Adebayor Ban Will Complicate Tactics

Emmanuel Adebayor has had a brilliant start on the pitch for Manchester City, but his excessive emotion as well as dangerous stamp on Robin Van Persie in Saturday’s win over Arsenal mean he’ll almost certainly be suspended for three and possibly more matches.
At issue is whether the incident in which Adebayor’s boot caught van Persie’s head was deliberate; replays (from one angle) seemed to show Adebayor’s foot needlessly extending to catch his former teammate.

Less debatable is the fact that Adebayor’s length of the pitch celebration after his goal set of a crowd ruckus that left one stadium steward knocked unconscious for five minutes.

Adebayor’s actions have generated plenty of critical reaction already and there’s no point in trying to defend actions the player himself has already apologized for. Ironically, the Van Persie incident, which requires the FA to judge intent, has probably the more certain outcome (a 3 match ban) than the goal celebration.

In any case City will almost certainly have to do battle at Old Trafford without their early season focal point. Further, Robinho is out 3-4 weeks, Tevez may be out, and Roque Santa Cruz has yet to play for City. Even “yes I’m still here” Benjani, derby hero two seasons ago, is injured.

So City may well have to play with a makeshift front line this Sunday. Probably the most sensible approach would be to continue with the usual back 4, put de Jong, Barry, and Ireland in the midfield, and then have Petrov, Bellamy, and SWP across the top, in what will amount most of the time to a 4-5-1. Given that Bellamy is the only senior striker at this point assured to be available, I don’t see a better way to do it.

And to be sure, that’s still a formidable team–but certainly not as dangerous as the lineup that put four past the Gunners this past Saturday.

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