Five learnings from Man City to take into the Crystal Palace game
As the dust settles on a wild Tuesday night at the Cottage, there are issues to address.
I think Owen Macdonald said it best on Tuesday night: the City loss “doesn’t quite feel like a defeat”. It was an entertaining game that, after a difficult start, saw us play some fantastic attacking football in the second half.
But a defeat it most certainly was. A silver lining with losses, however, is the learnings you can take from them - and there were plenty of lessons dished out on Tuesday. Here are the ones I think we need to use to help us beat Palace on Sunday.
1. The Berge/Lukic pivot is dead
All the discourse I see online has us all largely in agreement: this just is not working. The success of our starting XI lives and dies on the central midfield mix - and it has done for years. This combination is rigid, it’s stilted, and it’s bringing both men down.
Sander Berge is twice the player when he’s got Alex Iwobi alongside him, and I’d hazard a guess Sasa Lukic would be the same as and when he’s given the opportunity. But Sasa had a tough night at the office on Tuesday and you would expect him to be on the bench for this one.
There was talk of using Berge and Lukic in games where we don’t expect to see much of the ball, but I think even that is a dud now. We just have no dynamism, ambition, or creativity when we deploy them both - and without those attributes, we’re dead in the water.
2. Alex Iwobi is a number eight - end of discussion
We all want to see it - and Alex wants to do it. So Marco must stop beating around the bush and commit to it.
Iwobi spoke about his move into the middle in Tuesday’s matchday programme. He was clear that it’s his preferred and most natural position - and it shows. Yes, we’ll need to find a fix when he heads to AFCON, but let’s make the most of him in the next two games. Alex gives us that drive forwards that we dearly lack with the aforementioned ‘axis of boredom’, and it frees up space on the wing for our brightest light currently - Samuel Chimerenka Chukwueze.
3. Samuel Chukwueze is a nailed-on starter
We let out a collective groan in the pub when we saw Samu was on the bench on Tuesday. What a way to reward a player who turned in a man-of-the-match-winning performance against Spurs three days earlier.
Before City, Chukwueze had three assists in five substitute appearances, helping us to bag nine points along the way. It’s not rocket science: we are a better side with him in it. His clinical finishing against Pep’s men is exactly what we’ve been missing this season. I’m beyond excited to see what damage he can do before and after AFCON.
4. Kevin deserves longer to impact the game
Finishing the game with Chuk and Kevin on the wings was like having an uzi in each hand - it felt devastating.
I love Harry Wilson and he’s having a fine season. It is hard to make an argument to drop him, so I’m not going to. But Kevin needs more than 10 minutes to make an impact. And he deserves it too. I’d love to see him come on earlier on Sunday and scorch the touchline.
5. Jonah Kusi-Asare is ready - use him!
If Marco wants to perpetuate the myth that young Jonah is a deer in the headlights who’s miles away from being Premier League ready, then he made a fatal error on Tuesday. JKA looked calm and assured, with some nice touches in and around the box in what was actually a high-pressure situation as we chased an unlikely point.
His height is a real asset and something we don’t have up top at all - we should be utilising all these differentiators when and where we can. It was a solid cameo for Jonah and hopefully one that sparks a change in fortune for him this season - I genuinely think we’ll all benefit.
This run of fixtures into the new year offers huge opportunities to get points on the board, and how we set up from the start will determine how much we take advantage of that.
The City game showed us at our worst and at our best this season, all wrapped up in 100 minutes of football. If Marco chooses to ignore the learnngs offered from this, then I’ll have to whack the dunce’s hat on him. But I’m sure he’s smarter than that. You Whites.