MONDAY MARDLE: No Nacho, no party?

Today at 02:42 AM

Who doesn't love an international break?

Yes, that's the opening line I used last week and nothing that happened over the weekend has changed my mind.

After the last international break, on the back of the first win under Johannes Hoff Thorup, City limped to an insipid 1-0 defeat to Swansea.

This time, following the thumping 4-0 victory against Hull, they managed a 1-1 draw with Stoke.

But that's where the comparisons with the Swansea game cease. This result was far more nuanced than that listless performance in South Wales.

First of all, there's the Narcis Pelach factor. A man who until a few weeks ago, was central to Thorup's transformation in City's footballing style. A man who was personally responsible for coaching Borja Sainz, City's talismanic Spaniard.

Pelach's solution to stop Sainz seemed to be to assign two players to him, with one seemingly guarding against the trademark cut inside. As with all such tactics, it left gaps elsewhere, and it was only partially effective in stopping the Spaniard, but he was much quieter than of late.

Secondly, there was the loss of Angus Gunn due to the side injury that took him off at halftime against Hull.  In his place, George Long did okay. He made some good stops, getting swiftly down to shots and was alert and quick off his line whenever Stoke went direct and played balls behind the City back line.

However, I'll admit, I had to google how tall Long was after watching the Stoke equalizer. I was surprised – 6"4' to save you the effort – just 1 inch shorter than the son of Bryan Gunn, City's number 1.

I'm not a goalkeeping expert at all but given that he is not exactly short, his positioning must have been seriously at fault to allow Manhoef to curl the ball over him deep into first-half injury-time.

And finally, there was that man, Mr Lovely Jubbly himself, Marcelino Nunez.

Anyone who has read any of my match reports over the last few years will know I'm the founding member of the Nacho fan club. Some are saying he is coming into his own now that Gabriel Sara is no longer alongside him but I would argue that it is slightly different … that people are finally noticing him more without the distraction of Sara.

I recall last season describing him as the metronome in the City midfield. Saturday was no different. The Chilean went about his business in his usual, unspectacular fashion. Receiving the ball, moving it quickly, the glue that binds the midfield together.  I can't recall a loss of possession or misplaced pass.

Better than that, the Chilean came oh so close to scoring. Anis Ben Slimane scooped a beautiful ball in behind the Stoke back line. Nacho ran onto it and stretched to make decent contact. Somehow Viktor Johansson kept it out and Nunez couldn't react fast enough to direct the rebound into the net.

Given Nunez's much-discussed hamstring issues, I winced when I saw him stretch like that. I don't know if that incident contributed to his subsequent withdrawal or not but when he went off, City weren't the same.

That said, they did score shortly after he was substituted. 

It came at the end of a sustained period of City pressure. Another Slimane ball, a blocked Oscasr Schwartau shot and Ante Crnac finished well for his first City goal.

That led to the noisy elements of the travelling support bursting into my favourite song of recent years, 'Going up, going down', with the news that our Suffolk neighbours were conspiring to lose to Everton. 

Their joy was short-lived though.

City seemed to totally lose control of the game from the kick-off. As the six minutes of added time ticked by, Stoke came at City and, finally, Manhoef scored the equalizer.

The tale of the second half was much the same. When Nunez came off, Slimane dropped alongside Kenny McLean with Schwartau pushing into the 10 position. 

Emiliano Marcondes and Amankwah Forson came on for Crnac and Slimane – the Tunisian visibly wilting as the game went on. Marcondes looked tidy without being really outstanding. Forson, once again, looked like he could be levered off the ball far too easily.

Thorup rolled the dice, perhaps due to the pre-match niggle for Jose Cordoba having as much to do with it as anything, with Ben Chrisene coming on at left-back and Doyle moving inside.

The ex-Villa man nearly had an immediate effect, drifting inside before reversing to play in Sainz in space, but the Spaniard’s shot was deflected wide.

Kellen Fisher also went off at this point, the youngster unable to have quite the same impact as recent games, a few crunching tackles notwithstanding.

With another game tomorrow night, the injury list must be one of concern to Thorup, particularly with Nunez surely unlikely to recover in time. But the other must be the physical drain on his squad.

Quite why City have to play a Tuesday game after an international break I don't know.

This draw may seem like a step backwards after the heady results before the break. What it does show is that this City squad is still in the development phase and that perhaps the pundits proclaiming City as automatic promotion contenders after the recent uptick in results were premature. 

Given the impact that Pelach has had on Stoke, I also suspect that come the end of the season, this might look like a pretty useful result.

This week’s tune is a bit of fun. Given my diatribe on songs for the players last week, and my assertion that his withdrawal was central to City not taking three points, here’s a song for Nacho. 

I'd love to hear the City Elite sing this one – although some of the dancing would threaten even the toughest hamstrings! 

Naacho-Naacho!