Manchester City v Bolton Wanderers: #CityStats

This is the return of a once popular feature of the blog (or at least I like to think so). City Stats has had a bit of a face lift and is a little more in depth this time round. This time focusing on City's record-matching 19th straight home league win, which came against Bolton Wanderers.

Match Stats

The Match Stats really do tell their own story here as City were rarely put under any real pressure from Bolton. City's possession and passing have followed a similar trend throughout the season, although these are all improved on the season's average (58% possession, 86% pass success).

The most impressive figure of all may well be the number of shots City had at Bolton's net, creating  5 more chances than their average of 19.

However only 8 of these shots were on target which is only marginally better than the 7 averaged usually, but statistically worse when looking at percentages (33% v Bolton - 37% for the season).

Maybe Balo's attention was divided between scoring the game and scoring in an altogether different way at the strip club, if rumours are to be believed.

Defensive

Although it was Bolton doing the majority of the defending, there are some fairly impressive defensive stats when you look at City's players.

Gareth Barry managed to stick his foot into 6 tackles, more than anyone else on the pitch. Sam Ricketts of Bolton is 2nd with 5 tackles to his name. Maybe a couple more would have earned his side a point, but he may have been too busy thinking about who will win the title.

Vincent Kompany leads the way for interceptions, and not for the first time this season, with 8. This figure is once again the best on the pitch and double the total achieved by Bolton's Zat Knight (4), who had the most for his side.

Tckl = tackles won, Int = interceptions, Clr = total clearances, Eclr = effective clearances, Foul = fouls committed, BS = blocked shots, AD = aerial duels

Attacking

As you would expect after a game like this, City's attacking stats look pretty good (unless you're looking at shots on target).

Mario Balotelli actually had as many shots on goal as the entire Bolton squad with 8 shots, but with only half of them on target, Papa Mancini will be wanting a little improvement from the young Italian. Balo is the only City player to score though as Clichy's attempt is likely to be given as an own goal once the dubious goals panel takes a look at it.

Something else which has been a less than impressive trend this season is Yaya Toure's shooting. Only 1 of his 5 shots was on target today and his lack of clinical finishing is why he is looking at falling short of his 6 league goals that he achieved last season, with 3 so far. But there's still time to amend that. 

David Pizzaro's first start for City since his switch from Italy in January really did highlight his strengths. Due to his lack of match fitness I don't believe we have seen the best from him, but as far as his anticipation and vision he was as sharp as ever. The 3 fouls he drew were results of players attempting to tackle a ball that had already been moved on.

Shot = total shots, SoT = shots on target, Drb = successful dribbles, Foul = times player was fouled, Dis = times player was dispossessed, Trn = turnovers committed, Tch = total touches of the ball

Passing

With the higher than average possession comes higher than average passing statistics. Yaya Toure making the most passes in the squad as usual with 98 passes at a success rate of 91%.

In terms of total passes made, Gareth Barry is next in line with 83 in total with an 89% success rate.

Toure and Gaz Baz together made more passes than the top 5 passers for Bolton.

Yaya also leads the way with key passes with 4 in total, Adam Johnson a close 2nd with 3.

As we are seeing more and more, several players in the squad are hitting percentages of over 90% success for their passing. No fewer than 9 players achieved this, although only 7 of them were on the pitch for an extended period of time.

The only thing that is particularly disappointing is that there were no accurate crosses out of the 13 attempted.

Ass. = assists, Pass = total completed passes, KP = key passes, P% = pass success rate, C = crosses attempted, AC = accurate crosses, LB = long balls attempted, ALB = accurate long balls, TB = through balls attempted, ATB = accurate through balls

When he looks back at that game, Mancini should be quite satisfied. The team was missing Micah Richards, David Silva, and Sergio Aguero, 3 major players in the squad and City dominated very comfortably without being particularly spectacular for most parts, but did have a couple bouts of showboating in and around Bolton's 18 yard box.

On another day, with Nasri and Balotelli wearing their shooting boots, it really could have been 10.

If you have anything to add, or would like to have your say, feel free to leave a comment underneath.


Twitter: @MikeWalshMCFC or @mcfcDSLeftFoot
Facebook: David Silva's Left Foot

Boyata goes on loan to Bolton

20 year old Belgian defender Dedryck Boyata has joined Bolton Wanderers on a season-long-loan. I've said before that Bolton is a great place for young players to go on loan, mainly due to Owen Coyle who seems to have a knack of getting the best out of them and helping them develop.

With the possibility of losing Gary Cahill before the transfer window closes Boyata would bolster the Bolton back line, and Owen Coyle certainly rates the versatile defender;

"To bring in a player of Dedryck's age and quality is something, as we have shown before, we like to do.

"He is a tremendous addition. His versatility means that he can operate at centre-half and full-back."
We have already seen Wilshere and Sturridge benefit from spending time under the management of Coyle and this is something Dedryck hasn't failed to notice.

"I'm really looking forward to working with the manager." He says; "I have seen how he got the best out of Jack Wilshere and Daniel Sturridge."

