2012

What a life...2012

I hoped to contribute to this blogspot fairly often but due to Uni commitments I have struggled to find the time to sit down and write. As I have found a bit of time, and it is the last day of 2012 it felt fitting to write about the past 12 months.

2012 has been a brilliant year with some unbelievable highs and some of the greatest memories of my life but I have to start with a gloomy day up in the North-East. Sunderland away, January 1^st. It was my second time to the ‘Stadium of Light’, the first consisted of me being violently sick on the coach on the way up there – luckily Adam Johnson salvaged a point. With optimism and a hangover from NYE I entered the ground pretty confident City would do the business, unfortunately that wasn’t to happen. We just couldn’t put the ball in the net and to compound our misery they scored with the last kick of the game. Oh how we laughed.....(Oh and it was offside too..).

Looking back January was pretty woeful in terms of away results, knocked out by Liverpool in the Mickey Mouse cup and also losing 1-0 to Everton. All I can remember of Everton away was freezing my boll*cks off and watching some muppet handcuff himself to the goalpost. At least it only took me half an hour to get back to my student house in Liverpool.

I find myself quite limited in the amount of away games I can afford to attend, so whilst at Uni I concentrate on new grounds and the odd European away.  My next away was Swansea, new ground (number 54). Luckily I had already had a great day out with the Hazel Grove Branch before the game kicked off. As my old man always told me, never let City get in the way of a top day out. The game will always be remembered for that City fan crying, and for me, it was the day I truly believed we would not go on to win the league.

I tried to keep the faith but deep down I knew United would win it. They were just too good, they had done it so many times before, they never crumble. Ever. I remember sat in a lecture theatre in Warwick during a training weekend for Challenger Sports. United had beaten QPR at home and Shaun Derry had been ludicrously sent off. We were at Arsenal and anything but a win would be the final nail in the coffin. I raced away from Warwick Uni and found a pub to watch the match. It was dreadful, the players and Mancini were arguing amongst themselves and it was a gutless performance by a team that looked down and out. Arteta scored late on to give Arsenal the win and Balotelli then got sent off. As he walked off the pitch many predicted it would be the last time we saw him in a City shirt. We had given United the title.

Me and my City mates have made a habit of going to Newcastle every year. Weekend away, night out and the match. We booked this year with optimism; it was the penultimate game of the season and could be a huge game in terms of the title race. Now, it looked like a bit of a damp squib. West Brom at home was City’s next match, a comfortable win but the match will be remembered for the news that filtered through at full-time. United were losing at Wigan. I ran to the back of the 2^nd tier and clambered on a seat to watch the last couple of seconds of the United match on a monitor in a box. A cheer went up and some guy in a suit came out to tell us Wigan had won. Surely it wasn’t all back on.

With a new wave of momentum coupled with the return of Carlos Tevez, City smashed Norwich 1-6 (my new favourite score-line). The following week it was all eyes on Old Trafford as United welcomed Everton, I couldn’t bring myself to watch it so decided to go and watch a mate play in his team’s cup semi-final. It was quite surreal as both teams seem more interested in what was going on at Old Trafford than their own pitch and goal updates were constantly being relayed onto the pitch. 4-4, it was back in our hands. Win the next 4 games and we are champions. We breezed past Wolves and now all eyes were on the Manchester Derby.

The ground was electric and Vincent got the only goal of the game, City were back on top. Maradona has always been one of my heroes, and seeing him singing along to City’s version of Hey Jude will stay with me forever. Mancini insisted United were still favourites, and to be honest I believed him. Newcastle away had turned from a damp squib to arguably the most important league game we have played since we won the league there back in 1968. They were pushing for the Champions League and were really strong.

I travelled to Newcastle with some of my closest mates, we had seen some sh*t (and some good times too) over the years following our club and this was a trip we were all looking forward to. A night out on the Saturday left us all a bit worse for wear getting up for the match on Sunday but soon the adrenaline took over. It was pandemonium when Yaya put us 1-0 up and I insist to this day that when that goal went in I have never seen an away end like it. We won 2-0 and surely even City wouldn’t blow it against QPR. What a trip, probably the best away I have been on, the only regret was not being able to share the moment with my Dad who was in a box at the other end of the ground.

                        Outside St James Park

I am not going to go into too much detail regarding the last day of the season. I actually have very little memory of Aguero’s goal, I just remember the sound of the crowd as he composed himself before smashing it home. No words could describe what I went through that day, I am just happy I shared the moment with the people closest to me, especially my Dad.

