The Technical Area- Graft Gives City Cause For Optimism

Three games, three wins and no goals conceded. Sheikh Monsour’s money, ultimately, may not buy them success down Eastlands way this season, but Man City’s immaculate start means optimism is currently sky-high.

Not only are some of the high-profile new recruits performing well for their new club, they are doing so while being utilised in ways that differ from what they were previously accustomed to. Here’s a look at three key players who make up the spine of the side, and their telling contributions so far…

Emmanuel Adebayor

His goals have quite rightly caught the headlines, but it’s a much-improved upping of his work-ethic that has been the most impressive feature. The last time the Togo international completed 90mins away for Arsenal was against Everton in January, and that’s where these comparisons have foundation.

Perhaps the City formation suits him better, but the temperamental front man, when he can be bothered, is a fantastic asset for any team. This first chalkboard shows his passing in both games: on Sunday he made over double the amount of passes than against David Moyes’ men as his movement saw him drop back and appear all around the pitch to receive the ball and link play, whereas in Arsenal’s colours, he was pretty much static, and done little more than pass to the wings in a lacklustre performance that typified his final months under Arsene Wenger.

This second chalkboard, again from the same two matches, shows the number of tackles he made. Working right, left and down the centre, his shift was an industrious one, where with Arsenal almost of his one-on-one’s were in and around the centre of the middle third, demonstrating again a distinct lack of movement and interest in the action around him.

Gareth Barry

The acquisition of Barry has been integral in City’s change of formation this season from 4-2-3-1 to something like a 4-1-2-3. His defensive midfield position is key to the team’s performance; sitting while the midfield twosome of Steven Ireland and Sean Wright-Phillips join the front three when attacking, breaking up play as and when required, and linking with the defence. A different role to what he was accustomed to at Villa Park.

These chalkboards compare Gareth Barry’s weekend performance at Portsmouth with his final Aston Villa away appearance at Middlesboro, and give an indication of how Mark Hughes uses him now. In this first chalkboard, you can see he made 3 tackles for Villa over the whole match, whereas on Sunday, he made 11 tackles in the 1-0 victory, all mainly in the centre of the middle third.

This second chalkboard shows Barry’s passing in both games. Again, with City, much of his work is slap-bang in the middle of the field, where he links up particularly well with Steven Ireland through the centre and Wayne Bridge, marauding down the left wing. In total, Barry made 54 passes at the weekend. With Villa, more than half his 38 passes were played in the final third, and were strung out across both wings as well as in the middle.

Kolo Toure

Fantastically solid at the back so far, and these chalkboards (looking at Sunday versus his final away game for Arsenal against Manchester United) illustrate the differences between his role for Sparky’s boys and his role under Arsene Wenger.

Due to the array of attacking talents ahead of him, Toure’s job at City is to simply defend, and resultantly, this first chalkboard shows how he rarely ventured into the opposition half when compared to the Arsenal performance, where around half the passes made were in the opposition’s half. The passes for City were short, basic linking passes, mainly to Richards, Zabaletta or Wright-Phillips to his right, meaning although he saw a lot less of the ball, he had a pass success rate of 100%.

This final chalkboard compares the interceptions Toure made in both matches. All six of his interceptions at the weekend were in his team’s defensive third of the pitch and (all bar one) in central danger areas, again indicative of him playing further back, breaking up the opponent’s play, and illustrating the importance of his contribution to City’s defensive solidity, whereas at Old Trafford, he made only two such interceptions for Arsenal.

Mark Hughes may have splashed out a fortune in transfer fees -over a quarter of all money spent by Premiership clubs- but if his players continue to fight for their results rather than sit back and let the money roll in, they may well have to be seen as the real deal. Next up? Only Arsenal and Man Utd…