ESPN Soccernet - Correspondents - Manchester City- 2-1 results bad news for City

Posted by Wallace Poulter on 02/13/2011

A troubling 2-1 defeat should be a concern to City fans. The game against United? No, that ended as expected as City still do not match up well with their neighbours. I'm referring to Tottenham travelling to the North East and taking all three points in their encounter with Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.

Spurs are now two points behind City with a game in hand. While Chelsea lie 5th in the table, two games and five points behind City, I expect Carlo Ancelotti's club to ultimately qualify for the Champions League. The battle for that 4th spot is between Spurs and City.

And this got me thinking. I'm not a general proponent of the good old days. You know the ones, you had to walk to school and back uphill both ways after putting a full shift in at the mine and then only had bread for supper if you were lucky. Yeah, those good old days. But it seems to me that we have lost something incredibly important when it comes to football in England. It doesn't matter if you win the league.

Now it can be argued that the Premier League is the most successful football league on the planet. An indication of this is that all the big money investments in club acquisitions happen in the Premier League. And money is always, without exception, the trail that you should follow. The goal these days is to qualify for the Champions League, not to win the Premier League.

Before it was the Champions League, the competition was the European Cup. Only a league champion, and the previous year winner, were eligible. In many ways the European Cup echoed the FA Cup in that it was possible for a smaller club to go on a magical run and even win the tournament. Today with four English, Spanish and Italian clubs entered each year that is impossible.

Back in 1955 the legendary secretary of the FA, Alan Hardaker prohibited Chelsea from entering the first European Cup. There's some controversy over whether that was for noble or xenophobic reasons, and Hardaker is not in a position to defend himself over such claims having passed in 1980. However the idea has merit.

It is time for a radical rethink as to how the Premier League and the FA interact with FIFA, UEFA and their various competitions and calendars. Realistic estimates put the value of a Champions League place around 20-30 million pounds for English clubs. As with all things the 50 million estimate in the papers is an exaggeration. The Big 6 of clubs are not going to voluntarily walk away from the opportunity to add such revenue of course. But somehow there needs to be a change and finding a way to make the League Champion important again would be a good start.

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Comments

Posted by Roy Singh on 02/13/2011

A total commitment from all quarters of the playing staff will earn us CL qualification next year

Posted by Mal on 02/13/2011

On what basis do you expect Chelsea to win a Champions League place. Their last 15 games are won 5, drawn 5 and lost 5. Since they stuffed the useless teams in their first 10 games they have been a middle table team. 15 games is a long time to be out of form.

Wallace Reply Torres and Luiz

Posted by Nic on 02/13/2011

"WELL SAID u two!

Posted by John French on 02/14/2011

Wallace, you may or may not remember me. I was the person who said Joe Cole was a spent force and a bad signing for Liverpool. You disagreed. I saw him more that was the difference. Anyway as I see it City have the same problem as Chelsea. I think Chelsea might actually manage to win the CL not sure about the CL places though. In any event you (like me) should be on your prayer mat on a nightly basis hoping that you score TSO (Jose) in the summer. Mancini like Ancellotti makes too many excuses with a richness of resources at his disposal. Jose would be grinding out results with ease for either club right now and I'd take trophies over 6-0 wins any day of the week.

John

Wallace Reply I'd really like Cole to be given the opportunity to play the AMC role in a 4-2-3-1. To my mind he's been played out of position forever. However at the moment your view seems to be winning the day.

Mancini is an interesting situation for me. I believe that he has left far too many points get away because of some conservative tactics. And yet it is unreasonable to expect the side to gel so quickly. Traditionally it takes a foreign player 18 months to get used to the English game. With so many players added City in 3rd at this point is a minor miracle. Next year is the test for me. City need 1 more starter and some back ups but the first team is pretty much set and playing together for a year will allow us to finally see City at their best - that's not been the case yet this year.

Posted by Ben on 02/14/2011

Agreed 15 games is a long time. Their game against Spurs they were awful and lucky to leave with a point, same against Everton. It will take more than 2 additional players to lift them, its a team game. Torres is only as good as his supply.

Posted by Darran on 02/14/2011

Porto may disagree with your view that a 'smaller' club can't win the champions league.

