Manchester City are what football is meant to look like these days, and their manager Manuel Pellegrini is blasting his way to a lot of trophies.
None of the current Premier League title contenders is a patch on City at the moment as they chase their 100th goal of the season against Cardiff City on Saturday.
I would expect City to win more than one trophy this term. Definitely. I picked Chelsea for the title at the start of the season and I can hardly jump ship now. If Chelsea do end up as champions it will be a triumph of tactics because City are certainly playing the best football. They are blitzing teams. By the time they play Barcelona in the Champions League they may even be slight favourites. Only Bayern Munich would be shorter odds in a one-off game.
Alvaro Negredo was in my fantasy team at the start of the season, which raised the odd eyebrow. I feel vindicated now. Sergio Agüero is their No 1 striker but I am a huge fan of Negredo. City bought the best of the available Spanish strikers. Negredo is a real finisher. He strikes the ball hard and strikes it true. He can score with both feet and his head. He is almost an English type of striker. He can take a bang, he use
At the start of the season I did not assume Pellegrini would play with two strikers. His formation is basically 4-4-2, which goes against the favoured system in today’s game. There is a willingness on City’s part to go toe-to-toe with everyone. The message is: we will score more goals than you. And they have so many different avenues to go down, not least from right-back, where Pablo Zabaleta, who has so much energy, is superb
Everywhere you look, you see goals, you see a threat. Set-pieces, through the centre-backs, are another example. One note of caution was sounded by Bayern Munich in the Champions League group stage, at the Etihad, where Bayern flooded the midfield and controlled the ball for much of the game.
In Europe, City could come unstuck if they leave the central midfield area exposed. They did against Bayern at home and paid the price.
But City are far and away the best team in the Premier League, in my eyes, though the best team are not always champions in May. In domestic competitions, league and cups, City can feel confident playing the way they do. Against the very best, in Europe, they might have to change the make-up of the team. But why change it now, when they are on the verge of 100 goals, and when no team can cope with them?
Against Barcelona, in the round of 16, they may not have to sacrifice a striker so much as use one in a different position. For example one could drop back in to the left. After the Bayern Munich experience at home I would expect Pellegrini to use a little more caution and show a little more respect to the biggest opponents. In those games the intricacies can tip a game either way. In general, though, he has it spot on.
Agüero’s name was barely mentioned at the Ballon d’Or but he is in the highest rank of strikers. Six of the world’s best forwards can be found in three high-class partnerships at City, Manchester United and Liverpool.
Agüero is everything you would want him to be: strong, quick committed, prolific. The only thing he lacks is height, yet he still scores with his head. Already we have seen that he is back to his best after a spell out with injury.
With such an abundance of strikers, you have to look elsewhere for vulnerabilities – in areas where the back-up is not quite so strong. If Vincent Kompany or Yaya Touré were injured I would feel more anxious for City. They are the two players you would dread losing, which is not to understate the importance of Agüero.
City’s two centre-halves sit back while the full-backs bomb on. The other day Didi Hamann provoked a reaction by saying Touré is not always mindful of his defensive responsibilities. The adverse response to those comments surprised me because I also see him as an attacking midfielder.
Every time I have seen him he has been at his best going forward. He has so much ability it is hard for him to stay deep and dictate play from there.
His talents carry him forward. When play is building up you see him ghosting towards the box, not looking back to see what he is leaving behind.
He is an attack-minded player, which sums up City’s team. Although they play two in the central midfield area, at least one of them tends to be attack-minded. Add the full-backs bombing forward and you have quite a potent mix.
Pellegrini has raised the confidence of these players to an impressive level so that everything is flowing for them. Just about every City player is performing to the peak of his ability. If you can establish that in the dressing room you have a happy group and the results will follow.
There is no need to be a world-class tactician. You just let good players do their stuff. There is no tactical innovation with Pellegrini. He just has everyone in their best positions, playing with freedom, and they are repaying him with goals.
All the good things going on behind the scenes will encourage these players to feel that this is their time, their era.
They are responding well to the demands being placed on them, after United took the title back off them last May.
The atmosphere around the club is vital. Pellegrini has put a smile on everyone’s face and you never hear anything about cliques or conflicts. People underestimate just how important a happy atmosphere is at a football club.
Joe Hart’s loss of form, for example, was handled well by Pellegrini. He knew what he was doing. It was a bigger issue to everyone in England than it was to him. We were all panicking about our goalkeeping situation but to Pellegrini it was a problem that could be resolved by taking Joe out of the line of fire, to let him breathe.
His calm demeanour inspires confidence. You assume he is doing the right thing. He is self-assured, just like City, with their avalanche of goals.
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