Manchester City Premier League Winner Odds, Preview and Prediction

By Soccer

Manchester City Preview 2011/12 Season

Manchester City is another squad with enough talent to do some damage in the English Premier league this season, but it’s hard really to call them a team. The club is more or less a collection of individual players, many with their own agendas. Last year’s top scorer Carlos Tevez has been crying ever since he got there that he wants to leave and now fellow striker Mario Balotelli has joined him in the whining department as he says he doesn’t like the city. Neither of them complained when they were signing their names to multi-million dollar contracts though. But even if Tevez and/or Balotelli leave, there are enough strikers signed.

But manager Roberto Mancini basically wastes the talent at his disposal as the club has a wealth of strikers in Emmanuel Adebayor, Craig Bellamy, Edin Dzeko, Roque Santa Cruz, Balotelli, and Tevez.  And to top things off City just bought Sergio Aguero from Spanish club Atletico Madrid for a ridiculous amount of money. However, Adebayor and Bellamy were shipped out on loan last season while Santa Cruz rode the bench. There’s not much point in spending millions of dollars on strikers when you usually just play one of them a game in a negative formation with a lone striker.

The club also has some goal scoring ability in the midfield/wing positions with Shaun Wright-Phillips, David Silva, Adam Johnson, Gareth Barry, Yaya Toure, Vladimir Weiss, and James Milner in the lineup. Defensively, they’re pretty strong with Vincent Kompany, Nigel de Jong, Alexsandar Kolarov, Wayne Bridge, Micah Richards, Kolo Toure, Pablo Zabaleta, and Nedum Onuoha in the back line along with the overrated Joleon Lescott. They are set in net with Joe Hart, but could be in trouble if he gets hurt.

Other players who joined in the offseason include left back Gael Clichy from Arsenal and defender Stefan Sevic. They lost goalkeeper Shay Given to Aston Villa, Patrick Vieira retired, and another surplus striker, Jo left the club along with defender Jerome Boateng.

Manchester City Premier League Winner Odds

Sportsbook 5Dimes.com has them listed at +380 to win the title, behind Manchester United and Chelsea.  Visit 5Dimes.com to see all of the odds for Premier League winners.

Prediction

City finished third last year and earned a spot in the Champions League. They also won the FA Cup, which was their first trophy in 35 years. They have the talent to be a serious title challenger, but lack the cohesiveness and manager needed to push them over the edge. They should do better with the talent they have, but Mancini seems to be more interested in stopping goals than scoring them, which is a big mistake with this squad. If you’ve got one of the most powerful attacking teams in the country, you use it.

If Mancini takes the reins off the players and adapts an attacking mentality they have the horses to take the title, but it’s doubtful that’s going to happen. At +380 this is not a smart soccer bet.  Look for City to come in anywhere between second and fifth place this year. There could also be some more moves and Wright-Phillips may be shipped out at some point before or during the season.

 Bet on Manchester City at 5Dimes.com


Leave a Comment