After the initial shock had settled I met up with my mates and went into town. I tried to not get carried away and too pissed as I wanted to saviour and remember every minute. What a day.

That summer I travelled to Budapest for a short break and then America (Chicago), for 9 weeks with Challenger Sports and had the summer of a lifetime.  

Other memories that stand out are the trip to Madrid to watch City with my Dad and the latest trip to Newcastle with the lads.

I’ll have to concentrate on getting a decent grade from University this next couple of months and I hope that 2013 will be just as good as 2012. I have a trip to Barcelona with Football Studies to look forward to and also the birth of two more Niece’s or Nephews.

Thanks to everyone who made 2012 special and hopefully we can have more of the same in 2013.

Champions.

Kinkladze!?...

As I study football, I am often asked by my classmates, ‘Who is your favourite ever player?’ In a room full of ‘students of the game’ its a simple question aimed to ‘break the ice’ but for me it always ends up in an awkward response. “Kinkladze who?”….

My Dad took me to Maine Road for the first time on my 5th birthday. I was hooked. Although City were a poor team at the time (in the second-tier of English football) there seemed to be a shining light. Even as a 5-year old kid I was attracted to the dazzling feet of Georgiou Kinkladze. I may have been too young to really appreciate what I was seeing but it was obvious to me it was something special. Just by watching my Dad and others around him I could tell, there was a sense of anticipation in the air every time the ball fell to his feet.

I remember walking back to the car after one of my first City games and pestering my Dad about ‘Kinky.’ It was hard for me to get my head round the fact he came from Georgia and that he spoke a different language. To a kid, who thought the end of his road was far enough away from home, he might aswell have come from a different planet.

It was difficult being a City fan around this time, most of my ‘mates’ were United fans but I was happy enough jinking around the playground pretending to be 'Kinky', trying desperately to master that trademark swivel of the hips, and that drop of a shoulder, whilst my other friends turned their collars up and mimicked Cantona (jumping into an imaginary crowd and karate-kicking dinner ladies). 

Although Kinkladze had decided (unbelievably) to stay at Maine Road he couldn’t single-handedly stop the rot, and City, in their second season outside the Premiership, were relegated again. My Dad took me to the last game of the season at Stoke where our fate became apparent, I remember seeing Kinkladze walk off into the tunnel, tears streaming down his face, everyone knew he would leave and who could blame him?

You need two things to become a great footballer, ability and luck. Kinkladze had ability, heaps of it in fact, but luck wasn’t on his side, and as a surprise to most City fans, he never had the career his ability should have granted him.

Manchester City’s fortunes however have changed for the good. I now sit down at 'The Etihad' to watch players such as Aguero, Silva and Vincent Kompany. Even so, my answer to that question will never change. 

A Georgian genius... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0DHi5gMsHs

Liverpool v Manchester City - 26/08/12

Liverpool v Manchester City 26/08/12

Manchester City travelled to Liverpool aiming to record their first victory at Anfield for nine seasons (Only our away record Arsenal is worse, at 15 games since our last league win). We have also never kept a clean sheet at Anfield in the Premier League, another indicator of our poor away record at Liverpool. Obviously, this was the first time we had visited Liverpool as reigning Premier League Champions and I, like most City fans, were confident heading into the match.

In terms of City team news, De Jong, Milner, Kolo Toure, Kolarov and Balotelli came in for Lescott, Clichy, Rodwell, Silva and the injured Aguero. Mancini had the Champions set up in a 3-5-2/3-4-1-2 formation which had been experimented with in pre-season. Liverpool also made changes with Raheem Stirling making his full league debut. Again, Liverpool seem to be in transition with Brendan Rodgers trying to get them playing a short passing game, focused on possession and retaining the ball. I think the manner in which three of the four goals were scored, may indicate that both teams were struggling to adapt to new styles of play (City playing the new formation). City were superb at defending set-pieces last season and will be disappointed at the way Skrtel was allowed a free header from a corner, and City’s last goal came from a back pass from Skrtel to Reina which was left short, Tevez nipped in, rounded the keeper and finished with ease. It’s easy to speculate, but would Skrtel have cleared the ball last season? Was he under pressure to keep the ball under the new ‘possession-driven’ regime? Only he will know. Liverpool will also be disappointed about the way the first City goal was gifted to Yaya Toure in the box, after Kelly failed to clear his lines. With regards to Liverpool’s second goal, Joe Hart will surely be disappointed about Suarez’s free-kick from long distance. At the time of that goal, City had conceded four shots on target in the first two games of the season, all four of which resulted in a goal.

