Mancini unleashed City's dream attacking quartet for the first time as the Blues eased past Aris Thessaloniki last night. A front four of Tevez, Dzeko, Silva and Balotelli is about as good as it gets, and was more than enough to get through an Aris side who came to stifle but were unprepared for the number of attacking players that would be coming at them. Speaking of this formation - on one of the first opportunities he has had to use all four together - Mancini said:
"I thought we did well and in the first half I was very pleased.The problem comes when we don't have the ball. If we don't close down every situation, it could be difficult for us.We can play this formation but not often, unless we improve."
Optimistically, the answer to the 'problem' could be a fit Nigel de Jong. Although, in the first half especially, there was an effort from all the front four, Balotelli included, to get back and cover the wide midfield slots. So whilst Mancini's words are obviously a warning to City fans not to expect to see this fantasy quartet too often, he had probably seen enough last night to see that it can work against teams who come to defend.
Aris, unfortunately for their excellent travelling fans, were not a particularly difficult obstacle to overcome. After the blistering pace of the opening quarter of an hour, City rarely had to up the tempo beyond comfort to see out the tie and book an altogether more difficult encounter against Dynamo Kiev in the last 16.
The Aris fans were fantastically orchestrated from the bottom of the stand and moved as one the whole night. There was perhaps only a three second lull after Dzeko opened the scoring before they started up again. Although my favourite piece from their repertoire was a Poznan-esque move to the sound of what I am pretty sure was 'jingle bells' - an ultra masculine, intimidatory form of jingle bells.
Dzeko's two brilliantly taken goals mean that he has now scored 4 in 7 starts - which shows what a farce all the snap judgements have been. He was always going to need time to bed in, yet, as a 'settling in' goal ratio, that is not a bad return - and by his own admission, 'we ain't seen nothing yet.'
The injury to Kompany is the only worrying thing to come out of the night. He has been colossal for City this season and was putting in another fine performance before the knock on his hip. Early murmurings suggest he may be fit for Sunday, which would be a relief - but early murmurings rarely have the full story when it comes to knocks and injuries. Here's wishing him a speedy recovery!
Clarke Carlise?
ReplyDelete