them to a 9th place finish and they even managed to qualify for the UEFA Cup, on Fair Play rankings again.
With such a horrific result, Mark Hughes was appointed as the coach of Manchester City in June 2008. Soon, in September 2008, Manchester City was taken over by Abu Dhabi United group and suddenly the whole idea of Manchester City being in the lower order, changed. After the take-over, Manchester City became one of the richest clubs in the world and is considered to be in line with the Spanish giants Real Madrid.
On the deadline day of the transfer window, Manchester City was able to make a record British transfer of 32.5 million pounds as they bought the Brazilian attacker, Robinho, who was actually a part of Real Madrid back then. After the first signing, Manchester City started to make outrageous bids on extraordinary players like the Brazilian midfielder Kaka and the Argentinean magician Lionel Messi. They tried to make a 100 million pounds deal with Kaka, who was a part of the Italian club AC Milan and they even gave a “blank cheque” to the Barcelona man, Lionel Messi, however, they failed to bring these two super stars in their team.
Later on, in December, they sacked Mark Hughes because of his record with the team. According to many experts, the team could easily finish on the fourth spot of the English Premier League if they did not draw the games that they played under Mark Hughes. Mark Hughes was replaced by the amazing coach Roberto Mancini. After the introduction of the Italian coach, the difference could easily be seen. Manchester City started winning a lot of games and proved their worth.
Clubs like Manchester United actually called Manchester City “noisy neighbours”, but later on they proved their worth by giving the Red Devils a very tough time during their tie. Even though Manchester United won the match right at the last second, Manchester City sent a clear message that they were going to be back for revenge next year.
Manchester City was able to defeat English Champions, Chelsea, in both legged ties. Not only was Chelsea defeated, in fact Manchester City totally out played them while Chelsea players received 7 yellow cards in the same game.
This year round, Manchester City has made more signings to make their squad strong. Roberto Mancini would probably prefer the following goalkeepers for his starting eleven:
Joe Hart (Goalkeeper):
The new English number 1, Joe Hart, was out on loan for the past 4 years. The English club didn’t actually recognise the young talent until now and finally Roberto Mancini is the man, who has given him the chance to shine in his own club.
Shay Given
On the other hand, Shay Given has shown his worth through his tremendous form throughout the season. Right now, both the goalkeepers are in fabulous form and any one can feature for the club. Shay Given, however, told the press that he did not join the club to sit on the bench. Shay Given is also under the radar when it comes to “transfer market”, the Gunners are looking for a goalkeeper and they can definitely rely on Shay Given when it comes to solid goalkeeping. Manuel Almunia was definitely a disappointment last season and the Gunners are looking for the Irish goalkeeper and expect him to join them at the Emirates. Roberto Mancini, however, has mentioned that he is going to feature the English goalkeeper in most of the matches.
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