And so we’re off! Well, sort of. At least the phoney war is underway, even if we have to wait a little bit longer for the real thing.
Around this time, 28 days from now, we’ll be mulling over the whatabouteries and what-ifs of City’s opener against Liverpool. Hopefully in an exultant, jubilant way, but we’ll see. If you can’t dream big before a ball has been kicked in anger, then when can you?
Friday night’s run-out at The Walks, beautifully described on these pages by Robin Sainty and Samuel Seaman, was as gentle as they come and was the ideal way to dip the collective toe into the waters of pre-season. It gave us a glimpse of what Billy Gilmour and Milot Rashica look like in a yellow and green kit and got some yards into the players’ legs.
Job done.
Whether the three-at-the-back was a sign of things to come or was borne out of necessity, only time will tell, but it is clear that in Max Aarons (or even Bali Mumba) and Dimitris Giannoulis, we possess full-backs ideally suited to the role of modern-day wing-back.
Either way, it’s a system that Daniel Farke has tinkered around the edges of before but, minus having three fit and suitably adept centre-backs available to him, was unable to use it for long enough to refine it in any way.
But now, with a new centre-back on the shopping list – one who no doubt is comfortable on the ball – and with Andrew Omobamidele already forcing himself into the reckoning, the option of a back-three looks to be there. Throw into that mix Grant Hanley’s outstanding display at the centre of a three against England and a fit-again Ben Gibson, and it’s one that Farke knows he could turn to if the situation demands.
We’ll see.
The downside of this system is, of course, the tendency for it to unravel into a back five when you’re not having enough of the ball, as demonstrated beautifully by England in last Sunday’s Euro Final.
It demands much of those playing in the centre of midfield (I’m looking at you Billy G), whatever the chosen formation, to dictate the pace of the game and ensure you have enough of the ball to get those wingbacks high enough up the pitch to contribute in the final third. A tricky balance to strike but one that offers solidity if implemented properly.
While the attacking third won’t really be up to speed until Teemu Pukki returns from his much-needed break (if ever anyone needed a full recharge of the batteries…) there was an interesting new face added to the mix in the early part of the week in the form of the wonderfully named Pierre Lees-Melou.
This one was classic Stuart Webber. No prolonged rumours, no ‘in-the-know’s’ with half a story, barely an inkling in fact until an hour or two before the club made it official…
At 28-years-old, Monsieur Lees-Melou is not one destined to spend time too much time on the fringes and at 6 ft 1 in is one of those targetted who they think will add a certain athleticism and physique to the squad – one of its big deficiencies in 2019-20.
Handily for me, one of my old footballing adversaries from the 1990s is now a resident of Nice and so it was to him I turned for a knowledgeable and unbiased view on our new Frenchman:
So, one who, by the looks of it, is unlikely to pull up loads of trees but who can churn out solid 7.5/10 performances – something we were crying out for two seasons ago. Also, as someone who’s captained a team in one of Europe’s elite leagues, it looks as if we have ourselves another leader in the dressing room.
Bienvenu, Pierre.
While Lees-Milou appears not yet to be in the house, it must surely be imminent, giving him a valuable few weeks to acclimatise himself to his surroundings and the intricacies of Farkeball.
And one final thing, as mentioned by one of the #NCFC Twitterati. If, in celebration of our new Frenchman, the whole ground is at some point not singing his name to the tune of Vindaloo, then we’ve definitely missed a trick.
Stay safe tomorrow people. Be sensible.
Good article Gary,
Lees-Melou looks pretty decent from what I’ve seen on Youtube, probably another very decent purchase and yet another pat on the back for NCFC’s recruitment team for finding golden opportunities!
Also exciting is the use of Sorensen as a centre-back at Kings Lynn, the extra security that option provides within the squad is extremely useful, you only have to recall the times Tettey stepped up to working as an ad-hoc defender to realise how useful that can be.
We owe Liverpool some payback in my view, this is the season it would be great to see that happen.
OTBC !!
An interesting analysis of the England team in the Sunday Times makes the point that they don’t control a game from midfield the way the Italians and others do and includes comments such as:
” … there is no standard path one must tread to become one of the world’s most special possession players in midfield. England have not produced one in 25 years — since Paul Scholes — and this dearth was again felt at Euro 2020.
Over the past 20 years of covering England it has seemed that, no matter how well they begin, all tournaments have the same old ending. It involves England arriving at a game where the opposition are too cute in the middle of the pitch and destroy them there.”
That sounds just like City to me when we come up against the better Championship sides and, worryingly, most of the Premier League.
The writer’s description of England passing the ball around at the back a lot, and the stat that apparently only 10% of attacks led to a shot on goal (the lowest in the tournament) so reminded me of many of our games last season. In the end, like England, we won the majority of them, yet there was so often a feeling that we were not turning our superiority into convincing scorelines.
But there is some good news in there ….
“The old charge that English football does not produce players with good enough touch, tactical understanding or flair no longer rings true. But special young midfielders are still not emerging. The best to come through, in the age of the Elite Player Performance Plan, is a Scotsman who joined Chelsea at 16: Billy Gilmour. “
I hope and think Foden could be that player Keith.
As for us, replacing Skipp is Daniel’s biggest task.
Hi Gary
Lees-Melou has an old team mate playing at Newcastle and on one site he is giving high praise, and Vieira now at C.P says he can be a game changer so only time will tell.
Using so many fringe plays against King’s Lynn shows that we have a few talented players waiting to break into the first team hopefully they prove to be another Aaron’s or Godfrey.
There could be a few more possible loans that could help their progress and a sale or two ie Nizet to a Belgium club.
Will we see Sinani, Thompson or Sitti given a chance in pre season games or is Adams working on loans.
Can city recruit another CB for the fabled 3 at the back and will Hugill be used in any part ex deal for another striker or Worrall at forest.
So many questions and only two people have an inkling to the answers and they will not be saying to much.
Onwards and upwards
OTBC
Stay Healthy and Keep Safe
Addition that seemed to have got passed us is the availability of CB at Spurs who is good on the ball wins most of his battles and us a ball playing CB that both Newcastle and Celtic have shown interest in his price is £5m plus I would think add ons
Carter Vickers by name
As for a song for Lees-Melou (courtesy of someone on the Pink’un forum), if we’d only managed to keep hold of our Tottenham loanee, we’d be able to sing “Skipp to Melou” – I guess that’s only going to be for hose of us in our later years.