City v Bolton: Preview

February 08, 2010

SIDELINED: Craig Bellamy

Craig Bellamy is set to miss Manchester City’s clash with Bolton as a result of his long-standing knee injury.

The Wales forward is meeting with a specialist in London to get a check-up on the problem, but boss Roberto Mancini does not think it is serious and hopes to have him back by the weekend.

Joleon Lescott has returned to training and is likely to be on the bench after completing 45 minutes of a training match, but Dedryck Boyata could continue in defence as Vincent Kompany is still struggling with a groin problem and Micah Richards doubtful because of a calf injury.

Patrick Vieira and Adam Johnson are expected to be involved again after impressing in their debuts as substitutes in the defeat at Hull on Saturday, while Roque Santa Cruz has recovered from a calf strain.

Bolton manager Owen Coyle will be without Gary Cahill as the defender recovers from a blood clot in his arm.

The England hopeful could miss the rest of the season.

On-loan winger Vladimir Weiss is also absent as the Slovakian cannot face his parent club.

Andy O’Brien (thigh) and Fabrice Muamba (ankle) are both doubtful through injury while Gavin McCann and Ivan Klasnic remain sidelined.

Manchester City (from): Given, Taylor, Boyata, Lescott, Sylvinho, Bridge, Garrido, Onuoha, Richards, Toure, Zabaleta, A Johnson, Barry, Vieira, De Jong, Ireland, Kompany, Petrov, Wright-Phillips, Adebayor, Santa Cruz, Tevez.

Bolton Wanderers (from): Jaaskelainen, Steinsson, Knight, Robinson, Gardner, Cohen, Taylor, M Davies, Wilshere, Muamba, Lee, K Davies, A O’Brien, Al Habsi, Samuel, Basham, Elmander, Ricketts, Holden.

City league form: WWLWL

Bolton league form: LLWLD

Key opponent: Kevin Davies - striker will expose any inexperience in the City defence

Prediction: City 2 Bolton 1 - the Blues should react to Saturday's poor performance

Agree with the prediction? Have your say.

Click here for all the latest odds from Betfred.

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FANTASTICO., manc`land (08/02/2010 at 12:09)

Sparky was the best ever,
7/02/2010 at 19:47

OK..OK my passionate friend, we seem to have got off on the foot me thinks, your statement honours your beliefs quite profoundley, so if i may answer for the prosecution i feel we might start to see where i stand on this issue.
my view!!! RD like him or not as a footballer he was our CAPTAIN, not the best, but not the worse.
Has a player at our club wether you regard him a good honest pro or not, i do believe it was sacralidge to push this man out of our door, yes eventully the guy had no choice he wants to play, MH didt want him, didt rate him for is future plans, is view as manager of course but MISTAKE. and i think is time at city will show we got a good return for our money, rarely injured.
The brief time we had is services before he was sold, still shows he had a great deal to offer.
This is where i blame hughes 100%

These any better.. TOURE & LESCOT...!!!! i rest my case.

In all my friend MH fell into the trap...... HAVE MONEY WILL SPEND, oh yeah on s**te that was no better than we already had. a better man manager would have done a far better job, other than to push our CAPTAIN out of the door, with no other than a thanks, but no thanks now F**k off..

But where i see the loss most, i truely feel mancini would have got the best years out of our past CAPTAIN, as our current position suggest, he would have been a great asset you have got to agree surely....

so................MARK HUGHES HANG YOUR HEAD IN SHAME. employ this man at your peril.

i rest my case.

If you build it, they will come, Denton (08/02/2010 at 12:20)

Boyota was at fault for the 1st goal. He was caught ball watching instead of following his man (Altidore)....clearly Richard Dunne's influence is still apparent. Can't understand why Onohua is being overlooked. When fit, he is the best out and out defender.

Esso Blue. Carlitos is officially a GOD , Blues Town (08/02/2010 at 12:34)

I'm staying quiet, wouldn't want to upset the conservative dull fuddy - duddy's. Im going now to sit in the naughty corner.

Phil Neal's Laxative, Somewhere in Baden (08/02/2010 at 12:40)

4-0 to City and we're back to 4th. Don't let us down blue boys!

