Supporters must admit that before yesterday City had enjoyed a lovely run of fixtures, we passed the derby test with flying colours but there are more challenges to come and nothing has been decided just yet so lets not get ahead of ourselves. In many ways we need to ignore the pressure coming from outside and just focus on winning games of football, lets not worry about the title for a few months yet!
4) Just Who Is Our Best Striker?
A little bit of a stat attack for your, Edin Dzeko has hit 8 goals in 7 games, Kun Aguero has netted 9 in 8, and Super Mario has notched up 5 in 5. All 3 are in absolutely devastating form, but if we just had to pick one, who would it be? Going into the season Balotelli was probably 4th choice, but now he appears undroppable, the problem is that so do Aguero and Dzeko.
The Italian linked up with the Argentine brilliantly at times yesterday, and Dzeko proved that although he may be a slightly erratic finisher at times he definitely knows where the back of the net is, in all honesty I still think Aguero looks the most prolific, but it is a very difficult quandary to ponder, one this is certain though, who needs Carlos Tevez?
5) How Good Is James Milner?
A lot of football fans feel the need to have a boo boy, someone to make a scapegoat for disappointing results and for long spells last season that man at City was James Milner. At times I got sick of being one of the dissenting voices, insisting he was a top player. He is starting to prove that now, and it may have been some time coming, but it has certainly been worth it.
He has managed to demonstrate not only his immense defensive skills, he has also shown his supreme work rate as well as some fantastic work in the final third. It was not worth forgetting that he kept Nigel De Jong out of the team yesterday and that is no mean feat. If he continues with this great form it is going to result in some real selection issues for Roberto Mancini.
For more of my thoughts on football, follow me on twitter @thegoatfeeder and for all things Manchester City check out Thoughts From The Invisible Man…
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Ask yourself, do Man city fans pride themselves with Youth moulded from the club or just Superstars?
What if United is bought by some rich Qatari(God forbid) who also pumps money to buy top players, how many will chose to go to City, and if other top players are bought won’t the Status quo remain forever?
Firstly, prior to the City take over there already was a status quo, noone other than Chelsea or United were ever going to win the league, it was becoming like Scotland or Spain, at least now there are 3 teams competing for the title each year, United will always be a force even under the current American ownership.
As for City and their youth development, if you look at all the youngsters coming through there are some extremely good 16 and 17 year olds that will be ready to step up over the coming years, Suarez, Rekik, Roman, Chantler, Henshall to name just a few.
When you also consider the huge new training complex and academy set up, it would be foolish to suggest City were ignoring ‘youth moulded’ players as you put it.
But I do welcome City challenge in the league… But my point is the youth non of them is on the first team nor in the bench… Even the academy players are not even known… Look at Man utd, they’ll buy one potential player mostly young ones and turn them to Superstars, with exception of 1 or two… The Academy boys are already playing first team and reserves, The Youth players play in and out every week… You can’t say about that of Man City
If you have a look at the team from last night there were a few out, although admittedly not as many as at United. Razak and Scapuzzi both started the game, and although Savic was signed for money he is also very young. Karim Rekik and Denis Suarez both came off the bench.
City are behind United in terms of youth development in this current period, sure, but if you look back over the years at the players that have come through the City academy, it is extremely impressive, Micah Richards, Steven Ireland, Joey Barton, Daniel Sturridge are probably the highest profile, but there are many many more playing in the Championship and other levels of English football.
Over the coming months and years there will be a change of focus at City to meet FFP as there will be at Chelsea and more and more academy graduates will make the step into the first time, we are further back in the development cycle than United, but it will happen.