Soccer Central

Man City’s 2-0 defeat at Bolton today is just the latest in a string of bad results for the club. Man City currently sit 10th in the league with 13 points from 11 games. Tenth place is an admittedly respectable position in a league as strong as that of the English Premier; when you consider that Sven Goran Eriksson took the team to 9th last season with a much lesser squad however, you start to put things into perspective and realise that 10th position now after all the money that’s been ploughed into the club over the summer is just a little embarrassing really.

Manchester City spent £64.65 million in the summer transfer window, making them the biggest spending club in the world, far ahead of Internazionale in second place at £43.25 million, and Aston Villa in third who spent £39.4 million. These figures do of course account for transfer money received, so any player sales totals have been deducted here from overall transfer expenditure in order to provide a net spending figure.

Man City spent £25 million more than Aston Villa, just under £40 million more than bitter Manchester rivals United, over £45 million more than Liverpool, and a staggering £54 million more than Hull City; all four of these teams have at least 20 points already this season however and are performing far better in the league than Manchester City at current. Where’s it all going wrong for Manchester City then? Away from the City of Manchester Stadium.

On their travels, Manchester City have only picked up 4 points from 6 games; winning one game, drawing another, and losing the other four. At home the team has won three, drawn none, and lost two; a pretty reasonable record really, away form is costing the side dearly however and at current the team is only two points outside of the drop-zone. Tenth position sounds all well and good, West Brom in 18th only have 2 points less than Manchester City though, and even bottom side Newcastle are only four points behind the club. After all the money that’s been spent at Man City trying to get the club to become a top four contender, Manchester City is a team no better off results-wise than it was last year.

A lot of goals have been scored by this fiery Manchester City side; the team has a lot of power up front with the likes of Robinho, Jo, Shaun Wright Phillips, Elano, and Stephen Ireland all more than capable of scoring; with so much emphasis on firepower up front however the team is therefore always left very open to the counter-attack. The team is menacing moving forward, at the back however there’s just not that same level of strength and at current the balance just isn’t there in the squad. This coming January the cheque book is likely to be once more opened and the back-line is bound to be strengthened; with a virtually endless supply of money to draw upon, there’s just no telling what sort of silly money will be spent upon January improvements by Manchester City.

Only Chelsea have scored more goals than Manchester City this season in the league, despite this though; Manchester City have only the sixth best goal difference in the league, proving that not only are they scoring a lot of goals but are conceding far too many also. It’ll be interesting to see who Mark Hughes brings into the side next; the Manchester City squad certainly needs its backline improving however as when you play such an attacking game as Man City do, the other team is always going to create chances, and if you don’t have an adequate enough defence to break the attacks down then you’re going to wind up conceding a lot of goals.

Manchester City’s millions are failing them a little at current, when the January transfer window opens however then corrections are bound to be made to the squad which will potentially turn around the fortunes of Manchester City and the team can see about moving on up the English Premier League and possibly even pushing for a Champions League spot next season.