I have to admit that my first experiences watching a Roberto Mancini-coached team was a good one. It was in a pre-scandal Italy (at least the recent one). Inter Milan were still a plucky 3rd or 4th best team fighting to keep up with Milan and Juve. The thing that I remember enjoying about them is that you could see just about anything from them on any given weekend. They could play the typical Italian grinding style and win 1-0, they could go up 3-0 and find a way to give away that lead for a thrilling conclusion or they could go down 3-0 and come all the way back to win 4-3. It was a win of the latter type that I recall as my first meaningful recollection of Mancini. It wasn't enough to get me to follow Serie A religiously but it was enough for me to pull for Inter.
I mention this because the same sort of pattern seems to be unfolding at Manchester City. The budget is bigger. The upside of the talent at his disposal is higher. Still, there appear to be two common characteristics that bond his Inter teams with his City teams. The first is their variance in mental discipline. No matter what has happened in the matches and even the minutes leading up to a specific instant in time appears to be entirely irrelevant to predicting what will happen next. Their first choice players will be playing poorly (like last weekend) and someone deep in the doghouse (Balotelli) or in a deep slump (Milner) score goals. You just never seem to know what is going to happen next. The week before it was looking great for the first 60 or 70 minutes and then collapsing and giving up a 2-0 lead on the road in the last 20 minutes rather than creating a 2 goal lead in the last 20 minutes.
The other thing that binds these two Mancini teams is the presence of some, shall we say, unique personalities. This season's edition features Tevez's increasingly bizarre and petulant behavior, de Jong's no-holds-barred challenges (and occasional dirty play), Dzeko's seemingly from out of nowhere personality, and of course Balotelli-being-Balotelli. For me, since I really have little for or against City historically, the combination of these two factors and Mancini's ability to manage a team to just about any outcome has made them a really fun story to follow this season. May it long continue rather than evolving the way Chelsea did under similar financial circumstances. It would be a shame if City became more ruthless but at the same time less interesting to watch.
OK, on to the player picks:
Showing posts with label David Silva. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David Silva. Show all posts
The Week Ahead, Part Two - Player Picks
Sometimes we, and by we I mean the blog, pay the price for this not being a full time job. There are times when the job that pays the bills takes precedence over the enjoyment of bringing you blog posts so long that your bosses, significant others, non-fantasy-playing friends, and children complain about the time spent on them on occasion. I enjoy writing them as much as (I hope) you enjoy reading them. Unfortunately, Wednesday and yesterday found me focused from dawn until dusk on my day job and with only enough energy to write part 1 of The Week Ahead. Because I'm guessing you'd rather have the player picks as soon as I can get them to you versus waiting until I come up with a good-sized rant to open the column, I'll dispense with the usual prelude and get right to the picks.
Week 6 Barn Door Team
It's all change at the back for me as Kieran Gibbs seems to have lost his place to Andre Santos. Who knows what is going on at Arsenal but the Brazilian did but up good points against Rovers, and gets Bolton at home this week. Another flying (former) Arsenal fullback, Armand Traore, gets the nod too. I was hoping to get him last week but didn't like the way he limped out of the Newcastle match previously. My loss as he even got an assist. Queens Park Rangers host Aston Villa, which isn't a great matchup, but I do like the option.
Another QPR new boy, Shaun Wright-Phillips, remains a bright spot in my otherwise run-of-the-mill lineup. He continued his good form in an advanced midfield role, and at 4 and change is becoming an indispensable player.
Maybe not as indispensable as David SIlva, however. This was Silva's worst week to date, but he's still putting up points with the promise of continued returns. Edin Dzeko and Sergio Aguero round out the Manchester City contingent. Hosting Everton isn't an ideal matchup, but I dare anyone to start dropping these players.
That being said, I did move former Gunner Nasri out for current Gunner Mikel Arteta. "Who knows what is going on at Arsenal" but Arteta scored a goal and was taking corner kicks. His price jumped as a result and it was worth getting him in the team before that happened.
The final midfield spot is a bit of an enabler. Yohan Cabaye is becoming the almost man for Newcastle, striking the bar against Aston Villa on a lovely snap shot from range. However, I like that he's shooting and taking kicks. Newcastle also host Rovers on Sunday and that seems to pay off. I was origianlly looking at Gabriel Obertan as a true enabler, but picking Dedryck Boyata in defence allowed me to move off someone whom I'm taking to calling "The Invisible Man". I just never see him on the pitch. Sometimes I do see him, but I've yet to see him make an impactful play. Until then, I'll keep my distance.
Of course, all this movement is to afford Wayne Rooney. I didn't keep him against Chelsea and I almost paid a very heavy price. He ended the day with a respectable 9.5 points, but missed a penalty, hit the post on another shot, and had Dimitar Berbatov skew what would have been a assist off target. Manchester United are at Stoke this week, and as we know that's a tough place to play. In fact I originally had Javier Hernandez in the team, but with his potential injury layoff combined with Rooney's irresistible form at the moment, I don't want to take the chance of missing out.