Torres looks like a busted flush and has done all season as witnessed in his insipid display against Liverpool(another midtable team.)Luiz is untested in the premiership and its foolish to just accept he will be a success.
Chelsea look old and tired.

Posted by Ben on 02/14/2011

What a boring unoriginal article. It's one thing wanting to win the Premiership it's another doing it. Have seen hundreds of similar artciles to this down the years

Posted by The Archivist on 02/14/2011

Wallace wrote "The goal these days is to qualify for the Champions League, not to win the Premier League." Well, thank you for sorting that out for us, Wallace, but I somehow think that United and Arsenal might beg to differ.

I guess United, Arsenal and Chelsea, upon receiving this revelation, will melt down their Prem trophies from the CL era and sell the silver for cash, eh?

Wallace Reply Follow the money. It's not about winning, it's about qualifying.

Posted by Sean Hollinger on 02/14/2011

These past few games have shown how important De Jong is 4 city. dnt know if thers a more dominent CDM in the premier league. mancini sometimes is a tatical genius but i think he got it wrong in the derby..Dzeko had to be let unleashed on United.
how bout yaya and d jong holdn midfield with milner/johnson and silva roaming in front and down the wings and tevez jus in behind dzeko/balotelli ???

Wallace Reply de Jong is the most important player on the team and City need to experiment to make sure they have an adequate replacement when he is unavailable.

Posted by richiee on 02/14/2011

would love for liverpool to take the 4th spot and see the look on Torres face when he ends up playing euroleague again...a distant wish but.......

Posted by Hari on 02/14/2011

Hi Wallace,
good to see you back....
I know the media says city were marginally better blah blah but I'd like your opinion on city's overall performance in the derby and if u can, about the system city used with Kolarov as a midfielder to great effect at WBA.

Posted by micky2times on 02/14/2011

Hi Wallace, glad to see you back. I think you are too fond of Torres, time will tell, but if Chelsea get a CL spot, I think it won't have much to do with him. Surely it will take time for him to gel into a new team, and there is always the possibility of injury with him.
For City, a top four must be achieved this season. How else can you justify the cost of all these players? Mancini will have to be sacked if top 4 is not achieved! No excuses. Did I read that you think he would be Manager of the Year (not counting Ian Holloway and the miracle of Blackpool)? In my opinion Mancini is way to defensive, and since City have potentially the most attacking team in the PL, the results simply are not good eneough.
What about O'Neill for the top job, he has been great at every club he ever managed.
As regards the Champions League, I think in the next few years SKY will make alot of changes, and whatever SKY wants, SKY gets.

Wallace Reply Mancini is ahead of schedule as far as I'm concerned. It takes time for a new team to come together and I anticipated that this year the top four would be out of reach. It's an incredible job if the club qualify for the CL.

Posted by Bob on 02/14/2011

If I were you I would worry about the derby result. For most of the game City looked a very solid unit and their passing game was considerably better than Utd's. Yet somehow they failed to make it count.

Wallace Reply Give Silva, the two full backs and Dzeko/Balotelli a full year and I think we'll see a different result.

Posted by Anujit on 02/14/2011

"The goal these days is to qualify for the Champions League, not to win the Premier League." I can't agree with this statement any less!

The difference between being EPL champions and qualified for CL is huge. The difference also is that only 2-3 teams every year can realistically challenge for the EPL title. And right now its just 2. Whereas 6-7 teams can contest a CL spot. So ManC and everyone else down the ladder know they are out of the title race and are trying for the consolation of at least qualifying for the CL.

Wallace Reply CL football brings more money and more worldwide recognition. This brings higher sales of merchandise and the ability to charge more for sponsorships etc. It's this revenue that impacts the ability of the club to compete under the UEFA "Status Quo" rules.

Posted by Suhail on 02/14/2011

This is an honest piece Wallace and I fully agree. I think it's a travesty that teams like Liverpool can boast of a Champions League trophy in recent years when they haven't even been champs of England in over 20 years (not picking on them deliberately but it's the most glaring example).

