Morning Rumour Mill

A quick round-up of transfer mews as we edge closer towards the window. (it's only november.)
Blues eye Marseille left-back

Taye Taiwo, the nigerian left back, who we were lnked with pre season, not sure why we didn't buy him then, are need for a left abck hasnt changed since then!

City to pounce on unsettled Adriano

A now fit Adriano has been caught out drinking again. Mourinho dropped him for the following games, he's looking like his old self, had a brilliantt season in brazil and is doing it for his national side, of course i would take him.



Article on city target Sergio 'kun' aguero

a reported 35 million deal is in city sights to seal a magnificent player, if you catch this weeks repeat of revista la liga, he scored two goals for atletico!


cheers to footballl fitler for useful site


* oh and well done joey barton, another rash studs up tackle and sticking his finger into Agbonlahor face, Yes of course he has changed! The ref, arrogant creep steve bennet chose to ignore the incident, Barton should of been sent of in the game! Chris Hughton said incidents will get blown out of proportion when joey is involved, he's right of course, but the fact joey is already involved in incidents shows nothing has changed at all.

Liverpool Reserves Vs City Reserves

Update* The game finishes 1-2 to city! Vassell(ohjoy) Benjani and ball all played 45 mins! Benji of course finding the back of the net.

- shock result of the night, Toon beat villa 2-0 , obafemi scored twice, Shocking result, considering Kinnear is a buffoon.

LIVE UPDATE


Team: Johansen, Logan, M Ball, Mee, McDonald, Clayton, Weiss, Marshall, Vassell, Benjani, McDermott.

Subs: Poole, Hartley, Williamson, Kay, Daly.


score 2-1 to city so far, Marshall and Benjani scoring

LIVE LINK

Bolton 1 Richard dunne 1 vs Man city 0

Another awful result to add to our pretty awful away form. The worst performance of the season i have to say. Previous games against boro, newcastle we played pretty well, defensive flaws let us down. Yesterday we were awful at the back and up front. No Jo again, means we are not effective upfront, Ched Evans tried hard, but didn’t really worry the Bolton defence, he’s too inexperienced. The decision to remove Elano again seems to be costly, hamann was pretty bad, we lost elano gift to create something out of nothing. Hughes be warned, we could lose elano if you dont play him. The Defence again failed to perform, kompany was often the one cleaning up the mess at the back. Micah played most of the game upfront, it doesnt work! Ben haim out performed dunney, zabaleta fairly solid as ever, But dunne again looks dodgey and scored another own goal, i don’t understand why this bloke is captain, he seems to be lost most of the time, doesn’t grip the team when needed, he may be replaced if he doesn’t buck his ideas up.

Hart- Kicked the ball out all game, we lost the ball everytime. Didn’t really have much to do all game 6

Zabaleta-Solid, good to have him back. Couple of poor crosses, so did everyone else. 7

Ben Haim- Decentish (not a real word). Tried going foward. 7

Dunne- Crap distribution, own goal again, poor leadership. Average display. 6

Richards- Not very good going foward, tries too hard, hopefully back in the centre soon. 5

Kompany- Solid, Strong, did most of the covering at the back. 8

Elano- tried hard, alot of balls going foward, shouldnt of gone off. 6

Ireland- poor game, did very little, cant finish, often off-side, yet whinges when he doesnt get the ball- stupid! 6

SWP- Woeful, poor ball retention, didn’t look as good as he has earlier this season. Couldnt shoot. 5

Robinho- poor game, lost the ball too much, although could of scored, always has the ability to change a game. 6

Evans- Doesn’t read passes very well, not very skillfull, decent pass to ireland was about it, not a threat to bolton defence. 6

Subs:

Sturridge- 6 what could he do?

Hamman- 5 worst performance from him, i’ve seen.

Bolton- too physical, awful side really, makes it even harder to take, that we lost.

Notlob Vs City - Preview

Hughes is desperate for a bit of consistancy. He score alot of goals, but also leak alot. Against boro, we looked like city of old, plenty of chances, but couldnt find the net. I dont think that will be a problem too much this season, Ian wright has tipped robiho to reach his 30 target, that will do for me! Jo is desperate for a goal, i reckon it will come tomorrow!

Defence wise, Zabaleta returns much to our delight, hopefully micah will return to centre back, not sure who will feature left back, ben haim cant really do it, garrido, we know cant tackle. Ball clearly fallen out with hughes, but simply isnt good enough either! Glauber berti is very tall, looks like a centre back to me, but he is left footed.

Team wise, as noted on other blogs, it looks likely that elano will be the fall guy from away games. CAUTION! hughes, he is our best player, he does alot more work than most people credit him for. I'm inclined to bring in ireland and elano around kompany, in a more compact midfield, we know ireland has defensive qualities, ask him to use them more. Effectivly gearing us for breaking, rather than dominating, we can let them play in their own half and have the ability to take advantage of sloppy play. I think ireland and elano are more than capable of sitting deep.


