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
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