Frustration Mounts as City Toss Points Away, Again

By: Thad | November 8th, 2009

Many City fans I know were quite please to see Burnley, a team committed to passing and attacking, promoted this past season. Back when City and Burnley were last in the same division–the First Division during the 2001-02 campaign–the two clubs had some classic, Keegan-inspired goalfests. City won both contests that season–4-2 at Turf Moor and 5-1 at Maine Road.

There were six more goals scored in Saturday’s contest, but this time their distribution was not what City fans were expecting.

vincent_kompany

Instead of a City rout, the Blues were held to a 3-3 draw after conceding an 87th minute equalizer on a classic long ball goal that City utterly failed to deal with. For the second straight home match, City dropped points from what looked like a comfortable winning position. It’s true that you’re never completely safe with just a one goal advantage, but till the goal Burnley had hardly a sniff at goal in the second half after a rather inspiring first half saw the visitors take a shock 2-0 lead.

A deflected strike from Shaun Wright-Phillips before halftime gave City a lifeline, and City were a dominant force the in the first twenty minutes of the second half, scoring twice to complete what should have been a complete reversal. Bellamy’s goal, City’s third, was a good example of City at its best–getting space down the right wing, cutting a dangerous ball across the box, and having it fall to Bellamy, left alone as markers tried to deal with Tevez.

City had several more decent opportunities to carve out a 4th goal, the best of which fell to sub Martin Petrov. Playing on the right side, he dragged a shot wide with his right foot from a very promising position in the box; with a little more awareness, he might have spotted Adebayor attacking the far post for a tap-in.

I don’t fault Hughes necessarily for pushing for a 4th goal, but the collapse at the end does raise the question of why De Jong and Kompany were left unused in the final 10-15 minutes. But even that may not have made the difference: the third Burnley goal can be traced to Joleon Lescott’s being out of position, and remaining flat-footed once the ball sailed over his head into the box. Toure was left to try to defend two players, which doesn’t usually work.

Earlier Lescott had conceded a needless penalty for defending a cross with his arms raised–never a good idea. Although the former Everton man did have a good assist on Toure’s equalizing goal, the performance yesterday will raise further questions. Not necessarily “Why again did we sell Richard Dunne?”, but about whether Kompany ought to come into the side and partner Toure.

And if one things Lescott is too big an asset on set pieces to leave out, maybe it’s Wayne Bridge who needs to sit out with Lescott shifting to the left back position. Bridge was acres out of position on the second Burnley goal, though to be fair he was caught up the field when Gareth Barry needlessly lost the ball. Bridge has been a valuable offensive threat, but his forays forward do increase the risk of City being caught out at the back.

My guess is Bridge keeps his place, but surely Kompany needs to be given serious consideration to replace Lescott, at least for a spell. City had a great chance yesterday to show they have the character not just to come from behind but to hold what we have. But as of right now, that’s not the case, and something will need to change.