Good luck to him.

City Stats: Bolton Wanderers v Manchester City.

Joe Hart

• Distribution: 35 - 15 - 20 - 42%
• Saves: 3 - 1 - 33%
• Minutes: 90

Micah Richards

• Shots: 0
• Passes: 40 - 28 (1 assist) - 11 - 70%
• Interceptions: 3
• Tackles: 2 - 1- 1 - 50%
• Minutes: 90

Vincent Kompany

• Shots: 0
• Passes: 40 - 35 - 5 - 87%
• Interceptions: 5
• Tackles: 2 - 2 - 100%
• Minutes: 90

Joleon Lescott

• Shots: 0
• Passes: 34 - 29 - 5 - 85%
• Interceptions: 1
• Tackles: 7 - 6 - 1 - 85%
• Minutes: 90

Aleks Kolarov

• Shots: 2 - 1 - 1 blocked - 0%
• Passes: 48 - 37 - 11 - 77%
• Interceptions: 2
• Tackles: 0
• Minutes: 90

James Milner

• Shots: 3 - 2 - 1 - 66%
• Passes: 74 - 57 (2 assists) - 17 - 77%
• Interceptions: 1
• Tackles: 6 - 5 - 1 - 83%
• Minutes: 90

Gareth Barry

• Shots: 1 - 1 (1 goal) - 100% (100% shots-goals ratio)
• Passes: 53 - 44 - 9 - 83%
• Interceptions: 3
• Tackles: 2 - 2 - 100%
• Minutes: 90

Yaya Toure

• Shots: 1 - 1 - 0%
• Passes: 64 - 60 - 4 - 93%
• Interceptions: 2
• Tackles: 2 - 1 - 1 - 50%
• Minutes: 90

David Silva

• Shots: 3 - 2 (1 goal) - 1 blocked - 66% (33% shots-goals ratio)
• Passes: 70 - 61 - 9 - 87%
• Interceptions: 2
• Tackles: 4 - 3 - 1 - 75%
• Minutes: 89

Sergio Aguero

• Shots: 3 - 2 - 1 blocked - 0%
• Passes: 30 - 22 - 8 - 73%
• Interceptions: 1
• Tackles: 3 - 1 - 2 - 33%
• Minutes: 68

Edin Dzeko

• Shots: 2 - 1 (1 goal) - 1 - 50% (50% shots-goals ratio)
• Passes: 26 - 21 - 5 - 80%
• Interceptions: 1
• Tackles: 12 - 3 - 9 - 25%
• Minutes: 80

Carlos Tevez

• Shots: 2 - 1 - 1 - 50%
• Passes: 15 - 12 - 3 - 80%
• Interceptions: 0
• Tackles: 3 - 3 - 100%
• Minutes: 22

Adam Johnson

• Shots: 1 - 1 - 0%
• Passes: 3 - 3 - 100%
• Interceptions: 0
• Tackles: 1 - 1 - 100%
• Minutes: 10

Pablo Zabaleta

• Shots: 0
• Passes: 5 - 3 - 2 - 60%
• Interceptions: 0
• Tackles: 1 - 1 - 100%
• Minutes: 1

Team Stats

• Shots: 18 - 7 (3 goals) - 38% (16% shots-goals ratio)
• Passes: 537 - 428 - 79%
• Interceptions: 21
• Tackles: 45 - 29 - 64%
• Possession: 57% 
• Corners: 8
• Fouls: 14

You can see highlights of the match here

Bolton Wanderers v Manchester City

After Sergio Aguero's scintillating debut City fans simply can not wait for the next installment from the Argentinian ace. This will hopefully come no later than Sunday when City take on Owen Coyle's Bolton Wanderers at the Reebok Stadium.

Bolton finished 14th in the league last season despite spending a most of it in contention for a Europa League place. It was a poor run of 5 defeats at the end of the season which dashed their hopes of European football.

They have got off to a flying start this season, beating QPR 4-0 away from home despite early concerns that they would struggle to score goals after releasing last season's top scorer Johan Elmander and the return of Daniel Sturridge to Chelsea.

Owen Coyle got Bolton playing some very good football last term and looks to have continued that philosophy with the signings of Chris Eagles and Turkish captain Tuncay. Both players can play on either flank or in a more central attacking role. Chris Eagles has already made an impact after his free kick was turned into the back of the net by QPR's Daniel Gabbidon as well as getting an assist to his name for Gary Cahill's fantastic strike.

Bolton are no strangers to the more direct approach though and Kevin Davies is the man for Kompany and Lescott to keep an eye on if they resort to hoofing the ball up field. In all fairness to Bolton though, City should be able to contain the opposing front line as well as last season when they shut them out and kept clean sheets in both Premier League games.

City will of course want to continue to make an early impression on the title race after scoring 4 goals themselves against Swansea. Mancini will no doubt want another high scoring win, as last year's 2nd and 3rd place was decided on goal difference. He often complained that the team lacked that killer instinct and wasted too many opportunities on goal.

