Scunthorpe review
When the TV execs picked our game to be screened, they were clearly sniffing an upset. Multi-millionaires travel to plucky Championship side with the hope that an upset was in the making.
Sandwiched between two important games against United, the prospects of defeat were perhaps heightened given the shadow side that Roberto Mancini fielded. Given the magnitude of Wednesday's return leg at Old Trafford, I called for wholesale changes so backed the decision Mancini took.
As well as featuring players returning from injury (Onouha and Ireland), there were debuts for Ibrahim, Taylor and Cunningham, and of course a possible last appearance for Robinho, who was subject to swirling rumours about his short term future.
Crucially though, Mancini was astute enough to retain Nigel de Jong and Vincent Kompany - two key personalities and influences on the side and possibly without those two towers, we could have come unstuck. As it was, apart from brief periods of pressure from our opponents, we were in control of the game.
With the creative and attack minded players in the side were always capable of carving out chances, and this proved the case but we were also thankful for two wonderful individual efforts for Martin Petrov and perhaps more surprisingly, Sylvinho who put us two goals ahead (and all but killed the game) with a fantastic long range strike.
As a whole, the day went perfectly for Mancini. Comfortable progression to round five (with a favourable draw), rest for those players who needed it ahead of Wednesday, action for fringe and returning players and a chance for some promising players to get some exposure and experience.
A job well done then. Now for Wednesday.
Sandwiched between two important games against United, the prospects of defeat were perhaps heightened given the shadow side that Roberto Mancini fielded. Given the magnitude of Wednesday's return leg at Old Trafford, I called for wholesale changes so backed the decision Mancini took.
As well as featuring players returning from injury (Onouha and Ireland), there were debuts for Ibrahim, Taylor and Cunningham, and of course a possible last appearance for Robinho, who was subject to swirling rumours about his short term future.
Crucially though, Mancini was astute enough to retain Nigel de Jong and Vincent Kompany - two key personalities and influences on the side and possibly without those two towers, we could have come unstuck. As it was, apart from brief periods of pressure from our opponents, we were in control of the game.
With the creative and attack minded players in the side were always capable of carving out chances, and this proved the case but we were also thankful for two wonderful individual efforts for Martin Petrov and perhaps more surprisingly, Sylvinho who put us two goals ahead (and all but killed the game) with a fantastic long range strike.
As a whole, the day went perfectly for Mancini. Comfortable progression to round five (with a favourable draw), rest for those players who needed it ahead of Wednesday, action for fringe and returning players and a chance for some promising players to get some exposure and experience.
A job well done then. Now for Wednesday.
1 comment:
thought ibrahim and boyata were both impressive. Nice game for a debut. City again continue to ruin football!
Post a Comment