Man City have made their first signing, bringing in ex part-time left back Wayne Bridge for £10m. It's not a bad piece of business, although I'm sure Bridge's wages are astronomical what with City having to lure him out of the Winston Bogarde-founded retirement home at Chelsea. Still, Bridge is a player Man City need, and so the small matter of money was never going to get in the way.
The question is, who else do City need? Or at least where else do they need to improve on? Against Hull a couple of weeks ago their starting team looked like this: Hart, Zabaleta, Dunne, Richards, Ball, Wright-Phillips, Kompany, Ireland, Elano, Robinho, Caicedo. Ball is gone and Bridge is in, so that's one necessary step up, but who else should be making way for someone overpriced and overpayed?
Hart is not a bad goalkeeper, but he's not a great one either. He's only 21 so he certainly has time on his side, but right now City need someone experienced and dependable. They need a Reina, a Cech, a Van der Saar, an Almun...er, that may be pushing it, but they need someone between the sticks who isn't just barely elligible to buy a beer in America. It's no coincidence that Villa's acquisition of Brad Friedel has seen them mount a thus far successful push for fourth place, and if City are to make similar inroads then a goalkeeper with oodles of experience should be high on their agenda. It does seem rather unfair to Hart, but when it comes to goalkeeping, there is no substitute for experience. Hart will have his era in the sun, but right now his place is not in the starting eleven of the richest club in the world.
At right back, Zabaleta is reasonably solid, and not bad going forward either. He's not exactly Sagna or Bosingwa, but he's no worse than Arbeloa of Liverpool or, um, right back of Villa (Cuellar? Reo Coker? It's hard to know what with Shorey proving himself to be so incompetent). The problem with Zabaleta is that in the modern game it seems that you have to be black to be a good full back, but to paraphrase Mayor Tommy Carcetti, Zabaletta is white in a position that ain't (suited to white people). For now I think he'll do though, so no immediate change required.
Centre half was where City excelled last season, but this season Dunne and Richards are having a hard old time not conceding goals, and in Dunne's case, not scoring own goals. Dunne is a good centre back, but is he good enough for a top four club? He wouldn't make it into any of the top three's central defenses, but he might make it into Villa's or Arsenal's, so I'm going to say "Yes" for now. With regards Richards however, the jury is still out. He was of course hyped up to the max last season by the British media, but for once they got it wrong [?]. Richards may come good, but as with Hart, City need someone who is ready to make an assault on the big boys immediately. When Liverpool have Carragher, Skrtel and Agger fit, one of them will not be playing regularly, with one of them being Skrtel or Agger. Can City prise one of these two away? Or perhaps someone like Chiellini from Juventus would do the trick, or Alex of Chelsea.
Left back has been covered, so to the midfield we go. In my opinion, Steven Ireland and Vincent Kompany are well equipped to be City's central midfield partnership for the time being, but perhaps City need someone else in there as Barcelona always do. In their current setup, they boast 5 attack minded players and one defensive midfielder. They could do replacing Elano with someone more solid, and frankly, someone from outside of the British Isles. Someone like Aquilani perhaps. They're on the right track with Marcus Senna, but since he has turned their wads of cash down they just need someone who can do a similar job - i.e. move the ball from back to front. This person represents to key to City's success, and so they must get the right man. His quality will decide whether City will be an Arsenal or a Tottenham.
Wright-Phillips represents somewhat of an enigma for me. I know he's decent, but I'm not quite convinced he's good enough for top 4 status. For me, he's one of those players that you probably just need to bite the bullet with and replace him, even though he's not a bad option. City should hold on to him for the time being, but his place should come under threat with a couple of new signings. As I said in a previous post, Diego should be one of those, and perhaps someone like Gourcuff too. These would be "gambles", but then you're not really gambling when money isn't really at stake. The gamble I suppose is whether they will prove good enough for the Premier League, but if you're not willing to take that chance then you will end up with a squad like Sunderland's, and nobody wants that.
Up front, a striker is a must. But not just a goalscorer and nothing else. They need someone who can link up well with Robinho and Ireland. Someone with presence, who can run in behind defenders but can also get out in front. David Villa might be just that person, or perhaps they could go for someone in the same mold of Adebayor and Drogba. Karim Benzema will probably be on the market next summer, so they could really make a splash by buying one of the hottest prospects in world football. That would certainly be a signing worthy of the wealthiest club in the world.
The question is, who else do City need? Or at least where else do they need to improve on? Against Hull a couple of weeks ago their starting team looked like this: Hart, Zabaleta, Dunne, Richards, Ball, Wright-Phillips, Kompany, Ireland, Elano, Robinho, Caicedo. Ball is gone and Bridge is in, so that's one necessary step up, but who else should be making way for someone overpriced and overpayed?
Hart is not a bad goalkeeper, but he's not a great one either. He's only 21 so he certainly has time on his side, but right now City need someone experienced and dependable. They need a Reina, a Cech, a Van der Saar, an Almun...er, that may be pushing it, but they need someone between the sticks who isn't just barely elligible to buy a beer in America. It's no coincidence that Villa's acquisition of Brad Friedel has seen them mount a thus far successful push for fourth place, and if City are to make similar inroads then a goalkeeper with oodles of experience should be high on their agenda. It does seem rather unfair to Hart, but when it comes to goalkeeping, there is no substitute for experience. Hart will have his era in the sun, but right now his place is not in the starting eleven of the richest club in the world.
