McDonald punches the final hole in City's defence
Manchester City 3 Burnley 3: Exciting see-saw match cannot mask deficiencies at the back as Hughes' side draw for fifth time in a row
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Independent Minds
Manchester City could scarcely have done more before yesterday's game to remember those who laid down everything in defence of these shores. What their manager wouldn't give for someone who will lay anything down in defence of his side's goal.
Laurence Binyon's For the Fallen was the verse they read before kick-off, a fair description of City's back four last night as they crouched on their haunches in the drizzle and winced. They can have no complaint that their ranks, with one win in seven in the Premier League after a fifth successive draw, met with muffled boos at the end; nor that Kevin McDonald's 87th-minute equaliser had denied them a win.
Sheikh Mansour has spent £36m on Joleon Lescott and Wayne Bridge,
Brendan Flood has laid out around £7m on the entire Burnley side, and rarely has less been more. Only once since August has Mark Hughes seen his players keep a clean sheet, though the City manager preferred to talk about his side's attacking qualities afterwards. "In our enthusiasm to get forward we've left areas open," he said, after a performance which saw Burnley go 2-0 up inside 32 minutes. "We expect some determination to get back and we saw that."
The defensive omens were there from the beginning where City were concerned. Burnley, as uncowed by the financial gulf on show as they were when Manchester United visited Turf Moor, could have been two goals ahead inside 10 minutes. It was their misfortune that the central defender Clarke Carlisle happened to be the one left alone in City's box to try a bicycle kick. Then Robbie Blake's stabbed effort from an unchallenged low cross from the right by Graham Alexander was arrowed marginally wide of Shay Given's left-hand post.
Bridge was frequently absent from his post on the left flank and it was when Lescott raised a hand to the ball lofted in from that side by Tyrone Mears that Stuart Attwell awarded a justifiable penalty. Alexander converted, as he always does. (His career conversion rate after the right-foot despatch to Given's right is 69 from 74; 13 from 13 for Burnley.)
Blake exploited the same vacant flank minutes later, whipping a firm, low free-kick which Given was relieved to find deflected into his hands. But City were carved apart by the next advance when Chris Eagles received a short ball from Blake and ran the ball behind City's back four for Steven Fletcher to tap in.
The comeback, against a side who had conceded 17 in their five consecutive away defeats, always looked possible with Stephen Ireland, restored to something resembling last season's form, the creative nexus. The goals for City duly arrived inside a 15-minute period either side of the break.
Shaun Wright-Phillips dazzled Blake, cut inside and saw his shot deflected heavily off Stephen Jordan into the goal before the interval. The equaliser arrived 10 minutes after the restart when Gareth Barry's lofted 30-yard free-kick reached Lescott, who crossed on to Kolo Touré's left foot. Then Wright-Phillips' low cross from the right ran behind Emmanuel Adebayor and reached the unmarked Craig Bellamy who swept it home, right-footed.
Burnley's defence was even more porous than City's had been at this stage. A hard Bellamy cross was on Carlos Tevez before he could convert it and Mears headed off the line. But Burnley have spirit in abundance.
Their own equaliser came when one substitute, David Nugent, headed Fletcher's cross across the box towards another, McDonald, who launched himself at the ball to convert from six yards. Owen Coyle could not resist the obvious comparison. "One of those elite player's [wages] would probably cover the entire salary of my squad today," the Burnley manager said. "This shows what we are learning in the Premier League."
Attendance: 47,205
Referee: Stuart Attwell
Man of the match: Mears
Match rating: 7/10
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Comments
I'd rather see Michael Ball back in our defence if this is what Wayne Bridge is going to get up to.
Reported missing in action, Bridge (29) was last seen racing through the centre of midfield, leaving a vast gap at left-back which Burnley exploited to equalise. Bridge truly was atrocious, but Lescott and others needn't think their happless performances were missed.
Then there's the midfield problem: We play De Jong in a holding role and we lack a creative spark, so Hughes plays Ireland instead and we have no steel, allowing Burnley to waltz through us. What on earth happened to that mean defence of the first four or five games of the season when we conceded not one single goal?
Anyway, I'm guessing that Liverpool will beat Birminham tomorrow, and that will leave us down in seventh place. We need to win games or the Champions League can remain pie in the sky for this season at least. To do that, Hughes needs to instil some discipline, not do bizarre things like swapping Petrov and SWP to opposite wings. We need to stop playing like the Harlem Globetrotters and realise that this is a tough league with opposition who won't let you stroll around like you're playing an exhibition match.
That 4-2 against Arsenal seems a long time ago.
Money can't buy me love.