My predicition city win 3-1

Man city 0 - Boro 2

Another disgraceful score line. With over 60% possesion through out the game and a significantly greater amount of chances on goal, yet again we lacked the goal machine to put away all of our chances.

Boro are a pretty crap side, that we should beat easily! Yet again we outplay a team but still come away with nothing.

Chances from SWP, Ireland, Kompany, Robinho, Elano, Struridge. The boro goalkeeper played well, but the finishing wasnt good enough! We have scored alot of goals this season, but we should of scored more.

The penalty decision was woeful! Sturridge didnt do anything wrong! It wasnt a foul, and ultimately gave boro the game.

Hughes decision to replace elano, with road runner gelson, seems strange when we needed to score a goal.

We need to be more clinical, after winning at the weekend, i thought we would grind out another win, but we failed in the final third, We need to beat Bolton to get our season on track.

News Roundup!

Been linked with more players after the incidents over the weekend - Juande Ramos next day harry! ( my own headline)

Jermaine Defoe and Lassana Diarra have been linked to move up north along with an obvious trip to join harry at spurs. I wouldn't mind diarra, think he's one of the best in the league in his role! He will come at a price but who cares, WERE RICH!

We have been linked with Mario Balotelli the young italian striker, who until recently was still considered a ghanaian immigrant in italy, until they realized how good he is. The player is reportedly worried about his development under Mourinho and would like a move. A great buy in my eyes, hope it happens!

QPR want to make a loan move for super danny sturridge, but Hughes has rightly put his foot down and said the golden boy isnt going anywhere! Great news! Hughes is letting these young lads fight for their place!

City 3 - Stoke 0 Robinho 3 goal stunner!

The Starting line up came as a shock today, with Jo omitted from the whole team (through illness). Evans was chosen as next choice, but to my dismay! I struggle with the lad, dont really rate him at the moment, yeah, he got a decent assist today, but otherwise he just seems to lack finesse and all round quality. Passing and general ability to take on defenders isn't really there. Sturridge now has to over take hughes golden boy, taffy evans, in the striker rankings!

City again flattered in the 1st half; a good goal from Robinho, but no real penetration afterwards tills half time. I hate it, when we pass it around like a training match, it happened against the geordies and i was worried it would happen again.

We could have had a shed full in the second half, Two more great goals form the main man robinho, but SWP, Ireland and Micah should of all netted.

Pullis felt his team should have got something from the game, disagree! They had a couple of chances that were well saved from Joe hart, who played his best of the season. They are horribly physical side and were allowed to continue by the ref, who didnt really have a bad game, but should have clamped down on the over physical challenges. We peppered Sorensen, who looks to have revived his career, looking like the top class goalie has he left behind last season. Sturridge changed the game today, someone more gifted up front to complement what we had going in the midfield. We could of been 10 nil up by the end of it, stoke were lucky we didnt score more!


Players performance
Hart: Best game of this season for me, less dodgey at set pieces, delaps's throws are quite slow and can be picked up easier than a cross. Made some cracking saves today, to top off his new contract at the club!

Richards: looked off the pace today, although brightened up towards the end of the game, glad he's fit. Should of scored, he tried to blast it, unlucky, the other players seemed to find it amusing that he missed.

Ben Haim: Couple of cock-ups, but by far his best performance, tackling was superb today and his distribution on the whole is better than dunnie.

Dunne: 1st tackle, it thought he was going to have a cracker, MEN had him down as being almost faultless, almost being the word, he made a couple of mistakes today, but is looking like he can recover form, which we need.

Garrido: Defending wise pretty average for him, got skinned a couple times and missed a sliding tackle in the box towards the end, some decent balls today, some not so great a usual performance for the lad.

Kompany- MEN gave him a 6!!! Did they watch the game, he was brilliant today, made so many tackles, dropped deep when needed and eventually moved to centre back because he was so solid today. Back on Form!

Elano: Outstanding again for me, He is the engine of our team, he creates so much through clever balls and movement, was desperate for a goal, and made some decent efforts on goal. My man of the match (usually goes to the hat trick hero!)

Ireland: quiet game today for stevie, but again came alive towards the end, great ball for swp in the build up for the final goal.

SWP: Much better from him today! Allot of effort, cocked up a big chance, but help assist another, he will be even better Vs boro!

Robinho: Outstanding, full of class today! Finished well every time. I knew from go, when he 1st broke on goal, we was going to be a handful today

Evans: Nice assist looks like a revved up nutter that will challenge anything, far from the finished article! Injury doesn’t look great

Subs
Sturridge: Changed the game, created goals, and nearly scored himself, very strange that he's 3rd choice.

Onouha: much better today, played a wicked ball in the box, glad he looked less surprised to be playing.

Gelson: it's like letting a jack Russell out of a box, he is everywhere, full of energy, running into both boxes.

Ref :

Steve Tanner: well done, the game flowed fairly well, only one card, should of gripped physical stoke more, but did well!


3-0 a good result to set us up for the REVENGE match at boro midweek. Great news about hart signing a new 5-year deal at the club. Good day all round for city, but not for juande ramos i guess!