Glimpse of greatness from Sterling helps Man City edge win v Newcastle

In a difficult evening of football, Manchester City managed to beat Newcastle 2-1.

The Magpies gave it a great go, really defending brilliantly to prevent City from getting in behind them. For the most part they were successful, but in the end City were able to find a way to win. What did we learn?

1. Sterling with just a glimpse of greatness

Raheem Sterling exploded this game into life after just 8 minutes, picking up a pass from Benjamin Mendy he drove into the box, cut back onto his right-foot to evade markers and let fly with an absolute sledgehammer of a strike. The ball flew off his foot in a gentle arc, straight into the back of the net.

1-0 and City were on the front-foot and Raheem Sterling looked like he was in the mood to prove his goalscoring prowess. But then he just… didn’t. Sterling played the full 90 minutes but his last 88 were bizarrely nondescript. He didn’t have the same urgency or purpose he did on the goal, and his technical execution was much more relaxed.

Sterling gave us all a glimpse of his greatness, of the potential within him to be a true league-dominating type of player. Yet a glimpse is all we ended up with as he retreated into himself. It was a crying shame, and it nearly cost City as Newcastle fought tooth and nail. If the Sky Blues are to retain their title, Raheem Sterling is going to have to step up.

2. Rafa gets it right again

Rafa Benitez has now lost two consecutive Premier League games against big teams; last week against Chelsea and now today against Manchester City. After the first loss his tactics were heavily criticised and one suspects the same will happen again after today’s defeat.

But just as he did last week, Benitez got his tactics right. A five-man back-line is the best bet for restraining Manchester City, and it’s what allowed Newcastle to stay in the game even though they conceded early. In attack the willingness of Kenedy and Ayoze Perez to get forward allowed them to spring forward with genuine menace; remember their goal was no fluke but a purposeful counter-attack.

Had Benitez played to the cheap seats and “given it a go” then Newcastle would have been ripped to bits. As it is they competed for the whole game and were part of the contest until the final whistle. Respect Rafa Benitez, he knows what he’s doing in these big games.

3. Siege weapons

When you’re laying siege to a packed defence, you need to find different ways to break them down. The most common ones are sharp passing and width, because if you can get someone behind them out wide, the cutback potential can shatter a defensive structure as suddenly defenders have to face their own goal and be aware of everything around them. That’s what City tried to do but never really did against Newcastle (well, besides Sterling’s goal, kind of).

The other way, the less reliable but more spectacular way to break down a defence, is the almighty range shot. This is obviously inefficient because the chances you can score with any regularity from range with all the distance the ball has to travel and all the bodies between the ball and the goal. It’s not a recommended tactic, sure, but when it works it is absolutely magnificent.

Kyle Walker had a half a look at goal at the start of the second half and absolutely arrowed it into the bottom corner of the net. It was absolutely beautiful, a sublime hit that left them Newcastle with no chance.

4. Yedlin is game-changingly quick

When you defend deep and in numbers, pace in attack is crucial. Being able to charge forward at speed makes your counter-attacks so much more dangerous to a side that will have committed many bodies forward to attack. One thing that doesn’t get discussed, however, is that when you’re playing on the break the late run is so very dangerous.

But here’s the thing: even if you have fast forwards, they can often hit a brick wall when running on the break if they’re forced wide, because then they will need to cross and there’ll be no one to cross too. That’s why pace from a supporting runner is so valuable, and why DeAndre Yedlin’s absurd pace is so huge for Newcastle. The wing-back is so blisteringly quick that he energises Newcastle’s counter-attacks; last week he set-up Joselu’s equaliser, and today he struck the equaliser with a superbly-timed run.

Yedlin is going to be a massive presence for Newcastle this season. He has the pace to literally break games open by himself and the mentality to impact even the biggest of games.

5. City are mortal without De Bruyne

Yes, Manchester City won. Yes, they’re playing magnificently this season. But without the world-class Kevin De Bruyne they are a mortal side, not near the superhuman levels they reached last season. And that’s not because they drew last week, that draw was an absurd fluke that wouldn’t happen if they replayed that game 99 times out of 100.

No, they’re mortal because they they now find it more difficult to turn their incredible control of games into a fluid chance creation in the final third. They can still do it, of course, but not as easily as they can when De Bruyne is there. They lack his talismanic control of the moment; the Belgian knew when to push and when to hold, he knew when to shoot from range (as Walker did today, but more regularly) and when to work it into the box.

Pep Guardiola’s excellence and the quality in the squad will mean that City will continue to battle for the Premier League title and even the Champions League too. But until De Bruyne returns and re-finds his form, City will not regain the dizzying heights they scaled last year.

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