At right back, Zabaleta is reasonably solid, and not bad going forward either. He's not exactly Sagna or Bosingwa, but he's no worse than Arbeloa of Liverpool or, um, right back of Villa (Cuellar? Reo Coker? It's hard to know what with Shorey proving himself to be so incompetent). The problem with Zabaleta is that in the modern game it seems that you have to be black to be a good full back, but to paraphrase Mayor Tommy Carcetti, Zabaletta is white in a position that ain't (suited to white people). For now I think he'll do though, so no immediate change required.
Centre half was where City excelled last season, but this season Dunne and Richards are having a hard old time not conceding goals, and in Dunne's case, not scoring own goals. Dunne is a good centre back, but is he good enough for a top four club? He wouldn't make it into any of the top three's central defenses, but he might make it into Villa's or Arsenal's, so I'm going to say "Yes" for now. With regards Richards however, the jury is still out. He was of course hyped up to the max last season by the British media, but for once they got it wrong [?]. Richards may come good, but as with Hart, City need someone who is ready to make an assault on the big boys immediately. When Liverpool have Carragher, Skrtel and Agger fit, one of them will not be playing regularly, with one of them being Skrtel or Agger. Can City prise one of these two away? Or perhaps someone like Chiellini from Juventus would do the trick, or Alex of Chelsea.
Left back has been covered, so to the midfield we go. In my opinion, Steven Ireland and Vincent Kompany are well equipped to be City's central midfield partnership for the time being, but perhaps City need someone else in there as Barcelona always do. In their current setup, they boast 5 attack minded players and one defensive midfielder. They could do replacing Elano with someone more solid, and frankly, someone from outside of the British Isles. Someone like Aquilani perhaps. They're on the right track with Marcus Senna, but since he has turned their wads of cash down they just need someone who can do a similar job - i.e. move the ball from back to front. This person represents to key to City's success, and so they must get the right man. His quality will decide whether City will be an Arsenal or a Tottenham.
Wright-Phillips represents somewhat of an enigma for me. I know he's decent, but I'm not quite convinced he's good enough for top 4 status. For me, he's one of those players that you probably just need to bite the bullet with and replace him, even though he's not a bad option. City should hold on to him for the time being, but his place should come under threat with a couple of new signings. As I said in a previous post, Diego should be one of those, and perhaps someone like Gourcuff too. These would be "gambles", but then you're not really gambling when money isn't really at stake. The gamble I suppose is whether they will prove good enough for the Premier League, but if you're not willing to take that chance then you will end up with a squad like Sunderland's, and nobody wants that.
Up front, a striker is a must. But not just a goalscorer and nothing else. They need someone who can link up well with Robinho and Ireland. Someone with presence, who can run in behind defenders but can also get out in front. David Villa might be just that person, or perhaps they could go for someone in the same mold of Adebayor and Drogba. Karim Benzema will probably be on the market next summer, so they could really make a splash by buying one of the hottest prospects in world football. That would certainly be a signing worthy of the wealthiest club in the world.
With these signings, City's starting 11 would look something like this:
......................................Experienced Goalkeeper......................................
Zabaleta....................Dunne.....................Chiellini.................Bridge.........
...............................Kompany..................Aquilani......................................
..................................................Ireland........................................................
Diego.....................................................................................Robinho.........
...................................................Villa............................................................
Whether such an eleven is within the realms of possibility is another matter, but when you have as much money as the Abu Dhabi group have, there's very little it can't buy. There's no doubt that a team resembling the above would break into the top four, and possibly even challange for the title if managed very well. Will it look anything like this come February, or even September. Only time will tell.
2 comments:
I agree with 95% of this blog. Some notes of my own: I'd feel very sorry for Hart if they were to buy an experienced keeper and as you said I'm sure Hart is a keeper with a bright future once he gets that coveted experience but how is he to achieve this sitting on the bench watching Buffon play? I think Dunne (whose merits I don't question for one second, one bad patch in four impeccabble seasons doesn't make you a bad player) made Richards look good last season and the formers dip in former is by no means unrelated to Richards. My two big points are 1. Ive seen City play more than any other team this season (Canada likes City) and I would say Kompany is not fit for the role of holding midfielder, he has always seemed out of his depth to me and the fact that time has caught up on Hamann is for me the only reason this center back is allowed to mascarade as a midfielder. 2. As much as I like Diego (i love the little chap) the premierhsip has consistent shown it does not prove conducive to harbouring such players, players who like to float around the pitch and require the game to be built around themselves, 'arry Redknapp himself admitted as much when ruling out the acqusition of D'Alessandro.
That said, didn't D'Allesandro have a large part to play in Portsmouth's survival? If Diego arrived at City, the team wouldnt have to be built around him. Ireland, Robinho, and someone else would provide good enough creative alternatives so that it wouldnt be a case of "stop Diego and stop City". And also, he's a little terrior as well who wouldnt have much troubling adapting to the English game.
As for Kompany, I'll take your word for it, but I dont think his replacement should be a high priority.
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