In the opening stages of the game, City were in control and looked confident in the new system. The new formation isn’t commonly played in England, and implementing it successfully requires tactical precision. The wing-backs, arguably the most important players in this system, need to fully understand their role and position. I don’t think Milner and Kolarov did particularly well yesterday. Both of them pushed up quite high, which left gaps on the wings which stretched our three central defenders. Stirling, who has bags of pace, troubled Kolo Toure on the left once he found space in behind Milner. Kolo Toure gets quite a bit of ‘stick’ from City fans, I don’t think he played badly yesterday and actually made the most successful tackles out of any player on the pitch (6/7). Admittedly, he did get stripped for pace quite a few times by Sterling and to me it would have seemed more logical to play Lescott, which would have meant moving Zabaleta to the right side of the defence to deal with Sterling. But who am I to argue with a man who has just delivered our first league title in forty-four years?

Other than that I don’t think there was much to discuss about tactically. It almost seemed like the teams were pre-occupied with fitting in a new system of play than trying to tactically outsmart one another, which resulted in a great game for the neutral.

Fairly happy with a draw, and I think it is a typical example of a game we would have lost a couple of seasons ago. Great teams get points from games in which they don’t play particularly well in.

We’re Man City, we’ll fight ‘til the end.....

City’s best player: Hard to pick but I think I’ll go with Tevez. 20/25 successful ‘attacking third passes’, 4/4 successful ‘take ons’, 3/5 succesful ‘aeriel duels’. Very unlucky not to score in the first half and showed a cool head to round the keeper for the final equaliser.

Diagram of all Tevez’s attacking third passes. It shows the impact he has all over the attacking third of the pitch.

Welcome

Welcome to 93.20, a blogspot where I can record my thoughts regarding Manchester City and football in general. It will not be for everyone's liking, with emphasis on stats and figures, but hopefully it will provide an alternative view point compared to most mainstream football blogs/articles.  

Most City fans will realise immediately why I have chosen 'Ninety Three Twenty' as the name for the blogspot. If you need reminding, take a look at this.. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwK3eoXReeo

For my first entry, I have done some research into Rodwell, in the aim of trying to explain why I think City have signed him.

City have raised a few eyebrows with this signing, nobody saw it coming as both clubs kept it under wraps until everything was finalised.

But was it that surprising? Mancini's first signing at the club was Patrick Viera, at the time that transfer also raised a few eyebrows. For two seasons Bobby used Viera in a holding midfield role, often bringing him on in place of a more attack minded player in the last 20/25 minutes of a match. His role was to slow down the game, retain possession in the middle of the park and generally see the game out.

When Viera retired Mancini again looked for a replacement. In the past 5 or 6 years there has been a real lack of young top-class midfielders, on the market, in the mould of a Makelele/Viera. It became apparent Mancini approached several players such as Van Bommel but a deal was not agreed. Daniel De Rossi's name has constantly been mentioned but again nothing came to fruition. Mancini had to wait until January to address the problem when he signed David Pizzaro on a 6 month loan deal.

Its no wonder Mancini hasn't signed a big name to fill this role as it is obvious this type of player will only be a 'bit-part' player and not a first team regular. Ageing mid-fielders Viera and Pizzaro were short term solutions, but signing Rodwell on a permanent deal has certainly addressed the problem for the long term.

I haven't seen that much of him but the stats are impressive. In terms of the Premier League as a whole, his 'successful tackle rate' is above average (83%), and his 'pass completion' rate (87%) was the highest of all Everton players last season. Last season Rodwell made 43% of passes inside his own half and 65% of his passes were sideways or backwards.

A lot have people have Rodwell down as an eventual replacement to Gareth Barry. I don't think this is the case, Gareth Barry is arguably a deep-lying playmaker, providing a surprisingly high percentage of 'forward' and 'final-third' passes. Barry created 35 goal scoring chances last season, Rodwell only 4, although admittedly, his season was plagued by injury. A lot of fans refer to Barry as a 'crab', these stats prove that this is not the case. I do not believe Rodwell is a replacement for Gareth Barry. Rodwell is a defensive, combative midfielder.

Also Rodwell can play CB, so can provide cover for us at the back too. I think he is a great signing and when you look into it, not that 'surprising' at all. 

Don't be surprised to see us sign another player before the end of the transfer window.