Who's on your barn door team this morning?
The Week Ahead: Part 2 - Player Picks
"Fleet Street says you're shit!" is the new tea cups.
It was interesting reading the reaction to Manchester City's Champions League debut this morning. My take after reading in a few places was that the media as a group were disappointed by City's results. I was at work yesterday and didn't get a chance to watch the match live but after spending some time watching the replay, I was struck by the incongruity between the media reaction I'd read and the match I saw.
I saw a City team that played very well and could easily have scored 3 or 4 goals. They were unlucky to hit the post (flush on one occasion and the inside on another) and not have the ball go in. I will also say that they could easily have conceded more than the one that did go in - there was a crucial goalline clearance after Hart was beaten. Still, if you total the chances that were THIS close to going in for each side, City had a decided advantage and if they had all gone in City would have won comfortably. That this was achieved without the benefit of a true holding midfielder in Nigel de Jong's absence makes it a pretty reasonable Champions League debut against a pretty strong attacking team.
Perhaps the negative reaction in the press was due to the nature of City's impressive early season start in the league. Perhaps the talent available - many with Champions League experience elsewhere - the expectation was dramatically different than say Spurs similar debut last season. Maybe it was the fact that Napoli, regardless of the talent currently on their roster, isn't one of the glamour teams in Europe while people are penciling City into that category due to their assembled talent and the depth of their bank account. Maybe it was concern over the overall quality of City's group. Whatever the reason, I think City will progress to the knock-out stages and gain momentum as the group stage evolves and they become more and more familiar with their new players.
With that relatively brief rant off my chest, we'll move on to the player picks for this week:
Eleven Things We Learned: Week 4
Never let it be said that I'm not happy to bow to the will of the audience. You asked for 11 things that we learned instead of 10 and, never one to turn down the opportunity to write more rather than less, I'm in. I have to admit that I was on the road returning from vacation all day on Saturday. I followed the matches online as they happened, I watched the replay of the Arsenal match, and I saw most of both Sunday matches. Not as much as I'd like to have see as the basis for this column but enough, when combined with highlights and fantasy results, to make for a strong column (or so I'd like to think).
Week 4 Barn Door Team
Here's my mid-week attempt to assemble a squad for the upcoming weekend. The defence is largely unchanged, with David De Gea, the wonderfully mellifluous Angel Rangel, and Matthew Briggs (though John Arne Riise started and played an hour of Norway's 0-2 loss to Denmark yesterday). I have brought in Armand Traore after his move to QPR. Hopefully he's an attacking left-back or even a spot starter in midfield. We'll see. Traore and Briggs are probably on the bubble.
In midfield I've added Samir Nasri to complement David Silva, who is playing like a season keeper. Theo Walcott and Yossi Benayoun (cheap and probably starting in place of the still suspended Gervinho) host Swansea, and while the Swans aren't pushovers (see Rangel, Angel above) Arsenal will be looking to put a few past the newly promoted team.
That's why I've made room in my team for Robin van Persie. He's more expensive, thanks to his consolation goal at Old Trattford but he is likely still value-for-money should things go Arsenal's way this weekend. Edin Dzeko gets a barn door place after his amazing four goals against Spurs. The final spot was either Sergio Aguero or Juan Mata, but with doubts over Aguero's staring place (flying back from India) and Mata's role in the team I'm leaning towards Fulham's new boy, Bryan Ruiz. They're playing Blackburn Rovers this weekend, which seems to be the recipe for fantasy success this season. Well that or playing for a Manchester side.
10 Things We Learned: Week 3
What an incredible weekend. It started with a forward who scored one goal all of last season scoring a brace and ended with three of the more remarkable fantasy performances we are likely to see all season - one from a forward who himself only scored twice in the league last season (admittedly in limited opportunity over only 15 matches).
[NOTE: Yup, I'm still tweaking the format for this Monday/Matchweek Wrap-up column. If you have any suggestions, I'm happy to hear them. The content is the content but I'm trying to come up with a nice wrapper/theme to pull it all together]
[NOTE: Yup, I'm still tweaking the format for this Monday/Matchweek Wrap-up column. If you have any suggestions, I'm happy to hear them. The content is the content but I'm trying to come up with a nice wrapper/theme to pull it all together]
Week Two Barn Door Team
This was my team after the weekend matches, though in truth I do have Riise and Formica held "behind the scenes", as Nik likes to say. There's obviously a strong Manchester City contingent after yesterday's match. Aguero was devestating in his 30-minute cameo and I wouldn't expect his playing time to be limited going forward. Silva was the straw that stirred the drink, and Richards and Toure were sometimes the most advanced players on the pitch! They travel to Bolton this weekend (top of the table clash!), and I am still betting against the Trotters. Yes, I tried that last weekend with Taarabt and DJ Campbell, and no it didn't work out. Bolton have a settled back five at the moment, even if those players couldn't keep a clean sheet to save their lives last season. I'm not going to over-react to the QPR match (though maybe I'm over-reacting to the Swansea match?) and I'm going to bet on Citeh to do the business again.
