Man City must improve home record
Road record’s been fine, but club needs wins at Etihad, beginning with Liverpool Sunday
Manchester City hosts Liverpool on Sunday as two of the Premier League’s top four sides battle for position. City is level on points with Tottenham, and just a point up on fourth-place Liverpool.
City’s problem this season has been failing to win at home. Pep Guardiola’s side has the best road record in the league, but it’s been held to draws at Etihad Stadium five times. If City had found ways to win those games, it would be level with Chelsea.
City has the tools to break down packed defences, with creative midfielders like David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne, as well as speedy wingers Leroy Sane and Raheem Sterling.
Scoring, though, is often easier said than done. Star striker Sergio Aguero went through a lean spell, raising questions about his future with the club, but he’s been back on the scoresheet lately. Highly touted young striker Gabriel Jesus was doing brilliantly, at least until he broke a bone in his foot last month. Now he’s on crutches.
Liverpool, meanwhile, is coming of an unimpressive 2-1 home win to mid-table Burnley. Liverpool, though, has done very well against top opposition. The Reds are undefeated in nine meetings this season against the top six sides. They will be going for 10 on Sunday.
Must-win in Madrid
In Spain, third-place Sevilla has a big game on Sunday away to fourthplace Atletico Madrid. Sevilla can still challenge Barcelona and Real Madrid for the title, as it sits just three points behind Barca.
It’s been a bad few days for Sevilla, however. On Tuesday, it crashed out of the UEFA Champions League against Leicester City, while last weekend it dropped points at home to lowly Leganes in a 1-1 draw in La Liga.
On balance, though, it’s proving to be a good season for head coach Jorge Sampaoli, who joined the club last summer. He previously enjoyed great success as coach of Chile, and is one of the men tipped to possibly take over from Luis Enrique at Barcelona at the end of the season. Sampaoli has the credentials, and showed with Chile how well he can do with an attack-minded team.
One of his greatest strengths is flexibility. He’s demonstrated this at Sevilla repeatedly, changing formation and style to suit the moment. Barcelona, though, plays the Barcelona way, and fans are not receptive to change. With Barca now through to the Champions League quarter-finals, it’s been suggested dramatic changes are not needed at the Catalan club, and Sampaoli is out of the running.
Scoring machine
While PSG crashed out of the Champions League in dramatic style against Barcelona, rivals Monaco managed a comeback, edging Manchester City on the awaygoals rule Wednesday. These were two of the most remarkable series we’ve seen in European competition, with plenty of goals and drama.
Monaco has been a scoring machine this season — 84 goals in 29 games in France’s League 1 is a ridiculous number. Not even PSG at that team’s most dominant has matched that.
Monaco leads PSG by just three points in the standings, but the team’s goal difference is plus-20 better! That really highlights the difference between them. While most of PSG’s attack goes through forward Edinson Cavani, who has 27 goals in 27 games, Monaco has scoring threats at almost every position.
PSG will look to do better Sunday when it hosts fourth-place Olympique Lyonnais.
A clean sweep
Lincoln City’s improbable FA Cup dream ended against an Arsenal team with a point to prove, but the non-league side earned much respect for its surprisingly strong play and all-around class. Even in Saturday’s 5-0 loss at the Emirates, City made a good account of itself in the first half, before the floodgates finally opened. For its Cup run Lincoln earned more than $4 million, a huge windfall for the club.
After losing to Arsenal, City staff surprised its hosts by asking for a vacuum so the players could clean up their dressing room. It’s a team tradition designed to teach humility. The club apparently borrowed it from the famed New Zealand All Blacks rugby team, where “sweeping the shed” after a test match to stay grounded is a cardinal rule.
Bob Lenarduzzi is president of Vancouver Whitecaps FC. Tickets: visit whitecapsfc.com/tickets