Sunday, July 26, 2009

Kaizer Chiefs 1 City 0

A disappointing end to the tour of South Africa as we were defeated 1-0 in the Vodacom final by the very side we had defeated by the same scoreline earlier in the week.

Mark Hughes continued to ease players back into the fray with Adebayor, Dunne, Onuoha, Craig Bellamy and Shay Given given their first starts of the tour, whilst Robinho was introduced for the second half.

Whilst any victory is welcome, I'm sure Mark Hughes would have been more focused on answering certain questions as he formulates his plans heading into the new season.

Given the chopping and changing of the line-up over the three games it is difficult to draw too much from individual performances, but from what I did see it is clear that Gareth Barry is going to be an integral part of our midfield. He does look a real leader and someone who is able to control the game.

Whilst both Martin Petrov and Shaun Wright-Phillips started the final, both struggled to make a big impression and I don't see Hughes often favouring a 4-4-2 line-up as such, which could be bad news for the pair.

I'm certain that he will adopt the 4-5-1/4-3-3 line-up with Robinho and Tevez supplementing a main striker. This will also allow a centralmidfield trio of Barry, Ireland and de Jong (given Vincent Kompany's absence at the start of the season).

Of course Wright-Phillips and Petrov on the bench does provide plenty of options, but it could be a frustrating time for both.

In goal and defence, the positions appear to be more or less set should no further additions arrive, but the fact that Tal Ben-Haim featured twice in South Africa reinforces the need for defensive additions.

vote it up!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I thoght that Ben Haim played well in the final!

Anonymous said...

DOH