Scout Scribbles – City at the Double

Man City get back to winning ways after a couple of poor performances, as Sergio Aguero and Vincent Kompany grabs the goals against Besiktas. QPR notch five for the second successive pre-season friendly, with Adel Taarabt pulling the strings as his side run riot against Asian side Kelantan. Djibril Cisse’s injury is an early concern for Mark Hughes, however…

Man City 2 Besiktas 0
The champions stepped up a gear in their third pre-season match after failing to find the net in the first two. While still devoid of his Euro 2012 contingent, Roberto Mancini fielded a strong looking side, with Vincent Kompany shaking off a hamstring knock sustained in the previous game against Dynamo Dresden to start alongside Kolo Toure in the heart of defence. Despite a multitude of star names on show, the City official website praised the performance of Abdul Razak in particular – the teenager carried much of his side’s attacking threat and set up Sergio Aguero for the opener. Kompany demonstrated his class once again by grabbing the second; carrying the ball out from the back, the City skipper executed a perfect chip over the opposition goalkeeper just before the hour mark. The Belgian was immediately subbed off, though, and, as Mancini continued to ring the changes during the second half, City lost their momentum but, despite suffering a scare when the Turkish side hit the post, cruised home comfortably in the end.

Man City Starting XI: Pantilimon; Zabaleta (Rekik 70), K Toure (Boyata 88), Kompany (Savic 57), Kolarov (Helan 88); A. Johnson (Mancini 88), Y Toure (Evans 75), Razak, Lopes (Weiss 46); Aguero (Jelavic 70), Tevez (Scapuzzi 64)

Kelantan 0 QPR 5
Mark Hughes’ side continued to rack up the goals in their Asia tour with another 5-0 win yesterday. Intriguingly, QPR lined up in a 4-4-1-1 formation, with Adel Taarabt handed a role in “the hole” behind Djibril Cisse, while both Fabio and Rob Green earned their first starts since joining up at Loftus Road this summer. According to the match report on the club’s official website, Taarabt was central to most of his side’s attacking moves and, creating chances aplenty from a more central position, picked up two assists. At 6.0 in FPL and 5.2 in the Sky Sports game, the Moroccan is definitely one to watch next term, though it’s arguable that this team shape may be more applicable to away games, bearing in mind that QPR picked up one point from nine road trips under Hughes last term.

Substitute Max Ehmer also provided a pair of assists, with Shaun Wright-Philips, Michael Harriman, Darren Mackie, Bobby Zamora and Heidar Helguson all getting amongst the goals in another emphatic performance from the London outfit. Despite the win, Hughes’ joy was somewhat tempered by the hamstring problem that forced Cisse off after just 20 minutes – the manager admitted post-match:

Djib felt some reaction in his hamstring. We’ll have to wait for a couple of days before it settles down and then we can make a more definite decision. It’s probably too early to make a guess on how long he’ll be out for…We’re hopeful it won’t be any longer than a week to ten days, but it’s too early to say for definite.

QPR Starting XI: Green (Murphy 46); Fabio, Ferdinand (Connolly 60), Hill (Onuoha 46), Traore (Harriman 46); Mackie, Diakite (Doughty 60), Ephraim, Wright-Phillips; Taarabt (Zamora 60); Cisse (Johnson 20) (Helguson 77).