Everton and Aston Villa get strong representation here, with two players apiece. Everton are opening their season and get to do so now at home, against QPR. Saha is fit and does well when healthy. Cahill should again play as a withdrawn forward, which is great for a fantasy midfielder. He's also healthy, and scored for Australia against Wales last week. Mikel Arteta is back for Everton, but I'm not sure he'll start. Osman is a bit more expensive than Cahill but could also represent a good bet.
Aston Villa are represented after their credible 0-0 draw at Fulham. Given goes into the team and can hopefully replicate the clean sheet at home against a struggling Rovers side. Rovers played Hanley and N'Zonzi at center back last weekend so N'Zogbia (battle of the N's!) gets the nod in midfield. Other candidates for the fantasy team would include Darren Bent - LOVE the idea of his running at that makeshift backline) and Warnock - who is back in the team and getting involved going forward as far as I can tell.
Rounding out the team is Luis Suarez, who picked up right where he left off after last season and seems to be a +10 fantasy player. He should love running at, and around, the Arsenal defence this weekend. That defence may or may not have Gibbs as he is not "unlikely" to be fit. I may keep Gibbs at his ridiculously low price, but I may look to gut Bosingwa and bring in two mid-price defenders (back to Riise?) for the combined value.
Season Preview - Manchester City
Quick Reminder, Real Life
This was the season when all of the money invested started to pay off in a big way. Lots of shiny new objects came into the squad with the corresponding spare parts mostly going out on loan. Some of them fit - Yaya Toure, David Silva - while some of them didn’t - Jerome Boateng - and the jury is still out on others - Edin Dzeko, Mario Balotelli, and Aleksander Kolarov. Still, at the end of the day, the money produced results in the form of an FA Cup trophy and an invitation to Europe’s biggest dance, the Champions League, for the upcoming season. Can’t really argue with that... unless you are turned off by teams just buying big names like the real world were just a big game of fantasy football.
Quick Reminder, Fantasy
Given their results on the pitch, you’d think that there would be more fantasy success around this group but that’s just not the way it turned out. The size of the squad and the frequent rotation between very good and pretty good players kept fantasy output low. The unquestioned fantasy studs were Joe Hart and Carlos Tevez with Kompany and Kolarov putting up solid numbers as well. Beyond that, players like YToure and Silva were much more productive on the real pitch than the virtual one.
Summer Changes
Kun You Believe It?
One of the longest running transfer sagas of the last few years is finally over. Sergio "Kun" Aguero is officially a Manchester City player as of today. How does "son-in-law-of-Maradona" fit into the Citeh squad and more importantly your fantasy team? Here's the rundown:
Season Preview: Manchester City
David Silva to Manchester City
Insert mean joke about his breaking the news to Craig Bellamy here.
Manchester City's position as the most powerful spenders in English football was reaffirmed today when they flexed their financial muscle to sign David Silva, the Spain midfielder, for a fee in the region of £25m-30m.8 goals and 7 assists in 30 games for Valencia last season. Add to that 27 shots on target and you have the makings of a fantasy bargain.
Silva has agreed a four-year contract despite initial reservations about leaving Valencia for a club that had not qualified for the Champions League. The 24-year-old is likely to be followed to Eastlands by Yaya Touré, with City confidently expecting the Barcelona holding midfielder to become the latest signing in a recruitment programme that will almost certainly see them spend more than £100m this summer.
Backed by the enormous wealth of the Abu Dhabi United Group, City have already signed the Germany international Jérôme Boateng from Hamburg for £10.5m and will renew their interest in James Milner of Aston Villa now he has returned from the World Cup.
+10, and the Citeh machine (at least in the transfer market) just rolls along.
Reds Eye Malouda Raid
Odd to see reports linking Rafa to a Frenchman. It's like a trip in the Way-Back Machine to the Houllier era when Liverpool brought in the likes of Cisse, Cheyrou, Le Tallec, and Sinama-Pongolle. David Silva would be the more likely Rafa signing, simply because he's Spanish.Rafa Benitez will reportedly start his revamp of the Liverpool squad on the wings.
Benitez will have significant sums to spend this summer from both his planned clearout of the Anfield squad (which could see Mark Gonzalez, Bolo Zenden, Craig Bellamy and Harry Kewell head for the exit door), and from backing from the club's new American owners.
Wednesday's Sun claims that the Spanish boss is lining up a raid on his old club Valencia to sign left-winger David Silva.
Silva has been one of the finds of the season for Quique Sanchez Flores' side after signing from Celta Vigo last summer.
The Valencia man could cost up to £12 million, but a slightly cheaper option could be Lyon wideman Florent Malouda.
But either player could achieve "+10" status, depending on which names leave Liverpool. If Zenden, Gonzalez, and Kewell go (and maybe even Riise) it would seem that a new left-winger would quickly find themselves at the front of the playing-time queue.
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