I think a precondition of being able to enter the Champions league should be that you have to have won the domestic league within the last 5 years. On that basis only Manu and Chelski would qualify from England, but who cares, it would actually BE a Champions League. I know this won't happen though because there are too many big clubs that would be excluded - Liverpool, Arsenal, PSG, Juve, Valencia spring to mind. There would also be less games overall so less money for the teams taking part, but it would actually have some value because the local league would become far more important to win.

Posted by Wilbur on 02/14/2011

Are you suprised we didn't make a move for Luiz in the January window? We definitely need a first choice CB and he looks like a good one for the future? Thoughts?

Wallace Reply Luiz or someone else, yes. City do not have the ability to play a straight back four while United do. One of the biggest differences between the two clubs at the moment.

Posted by Nick on 02/14/2011

This may be true, but it also reeks of rationalization on the part of those who are not going to win the title this year after spending tens of millions in the transfer market, mainly: Manchester City. As a United supporter, I will say that the title does matter. Last year's runner-up position was, in fact, a blow that resonated throughout the club. I will concede that the import of this season's title-run-in-progress (and last year's as well) is again magnified by the quest to eclipse Liverpool. Once/if number 19 is in the bag, it is hard to imagine the title carrying the same weight. We will be rewriting the book - far less exciting and personal than the chase - but winning the premiership will remain a primary concern year in, year out. If club supporters are content with the low-hanging - but exalted - CL fruit, so be it. In City's case, I suppose qualification will have to be considered success given the historical scarcity.

Wallace Reply The average fan couldn't tell you who won the Premier League for the last 5 years. Same for that matter with the FA Cup. It's all about the "big 4" which has turned into the "big 6" and qualification for Europe.

Winning the PL should be a big deal. Frankly United should be receiving huge accolades for their approaching milestone (you'll notice I picked United to win the league in my preview when most were predicting their demise). City were never going to win the PL this year, too many new players. You need a settled squad.

Posted by scott wakerley on 02/14/2011

2-1.Cant help but think about the grin Mark Hughes must have on his face right about now.What was that about a lack of success?

Posted by Dean on 02/14/2011

I one hundred percent agree with you that the Premier league is the best league the world and here is my basis for this. If there were a European league for, lets say, the Championship sides (next league down) theres is no doubt in my mind that the English sides would dominate! And if you look at all the major tables in Europe, find the difference in points between the top team and bottom, the EPL dominates. English - 1st place = 52 points, last place = 24 points, a difference of 33 points. Spanish league has a difference of 43, Italian has 37, German has 36 and French has 36. This math simply says that the bottom teams in the premier league tend to take more points off the top. However they are varied in the amount of games.

I do expect Chelsea to finish 2nd or 3rd, with City 3rd or 4th and Arsenal and Spurs fighting for 4th. And yes that is because of the signings and key injured players on the return (Alex, Zhirkov)

Posted by Mancurian on 02/14/2011

Regarding the UEFA Cup, the leauge champions should be the only one's to automaticly qualify the other three should go in a hat and randomly get drawn out "same as FA Cup" and the surviving teams go into the UEFA Cup pod.

Posted by nick on 02/14/2011

this is just a sad piece from a sad supporter of a sad club.

you only dont care about winning the league because your team cant win it. you say the average fan cant name the last five winners which is why everyone says city have shite fans.

grow some balls and man up. stop making excuses. the saddest thing about city becoming a money driven excuse of a club is that their fans are now reduced to "following the money"

Wallace Reply I'd love for City to win the league and with this team and the addition of 3 players this summer I would pick City to win next year. And it still doesn't change the situation that it's all about qualifying for the CL.

Posted by Emran on 02/15/2011

i am really disappointed at most club's management in the PL, like exactly what Ferguson said, clubs are firing mangers frequently as they changed their cloths. I agree with Ferguson 100%. in order to be a huge force in the tittle race, a club manager needs to adjust his team and get to know his players well to find a winning combination. To me i don't think buying top players frequently is going to bring you trophies, unless you are Mourinho. No one will ever top Ferguson achievement at United i cant wait to see who will be his successor!! i totally agree with you John i would take trophies all day over 6-0 win, but then again you wont win trophies with producing wins. For City and Spurs finishing in the top four is a great achievements, to start wining titles and qualifying to CL more often you require a manager with a mind set of grinding results when its needed and farm hold and knowledge of the club

Wallace Reply Ferguson wins because Ferguson understands better than anyone how to build a squad that competes for 4 trophies every year. United don't have 25 superstars nor do you hear complaints about players wanting more playing time. He has a system in place that works. I think at least half the managers in the PL are better tactically then Ferguson on a match by match basis but squad building wise he's light years ahead of the next manager.

