Didsbury Dave
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 1 Feb 2007
- Messages
- 39,271
...but my God, that display has me salivating at the mouth.
Strong and solid at the spine of the team - Kompany, DE Jong and Lescott - that's something we've come to expect. But the cutting edge was outstanding. When we broke up play, the way we committed men forward was so exciting. We're used to Silva being available all the time but we had Milner and Ya Ya getting forward,the fullbacks overlapping, and the directness of both Mario and Dzeko. We were slick, we were like a coiled spring attacking in numbers when we won the ball.
All that ponderous bulid up play was gone: Tevez, wonderful player though he is, does sometimes slow play up for us by receiving the ball and holding it up, taking time. Adebayor was the same. Dzeko is different. He doesn't drop as deep as tevez, he holds it up magificently and he very much looks for an outlet as soon as he's won the ball. That helped with momentum a lot.
Kolorov was better than I've ever seen him. The balls he whipped in were quality but he did look a lot sharper. I've had grave concerns about his pace before but with the caveat that there may have been an injury problem. That looks to have been the case, so that's very encouraging. He wasn't really tested defensively but going forward he and Micah are a real threat. Micah's a shoo-in for right back and Clichy and Kolorov are going to be in a right battle for the left back slot.
SWP and AJ both look fit and hungry, so I see them as great bench alternatives to give us width. I really hope we keep these two.
And I'll tell you what, for the first time in may years we are a real threat from setpieces. Richards, Balotelli, Lescott, Dzeko - all excellent headers of the ball. The short corner we work with Silva is dangerous too. Silva was world class drifting around like that. He's going to be the key to the door for me. If we can keep him fit I think we'll win the league. And there's every chance we could have a serious run in the champions league too.
It may have only been a pre-season friendly but I think I've just seen the future.
Strong and solid at the spine of the team - Kompany, DE Jong and Lescott - that's something we've come to expect. But the cutting edge was outstanding. When we broke up play, the way we committed men forward was so exciting. We're used to Silva being available all the time but we had Milner and Ya Ya getting forward,the fullbacks overlapping, and the directness of both Mario and Dzeko. We were slick, we were like a coiled spring attacking in numbers when we won the ball.
All that ponderous bulid up play was gone: Tevez, wonderful player though he is, does sometimes slow play up for us by receiving the ball and holding it up, taking time. Adebayor was the same. Dzeko is different. He doesn't drop as deep as tevez, he holds it up magificently and he very much looks for an outlet as soon as he's won the ball. That helped with momentum a lot.
Kolorov was better than I've ever seen him. The balls he whipped in were quality but he did look a lot sharper. I've had grave concerns about his pace before but with the caveat that there may have been an injury problem. That looks to have been the case, so that's very encouraging. He wasn't really tested defensively but going forward he and Micah are a real threat. Micah's a shoo-in for right back and Clichy and Kolorov are going to be in a right battle for the left back slot.
SWP and AJ both look fit and hungry, so I see them as great bench alternatives to give us width. I really hope we keep these two.
And I'll tell you what, for the first time in may years we are a real threat from setpieces. Richards, Balotelli, Lescott, Dzeko - all excellent headers of the ball. The short corner we work with Silva is dangerous too. Silva was world class drifting around like that. He's going to be the key to the door for me. If we can keep him fit I think we'll win the league. And there's every chance we could have a serious run in the champions league too.
It may have only been a pre-season friendly but I think I've just seen the future.