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.