Reading 2 City 0

The tone of my match review posts has certainly taken on a more negative tone of late, as both results and performances have dipped of late to leave us on the outside looking in in terms of European qualification this season.

Saturday's defeat at Reading - coupled with the defeats for both United and Chelsea, have meant that direct European qualification is now out of the question, both in terms of the points differential to now make up, but even more importantly, the likely performances between now and the end of the season do not hold out any hope that we can be realistic challengers, with even the Inter-Toto route perhaps now out of reach.

Much has been made in the aftermath of the game about the non-penalty decision (and Johnson's booking), and whilst my opinion is that both Johnson 'incidents' were penalties, to use this as a reason for the defeat is burying your head in the sand.

Two key areas have been apparant of late - the lack of creativity and defensive fallability, and both of these were again our undoing on Saturday. The defence was facing problems already with Onouha's absence along with Richards absence giving the line-up a makeshift look with Corluka, Dunne, Ball and the returning Garrido starting the game. Dunne's injury left an even bigger hole at the back, with Sun-Jihai's return perfect timing for my interview piece about him on Goal.com, but ultimately was a key part in our conceding both goals.

The first, saw Ball easily brushed aside at the touchline, whilst Corluka clearly thought he was still playing at right-back as he allowed Long to wander competely unmarked to fire past the exemplary Joe Hart.

Ball, was again at the centre of the second goal as Kitson was allowed to slalom through the defence with Ball statuesque at the heart of the defence.

Injuries cannot be accounted for of course, but since Richards' absence (and even before as he struggled prior to his injury) we began to ship goals but it has highlighted we are short on numbers at the back and we have owed a lot to the consistency in appearance and quality that the Richards-Dunne axis provided.

Of bigger concern must be though the lack of creativity in the side, and the lack of firepower from the front men, and once again this was evident and our goals differential is now only plus 1. In the past three games we have failed to score, and in the past eleven matches we have only scored more than one goal on one occasion - a damning statistic and a clear reason on why we are sliding down the table.

The team tough looks tired, particularly key components Hamman and Corluka who are now struggling to maintain the levels they were at earlier in the season as they have rarely had a spell on the sidelines this season to help re-charge the batteries and keep them fresh for this exact stage of the season where a fresh and large squad is a necessity - and something we do not have.

Nine games left now, with European qualification no longer on the horizon, and we are in danger of a continued slump between now and the end of the season, a far from palatable proposition, but one that is perhaps unsurprising when all things are considered.

Reports:

The Independent
The Telegraph
The Observer
The Guardian
Purely Man City
Hob Nob anyone?

Reading prediction

Reading eded a miserable sequence of results last weekend with a 1-0 at Middlesbrough, something which I'm not too sure is a good thing or not given our penchance for 'assisting' struggling teams back into form.

They are, however, still mired deep in a relegation battle and will probably look at this game to get at least a point from.

Sven is expecting as tough an encounter as the Eastlands meeting last November, and it does not strike as having many goals in the game.

Team wise, Elano is expected to be fit to start but Nedum Onouha is out through injury and joins Martin Petrov on the sidelines. For Reading, quartet Emerson Fae, Graham Murty, Brynjar Gunnarsson and Glen Little all miss out through injury.

Reading's attack has not been impressive this season, yet have only notched two goals less than ourselves, which gives an indication of their defensive struggles which have left them in a relegation battle.

Although they won last week, they have not notched back to back victories for almost a year now, and given our recent form we need to get back on track, yet have struggled on the road for the most part of this seasom.

Overall, a point is the maximum return I can see us coming away with, and a 1-1 result will be the outcome of another frustrating afternoon.

City 2 Reading 1

The 100% home record looked as though it would end on Saturday until Stephen Ireland's late strike, which saw us close the gap on United and also keep the distance between ourselves and those teams looking to break into the top four.

The fantastic winning goal - and timing of it appeared to even get Sven carried away after the game, with him reported as saying “It’s better to have high expectations than low ones,” he said. “It’s important that we - the players, the coaches – keep our feet on the ground. But the fans - why not dream and be happy?”, although his end of season prediction is still under wraps until the turn of the new year.

It is now the best start to a home campaign in club history, and it is fair to say that not all eight games have seen swashbuckling football in which opponents have been carved open and cast aside, but wins are wins, and by and large we are still picking up the plaudits for our style of play - Steve Coppell reflected on the irony that for all our nice play, it was a long ball that ultimately created the goal.

Digging out results has not been City's forte too often over a sustained period of time, but once again when the chips were (slightly) down (injuries, lack of fitness for key players) we still manage to come away with a win and all three points.

Despite the predictions of many, the bubble is yet to burst, and if anything keeps on getting stronger.

Reading preview

It is certainly a measure of our progress this season that we have had to cast one eye on the returning international players this week before Saturday's team can be decided upon.

Again, the role of Elano will be carefully considered following his latest trip clocking up the air miles, and the likes of Dunne, Richards, Corluka, Petrov and Isaksson have all been involved in Euro qualifiers - some with a greater degree of success than others.

All should be fit though and it is likely Elano will start, with him giving what he can before the DVT kicks in from the flight from Peru. Isaksson is expected to be between the posts in a somewhat surprising move given Hart's performance at Portsmouth but apart from that the only real decision appears to be up front, with The Exile missing altogether with an ankle injury which leaves a straight choice between Vassell and the Rodeo Bull. Roll on the January window and the return to fitness of Bojinov.

So what about Reading? It's fair to see we struggled against them last season as they surprised pretty much everyone with an impressive debut campaign. As expected this time around though, they have not found things as easy and are currently around the lower reaches of the table - although a relegation battle should be easily avoided.

It is a crucial period coming up for us over the next six weeks with no more breaks, and a series of league and cup games which could well shape the second half of the season.

I don't expect too many problems to navigate tomorrow and fully expect another three points in the bag come 5pm, with a 2-0 victory being my prediction.

Shooting Stars

'Its just not good enough' as the bloke about ten rows behind me has taken to near constantly singing. He has a point if he is referring to the 'strikers' currently plying there trade for city.
The worst thing about today is probably the fact that it wasn't too bad a performance shooting aside and Reading for 60mins were there for the taking , but too there credit showed why they are knocking on the door of a Uefa cup place by not been at there best and managing to pick up three points. Credit to those who travelled as well , thats one of the biggest away turnouts and city in a long time.

City started pretty brightly and did manage to dictate most of the early play with Ireland and Barton managing to gain the upper hand in the midfield and Vassell looked lively upfront. Not too sure why we are playing the 3-5-2 at home though , maybe Pearce thinks it cute. Barton failed to the lift the ball over the keeper in the best chance of the first half , and the weight that is been put on his shoulders too produce goals seems a bit too heavy for the lad.
Reading did however fire more than some warning shots and had a Lita goal turned in dubious circumstances.

City also managed too have a great chance though Vassell just after the break but he contrived too miss from all of 6 yards and that little voice in your head goes oh-ho.

And so it proved to be as Leroy Lita , who Richards had managed to out muscle for much of the game and keep quiet, popped up on the end of two precision balls (though I will be have a long hard look at richard dunnes positioning when I see them again) to nail shut the game for Reading.

So lets have an in-depth look at our strikers for the remainder of the season :

Bernado Corradi - Not good enough
Georgious Samaras - Not good enough
Darius Vassell - Not good enough
Paul Dickov - Wasnt good enough 3 yrs ago
Ishmael Miller - Unproven
Danny Sturridge - Unproven

Hmmmmmmmmm.
When 36000 people can see week in week out what the problem is why the hell did we end up going to within 30 minutes of the close of the transfer window to be turned down for a striker ??