Vanzuylan (08/02/2010 at 12:47)

I know this is off the thread,

One of the fundamental reoccurring problems with Manchester City is sections of the fans, The Portsmouth home game last week was a classical example of this, the atmosphere was weird to say the least and all the time their was no more 500 or so Pompey fans who made the long journey up considering it was on sky and they will probably get relegated and so on. All you could hear was a drum banging and there fans out singing 43000 city fans, I was sat in the Colin Bell stand for this game and you could feel the negativity spreading around the ground, I assume this was because we didn't come out and bang five in before half time. It has too stop all this negativity spreads and before we know it they'll be another manager gone, as fans we have waited a long time for some success so why don't we all just bite our lips regarding who you think we should have as manager, Or who your first eleven would be etc etc, lets all just be positive and and as vocal as we can between now and the end of what could be our best ever season in the premiership. It's all about opinions I know, and this isn't me trying too preach to you all I just want us to be city's twelfth man home and away thats all.

City 3 Bolton 0

mark jones (08/02/2010 at 12:50)

im changing my team again for tomoz having seen who is and who is not available,given,richards,toure,kompany,bridge,swp,ireland,vieira,johnson,ade,tevez.

Evan Georgiou (08/02/2010 at 12:50)

Get our tallest and strongest in the air.....and put our fastest up front and we will kill them.....up and running after 24 hours of moruning........CTID from a cloudy CT....

BlueRanger, Manchester (08/02/2010 at 12:56)

GIVEN
ZABALETA TOURE ONUOHA BRIDGE
SWP DE JONG(C) VIEIRA JOHNSON
TEVEZ ADEBAYOR

bubba, cleethorpes (08/02/2010 at 13:01)

Pity that Bellamy's out. One of the few, who actualy put it in a shift. Ok he's not in good form, but then again, who is. Like to see Lescott play, if fit. Would also like to see him play at Left back, may be put a stop to the endless crosses that are allowed to come in. RM I guess will feel obliged to play Adebayor, so lets hope he shows a tad more interest than he did Saturday. Not sure if Adebayor is all he's cracked up to be, seems to stifle Tevez. Pip.. Pip..

Gaz M (08/02/2010 at 13:05)

FANTASTICO - name one game where we went behind with Dunne as captain where he inspired our team to a result.

He was our captain for a number of years, but never a leader. All too often stood with his hands on his knees when huge gaffes occurred, many of his own doing. Even the most ardent of his fans at City lost faith against Hamburg last year when he got himself stupidly sent off again in our most important match in years when we were on the verge of winning it.

You could also do with watching Lescott's performances before he got injured. Along with SWP he was our best player at that point in the season. If you want the weak link out of the team you should look no further than Dunne's compatriot in goal - it seems like it's been his life's work to destroy the reputation of any centre half who has played in front of him.

Eastbourne Blue, Eastbourne (08/02/2010 at 13:11)

Kevin Davies will expose any inexperience in our defence - dead right. So I guess Mancini will play Boyata then!!

ted knott, droylsden (08/02/2010 at 13:16)

I blamed Mancini for losing to United in the Carling Cup moreso for providing them with a confidence that is spurring them on.I am also blaming Mancini for destroying Boyata's confidence the proof of which is there for us all to see.
Its no good saying "forget the United defeat and move on" because our team wasted a golden opportunity to win our first trophy in 34 years. Furthermore there is no guarantee whatsoever in City winning the F.A. Cup sorry but Mancini has toatally infuriated me by his negative tactics....

Chris Chorlton, Chorlton (08/02/2010 at 13:23)

Bit worried seeing Mancini's call to our players to show more agression and play for 90 minutes! - Surely it's till the final whistle. Too often we have been back in the dressing room when the oposition have scored in extra time!!! We want Mancini time, and I'm not talking 5 minutes of easy listening!

timmy, manchester (08/02/2010 at 13:23)

Bolton will beat City tomorrow - there is not enough fight in the team, too many players are out of form and too many key players out. Hughes had too much money in the summer and has made some very poor buys and this is strange because his January buys were gems. This will disadvantage City for the rest of this season. The crazy money went to his head and spending a fortune on the average Lescott, erratic Adebayor and crocked Santa was hugely irresponsible. Add to that Barry's unconvincing form and Toure's ball watching. Only Tevez has come up to scratch. The team will not get into 4th because it is not good enough: not committed enough and without the requisite skill and drive in midfield. And Mancini is too cautious, despite being far more tactically aware than Hughesless.

