Determined to see his name on a dozen band pun-filled Christmas headlines (Soccernet already posted “Santa Claws it back”), Blackburn’s Santa Cruz sends another couple of goals bulleting off his deadly Paraguayan bonce to peg back City and ruin their 100% record at Eastlands. Here’s my notes on tonight’s game…
Man City 2 Blackburn 2
Sven’s gone from “Mr Predictable” to “Mr What’s he playing at?” with his lineups. Tonight’s tinkering saw him dare to drop Brazilian wizard Elano to the bench in order to bring Corluka into the midfield. What’s with the Redknapp approach at home Sven? It’s Blackburn in town not Arsenal. Elsewhere he annoyed thousands of other fantasy managers by once again leaving Garrido to warm the bench with Ball continuing at left-back. Onuoha remained at right-back to cover Corluka’s new role. Hamann was also dropped to the bench to allow for the return of Ireland to the midfield.
It’s not looking good for Garrido who now looks doomed to the bench with Ball established at lef-back. Then again City have begun to leak goals having been almost water-tight at home. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him tinker with his backline again at the weekend. Certainly, defensively there are clear concerns at City now. That’s six consecutive games without a clean sheet, indication that perhaps it’s time to look at Everton or Portsmouth for alternative mid-price defensive solutions. After all, it’s Liverpool at home next followed by trips to Newcastle and Everton. None of those games say “clean sheet” to me in this current form.
There should be no need to panic with Elano in terms of selection. I can’t imagine that he will be benched again for the visit of Liverpool on Sunday with Hamann likely to get a recall to firm up the midfield enough to allow the Brazilian to return. Having said that, even if selected, as I’ve mentioned in previous notes, Elano’s output has dropped considerably.
Petrov is a different story. I got something right at least by sticking with him in my picks. Two assists and all three FPL bonus points here promote him further up the fantasy midfield rankings. That’s five assists in the last four games for the Bulgarian and only Fabregas betters him in that department.
Mark Hughes was forced into changes tonight with Savage and Warnock suspended. Bruno Berner came in at left-back with Khizanishvili moved to right-back to allow Samba to return to the centre of defence after serving his suspension. Bentley once again played just off Santa Cruz with Emerton employed on the right-wing. Dunn played alongside Reid in central midfield with Pedersen on the left. McCarthy was on the bench and appeared at half-time as Hughes chased the game and to save Khizanishvili from further roastings at the hands of Petrov.
It was a plucky fight back from Rovers but still not the win they need to break the run of results they’ve fallen into. It’s just one win in eight now for Rovers although they do clearly possess a striker who is quite simply on fire. Santa Cruz has hit seven in the last four games if you take the Carling Cup into account. That’s nine Premiership goals for the season. Bentley also impressed tonight with the two assists and these two stick out like a pair of shining beacons amongst Rovers’ fantasy mediocrity.
Defensively that’s eight without a clean sheet now for Rovers. However, the fixture list does offer hope and potential. It’s a trip to Derby next, followed by a home game with Sunderland, a visit to Bolton and then Boro at Ewood. A very decent set of fixtures for Bentley and Santa to boost their points output further and maybe, just maybe, for a clean sheet to arrive.
Injuries and Suspensions
Micah Richards is now hovering on the suspension tightrope having picked up his fourth booking tonight.