The Hughes Selection Headache

Manchester City have had their moment in the sun this summer. They actually look to be a contender on paper for the Premier League crown. Their rich ownership has been pumping heavy amounts of funds into the club. The club has made lucrative offers in the past year to some of the best players in the world, failing on most attempts to scrape up megastars like Eto'o, Kaka, and Messi (who they still seem to think they have a chance with for some odd reason) but successfully reeling in many unsettled but quality players looking for a new challenge or a change of scenery. These players include Tevez, Adebayor, Kolo Toure, Roque Santa Cruz, and England midfielder Garreth Barry. It's a good mix of players to bring into a club that already has the likes of Brazilian trickster, Robinho, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Stephen Ireland, Nigel De Jong, Vincent Kompany, Craig Bellamy, Benjani, and Micah Richards. Now all these names put together looks like an appetizing footballing feast. The only problem is Mark Hughes can't put all these names together can he?

In order to win and win with style, you need team chemistry. It is awfully difficult to build this when you have 6 or 7 potentially starting strikers. Who is going to fall out of favor? Mark Hughes and City alone brought in three front men this summer (Tevez, Santa Cruz, and Adebayor) and only rid themselves of young Sturridge who went to Chelsea and Caicedo to Sporting Lisbon. Will City find a way to crush all their attacking talent into one starting XI? Hughes must have a plan or so you'd think. I don't think we'll see Robinho playing some sort of attacking right back because he is good on the flanks. Manchester City have not had the prettiest of preseasons but they have been missing key personnel as well. Robinho had been away a chunk of the summer months on Confederations Cup duty and Tevez only just played his first preseason against Celtic in a 2-1 win. The late signings from Arsenal, such as Toure and Adebayor, haven't allowed them many minutes either. Manchester City does not want to make the mistake of having the same kinds of players on the field. So those who can't play together, will be who is challenging each other for a starting spot. Bellamy and and Tevez are both bullish hard working stout players and will most likely be duking it out in training as will Adebayor against Benjani. One player Mark Hughes won't have to worry about trying to get on to the pitch this season is Elano. He was already unsettled at the club and shipped himself off to Turkey to play for Galatasaray, perhaps to keep his Brazil spot for the World Cup this upcoming summer. Perhaps this will help open up a spot for those incoming. Since, the blue of Manchester haven't been up to full strength in the majority of the preseason, Hughes will have to try and figure out a line up during the season. This isn't good. The only way to find the right system is an educated trial and system. It could lead to a series of bad results. That's not what you want to be doing with the season set to kick off this weekend. Especially when you have Arsenal and Manchester United on the 5th and 6th match day. I've been doing some toying with City's line up and came up with some formations that may work. But like I said, it's trial and error. Unlike Mark Hughes, I don't have the players to even have trials. So my guess is as good as the next persons. Keep in mind I haven't added Lescott yet, though the deal does look close.

------------------------Given----------------------------
Bridge-----------Toure-------Dunne--Zabaleta/Richards
------------------Barry------Ireland---------------------
SWP---------------------------------------------Robinho
---------------------Tevez-------------------------------
--------------------------Adebayor----------------------

It's your pretty standard 4-4-2. So many people believe because it is simple, it's not going to be affective. I believe that's not the case. If done correctly, it can be just as useful as some modern, experimental, unbalanced formations. What you see above is very basic. Your classic flat back four. You have Barry and Ireland. We all know how good Ireland is at going forward. I think he is extremely underrated. Barry is his partner and helps design and create the forward movement, switching the point of attack often. Two nifty wingers, with pace and tricks that can beat their defenders when isolated 1v1. Adebayor leads the attack with Tevez just off him. As seen at Arsenal, Adebayor would be the target man that holds up the ball with Tevez as his strike partner, dropping a little deeper.

------------------------Given----------------------------
Bridge-----------Toure-------Dunne--Zabaleta/Richards
------Ireland----------Barry------------De Jong--------
Bellamy/Tevez--Adebayor/Santa Cruz---Robinho/SWP-

This is my second option here. I kind of stole this 4-3-3 from a mixture of what Barcelona did last season and what Real Madrid are starting to do this preseason. Madrid and City have both used their funds to bring in a load of new players. Madrid has a selection headache of their own but recent preseason form (which doesn't mean much) has showed a system that is proving to be working. Barcelona's 4-3-3 started the trend. The players last season were free flowing. They are marked down in a fixed formation but free to wander and develop an attack in a creative, quick, and intricate passing way, causing defenders to run around from attacker to attacker. Real Madrid has adopted a resemballing style over the summer that sports similar movement with no fixed location for any one player to be on the field. It's just what good players can create together, really. Some managers prefer a system, like Sir Alex, or Rafa Benitez. However, I think with the talent brought into City, it's worth a try. If it doesn't work out, well that's just what simply separates Manchester City from the likes of teams like Barcelona and Real Madrid. Which may be why Madrid got Kaka, and Barca can hold on to Messi.

Now yes there are other options that the Citizens could see their team sporting this season. I was even thinking somewhere along the lines of a 4-2-3-1 with a big striker ( Adebayor, Benjani), three more attacking players with speed on the outsides , two solid center mids, and your back four once again. I'm sure I'm not the only one that has thoughts on this. If anyone else would like to shed light on the situation and what they think City will look like once they design a system to be put into stone, please feel free to speak.

Viva el futbol y Hala Madrid

Bobby