It is unusual to discuss a club at the start of a new season
and wonder where last season’s top goal scorer fits in. This is the current
situation surrounding Manchester City and their Premiership top scorer from
last season Edin Dzeko. Last season by all accounts Roberto Mancini preferred his other
options over the Bosnian. Tevez had 28 starts and 6 sub appearances and fellow
Argentinean Aguero managed 22 with 8 sub
appearances. Dzeko managed just 16 starts and 16 sub appearances. The Bosnian
was used just as much as from the bench as he was from the start.
In spite of this he managed 14 Premiership goals, two more
than Aguero and one more than Tevez. Rickie Lambert & Frank Lampard where
described as having fantastic seasons with a goal tally of 15, Theo Walcott who
netted the same amount as Dzeko was hailed for his fruitful season in front of
goal but yet Dzeko wasn’t being talked about in the same voice.
City saw Balotelli depart in January and this was followed
by Carlos Tevez at the start of the summer both headed to Italy to seek
pastures new. Dzeko was linked with moves away but nothing concrete
materialised and things looked bleak for the hitman when City recruited Jovetic
and Negredo, the pair looked to further push Dzeko down the pecking order.
Dzeko is not helped however by City’s preferred system as it tends to favour
the lone striker and Dzeko isnt suited to a wide role in this system, one in
which Balotelli and Tevez were often sacrificed to and one in which Jovetic may
thrive in.
Instead under the new Pellegrini on Monday we saw an
excellent use of the 4-4-2 by City. They managed to still get players forward
and also managed to keep a solid midfield base to protect the back 4. Zabaletta
was still even allowed license to maraude forward and cause havoc. Dzeko was
the stand out performer however. The only thing the Bosnian did not do was put
the ball in the net and he was correctly identified by SkySports as man of the
match.
In football many clichés exist. One of the most common is
the phrase “he has good feet for a big man”, and although trying to avoid the
use of this cliché with Dzeko it seems it was designed to describe him.
Pellegrini’s change to a 4-4-2 (albeit with plenty of rotation and movement)
saw Aguero the deeper of the forward pairing and Dzeko the main threat. New signing Jesus Navas is a genuine winger
and offers City an option that they did not have before, and you can see the
main supply to Dzeko by the Spaniard is dangerous crosses which Dzeko loves to
attack.
Throughout the game
Dzeko had 8 shots, half of them where headers which shows the varied nature of
his play. He is equally comfortable peppering the goal with shots from inside
the box like a genuine penalty box poacher as he is using his considerable
height getting on the end of crosses.
Zabaletta offers City a unique threat as he is a wing back
who likes to overlap on the inside.
One particular example of this coming to effect was the goal against QPR for
1-0 when City won the league on that last day. Wheras Navas will whip crosses
into Dzeko for him to attack, Zabaleta will come in the inside and look to find
the Bosnian’s feet inside the area. Against Newcastle the most frequent source
from which Dzeko received the ball was from Zabaleta (7 times)and then from Navas (4). The
positions Dzeko received his passes from Zabaleta also shows a side to his
play, his workrate and willingness to run the channels rather than simply
operate centrally. This fits Pellegrini’s 4-4-2 style with plenty of movement
and positional rotation.
Many thought Dzeko would be frozen out at City, that he was
not suited to the clubs style and that the manager would favour more well
regarded superstars over the undoubtedly talented Dzeko. Despite less chances
the Bosnian got more goals for the club last season than his positional rivals,
and the manner of his play on Monday night, coupled with how high his
performance was, means that Edin Dzeko could in fact be in for huge make or
break season in the blue of City.
No comments:
Post a Comment