So the Capital One Cup. Not top of every team manager’s priority list, but it should figure fairly prominently on the Manchester City FC ‘To-Do’ list for this season, given that City are the holders right?
“It’s a lack of confidence that we must address as soon as possible because we need to continue to be involved in the other competitions.”
Newcastle United at the Etihad shouldn’t have been the hardest tie of the night, after all, Newcastle haven’t won in Manchester since 2000 and that was at Maine Road. Sure they’ve had a bit of a revival and won their last two matches, but let’s be fair, that was against Leicester and Tottenham.
No. They came. They saw, and they definitely wanted it so much more and deserved to knock Manchester City out of the Cup.
The City performance last night was reminiscent of Cup nights under Roberto Mancini. Lacking desire, no idea and poor finishing and with key Premier League matches coming soon, Manuel Pellegrini needs to pull a rabbit out of his hat pretty quickly.
"“Of course we must be worried,” he said. “We didn’t win the three games we played this week. We must be worried about that but we must find a solution and address it. My feeling is that we are not playing well. We are in a difficult moment with a lack of trust [confidence]. We are conceding too easy goals and we are not scoring the chances we have to score.“It’s a lack of confidence that we must address as soon as possible because we need to continue to be involved in the other competitions.”"
Worse still, it looks like there will be no David Silva for the Manchester United match on Sunday after the winger limped off eight minutes into the match after appearing to twist his left knee in a tackle.
With Silva off, it meant a return to first team action for Samir Nasri, but regardless of Nasri’s undoubted abilities, he’s not Silva. City were flat and predictable, whilst Newcastle were up for a cup match, pressing, harassing City and looking for any opportunity to score.
This was no reserve team either. Pellegrini had gone out with a respectable line up, only really looking to rest Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany and Pablo Zabaleta, which meant starts for Yaya Toure, Mangala, Fernandinho, Milner, Dzeko and Stefan Jovetic.
Yet inside five minutes of kicking off, City were one-nil down. That’s five minutes from a team that have hardly scored at all this season, were missing key players and desperately wanted to dump their manager in the River Tyne.
Having teams score goals through their own endeavours, creating chances from their own hard work is one thing. But for experienced, high profile international footballers such as Kolarov, Fernandinho and Mangala to be messing about so much that United’s Rolando Aarons could simply pinch the ball from the three of them, take on Mangala as if he wasn’t there and slot the ball through Willi Caballero’s legs, was just not acceptable.
City were flat. They huffed and puffed and whilst 62% possession is a great statistic, on its’ own, possession can’t win you matches. That said, it’s not as if the guys in sky blue didn’t have chances to win the game. City registered 14 attempts with four on target, but Newcastle were literally throwing themselves at the ball, desperate to take something from the match.
Stefan Jovetic should have scored on 19 minutes, sticking out a leg, clear at the far post, but shooting straight at Elliot in goal. Another chance on 27 minutes for saw the Montenegran striker blaze the ball over the bar.
But at least Jovetic was at least looking interested which is more than can be said of Edin Dzeko, who had possibly the best chance of the night but ended up firing the ball at Ryan Taylor from two yards out.
Watch the difference between Aguero and Dzeko. The little Argentinian wants the ball. He’s not afraid to go looking for it, to help out on the wings if need be, to keep the move going. Dzeko for the most part, just sits between the two centre-backs, waiting for a ball played along the six-yard line for a nice and simple tap in.
Perhaps with Silva in the team, playing with freedom behind the forward line and able to run at defenders, Dzeko is a luxury the team can afford, but without the Spanish wizard, everyone needs to put in a shift, and that just didn’t happen.
Manchester United on Sunday. Louis van Gaal must have been licking his lips on the performance of City last night. Pellegrini needs to shake things up and quick if he wants to get something out of that game and stay in touch with Chelsea, who happen to be playing QPR.
RESULT: Manchester City 0 :: 2 Newcastle United
City Starting XI: Cabellero, Sagna, Demichelis, Mangala, Kolarov, Milner, Fernandinho, Toure, Silva, Jovetic, Dzeko