Areas to Strengthen: Attack

25 Jun

The title-winning season is over and thoughts are already turning towards a new campaign, so what better time to assess which areas of the squad need freshening up and who might leave.

Attack

Having been the team who scored the most goals last season, it might seem greedy to want to strengthen the forward line, but it is, in my opinion, something that needs to happen. We had four strikers who all chipped in at various stages of the campaign, but rumours have been aplenty that at least one of that quartet will move on.

Not too much needs to be written about Sergio Aguero. He scored 30 goals in his debut season, was voted as player of the year by the fans, will be an automatic first choice in the side and rightly so.

The other forwards, however, cause more debate. Mario Balotelli receives an inordinate amount of criticism, mainly due to his temperament and volatile nature, but what is often overlooked is his scoring ratio. In terms of minutes played and goals scored, he was second only to Papiss Cissé last campaign and has proved throughout his City career that he is a player for the big occasion. He offers something which we lack in the side – pace – and with Roberto Mancini having such a close relationship with Balotelli, Mario is sure to stay.

Carlos Tévez is possibly the most intriguing case. Clearly, everyone knows about that infamous night in Munich and what happened afterwards but when he returned to the squad and the side, he fitted in superbly. Whereas it was perhaps felt that our style of play had evolved into a more fluid, passing game, Tévez was able to add that spark and linked up impressively with Aguero.

If Tévez were judged purely on footballing reasons, there is no doubt that we would benefit from him staying, but I think it would be best for all concerned if he were to leave. His behaviour last season was disgraceful and even if he momentarily patched up his relationship with Mancini, the feelings still lingers that it’s a bust-up waiting to happen. Surprisingly, there haven’t been too many rumours of his departure, but if a decent offer were to come in, I’d like to see him leave.

The final striker from last season was Edin Dzeko, someone who displayed moments of brilliance but they were all too often interspersed with lengthy periods of mediocrity. The Bosnian’s main strength is his aerial prowess but as we don’t play with conventional wingers, he suffers from a lack of crosses into the box.

As a result of our style of football, he is then forced to drop deeper to pick up the ball and link play, something which is not his forté. His goalscoring record, on the face of it, looks impressive but he’s too inconsistent at the moment. He’s the type of striker who hits a rich vein of form and scores five goals in five games but then loses confidence and can easily go ten matches without finding the target. At the level City are at, that, for me, is not good enough and although he has shown potential, he is not certain to be in Manchester for the start of the next campaign.

A number of German sides have been linked with him and with the possibility, too, of Tévez leaving, it means there is space for at least one addition. The likes of Robin Van Persie, Edinson Cavani and Gonzalo Higuain have been regularly mentioned with regards to joining the Blues, but it is impossible to predict now who exactly will be added to the squad. Rumours will only intensify as the new season draws closer but it promises to be a summer of mild tweaking rather than a vast overhaul.

3 Responses to “Areas to Strengthen: Attack”

  1. Siamack 25/06/2012 at 9:41 pm #

    Augero, Balloteli and Dezko [provided he gets the service that tunes on his strength] are 3 formidable attackers. What is interesting here is that Augero is a master of operating in small spaces, Dezko has the aerial prowess and Super Mario has the mixture of both. Provided that Tevez and Adebayor are goners, I strongly believe that City should consider John Guidetti as his fourth striker.

    We should NOT sign Van Persie as he is injury prone and he peaked last season. I am sure he would go Torres on us esp that he is now 28.

    Cavani is the only one that I would love to see in City’s shirt, other than that John Guidetti should be our fourth striker

  2. wjjh 25/06/2012 at 10:15 pm #

    Radamel Falcao anyone?! Absolutely love the guy, think he’d be awesome in a blue shirt!

  3. simon edwards 26/06/2012 at 9:22 pm #

    Cavani is a desirable proposition with his 3 goals in 2 games against us last season and it would prevent him scoring against us if nothing else were we to meet again!! Allegedly he wants to stay at Napoli but we can offer Champions League football unlike Napoli and surely that could tip the balance. RVP has been spotted by ex-cricketer Neil Fairbrother lunching in Hale which suggests he may be about to move into the area. A fully fit Van Persie would prove an asset to any team. Fernando Llorente terrorised the Rags defence in the Europa league and could also fit in. Lavezzi from Napoli is another option. Only bring in though if we lose a striker and Guidetti may prove a top striker after his loan spell away from the club and top strike rate. Injury worries though

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