Manchester City 1-1 Hull City

Last updated : 30 November 2009 By Rick Skelton

The Tigers travelled to Manchester City, the scene of an uneventful game 11 months ago, to face “big spending” Manchester City. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this one all that much. We did though. Man City fans like to sing “We are (censored) loaded”, their monthly wage bill would feed Peru for a decade and they used substitutes who cost enough to fit every house on Bransholme with a swimming pool and sauna. Still, if money was all that mattered then we wouldn’t bother turning up for any game anywhere. Fortunately it doesn’t an our Tigers turned up and put in another highly industrious performance that featured moments of real quality.

The Difference

Since the dire home draw with Portsmouth, City have shown shoots of recovery at Burnley and then but together a run of four good results and, perhaps more importantly, four impressive performances. The two major differences are obvious. Off the pitch, Adam Pearson has returned to steady the ship, to reassure every fan, player and member of staff that our future isn’t bleak and to stop us looking like idiots in the national press every week.

On the pitch, Jimmy Bullard’s influence is also obvious. He’s bar far the best player I’ve ever seen in black and amber. He lifts everyone, he’s always available to take and make a pass, he’s always moving and cajoling and he’s always looking forward.

Phil Brown has also changed over the last month; he’s far more measured in public and has let the football do the talking. The football has been excellent, Browny has encouraged the players to be more positive, we’re set out to be more positive, we’re keeping the ball and allowing people to get forward. Despite conceding 8 goals in the previous 4 games, we haven’t bottled it and gone back to trying (and failing) to be hard to beat. We’ve accepted that we’ll lose some goals and worked hard at trying to improve what we can without stifling our attacking play.

The rest of the players also deserve a lot of credit. They’ve bought into everything that’s going on around them and have given it everything they have.

The Defence

We defended superbly. Man City had forwards with bags of pace and movement and great ability to switch play quickly. We stuck together as a unit, didn’t allow ourselves to be dragged all over the pitch and made it difficult for them to break us down. The midfield worked hard to stop us being overrun and tracked the full-backs well. We had a little spell in the first half where Robinho got one on one against McShane too easily and there was only going to be one winner there. Garcia helped out and McShane got to grips with the Brazilian and started to cut out some of the possession to him. In the second half, we had a similar spell when Wright-Phillips was able to isolate Dawson and gave him a bit of a roasting. We defended well in the middle though, which negated that threat.

The goal we conceded was pretty needless. Only seconds earlier, we’d been moving the ball well through them when Marney tripped over his own feet and gave them it. When the ball eventually fell to Wright-Phillips, Dawson showed no interest in going towards him, similar to the second Burnley goal the other week, and allowed him to shoot. The shot was pretty tame but Gardner threw himself at it and deflected it past Duke. I did hear a chap in the ground suggest that “when you see it in slow motion, Duke should save it” which is some of the harshest criticism I’ve heard, even in slow motion. Duke had a mixed day. He made a fine stop at Tevez’s feet in the first half and came to take a couple of corners but he was hit and miss when he came and too often, he didn’t come at all when the ball was in the air an awfully long time. His kicking is diabolical and even his short distribution disappeared after he threw one ball straight to Wayne Bridge.

McShane was solid again. There aren’t many players who’d do much better against Robinho than he did. I thought he made it a little easy for Robinho to get shots in a couple of times, the first of which was nearly very costly. He was superb in the air for the last 20 minutes as Manchester city made a concerted effort to try and play diagonal balls into his area of the pitch. That was a stupid tactic. Dawson was pretty good too. He was better going forward and made several good runs that weren’t spotted by his mates. He was immaculate in the air, though as my friend pointed out, he doesn’t often play against men smaller than he is.

Zayatte and Gardner continue to build a nice partnership. There’s a nice understanding growing, or rather Gardner understands what the hell Zayatte is going to do and adjusts accordingly. Gardner is a traditional centre half, he’s great in the air, marks tightly and has superb positioning, while Zayatte is erratic, unpredictable and bloody brilliant. He charged stupidly into two attackers to concede free-kicks but was otherwise excellent again.

The Middle

Bullard was great again. He played two poor passes, which makes about three bad passes in three and a half games (as opposed to Marney’s three poor passes ever three and half minutes). In this game he added lung bursting runs into his repertoire. He probably picked the wrong option at the end of a couple of superb runs but you forgive him for that because the rest of his game is exceptional. He was able to play further forward in the last 20 minutes after Browny made the terrific decision to remove Marney and put Boateng on to sit in front of the back four. Boateng was absolutely superb, won every tackle and header and started moves simply, while Bullard waved his magic wand deep in their half. Marney hadn’t been terrible but he didn’t display the quality in possession that we need.

Hunt had another fine game, he gives us great balance, covers his full-back and has quality around the box. On the right, we switched around a lot in the second half. Garcia played out there for the most part and he had his best game in ages. He won almost every ball in the air, carried the ball well, tackled back and linked up well with Altidore when he went up front. He was desperately unlucky not to score when Altidore played him in and his lovely dink over Given was kicked off the line. Barmby and Geovanni also took turns out on the right. Barmby was effective again in running the game out because he doesn’t let anyone have an easy way out.

We have some good options in the middle at the moment. Bullard, Boateng, Olofinjana and Marney all offer something different. Obviously, it should be Bullard plus one but the other three all have value. Boateng is a good protector but lacks stamina these days. Olofinjana looks a good bet for drifting forward and has shown good ability to get into the box recently, while Marney gives you a lot of energy, a presence at both ends of the field and good set piece delivery.

The Front Line

Altidore was decent again. He didn’t see as much of the ball as he did on Wednesday and occasionally failed to hold onto it as required but he put in a lot of effort, battled for everything and showed some great awareness. He’s got a lot of room for improvement but seems to get better the more he plays. He needs to work on staying alert off the ball. He seems to drift off and so doesn’t react when a chance might fall to him (see Garcia’s header down against West Ham) or a couple of times in the middle yesterday when he could’ve robbed or closed down defenders.

Geovanni was pretty quiet. He doesn’t seem to suit playing up front, he likes to move around the pitch more and get involved. He was better when he moved out to the right but had run out of the energy he needed to get the better of Wayne Bridge. He carried the ball well but then didn’t look like beating the full back and getting the ball in. He and Altidore didn’t have the chemistry that Fagan and Garcia have shown up top. I think we’d be best with Geo moving out to the right and Fagan returning to partner Altidore. Big Jan came off the bench again, switching him and Altidore must be the most common substitution in the Premier League. Jan did a decent job and was well involved in the goal. The penalty was taken by Bullard and the celebration was just great. I’ve been banging on about how funny it would be all week and fortunately Paul McShane had the same idea. Further prove that the people who were suggesting there are problems in our dressing room don’t know what the hell they are talking about.

If we keep showing the same spirit and quality going forward, we’re going to have no problems picking up points. Our run around Xmas and New Year takes in a few daunting games so getting something at Villa and beating Blackburn at home would be most advantageous. Regardless of that, what we’ve done in four games is remarkable. We had 8 points from 11 games, an average of 0.72 per game and worth a catastrophic 27 points over a season. We’ve doubled that in just 4 games, 16 points from 15 games is 1.06 points per game and worth 40 points over a season, which is bang on what we need. If we continue to pick up 8 points every 4 games, we might get into Europe!

Ratings: Duke 6, McShane 7, Dawson 7, Gardner 8, Zayatte 7, Garcia 8, Hunt 8, Bullard 8, Marney 6 (Boateng), Altidore 7 (Hesselink), Geovanni 6 (Barmby).