The season so far

I took a look this past Sunday for The Observer looking at how we have fared so far this season. The full article, including features on all Premier League sides is at The Observer website here.

Dunne and Barton hit-out and challenge the squad

Ahead of the biggest game of the season later today and the newspapers this morning are hardly paining a picture of a happy camp at City at the moment.

Joey Barton has been claiming that some of his teammates do not share his own ambitions, and talking to Sky Sports he said:

"I want to win trophies, I want to play in the UEFA
Champions League and I want to play in the European cups. "I want to play at the
highest level and I want to test myself and I don't think anyone can have any
qualms with you for wanting that.
"Whether it's this season or next season
we all have to strive at this football club to achieve it, every single one of
us.
"There's no point me wanting to achieve it and ten others not, and I
don't think that's the case.
"I think at the minute it's a case of five or
six wanting it and five or six not.
"I think as soon as we get the playing
field level and eight, nine or ten wanting it then we'll start achieving
things."

However, it is perhaps Richard Dunne's comments to The Observer which are perhaps more scathing:

'We are not scoring enough goals and two or three
players are going missing when things go against us,' he says. 'At home, in
particular, we seem to go into our shells, or at least some of us do. That's the
disappointing thing. We are not a good enough team to win games with just seven
or eight players, we need everyone to pull together. We can't afford to have
players hiding. I feel let down by certain people and I'm sure the manager does
too, but it's not his fault. The squad is not big enough for everyone to be
pushed and when that happens you get people operating in a comfort zone.
'When a manager only has limited funds to spend on new players, the ones he
does bring in need to hit the ground running, and that hasn't happened either.
Foreign signings are always going to need time to adapt, but at this stage of
the season you need to be giving 100 per cent. It should be a matter of personal
pride.
'We go to Blackburn as underdogs and we are away from home so to some
extent the pressure is off, but in the league we have got a really hard run-in.
We are not going to be able to survive just by picking up points from bad teams,
we are going to have to beat some good teams. We've got to
improve.'

Whilst The Times has a similar piece, but adds:

"Managers live by their transfer deals. I’m sure the
manager feels let down but it’s not his fault if the personal pride in a player
is not there.” I don’t think we’re scoring enough goals,” Dunne said. “I think
there are a couple of people going missing during games. And we’re not

good enough team to have just six or seven players turn up every weekend. We
need 11, 14 players putting effort in. If your skill isn’t holding up the least
you can do is put the effort in.
“There’s the likes of Joey Barton who you
know you can rely on to be there fighting every week, but there’s others who go
into their shells. It’s a lack of self pride and they need to understand in
their own minds what they’re doing. They’re hiding from the rest of the team.”

Whilst not uncommon for Barton to speak his mind, it is quite rare for Dunne (even as captain) to be very vocal in the press - and even less so for it to be with a critical tone.

I don't think he is particularly the type to stir up trouble within the club, and perhaps, ahead of such an important game and stage of the season, he is playing a little psychological game here and aiming to throw down a challenge to the team as a whole that it is time to stand up and be counted.

Season so far

You can check out my 'season so far' which appeared in todays Observer Sport.

City 1 Tottenham 2

Apologies for not having time to get a preview up in time - you can click here for the one I did for The Observer.

The unbeaten home run comes to an end, but perhaps more disturbing was the manner in which it was surrendered, something that surely doesn't bode all that well as we approach the half-way mark of a season which suddenly looks to have a far more negative air about it than prior to Sunday's defeat.

I don't think it is a knee-jerk reaction to the Tottenham game, but it was noticeable that there was not a great deal of positivity in and around the ground. I won't harp on too much about the game as I'm a little later posting up than usual, but suffice to say it was a game of two halves - one half abysmal and one half poor. The team - quite rightly, have been slammed from all quarters (fans, manager, media and themselves) for the first half showing which was as bad as I can recall, but given some faint praise for coming out in the second half and giving it a go.

For me though, that had as much to do with Tottenham deciding the game was already in the bag, and concentrating more on that last bit of Christmas shopping they still had to get. The first half truly was awful. We were second to everything, could not control passes, allowed so much space and time to Tottenham that even a half decent side (which they are) would punish us.

And punish us they did. The first goal was poor defending all round, in that the defence allowed Davenport to win what should have been no more than a flick on, but Weaver's poor positional play saw the ball loop over him for a 1-0 scoreline. The second goal was symptomatic of our first half showing. Carved open by some free flowing football, a training ground pass was chipped across the edge of the box for Huddlestone (looks an improvement on Carrick for me) to drive home. Could their have been questions asked of Weaver?

