Will Edin Dzeko leave Manchester City?

I expect more from Edin Dzeko: Roberto Mancini

Bosnian striker Edin Dzeko may well have to start scoring soon as Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini is not impressed by the player’s ability.

The manager expects Dzeko to get his name on the scoring sheet soon, as that was the sole reason for spending 27 million pounds to bring him from Wolfsburg to the City of Manchester Stadium.

“I expect more for Dzeko - he needs to improve. He is a good player. I think he has the same difficulty as (Fernando) Torres at Chelsea because when you arrive in January you don't know your team-mates, it is not easy,” stated the manager.

The striker was unimpressive during City’s 0-0 draw against Aris Salonika in the Europa League despite having two perfect opportunities to find the back of the net.

Dzeko had the opportunity to score in the 16th minute, when he was found by Aleksandar Kolarov on the cross. The striker got his head to the ball but his effort was blocked by goalkeeper Michalis Sifakis in his second try.

Then in the 64th minute, Gareth Barry delivered a perfect ball to Dzeko but his header was well stopped by Sifakis who managed to put the ball over the goal post.

It is important for Dzeko to improve rapidly as everyone likes to deliver the ball to him owing to his height and finishing abilities.

There was another issue regarding City’s performance as team captain Carlos Tevez remained anonymous throughout the game and only had a few touches on the ball in the entire match.

Mancini, however, was content with Tevez’s performance and stated that Tevez cannot score for the entire club and other players would have to share the goal load.

Aris now travels to the Eastlands next week and Mancini had no doubts about the ability of his team.

“I think it will be a different game in Manchester. We played well, we played football and controlled the game. Aris stayed behind the ball. It was a fantastic atmosphere,” stated the manager.

There was some good news for the manager as well, as Italian striker Mario Balotelli has fully recovered from an injury and was impressive in his off-the-bench appearance against Aris. It is expected Mancini might pick the Italian for the FA Cup fixture against Notts County.

How Dzeko thrives out of the spotlight at City

It was on the sand of Long Beach, California, that Edin Dzeko made his point. On Sunday at the Reebok Stadium, Lancashire, he began to prove his point.
The point in question is that the big Bosnian with the German accent is always better in his second season at a new club.
That was how it was at Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga. That is how it was at Teplice, in the Czech Republic, before that.

Dzek that out: Edin Dzeko fires in for Manchester City

Last season at Manchester City, Dzeko was moderate, to say the least.

A MAN OF TWO SEASONS

DZEKO 2011-12

Appearances: 2
Goals: 2
Chances created: 9
Minutes per goal: 85
Shooting accuracy %: 40
Shots to goal %: 40

DZEKO 2010-11

Appearances: 15
Goals: 2
Chances created: 9
Minutes per goal: 423.0
Shooting accuracy %: 47.8
Shots to goal %: 8.7

Against Swansea, he was much better. At Bolton he was the stand-out performer in a liberating and uplifting City attacking performance.
Maybe it is the shift in spotlight that does it. Certainly, the attention being directed at new signing Sergio Aguero and towards City’s pursuit of Samir Nasri has allowed Dzeko to begin his season pretty much in the shadows.
More likely, though, is the mere fact that the Barclays Premier League — or indeed any move to a better level of football — requires a period of adjustment.
‘I was not that surprised at what happened last season,’ said Dzeko when he spoke near Los Angeles on City’s pre-season tour of America.
‘It has been this way before for me. It takes me time to settle when things are different.’
Things were different yesterday — for City and for Dzeko.
City under Roberto Mancini have improved steadily. They haven’t always been the most exciting team to watch, especially last season away from home.


Here, though, was a City team brimming with expression and freedom.

City Striker: Dzeko celebrates

Their full backs, Micah Richards and Aleksandar Kolarov, gave them the width they sometimes lack, David Silva pulled strings that most players can’t even see and Dzeko, along with Aguero, gave them a focal point that rarely failed them.

Dzeko scored a well-taken goal — his third in successive games — after outmuscling Zat Knight, which takes some doing, to shoot powerfully across goal and into the net.

