The sight of Nathan Redmond pulling up clutching his side with no-one near him summed up City’s night perfectly.
That Redmond had been one of the few bright spots of an otherwise thoroughly miserable evening merely rubbed salt into an already gaping wound as Manchester United’s second string put their City equivalents to the sword in the most clinical fashion possible. And it wasn’t pretty to watch.
Of even more concern than a thumping 4-0 defeat was the sickening second half injury suffered by Robert Snodgrass whose clash with Rafael Da Silva left him prostrate on the Old Trafford turf for ten minutes. The sight of him being fitted with a neck brace and oxygen mask while being strapped to a stretcher was horrific, although the post-match comments from the club suggest the damage to be less severe than first thought.
The actions of the United keeper, Anders Lindegaard, are worthy of a mention; the Dane – having saved Snodgrass’ original header – had the nous to move the clearly unconscious Scot into the recovery position. Sadly the Dane covered himself in rather more glory than some pockets of the Yellow Army who unbelievably chose to vilify the City winger while he was undergoing treatment. Truly shameful.
Chris Hughton – as expected – chose to ring the changes from Saturday’s draw with Cardiff with only Seb Bassong, Leroy Fer and Snodgrass remaining. Johan Elmander was handed the dubious honour of leading the line single-handely – not an enviable one with Vidic and Ferdinand for company – with Wes Hoolahan given the nod in his preferred ‘number 10’ role.
Alas it didn’t work. While Moyes chose to make a similar amount of changes his line-up still had a rather ominous look to it and City’s performance was more White Hart Lane than Emirates. The age hold problem of ball retention reared its ugly head – hot potato syndrome again kicking in – and solidity at the back was replaced by vulnerability.
To have a sniff at the self-titled ‘Theatre of Dreams’, one typically needs to put in a good shift which, in turn, needs to be supplemented with a dollop or two of good fortune. That City had neither from the word go pretty much sums it up.
Referee Kevin Friend proved he’s anything but to opposing teams in Manchester by awarding United the softest of soft penalties when Fer was adjudged to have tripped Adnan Januzaj. While the contact may have been slight, and it’s doubtful if the same decision would have been awarded in City’s favour, it’ll be a lesson leaned for the Dutchman who had no need to make the challenge.
With a new fire-breathing Scot now occupying the United dugout things are not about to get any easier for opposition teams with regard to referees. The last thing he needed was an excuse to award a penalty. We gave him one and it was a gift horse that Hernandez wasn’t about to ignore.
Sadly, from that moment the die was pretty much cast; the passing – when it did occur – was slow and laboured and, for all the brickbats hurled in the direction of Elmander, his existence was one that relied on scraps as opposed to quality service.
Wes and his twinkling toes were a shadow of their former selves – more a case of rustiness than past their sell by date (as some have suggested) – but our favourite little Irishman was no match for a United midfield that had clearly been well briefed by Moyse in terms of denying him time on the ball.
As a result of Elmander and Wes failing to get a foothold in the game City’s attacking threat was sporadic at best, with Redmond the only one posing a genuine threat to the Lindegaard goal.
The sight of Hernandez burying a header at the second attempt was effectively the death knell for City’s Capital One cup run of 2013 and the double-injury blow they suffered in the second half left them looking a very disjointed and dispirited outfit; the last twenty minutes every bit as painful as their White Hart Lane equivalents.
So… while most of us can live with the end of the cup run (if indeed three games constitutes a run) there were alas very few positives to gleam from last night. With the injuries mounting the weekend visit to the Etihad is looking colossal.
While the manager’s Norwich tenure will ultimately be judged by his ability, or otherwise, to stabilise City’s Premier League position – not by being able to conjure up a Capital One cup away win at Old Trafford – there’s also little doubt the outers and doubters are growing in number. Whether we agree with them or not is irrelevant; as their number increases so does the resonance of their collective voice.
Hughton needs wins – and he needs them quickly.
Head of nail firmly hit Gary, I never expected too much from the match, but I had hoped we’d have made a good show of it! The injury to Snoddy just as he’s showing a bit more of the form that shone through last season is a sickening blow! It now seems that we have to face several games with only one senior wide player fit, I rate Josh Murphy, but I’m not sure he’s ready for a string of games in the Premiership, if he has to be thrown in, it could do more harm than good to his development!
Thanks for a good and interesting read Gary! OTBC
Gary your analysis is always a great read, but I do wish you’d leave out the digs about outers and doubters sometimes. We’re in the bottom three, can’t score for toffee and some fans are unhappy about that. It’s hardly high treason.