Karem Roen! (08/02/2010 at 13:23)

My team:

Zab, Boyata, Toure, Bridge

SWP, Vieira, De Jong, Barry(Petrov)

Tevez, Adebayor

Talljonny (08/02/2010 at 13:35)

Mancini destroying Boyata? My god, we'd not heard of him before Roberto arrived.

If we win this we will be 5th on goal difference, if we spank Bolton, 4th, with a game in hand, I don't see any reason to panic with that?

micheal ok, kilworth,county cork ireland. (08/02/2010 at 13:42)

bolton will be a tough game on tuesday night,our CB'S will need to be alert.

however i reckon city will win by maybe 2-0.

CTID

Lifelong Sufferer, Stockport (08/02/2010 at 13:54)

Anything less than a win and we can kiss our chances of a top 4 finish goodbye. With Liverpool regaining their moementum for a strong second half finish and sooner or later Spurs and Villa will stop dropping easy points like they have been, it means we have to bag the "easy" points when we get them such as Hull (Ha Ha!), if we drop points against Bolton, then it definitely starts to look bleak to me.

I'm more concerned with how poor we've been for the last four/five games now, there appears to be far too much caution in all games, the pace too slow and lots of giving the ball away to easily (I thought Italian coaches were all about keeping possession of the ball and lots of passing along the floor etc) It seems that Roberto has not changed the style of play too much compared to when Clueless was in charge, which is a very worrying sign.

However, I give 100% support to RM and trust that he will get things right for us eventually.

Gaz M (08/02/2010 at 13:56)

Vanzuylan - I agree, and the most annoying aspect of what our fans were doing against Pompey was the murmuring which goes around the ground whenever we pass the ball backwards. Often it escalates in people shouting to get it forward, and ending in a forced pass.

Passing backwards is entirely neccesary at times, and even more so when we're winning. The irony is that it's the same morons who complain when speculative balls end up getting cut out or flying out of play. We should be glad that we have a back four who are happy with the ball at their feet. Stuart Pearce was not that long ago.

cumbrian blue, workington cumbria (08/02/2010 at 14:23)

sorry for going off subject, but i have just been watching citys academy playing, i think, a young a arabic side in arabia somewhere.on the hotbird sattelite, City;s players look to be playing in slow motion compared to the opposition, we also have not won one ball in the air at either end of the pitch .City sent on a sub who lasted all of 5 minutes before he got a straight red card. Impressed with Citys no 10, dont know his name, commentary is in arabic, but i am afrid he is the only one who impresses.Game finished 2-2, but City win because of their outstanding penaltys.

WINDY MILLER, CAMBERWICK GREEN (08/02/2010 at 14:31)

Gaz M, i agree passing backwards is sometimes necessary, however if this is due to lack of movement ahead then the murmurings can be justified.

I am not a number (08/02/2010 at 14:38)

If I were Ned I'd be in despair with the nonsense we've been serving up at the back lately. A spirited but limited Hull were made to look like world beaters as Toure constantly prompting all around him for calm had exactly the opposite effect, which must be unhelpful to his rookie partner who despite showing us he has a big future, is not quite ready for regular 1st team action just yet. Why we are set up to sit back & let things happen when our defence is not our strength while we have key players playing out of position is worrying in the extreme!

Ali Benarbia's Arab head-dress (08/02/2010 at 15:33)

personally, if it's really true that he's fit, I'd like to see Santa Cruz up front with Tevez. Last time i saw them play together, before his latest injury, I thought they looked really sharp - seemed to have an excellent mutual understanding and were both keen to break forward with real pace

Sam Haggar Lowestoft -MCFC-Bluemoon (08/02/2010 at 15:40)

team to play Bolton will be

Given

Richards Onouha toure Bridge

SWP Viaira De Jong A Johnson

Tevez Adebayor

2-0 City

cumbrian blue, workington cumbria (08/02/2010 at 16:01)

A follow on to city,s academy performance in arabia, i said that citys sub was sent off after 5 minutes, i forgot to say that Paul Power the coach, also got sent off. But at least we won.

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