City pay hefty price for transfer folly
There were so many promises and excitable predictions when City lifted the trophy in the most dramatic of fashions last May as Aguero fired home his side’s 93rd strike of a thrilling campaign; the likes of captain Vincent Kompany insisted this was to be the start of a new era, the end of United’s domination and the day the noisy neighbours took control of the Premier League sound system for the foreseeable future.
But in fact it has taken only 11 months for City to throw away their advantage, for United to return to their traditional spot at the top of table and for the familiar strains of Take Me Home United Road to be rebroadcast across north-west England.
Of course United haven’t clinched the title just yet; and even if they beat their derby rivals at Old Trafford this evening, it will not be mathematically over.
But everyone, including those behind the scenes at the Etihad, know the ribbons on the trophy will be red and not blue by the end of May, so this is still the perfect time to analyse what went wrong for the champions who failed so miserably to defend their trophy.
For owner Sheikh Mansour and City manager Roberto Mancini, that shouldn’t be too complicated a task because on the face of it they only need to look at one word: goals.
From the moment Aguero hit the net against QPR, the message coming from Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford was that his team had lost the title only because they didn’t score often enough; and it would never happen again.
His answer was to spend big on Robin van Persie, beating City to his signature of course, to add Shinji Kagawa to his squad and to hand Danny Welbeck a more prominent role in an increasingly attacking line up that has often seen four strikers on the field at the same time.
There were risks in Ferguson’s strategy; especially as his defence conceded so often in the first half of the season — most notably away from home — and his side was forced to come from behind on so many occasions. But as the season wore on, it has became obvious the United manager, as always, is ahead of the game.
The reality is that football in the Premier League has become more focused on attack in recent seasons and the old adage of ‘win at home, draw away’ seems to have been put to one side; not least because so many teams field expansive line-ups both home and away and put far more emphasis on playing positive, attacking football.
So how come Manchester City didn’t feel the vibe and react to it? Having won praise for putting aside his Italian ‘defence is everything’ principles to encourage his team to play more expansive football last season, Mancini seems to have reverted to his old ways just at the time when everyone else is going in the opposite direction — and his side have scored just 55 times, 15 short of the champions-elect.
His first mistake, of course, was missing out on signing van Persie in the first place — but it was an even bigger error not to take advantage of City’s new stature as champions of England to attract an alternative big-name signing to the Etihad.
There is no better time to bring new players to a football club than when a trophy is glistening in the cabinet; and yet arguably City have been left weaker rather than stronger by the departure of Mario Balotelli, Adam Johnson, Emmanuel Adebayor and Nigel de Jong — and the arrival in their place of under-performers such as Scott Sinclair and Maicon.
The end result has been a lack of goals; and the statistics make grim reading for City fans.
The club’s top scorer in the league this season is Eden Dzeko and even he has managed only 14 so far, meaning there isn’t a single Manchester City player in the top 10 list of Premier League goalscorers.
On top of that, City have managed only 20 goals away from home all season and to put that figure in perspective, it is only three more than relegation-certainties QPR have managed in the same campaign.
Under those circumstances, the squad desperately needed reinforcements in January; but once again Mancini and Mansour failed to deliver. In fact the only arrival was the unheard-of Godsway Donyoh, who was promptly loaned out to a club in Sweden, while Balotelli — the man who set up Aguero’s winning goal on that heady day last May, was dispatched to Inter Milan without a replacement being found.
In short, Manchester City, who last season were accused of buying the title, have effectively sold it this year through their failure to work the transfer market — and their failure to go for goals.
Somewhere along the line, it seems, Mancini has taken his finger off the pulse of the Premier League; and, whatever happens at Old Trafford tonight, he is paying a heavy price.
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