Posted by Jenkins on 02/15/2011

Wallace are you out of your mind?
Mancini has spent a 160 million.

and you say it would be a great achievement if he finishes in the top four.

look at mourinho in 2004/2005 he didn't spend as much and they spanked thepremier league (95 points one defeat 15 goals conceded) explain that to me.

hw can u spend 160 quid and not be expected to challenge for the title? give me a break wallace

Wallace Reply This is a fair comment NEXT year, not this year. It takes at least a year for a team to come together and doesn't matter whether they cost 2 million or 20 million a player.

Posted by Hari on 02/15/2011

Waht do you think about playin kolarov as a midfielder?

Wallace Reply I don't like it. But this is because City have yet to play a proper Inter diamond all season and as long as Tevez plays they still will not.

Posted by Wilbur on 02/15/2011

So as a follow up to my earlier e-mail in regards to David Luiz. I watched him play last night for Chelsea and he was awesome except for one bad tackle to give away the penalty. While that was very silly.

He was by far the best player on the field for Chelsea and that was amazing considering its his first premier league start and it was on the road.

He's going to be good for years to buy and City should have definitely spent the money on him because as is obvious to me, Kolo Toure is no longer rated by Mancini.

Wallace Reply Every report I've read about the game says Luiz was outstanding. Opportunity missed I feel.

Posted by HonestJohn on 02/15/2011

The goal might be qualifying for you and your lot, Mr. Wallace, but the goal for United is to win everything, period. Qualifying isn't a goal, it's a safety net.

Posted by James W. on 02/15/2011

Hey Wallace, if Man City somehow doesn't finish in the top four to qualify for Champions League next year, would it be considered a disappointing season?

Wallace Reply It shouldn't, but it will. It is extremely rare to throw together a team and have it perform at even close to a high level the first year they are together. I felt, still do, that City had more of a chance in the Cups this year as Mancini has form in such competitions in Italy.

Posted by jason wilcox on 02/16/2011

honestjohn.....i think you miss the point. its not about upmanship or whos got the biggest.
the debate (in City circles) is about the maturity of the team and the club when it comes to success on the field....this season City are still in an underdeveloped stage, where the team is concerned. As far as the club goes.....well horror story when it comes to success. CL qualification is the correct goal given where we are at with growth.
The ManU goal (as noted) should be completely different to ours, and yes it should be to go out and win everything on offer. CL team selection at Utd v FA cup selection....easy to see what's important to Sir Alex.

earlier post of Mancini v TSO....no contest obviously. i do believe we took the best option that was available at the time. mancini is a significant improvement on Hughes (i do thank Hughes btw for is effort at the club....he just isn't a top 4 team manager in the EPL)....Mancini seems to be....time will tell.

Posted by Hari on 02/16/2011

Wallace
Why cant city play the Inter diamond with Tevez?

Wallace Reply Tevez's natural instinct is to come back for the ball into the area where Silva should be playing. The Inter diamond needs two strikers working in the channels, think between the full back and centre half on each side and then making runs as needed. If Tevez would hold his position he could play the Inter diamond but he doesn't.

I'd like to see Hart; Kolarov, Boateng, Kompany, Zabaleta/Richards; de Jong, Milner, Small Berries, Silva; Balotelli and Dzeko as a starting line up in an Inter diamond.

Posted by Bob on 02/17/2011

Back to the most current pressing need of our team: a world class center back. Do you think we have a chance to get Chielini from Juventus? My guess its possible for the right amount of money plus City making the Champions League, and Juventus not making the Champions League?

Your thoughts on the possibility of the above, and any secondary center back options available. I know there was talk of Victor Ruiz but he just moved in January (which we also missed out on).

Wallace Reply World Class Italians rarely leave Italy for the PL. Chiellini is my first choice and I also like a number of the German players particularly when de Jong is playing in front of them. That being said a Boateng/Kompany partnership is one I'd like to see have a chance to prosper.

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