Dietmar Hamann, the former Champions League winner has backed Manchester City to win the trophy at the end of the season. We look at reasons why!
Manchester City showed dominance in their 5-2 win over CSKA Moscow on Tuesday night, and was backed by former Champions League winner Dietmar Hamann to win the trophy for the first time in their history this season.
The former Liverpool and Manchester City man said:
‘’I think they can go all the way and win, I think even though they lost against Bayern Munich, it hasn’t changed my mind.
‘’At the moment, they have a strong team and are capable of scoring, even though there was some complacency in the performance’’
The German held special praise for Argentinian striker:
‘’Aguero is unplayable at times.
‘’He works so hard. Gets into good positions with his low centre of gravity, and when he is on the ball he can beat people with his dynamic bursts of speed.’’
Manchester City, whilst not one of the favourites for the trophy do have an incredibly good squad of players that have been put together with mind-boggling sums of money, hungry for more trophies after their Premier League win in 2012, there is none sweeter that being crowed champions of Europe.
Here are my 5 reasons why Manchester City could be Champions at the end of the season:
Diverse group of players – The Manchester City side has been put together by plucking the best talent around Europe, and beyond! When you look at the players in the squad, they have David Silva, Jesus Navas, Yaya Toure, Sergio Aguero and Alvaro Negredo from La LIga, Jovetic and Kolarov from Serie A and Kompany, Dzeko and Demichelis from Germany, amongst others. They’ve been brought up in different leagues, playing different styles and the ‘know-how’ to play against different teams with different styles can be huge.
Manuel Pellegrini – I backed the manager to do better in Europe than he would in the Premier League and thus far, I have been proven right. Producing minor miracles taking an un-fancied Malaga side into the Champions League semi-final last season, he showed a certain underlying knowledge of the competition only experience can teach you.
Squad Depth – Over the course of the season, the league and Champions League can overlap and unexpected injuries can certainly trip you up, fortunately for Manchester City they have one of the best squads in world football, and players’ being injured in most positions isn’t an issue at all. Aguero and Negredo could both get injured and they can use Jovetic and Dzeko, which would still be amongst the best strike partnerships in the world.
Sergio Aguero – The talismanic striker has been in explosive form this season, and the quality he has it would be hard for anyone to stop him, both a goal scorer and a provider he also works hard for the side, making him one of the most feared strikers in Europe, and should definitely be recognised as one of the best.
World Cup – Every team has internationals, but very few have internationals like City, with a squad packed full of players desperate to prove themselves, either good enough to be selected for their squad, or world-class players looking to be the ‘star-men’ at the competition, then that could also play in City’s favour. Footballers look out for their own career and in this case their desperation to be seen, only means good things for the club.
Do you think City can go on and win the Champions League, or is it still a pipe-dream for the money men?
image: © Gene Hunt
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