It wasn’t necessarily this that made his contribution so impressive, though.
Shortly after Dzeko joined the club, a member of Mancini’s staff commented on how the striker had impressed with the intelligence of his running, his eagerness to take up wide positions to stretch defences and his dexterity on the ball. Back then all of this was in evidence only on the training ground. In games he struggled to adjust to the pace. Coming on as a substitute in the Manchester derby at Old Trafford, for example, he looked at times as though he was running in diving boots. But on Sunday Dzeko brought all this to the table for real.
A Bolton team who never got to grips with the variety of City’s attacking play struggled in particular to cope with the movement of Dzeko and Aguero. 

Hard worker: Dzeko made some intelligent runs and kept Zat Knight busy

Rarely will the Reebok see two central forwards move so fluently and unpredictably around the field.
Twice in the first half, Dzeko moved out to the left to receive possession and create chances for team-mates.
One low cross to the near post saw James Milner come within inches of scoring and, 10 minutes later, Dzeko moved into a similar area to deliver a perfect chipped cross that Aguero headed inches wide of the post.
Not all forwards have the ability to provide such service. Not all have the inclination to make the effort required to do so.
Since he arrived amid much fanfare last January, there has never been any doubt about Dzeko’s willingness to work. On Sunday in Lancashire, however, he showed us that he has much more to offer than that.

Manchester City - Wigan 3:0

If the off the field tumult of the previous days had seeped into the conscious of the City playing staff then it certainly didn’t show.

Their imperious, unblemished four-win start to the season continued with a victory over previously unbeaten Wigan.It was the seventh Premier League win in succession for Roberto Mancini’s side equalling a top flight record set under Tony Book – who was watching proudly from the Colin Bell Stand.And it was a victory that took the Blues unbeaten home run in all competitions to 18 making the Etihad Stadium one of English football’s most impregnable fortresses.City owed their latest three points to a heady mixture of guile and industry. There is no doubting that the Blues of this season are more expansive than last season’s version but it is when they have not got the ball and in the execution of the final pass that they are noticeably improved.
There is willingness from the silky, gifted, star-dusted forward phalanx to run all afternoon, fill in holes and generally defend from the front.

"When you have that in your team, allied
to supreme skill, then it makes a huge
difference"

Wigan were gallant to the end but simply outclassed by a side that, for the first time this season, included Carlos Tevez from the start.
The Argentine linked up front with countryman Sergio Aguero and Spain World Cup winner David Silva in a Spanish speaking trio that was too hot to handle.
The Three Amigos struck in the 13th minute when first Tevez, then Silva and finally Aguero all proved too tricky and elusive as they moved the ball between them for the last named to cut a shot back beyond Al Habsi.

By then the Wigan keeper had already produced a decent stop to deny Silva at the foot of the post and within four minutes had thwarted Tevez from the penalty spot after Lopez had produced a tackle on Silva that brought to mind Wigan’s other top professional sports team.

It was a dreadful spot-kick by the former captain who, whisper it in Argentina, seems to have lost the penalty knack.

That would have killed the game at an early stage as would Micah Richards’ flick that hit the underside of the bar before bouncing clear or Vinny Kompany’s header that rattled the post.

At times this game, to continue the Latin theme, resembled a matador playing with a plucky bull. The home side forwards skittered here and there tormenting the visitors with every touch.

The killer blow came in the 63rd minute and it came again from the cultured boot of Aguero who this time was put through by Nasri (on for Tevez) and Silva before another consummate finish.

"That was brilliant but the best was yet

to come five minutes later when Silva

again wove his Merlin magic and put

Aguero through for the master finisher 

to tuck his hat-trick into the corner. It

was a mesmeric and joyous moment"

In all their defensive struggles, Wigan’s best attacking moment came on the hour when Hart was forced to save with his foot from Rodallega.

City were though simply in a class of their own and all that without Etihad and Barclays Player of the Month Edin Dzeko who was sat in the bench in the best of company alongside rested and rotated teammates Samir Nasri, Pablo Zabaleta, Mario Balotelli and the returning Kolo Toure.

Four wins from four is a mightily impressive opening for any side but it is the manner, authority and confidence of those victories that will worry Premier League rivals.