Tez Tosterone
Well-Known Member
It was a very lamentable performance even for a friendly. Whilst the Vieira sending off was extremely harsh - most referees would have simply awarded a free kick, nothing more - a yellow at worst - there was no denying that in the 21 minutes before the Vieira/Materazzi incident, we appeared to have very liitle idea on how to appraoch this match against a side with Sneijder, Milito, Maicon and co missing from the starting 18. So much so that even before we were reduced to 10 men I quickly began to realize that there was little creative spark with the additional problem that with an Adebayor/Jo pairing up front (why no Bellamy? - is he injured?) it looked as though it was going to be a long watch in the early hours.
The point several have already made about creativity was underlined last night by the painfully dismal play in building up attcks when we had possession. Yet again there was a lack of off the ball movement that was evidenced throughout. Often, around the centre circle area a City player was in possession he had two, sometimes three, colleagues within a space of 5/10 yards. That was bad enough in itself. What was even worse was the fact that they were virtually static and effectively offering no option. You could see and feel the frustration that Vincent Kompany displayed in the 1st half which led to his ill-fated clash with Goran Pandev. He must have been terribly disappointed that the back 4 were under constant pressure due to the complete inabilty to maintain possession of the ball when moving forward.
As we saw only to clearly it eventually ended with us playing hopeful aerial balls 30./40 yards to Adebayor. Surrounded by seasoned professionals like Zanetti and Cordoba, there was only one outcome. Meanwhile, Brian Kidd and Lombardo did not appear to be able to change the situation at HT.
I'm not particularly worried yet. However we need to start putting together a better performance than this in the match against Borussia in midweek, otherwise confidence will drain away quickly.
Obviously new faces like Boateng, Kolarov, Silva and the reurn of Tevez will improve the chances of returning to winning ways.
Roberto Mancini must grap that Jo, Bridge and Zabaleta looked ordinary last night. Jo we don't expect much anyway. Bridge is ponderous in a left-sided build up and Zabaleta had an uncharacterictically poor match.
I sincerely hope that Bellamy, Wright-Phillips and the new signings get 45 mins midweek. If not, our management are culpabale of very poor pre-season preparation with only 13 to go before the Spurs match at White Hart Lane.
Finally, here's the verdict from the English Language Football Italia.net on the match.
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.football-italia.net/aug01e.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.football-italia.net/aug01e.html</a>
*******************************************************
Friendly: Inter demolish Man City Sunday 1 August, 2010
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inter crushed Manchester City 3-0 with a second-string side in Baltimore after Patrick Vieira was sent off against his old club.
The Nerazzurri were missing most of their World Cup stars and the injured Mario Balotelli, who is in negotiations for a £30m transfer to City. Roberto Mancini was not present, as the manager had to rush back to Italy after his father was taken ill.
On his debut, Rafa Benitez maintained the 4-2-3-1 system that won the Champions League under Jose Mourinho.
Ivan Cordoba closed down Emmanuel Adebayor in the box within the opening minutes, but Victor Obinna went close and the impressive Coutinho – making his debut – set up a Goran Pandev goal that was ruled offside.
Manchester City went down to 10 men after just 22 minutes, as former Inter star Vieira was sent off for an elbow on his old teammate Marco Materazzi.
From then on, there was only one team in it at the M&T Bank Stadium. Pandev knocked the ball down for Esteban Cambiasso and Obinna finished off the move with a fierce left-foot angled drive.
Luca Castellazzi made his debut in an Inter jersey and performed a couple of saves on Yaya Toure and Johnson’s free kick.
The Nerazzurri made it 2-0 with a classic counter-attack sparked by Coutinho and Pandev, who rolled across for Obinna.
Coutinho drilled just wide, but it was youth team player Cristiano Biraghi who got the third goal.
A corner was cleared to outside the box, where the 18-year-old defender lashed a spectacular strike into the top corner.
Samuel Eto’o and Alibec threatened a fourth, but Castellazzi performed his one genuine save to deny Shaun Wright-Philips.
Inter win the Pirelli Cup and their next test is on Tuesday August 3 against Panathinaikos in Toronto.
The point several have already made about creativity was underlined last night by the painfully dismal play in building up attcks when we had possession. Yet again there was a lack of off the ball movement that was evidenced throughout. Often, around the centre circle area a City player was in possession he had two, sometimes three, colleagues within a space of 5/10 yards. That was bad enough in itself. What was even worse was the fact that they were virtually static and effectively offering no option. You could see and feel the frustration that Vincent Kompany displayed in the 1st half which led to his ill-fated clash with Goran Pandev. He must have been terribly disappointed that the back 4 were under constant pressure due to the complete inabilty to maintain possession of the ball when moving forward.
As we saw only to clearly it eventually ended with us playing hopeful aerial balls 30./40 yards to Adebayor. Surrounded by seasoned professionals like Zanetti and Cordoba, there was only one outcome. Meanwhile, Brian Kidd and Lombardo did not appear to be able to change the situation at HT.
I'm not particularly worried yet. However we need to start putting together a better performance than this in the match against Borussia in midweek, otherwise confidence will drain away quickly.
Obviously new faces like Boateng, Kolarov, Silva and the reurn of Tevez will improve the chances of returning to winning ways.
Roberto Mancini must grap that Jo, Bridge and Zabaleta looked ordinary last night. Jo we don't expect much anyway. Bridge is ponderous in a left-sided build up and Zabaleta had an uncharacterictically poor match.
I sincerely hope that Bellamy, Wright-Phillips and the new signings get 45 mins midweek. If not, our management are culpabale of very poor pre-season preparation with only 13 to go before the Spurs match at White Hart Lane.
Finally, here's the verdict from the English Language Football Italia.net on the match.
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.football-italia.net/aug01e.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.football-italia.net/aug01e.html</a>
*******************************************************
Friendly: Inter demolish Man City Sunday 1 August, 2010
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inter crushed Manchester City 3-0 with a second-string side in Baltimore after Patrick Vieira was sent off against his old club.
The Nerazzurri were missing most of their World Cup stars and the injured Mario Balotelli, who is in negotiations for a £30m transfer to City. Roberto Mancini was not present, as the manager had to rush back to Italy after his father was taken ill.
On his debut, Rafa Benitez maintained the 4-2-3-1 system that won the Champions League under Jose Mourinho.
Ivan Cordoba closed down Emmanuel Adebayor in the box within the opening minutes, but Victor Obinna went close and the impressive Coutinho – making his debut – set up a Goran Pandev goal that was ruled offside.
Manchester City went down to 10 men after just 22 minutes, as former Inter star Vieira was sent off for an elbow on his old teammate Marco Materazzi.
From then on, there was only one team in it at the M&T Bank Stadium. Pandev knocked the ball down for Esteban Cambiasso and Obinna finished off the move with a fierce left-foot angled drive.
Luca Castellazzi made his debut in an Inter jersey and performed a couple of saves on Yaya Toure and Johnson’s free kick.
The Nerazzurri made it 2-0 with a classic counter-attack sparked by Coutinho and Pandev, who rolled across for Obinna.
Coutinho drilled just wide, but it was youth team player Cristiano Biraghi who got the third goal.
A corner was cleared to outside the box, where the 18-year-old defender lashed a spectacular strike into the top corner.
Samuel Eto’o and Alibec threatened a fourth, but Castellazzi performed his one genuine save to deny Shaun Wright-Philips.
Inter win the Pirelli Cup and their next test is on Tuesday August 3 against Panathinaikos in Toronto.