I think one of the worries for Hughton now, if Snodgrass and Redmond are out for any length of time, is the depth of his squad. With Fox and Ayala out on loans, the cover now rates as: Defence – Whittaker, Bennett, Garrido; Midfield – 2 of Johnson, Hoolahan, Murphy; Strikers – 3 of 4 (but Becchio hasn’t played).
In short, in midfield, including the wingers, we are very, very thin. You mention, Gary, that ball retention was poor again yesterday, which tends to happen as soon as Johnson is returned to the side, so that means that Fer and Tettey don’t have any adequate replacements. I also expect that someone like Elmander will replace Snodgrass on the weekend, given Redmond is missing too, which is not ideal. Starting Josh Murphy against Man C?
If I was Chris H, I would be scratching my head here (and crossing my fingers) at the dearth of midfield options. Am really surprised he hasn’t sought to use Fox more – or, if he really doesn’t like him, replace him with someone who can distribute as well as he does, but also tackles. Since he does indeed need to win some games now, he will need to pray too that his midfield isn’t weakened further before January…
Matt (2) – having re-read my piece I’m not sure I did have a ‘dig’ at the *outers and doubters* on this occasion. I merely pointed out that, as a result of last night’s events they have grown in number… which they clearly have.
I’m certainly no outer or armchair tactics expert but last night was a right let down. I thought we’d give it a blast from the start – even Stoke had a go at them!
If Hooper was 100%, why did he come on when we were 3 down with a couple of minutes to play? I can’t see any logic in that.
Elmander is fine with Zlatan next to him but as a lone striker against a top 6 PL side, the mustard he clearly fails to cut.
No one in their right mind is expecting a result at Man City but the travelling fans are owed a performance after last night.
Gary (4) – fair enough, more of a general point. It saddens me that debate between fans at the moment seems to be polarised between – depending on your point of view – blinkered loyalists and swivel eyed outers. A balanced and thoughtful discussion about where our club is heading is very difficult to find anywhere at the moment – the fault for which I do not apportion to either side.
Matt (2) The phrase “outers and doubters” is rather apt, given the current state of affairs. No one likes being “badged” within one group or another, as it is indicative of a club stuggling to come terms with itself following a previous three years of probably unrivalled success. However, what’s frightening is the speed at which things seemed to have changed and how expectations have escalated to such high levels that a significant number of fans now seem to think that we should have a managerial change so early in the season.
Gary, what was it that was aimed at Snodgrass while he was on the floor?
7) Re: early in the season.
I don’t think it is early in the season. We’re a quarter of the way through and by the time we replaced him and got a manager really settled into the club and the players, we’d be on the way towards half way.
What I think has thrown a lot of people and given CH as long as he’s had, was the last two games of last season. People came out looking at our final league position and seeing “improvement”. I didn’t, I saw us escape relegation.
Realistically we were in freefall with relegation looking incresaingly likely. Only results from others and wins against a managerless team and one with nothing to play for saved us.
2013 form after Christmas was shambolic. This season we’ve started badly and while we have played well a few times, we just can’t score. The goals aren’t there, the points aren’t coming. 4 out of 9 games we’ve not scored, so never stood a chance to win. You can’t have nearly 50% of games unwinable and expect to stay up.
I consider myself someone who can weigh up the pros and cons of both arguments and right now I see a lot of evidence in the ‘out’ case and little more than ‘hope’ in the in case.
Perhaps I’m missing something, but beyond a 10 game unbeaten run a year ago, I don’t see what CH has done to prove himself right for our club (other than being a nice chap).
Either way, David McNally has been posting less and less on Twitter and today he removed his account. I suspect he is moving into the out camp.
Dave(9): I suspect McNally has got fed up with all the drivel that’s come through from people offering advice on how he should be running the club?
Our form is poor but take a look at the table – we are still only 3 points off 9th place. We haven’t been cut adrift. There is 75% of the season to go – I guess I’m a glass half-full person whereas you are not.
Now is the time for fans to get behind the team and not drive a wedge between players/manager. Let’s not make the same mistakes that Wolves or Blackburn made.
As with all the outers, there’s never a suggestion of which managerial genius is out there waiting to take us into the CL.
Agree fully with Ash above. Patience seems to be a dying art these days.
Shocked to hear Snod was being disparaged by travelling fans, having just put his head on the line, so to speak. Although there was at least one idiotic so-called Canary who celebrated the injury on Twitter (who later apologised after receiving a justifiable torrent of abuse).