Another cold Wednesday evening in Hyde, and another City reserve game at Ewen Fields. Despite my hopes that with the schools being back it would mean less kids, sadly they were still out in force, but I had learnt my lesson and situated myself away at the back of the Main Stand with various scouts, one I think from Leyton Orient, someone who was possibly Eddie Howe, the new Burnley manager, and a couple of first team coaches from City – all the big names!
I can really see my visits to see the youngster’s play becoming something that I really enjoy, what the games lack in atmosphere is really made up for by the determination and passion shown on the pitch.
Today the match I enjoyed was City – Wigan in another local derby. The game was a tough battle, and in many ways might be similar to what the first team will find themselves up against on Saturday when they too will play Wigan. The Lancashire side set about mopping up and soaking up pressure with various attempts to catch City on the break, they were organised and defended well.
City had lots of possesion but found it difficult to break down the opposition, however their perseverance eventually paid off with the young City side winning the game 1-0 with a late goal from Swede John Guidetti. The only other thing of note was what looked to be a serious injury to Gai Assulin, he was hurt by a late tackle towards the end of the game and had to be stretchered off, at the time of writing it appears that the injury might not be as bad as first thought, but it looked very serious at the time.
As I always say though, the idea of this feature is not to give you a description of events on the pitch, it is supposed to inform fans about ones to watch and ones to avoid in future, so lets get on with it!
We will start with home side, Manchester City, who caught the attention this week, and who failed to deliver:
City played 16 year old Courteney Meppen Walters at left back, and he looked a very impressive prospect. He is very tall and was capable of clearing any high balls that were in his area of the field, out-jumping opposition wingers and forwards very well. The attacking side of his game was impressive too, he attacked well and put in a couple of decent crosses (a couple of poor ones too, something to work on). He was quick with and without the ball and also strong, and he used this strength well to tackle but also to hold off opposition players when he had the ball.
A defender that has appeared on the substitutes bench for the first team recently is Reece Wabara who I was interested in watching since he appears to be close to the first team. The 20 year old looked very assured at centre back and had many attributes that could help him become a good quality footballer. On the physical side of things, he has pace, power and strength, but there is more to being a good defender than that. He also appeared to have a good footballing brain, he marshalled the defence well alongside youngster Frederic Veseli. His marking was good and he dealt with what Wigan had to offer very well, he looks like he could have a decent future ahead of him to me.
City reserve captain Scott Kay also caught my eye as well. A member of the squad that travelled to the USA in preseason, he appeared a few times and he looked fairly solid if not spectacular. His role in front of the defense mopping up is vital and it is something that Kay did well last night. You don’t tend to notice him too much but I suppose that is to be expected, what he does do well is the simple things. He fills gaps in the back line when needed, he keeps the team ticking with simple passes and whilst the passes he attempts are rarely defense splitting, he picks passes well and does it simply.
Sadly there was a performance which was less than stellar, I decided to not mention Andrea Mancini last week, I thought i’d give him the benefit of the doubt to prove me wrong, but sadly in the 2 games i’ve seen I can’t see him pulling up any tree’s. There are some good things about the forwards game, he plays from wide and takes up some good positions, but his touch isn’t the best and he has a tendency to really over complicate things rather than just taking the easy option. He also doesn’t look a particularly accomplished finisher with him blowing a couple of chances where he was played in well by his team mates. I would never wish to totally trash someone in this feature, but Mancini doesn’t look great on the evidence of what i’ve seen and should his father not be in charge of the club, I am not sure Andrea would be at Manchester City.
A quick round up of other good City performers, John Guidetti lead the line well, he isn’t the quickest, but he is strong and has a decent touch. Gai Assulin again looked an interesting prospect, he kept the team ticking over, and whilst he wasn’t as good as the week before he created some good chances.
Well that pretty much wraps up City, which Wigan players are worth taking a look at?
Find out over the page:
Wigan were very efficient and effective with what they did, they were set up to keep City out and then hit them on the break, so most of their good performers were in the defensive ranks, this is how I saw it:
Centreback Jordan Robinson commanded the defence really well. He was excellent in the air and cleared many crosses and long balls, his presence at the back was not just with the ball in the air, he was also very competent with the ball on the floor. His footballing brain was impressive and he orchestrated the back line well. He was strong and didn’t give the lively City forward Guidetti an easy ride at all.
Wigan also had Tim Chow who played well in a defensive roll. He kept the ball moving and relieved the pressure on the defence by playing it simply out from the back. He generally found team mates and didn’t often give it away, he was technically well drilled and while not overly pacey I was pretty impressed with the work he got through. He kept a cool head, and he marshalled Assulin well when he was having some of his more dominant spells of possession for City.
Sadly the Wigan right back Adam Buxton had a tough game and struggled. He never really got to grips with McDermott or Mancini who switched sides throughout the game, and even though neither City player was overly good when they got the ball, Buxton generally allowed them far too much space to play in, and on occasions opposition players were able to run in behind him with relative ease. It didn’t help that the City left back had a particularly good game and beat him for pace on several occasions. It is impossible for me to judge his talents on the back of only one game, but if last night was anything to go off, he may need to improve the defensive side of his game.
Even though Wigan were not overly attack minded throughout, their number 9, Callum McManaman, looked useful. When the ball did come forward he held it up well and was a dominant presence in the air and he made the Manchester City centrebacks work hard. He was pretty tricky with the ball at his feet and he looked like he could be a threat if he were given more service.
Other honorable mentions for Wigan should got to Roman Golobart who again was very solid defensively and worked well with the rest of the defensive unit. Daniel Redmond as well looked a useful player and this was demonstrated with some particularly nice cross field balls.
All in all it wasn’t a cracker of a game, but there were some noticeable performances from both sides. Expect the next report the week after next when the City EDS are in action again.
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