Seat Exchange At City, Official Club Statement For Burnley, Hull And Chelsea Games

For those who may of missed the statement on our club site we would like to make you aware of, bring to your attention.

Due to circumstances beyond our Clubs control, the Club would like to inform supporters that the Seat Exchange service has been regrettably terminated.

All transactions that have taken place for the Burnley, Hull and Chelsea games will be honoured by the Club.

Supporters who have yet to receive confirmation of their ticket for any of the above games are advised to contact Supporter Services on 0870 062 1894 option 2 or email supporterservices@mcfc.co.uk

City Dilemma, DeJong or Ireland, Hughes Has Himself In A Tricky Situation

City have one of the best Premier League Striker options, which aside from the obvious situation of Roque Santa Cruz carrying injuries boasts Adebayor, Bellamy and Tevez. Not to mention the prospects of David Ball and Robbie Mak coming through the ranks at pace, in my opinion extremely better prospects than the departed mercenary Sturridge.

Hughes finds himself in a position where he feels the need to play as many strikers as possible to keep them happy.

Bellamy obviously has been on fire and you can not question his overrall game so I can understand Hughes wanting to play Bellamy all the time but that aside, it is hindering the progress of Vladimir Weiss and keeping the super goal-getter Martin Petrov on the sidelines.

I believe the last lot of draws have been down to a lack of assistance from the midfield, I can understand playing a defencive midfielder against teams like Arsenal and Aston Villa as they need breaking up in midfield but against teams like Birmingham we should be playing our creative players.

Stephen Ireland has been extremely missed as well as Shaun Wright Phillips, our strikers have not been recieving as many assists and City have suffered of late.

Our most creative players, Petrov, Wright-Phillips, Weiss and Ireland all on the bench.

Chelsea, United, Liverpool and Arsenal would play Superman Stevie week in week out if they had the luxury, sure Stevie Ireland admitted recently that he over did it and needed a break but how much of a break does Hughes want to give him?, enough for him to loose his match fitness, sharpness and confidence?.

I very much hope I dont see Nigel DeJong playing against Burnley tommorow, Ireland has to start so I hope Hughes see's sense before its too late. If we dont start winning games consistantly then Hughes is going to have a very tricky situation come the end of the season especially if we are not in a Champions League position as I just dont see our owner being very happy with a Europa League position.

I am not one for dreaming but any less than 5th is in my opinion an utter failure.

Questions:

1. Should Hughes be playing Steven Ireland more and only playing DeJong against more attacking teams?.

2. Would you agree that Bellamy should be played along side Adebayor when both fit, allowing Vladimir Weiss the chance he very much deserves on the left?.

3. Your opinion on Mark Hughes's tactics and lineups so far?.

Birmingham Aftermath, It Could of Been Worse Without Given

Shay Given was absolutely 110% man of the match, no doubt about it what so ever and if anyone says any different then they must of been watching some other football match.

Ok the real City never turned up but hey, its a clean sheet if anything and one look at the table says it all.

1 loss, 4 draws and 5 wins with 1 game in hand and we are in the top four so if we keep this up, with a good run of wins there is no stopping us.

Possession said it all with City having 57%, Birmingham players were running full throttle at City players like steam rollers. Nothing new though as every other club we have played against lately has done the same.

We were just lacking that killer pass and killer finish, definitely missed Emmanuel Adebayor and im not sure 4/4/2 is going to work without Adebayor either.

All in all I am glad we did not give Alex McLeish something to smile about, I'd put my money on the probability that he sits on Alex Fergusons shoulder when he gets the chance. McLeish should count himself lucky City never turned up.

Well done with the clean sheet lads, we know every club that plays us is going to play like its a cup final so just hang in there and lets start believing in yourselves more.

As for Birmingham, well they went away with 3 yellow cards, 1 red card, 1 point and nothing more, says it all really for their style of play.

My bets, Hughes is keeping Ireland and Adebayor fresh though I am a little uneasy about the lack of Irelands playing time.

My Man of the Match: Shay Given