Scout Notes – FA Cup Quarter-Final – Sunday

Man City are humbled at home by FA Cup holders Wigan. A Samir Nasri strike isn’t enough for Manuel Pellegrini’s side, as their Etihad form continues to falter. Elsewhere, Hull hammer Sunderland to ease into the last four, with Fantasy managers now hoping yesterday’s results will soon see some outstanding double Gameweeks announced:

City Stunned By Latics
With a midweek trip to Barcelona on the horizon, Manuel Pellegrini rang the changes for City’s shock 2-1 home defeat by Wigan yesterday. The Chilean retained just five of the starting XI that won the Capital One Cup against Sunderland last weekend – the likes of Micah Richards, Joleon Lescott, Gael Clichy, Jesus Navas, Javi Garcia and Alvaro Negredo were all named in the line-up, with the latter partnering Sergio Aguero up top.

Whilst Aguero failed to score, would-be Fantasy suitors will at least be pleased to see he managed the full 90 minutes after his recent hamstring troubles. Samir Nasri’s second strike in as many matches wasn’t enough, though, as City’s home toils continued. Having racked up the goals in front of their fans for the vast majority of the season, Pellegrini’s side have now scored just four times in their last five matches across all competitions at the Etihad.

In terms of fixtures, this loss is set to ease City’s schedule somewhat. If they fail to overturn the 2-0 first leg Champions deficit in midweek, Pellegrini’s side could soon discover the rescheduled dates for a pair of league fixtures – home clashes against Sunderland and Villa have yet to be rearranged, thus giving us further double Gameweeks to plan around.

After the game, the City boss gave his reasons for rotating and hinted that his side were perhaps a little too complacent in yesterday’s encounter:

“I didn’t leave Kompany or Kolarov or Fernandinho on the bench because of Barcelona. We make rotation in the cups, plus the players we left out played 90 minutes for their international sides on Wednesday, so it was important for them to have a rest. They’ve won their last four or five games in a row – we knew it would be difficult but maybe we thought it wouldn’t be so difficult. We gave Wigan 45 minutes when we were too slow and they took advantage. I think that it was the worst half we’ve had at this year because we didn’t have the pace to play against a side in a good moment.”

Three and Easy for Tigers
Steve Bruce made four changes to the side that were hammered 4-1 at home by Newcastle in Gameweek 28. The Tigers boss moved from 3-5-2 to a 4-2-3-1 formation and drafted in James Chester alongside Curtis Davies at centre-half, with Alex Bruce dropping out, whilst further up the field Jake Livermore (thigh problem) and cup-tied duo Nikica Jelavic and Shane Long were replaced by Yannick Sagbo, Matty Fryatt and Sone Aluko in a tactical reshuffle. Fryatt, Davies and David Meyler were the goal heroes in a 3-0 stroll as Hull clinched a place in the last four against Sheffield United on April 13 or 14 – this means that their Gameweek 34 match against Man United, which was initially scheduled for that weekend, is now postponed, though could yet remain within the Gameweek.

Post-match, the Tigers boss explained the reasons behind his decision to change systems:

“Sunderland appeared to me to be playing a diamond, so we needed to move the ball to the wider areas more quickly and get our full backs more involved to make the game a little bit more open. We did that in abundance, especially with George Boyd coming on in the second half as well.”

Much-Changed Black Cats Tumble Out
Gus Poyet made six alterations from the side that tasted defeat to City in the previous weekend’s Capital One Cup Final. With one eye clearly on the remaining league programe, the Sunderland manager fielded fringe players such as Oscar Ustari, Santiago Vergini and Andrea Dossena in defence, whilst the likes of Emanuele Giaccherini, Steven Fletcher and Ignacio Scocco all started further up the field.

Prior to the match, the Black Cats boss confirmed his selection options were a little limited after Wes Brown, Craig Gardner, Valentin Roberge and Jozy Altidore were all ruled out with knocks. The Wearsiders’ elimination will offer Fantasy managers hope that their outstanding two league fixtures – at home to West Brom and, as mentioned above, away to Man City – will now be scheduled, with their cup commitments finally at an end.

Poyet was far from pleased with the performance of his fringe players and refused to criticise Lee Cattermole’s display, even though the midfielder was at fault for two of the Tigers’ goals:

“We didn’t create enough but I’m not going to try to find any excuses. The players who played today were not good enough and that is simple – in the 50-50s, in the diving, in dealing with the referee when he panicked for 10 minutes – in not recovering well and not creating one chance…If you hide and you’re not in the game and do nothing to take a risk, then for sure you’re not going to make any (mistakes). That’s the bad side of football – the ones that take responsibility and the ones that care, they are the ones who are in the position to make the mistakes – that’s football.”