Lucky To Get Nil Liverpool: A Case For The Defence?

In this week’s LTGN think-piece, entitled Why Bobby Blew The CL, I posited the view that Bobby’s tactical acumen was at fault in the Napoli game (as it had been in the Bayern game). The players did OK, but the manager had put square pegs in round holes in a bizarre attempt to out-think the opposing manager, instead of playing to our strengths.

I then had the nerve to suggest that Bobby needed to watch his back, given the intense scrutiny a faltering AVB was already under at Chelsea, twelve games or so into his tenure. I suggested Bobby might need to get some results – and quickly – even though this was only in theory a one-off defeat. The knives are out for us and people would love to see us have a hiccup and let the Rags back in. Very interesting to hear today that Bobby and AVB had identical records at this point in their Prem careers, and to see Bobby all over Sky saying AVB ‘needs time’….

Think I’m stirring it up unnecessarily?  Try something more straightforward. The Napoli defeat came in a week when we posted record losses. Do the Sheiks really want to piss a billion quid up the wall in order to watch us play Dukla Prague on a Thursday night in the Yoofa Cup???

My remarks in the article, as with my laser-guided insight into the Tevez situation, have initially met with opprobrium. The delightfully-named Udik was moved to respond: “When I read this I could only think, TWAT.” With a name like that you’d think he’d keep his opinions to himself.

But he does have a point; the good old CTID blinkers-on point: we should stick with Bobby - he has only let us down in the really important games, and as long as we beat United, the season’s a good un’. Isn’t it? That’s all City fans really want – to beat Taggart – and if we get chucked put of the CL and falter in the domestic cups it doesn’t matter cos we stuck it up Rooney and Co. Right???

But Udik wasn’t a lone voice. Others had their say, and broadly agreed that Mancini had made tactical mistakes - although most felt I was being harsh in suggesting he might be under threat.

OK…

So now the big test comes: Liverpool away. I really hope people don’t have to eat their words if we don’t win this. I genuinely do want Bobby to stay. But has he really been tested yet, really been put under the kind of pressure your average manager of your average mid-table side has? He can pick and choose his players, and so far he has done a good job of making them into a team. But Fergie knows what comes next, and will seize on any blip to suggest that our collective wheels have come off. Can we cope with an injury crisis? Not in defence, for certain. And we’ve always been a confidence team – can we hack it when we have a run of a couple of dodgy games?

The story of the end of last season would suggest we can. We held off Spurs when the previous year we hadn’t been able to. There have been few signs to suggest we are going to blow it. But dare I suggest we are still one defensive mistake short of a calamity? Witness the debacle of their first goal, when our silly zonal defending fatally combined with our other major weakness at corners – a tendency to fall sound asleep and be vulnerable to a quickly-taken kick. Happens time and time again and you know it does. We just generally get away with it. Personally, I still shit myself every time the opposition – whoever they may be – get a set-piece.

Look at the Newcastle game – they too had a couple of absolutely golden chances. The sideways passing game of Vinny and Lescott is slow and predictable, and once they are put under pressure – well, we’ve seen Vinny look more vulnerable this season than at any time in his City career. Kolarov is simply not a defender, and as for Richards’ positional sense – don’t get me started. The guy needs a GPS just to find the tunnel from the dressing room. Thank God he’s on fire going forward. Kolo is an absolute liability who should never play for us again, and Robbie Savic is a weakling with poor control, who also tends to dive in and give away daft free kicks. See above.

That leaves Zaba and Clichy, who we can generally count on (and even then you could argue that the mighty Zab was at fault for their first) and Joe, who though I think his concentration can lapse, generally doesn’t let us down.

So as I say, this lot are about to rock up to Anfield against a term who pissed all over us last year. I would also suggest that we played more of a European-style game against them in that game - and got thoroughly buried. This year we need to do differently – pick up where we left off after the Bayern defeat, stay focused and believe in ourselves, and go on another run to prove them all wrong. Cos if we don’t, believe me the press are going to have a field day.

Come On City! Let’s shove it all back down their throats. Oh, and your Sheikiness, 2 or 3 new defenders wouldn’t go amiss in the window…