How many dud signings have Chelsea, and for that matter United gone through? For every Ronaldo there is always a Veron as both Chelsea and United can testify.
As for Liverpool, for every Torres there have been about ten bad buys. That's the waiter for yer!!
The pundits all sagely said that it would take time for City to gell. Most level headed City fans agreed. Let's judge City after Christmas shall we? I suspect they will be healthily placed.
Nope, it'll all end in tears.
BTW, City haven't spent "squillions". They've spent considerably less that the self satisfied 'Big Four'(TM) have over the past 5 years or so. They've just spent it in a hurry as any other club would have done in their position.
You sound very bitter my friend. Who do you support, Liverpoor?
Sorry,chum, but £100 million (in one year!!!) is squillions in anybody's book bar yours! Money can't buy you love. Nor success.
Me support Liverpool? Why would I do that? My team is a humble mid-table bunch of extremely ordinary players whom I have loved since 1959. But of the Big Four my heart is always with Liverpool.
As for your "humble mid-table bunch of extremely ordinary players", are you saying that if your club had been fortunate enough to benefit from similar largess, you would have insisted that the money was sent back whence it came? I suspect you'd have lapped it up as we Blues are doing. I doubt either of the two lucky punters who cleaned up on Euro Millions this weekend are sending their money back, but hey, maybe you would. You seem to dislike others having too much folding.
Mark Hughes is an exceptionally good manager and will get better. He has signed exactly the right kind of player, with bundles of Premier League experience, as all the armchair critics were saying he should incidentally. Given that they aren't firing on all cylinders yet, the start to the season has been pretty good although the last three draws should have been wins.
As for the money, City have got very very lucky and we fans know it. I doubt there will ever be a similar takeover again, which is a bit of a bugger for Liverpool and United fans as they relentlessly dismiss their huge debts by blithely assuming that another mega rich Arab will simply sweep them away. You know the mantra; 'If they bought City then someone will surely by us - we hope'. As the clowns at Portsmouth have proved, not every Arab is a multi-millionaire.
City will open up the league. There won't be any more Chumps League places allocated to England and someone will therefore start to miss out. It may be City and it may not. What it will do is neuter the financial power of the Big Four(TM) and that can only be good.
If Liverpool or United miss out on the top four, they will take a huge hit on income. As both clubs are only covering interest payments with the Chumps League money, it rather begs the question as to how they will manage if it disappears. United appear safe whilst Ferguson is around although recent events suggest that he's 'losing it' somewhat. Liverpool could well miss out this season as Villa and the Spuds are not going away either. Liverpool could well be playing Leeds United again sooner than later and I'm not basing that comment on Leeds achieving back to back promotions.
Lescott also looks vulnerable. Kompany might be an option Hughes could use to focus Lecsott's mind.
I feel sorry for Hughes. I don't believe for one second that they've told an international fullback to sprint through central midfield like Bridge did. He and his staff must be pulling their hair out.
I do agree with you when you question putting SWP on the left and Rigsby on the right though. That narrowed the pitch as both have to cut in rather than going for the line. Having said that, I remember Peter Barnes and Dennis Tueart doing that to great effect several times in the same match. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
As for Stephen Ireland, he looked somewhere close to his best to me but I don't' think he should have come in for De Jong. Without the Dutchman we looked light in midfield and Barry isn't coping on his own. Ireland's threat is also neutered playing that deep. I think Ireland should be played off Adebayor instead of Tevez. One thing is for sure, we need Ireland on the pitch. No one has the same eye for an incisive pass as he does.
Don't despair Guv, it'll come.
I hope so, originaleskimo!
Good points, as always. yes indeed, Ireland would be great playing off a central striker, feeding him little balls through the defence. Then we could have solidity in central midfield, with maybe De Jong and Kompany as holding players. Obviously, at present it is tempting to do what you suggest and replace Lescott with Kompany at the back, though Kompany in midfield would give Johnson a chance, with Petrov and SWP wide. But yeah, Kompany would be surely preferable to Lescott right now. What about Bellers and Tevez, then? Well, if they're not cutting it...
As for Sylvinho - spot on! I can't see him with all his experience doing a Bridge (who at 29 is no spring chicken and should know better). Hopefully, some of these ideas will be in Hughes's mind and he won't be inflexible at a time when certain players need their backsides kicked and their brains stimulated with a change in attitude and maybe tactics.
As for Bellers, he's a automatic pick right now. The guy's on fire. Much as I like Rigsby (there's no better sight in football than a genuine left footed, left winger pinging in crosses from wide IMO) he'll have to defer to Bellers at the moment.