Richards had already departed - clearly unfit, and Pearce withdrew the lamentable Samaras at the break. True, we did work harder and began to create a little more, but as usual the end product was not there due to a lack of quality. Barton - the only spark in midfield, managed to pull a goal back with a neat finish from Dickov's well placed cross.

We may well have had a penalty late on as well as Barton went down under a challenge from Malbranque. I wasn't convinced at the time, and having seen replays later, it would have been a 'generous' decision, and one which we may have seen us get something we really didn't deserve.
With other results over the weekend, we are now back looking over our shoulders - and following a tough encounter against Bolton this weekend, we have Sheffield United and West Ham - two teams who suddenly look 'on the up'.

A Merry Christmas?

Opposition view:
Harry Hotspur

Watford preview

My preview that appeared in The Verdict section of today's Observer Sport:

This game gives us the opportunity to put back-to-back wins together for the first time in nearly forty games and in all honesty there aren't many fixtures that on paper provide an easier chance.

Watford have done well enough on their return to the Premiership and have turned in some decent performances - even if results haven't always reflected this - bit losing to Sheffield United in midweek was a setback.

Our win at Villa was certainly welcome and hopefully will be a springboard for us to put together a consistent run away as well as at home, where our form has been impressive throughout the season.

Watford's attack without Marlon King will not get much from our defence and I take us to with this 2-0.

DUE A BIG GAME: Giorgios Samaras. Partnership with Corradi is progressing well but he needs a goal.

City 3 Fulham 1

The following is the review based on the interview I did for The Verdict Section in today's edition of The Observer:

The first half was like the opening 45 minutes against Newcastle last week, except we took our chances. I'm glad Corradi and Samaras were back up front, as they're our best strike pairing. Corradi responded with a couple of good finishes.

He has a good club pedigree and aside from his goals his link-up play was good while Barton ran him close for man of the match.

But despite the win the atmosphere was pretty flat - Fulham brought about 100 fans and there was not much energy from the home crowd. I hate these early kick-offs.

Ratings: Weaver 6, Richards 7, Dunne 7, Distin 7, Thatcher 6, Trabelsi 7, Barton 8, Reyna 7, Vassell 6, Samaras 7, Corradi 9, Dickov (sub) 7.

Not happy

I picked this up from The Verdict section of The Observer yesterday:

It was dreadful - two teams just battling to stay in
The Premiership. Why? Just for the money not for any entertainment value.
Charlton were woeful and we were worse. A lot of us are wondering what the point
of watching football at this level is if staying fourth from bottom is
success.

In general we played well across the back, but one
mistake finished it. Pearce must think of Dickov as either a fan on the pitch or
a reflection of how he'd play himself, but in The Premiership there's no room to
play someone for sentimental reasons. He's been awful.

There's no reason for turning up, except maybe as a
badge of honour. But who needs it?

An over reaction to an unlucky defeat or an accurate reflection of how things stand?

Middlesbrough preview

Here's the preview of the Middlesbrough game which I did for The Observer today:

It's been a long week since the lunchtime debacle at Wigan, where no-one emerged with any credit. Stuart Pearce has declared himself happy with the response in training this week and we're back on home turf - where we yet to even concede this season.

Boro's form has been up and down too, and they are winless away, but we don't fare well against them.

It's rare that encounters between the two sides live long in the memory and I don't expect this one to be any different. One goal should probably settle matters.

Psycho on The Clash

Stuart Pearce appeared in The Observer today as one of number of people nominating thier favourite Clash song of all time.

Bucking the trend of most of the choices, Pearce opted for 'Complete Control':

When I was 14, I was living with my mum and dad in
Kingsbury, north west London. After school, I'd be straight up to the bedroom to
get the records on. The walls had posters of all the bands I liked: the Clash,
Stranglers, Stiff Little Fingers, Bowie. I had a Lurkers set list and a massive
'Holidays in the Sun' Pistols poster. I didn't have a clue what I wanted to do
back then - I still don't now - I was just into music.

Back then, I didn't want to hear any slow songs or
ballads; I just wanted something fast and loud that I could sing along to and
jump up and down on the bed with a baseball bat like an idiot. 'Complete
Control' was the rawest song I had; everything I wanted was on it. I can still
remember my old girl coming in and telling me to turn it down.

I'd play 'White Riot' before I went out to play, mainly
at Forest; that was my musical peak, because I was captain. Brian Clough sort of
turned a blind eye to it, really.