Wednesday 6 August 2008

Celtic 1 - 1 City

  • Taking everything into account, this was as well as we have played this pre-season. We played good football, looked physically competitive for most of the match and have the core of the team more or less in place now. It was a shame not to have won, but I think the positives outnumber the negatives.
  • Our best player was Martin Petrov. Yet again this pre-season, he was our best attacking player; whether out on the left or drifting inside. His goal was well taken, and he could have had more. Behind him, I thought Vassell was best. Despite missing one chance reminiscent of one of the many he fluffed at Pride Park last season, he continued to work very hard and get in good positions. And his touch to Sturridge who set up Petrov for the goal was sick.
  • It was very good to see both Bozhinov and Corluka in the starting eleven, for different reasons. My faith in Bozhinov is on the record, and the more he plays the better. Today he was brave, strong and competitive. He's not at the level of those YouTube clips yet, but, in time, I hope he will be. Having read that Charlie was in London to sign today, it was nice at least to see him one more time in a City shirt. There are rumours he's rejected Spurs, but if I've pledged not to believe stuff on Spurs forums (because I don't want to), I can't really lap up anything off mancityfans.net just because it predicts stuff that I want to happen.
  • Johnson and Fernandes looks increasingly settled in central midfield. Hamann turns 35 this month and doesn't seem to have the legs for regular 90 minutes, whilst Elano and Ireland have been used more often in wide positions. We could do with a new central midfielder (but if we have to sell Charlie to buy I'd rather we stuck with the squad we've got), but in the meantime Johnson and Fernandes are certainly sufficient. They didn't look fully sharp yet (Johnson's passing wasn't as perfect as usual), but physically they were impressive. I'd love to see stats on how much ground they covered, but for a friendly I think it was big.

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