Tony Adcock said:
I'm not one of the serial Dzeko slaggers, far from it, and I know he did some good things in extra time, but for the first ninety minutes, he was a ghost. Was he actually on the pitch, in fact? Everything about his body language says "Consider me gone". Did anybody notice that he didn't celebrate his goal ?
Bits of that I agree with......but to say he did not celebrate his goal is just not true. A clear double fist pump and hug with Navas isn't enough ??!!
Evening all. I'll have my final say on this, and then won't bother you any further with a topic that, God knows, has been done to death on Bluemoon and then some.
Re Dzeko. I rest my case on this: go back to the highlights of West Brom away last season. We were huge that day. Huge. We were mean as fuck, ten men against eleven,on their turf, they're having a good run at that point, and we steal everything from them! A match I've watched many times, because that was the point where I thought, Yes, we can and will win back to back titles. Alas, one swallow does not etc. No need to dwell. Now credit where credit is due. To come on cold like that, hit two goals, turn the game round completely and nick the three points for us, that was monumental, and even the Dzeko nay-sayers have to concede it. Just look at Dzeko's celebrations, especially after the second, and compare with the Newcastle match. See the difference? Or if you prefer, go back to any match in the 2011-12 season in which he scores, and watch his behaviour. In fact, I've got a theory that the West Brom game was the beginning of the end between us and Edin because, at that point, or in the period following, he must've thought "What have I got to do to get a place in the starting line-up and play the full ninety minutes for a few matches in succession? What?" And if anyone's nerdy enough (as I am) to go back to their programme for the QPR game and look at the information on player appearances through the title winning season, you will see - I admit I was astonished myself - that even in that season, Dzeko was either substituted himself or brought on as a substitute or simply left on the bench without any playing time, for nearly all the games. Fact is he has, rightly or wrongly, I'm not getting into that, always been treated as a bench player by City, first by Mancini, now by Pellers. And again, rightly or wrongly, he doesn't see himself as a bench player. I hope what i've said up to now clearly shows that I am not a Dzeko basher just for the sake of it. But it
is legitimate to criticize a player who gets paid big bucks and isn't putting in a shift. And that is now sadly the perception of a lot of us.
But behind all this, there is more important problem that isn't going to go away, the problem of genuinely big clubs. How do you buy a class player - if they are class - and then tell them "Sorry pal, we rate you and everything, but you've only got a bit part in this team, and you'll be spending most of your time on the bench". It's a problem that may loom up with Jovetic. It's called squaring the circle, and I'm glad I don't get paid to man-manage situations like that. Well, on to Norwich. Signing off...