For all his ability David Silva was guilty of this, a little too often preferring to unselfishly pass the ball for a teammate to have a go rather than take on the shot himself. It looks as though Mancini has been having words with him this time round as 'Merlin' appears to be hungry for more goals himself. Although he is undoubtedly one of the best at moving the ball about and finding space, if he can add a few more goals per season compared to his tally of 4 in the last campaign, City will undeniably have one of the very best players in the world in their ranks.

Another player looking to continue in his recent form is Bosnian striker Edin Dzeko who has now scored a goal in his last 3 games (Inter Milan, Manchester United, Swansea City). He had in incredible amount of detractors last season and was labelled a flop in certain circles even amongst City fans. He still has those who doubt his ability, but after a full pre-season he is looking sharp and more and more settled at City now. I think I'm safe in saying we can expect much better from him this season.

What's next for Vladi?

At the end of the 2010-11 season Vladimir Weiss (21) stated that he had spoken to Mancini and was given the impression he would spend another year on loan to hone his talent playing on a regular basis.

He had a mixed time in his season-long loan with Rangers (both on and off the pitch), ultimately lacking the consistency that hampered his inclusion in City's 1st team. The early indication was that a team in Spain, possibly Espanyol, would be the Slovak's next destination. But would being sent to Spain really be of any help to him at the level he's at when it comes to playing in England?


There would be definite benefits to it as Spanish teams focus much more on technique than English clubs tend to do, and the pace of the Spanish league would mean he would get more time on the ball than he would in England enabling him to develop that side of his game.


But here's my point, Vladi is already technically adept. If you've followed City for a while you will know that this lad has always been very good on the ball but has always lacked the end product, that final ball into the box on a regular basis.


In the first game of pre-season against Club America it looked like we had the same old Vladi (albeit with a few more tattoos), bags of pace and dribbling ability that ran down a blind ally and got tackled before delivering a ball into the box. But in the second half he slowed his game down a little, took a second or two to look up and did make quite a few outstanding passes. He also did this against Vancouver, showing that when he holds back from just belting down the wing he does possess a good range of passing prompting me to even consider he could play a similar role to David Silva given a little time.


Weiss was certainly one of the stand-out players of the US tour for City with his pace and energy. We still have the Dublin Super Cup to play in yet so if he is involved he may impress enough to stay with City this season. But if not and the loan option is explored, where would offer Weiss regular and competitive game time needed for his further development?


Firstly I would prefer him to stay in England. He not only has pace but he has acquired a good deal of strength over the last year or two so he has the attributes to be able to cope with the physicality of the English game. That being the case I would have chosen a club in the Premier League, but which one?

Bolton Wanderers would be high on the list of preferred suitors. The last two seasons have seen Owen Coyle's side play some attractive football whilst utilizing a couple of young players from other Premiership clubs (Jack Wilshere and Daniel Sturridge). Coyle does seem to have a knack of getting his players to up their game and before becoming Manager of Bolton he won promotion from the Championship with Burnley which in itself was a fantastic achievement.

This will most likely not happen now as it appears as though Coyle is set to sign Chris Eagles (a player who greatly improved under Coyle's management) from his former employers at Burnley. So who else is there?


How about Aston Villa? They've just lost Ashley Young to Manchester United and Stuart Downing to Liverpool and although they look to be in line to sign N'Zogbia from Wigan that still leaves them short of one wide man. My only problem with this move though is that I don't think McLeish would be the right man to improve Vladi's game any more than it has done and give him the confidence to push on.


I know I've said I'd prefer him to go to a team in the Premiership if he was to be loaned out, but there's another team in the North West I think would be good for him. Burnley. No stop laughing, bare with me on this. Burnley are almost certainly going to lose Chris Eagles, possibly the most creative player in the squad and he will be a big miss for them this coming season.


Vladi can play the exact same positions as Eagles, but is quicker and I'd say he's also stronger then the 25 year old. I'd hazard a guess at him being a sure fire starter for almost every game and although it's not the Premiership I'll stick my neck out and say it's better overall than what he was playing against in Scotland.

Then there's the factor of Eddie Howe being the manager there. Howe is touted as one of the best young managers in the football league at this moment in time after gaining promotion with AFC Bournemouth in 2010. Although Howe's ability to nurture young and aspiring talent has yet to be really tested, Vladi has the necessary talent already and just needs regular competitive games and a manager with enthusiasm to boost and keep his confidence high and bring the best out of him. I believe Burnley and Howe can offer them both as they strive to get back into the Premiership.

Whether a move like this could happen is yet to be seen, but there has been a feint whisper that it could be a possibility. And lets look at the positives (as there are very few negatives); It's a short journey from Manchester, Ben Mee and Kieran Trippier (Vladi will know both very well from City's FA Youth Cup winning squad) are already there, the opportunity of plenty of games in a physically demanding environment with the responsibility of providing that creative spark, and an enthusiastic and talented young manager with designs on pushing the team forward. If Vladi does go out on loan, Burnley could well be the best place for him.