Yaya Toure...sums him up.

by blueboy Thu Sep 18, 2014 9:56 am

Yaya Touré’s failure to turn up in crucial Champions League ties has become the unwanted storyline of his Manchester City career. This was a match primed perfectly for the midfielder to prove at last that he can shine under the continental lights for City against elite opposition. But for a player who has been the driving force behind two Premier League titles and an FA Cup triumph, Touré has been strangely muted when the European Cup comes around.
With a Champions League winners medal on his Barcelona résumé from the all-conquering 2009 side, this strange anomaly could be addressed against a Bayern Munich side including Manuel Neuer, Jérôme Boateng, Mario Götze and Philipp Lahm from Germany’s triumphant Brazil 2014.
In this golden chance to address the glaring hole on his City CV, Touré would also use Manuel Pellegrini’s decision to place Sergio Agüero on the bench for tactical reasons as a further incentive to become the team’s lead actor and wrest a contest his way. Instead, Touré went missing in action yet again when really required, offering another anonymous performance against a European aristocrat.
Going into this opening Champions League group match, Touré’s total of five goals in 18 appearances for the English champions did not at first glance appear too shabby for a midfielder.
Yet three of those strikes came in the 2011-12 campaign. Last term’s solitary finish came against Viktoria Plzen – a return of one per 556 minutes – while the goal the previous season, against Ajax, was from 450 minutes of play. In 11 Champions League matches for City against the heavyweight opposition of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Napoli and Bayern, only one strike has Touré’s name on it, against the German giants in City’s 2-0 win in December 2011.
For Olympiakos, Barcelona and City, Touré’s overall tally stands at six in 51 appearances, which can be filed under “paltry” for a performer of his talent. If creation is another string to an all-action midfielder’s bow, then the 16 chances fashioned in City’s trio of European Cup seasons – last year there were only three – again disappoints.
When the sides walked off, Touré’s display had been of the not bad, not good ilk that has marked his time at the club in the competition. Mediocrity is not how star turns measure out a career.
Positioned in that familiar area ahead of Fernandinho in Pellegrini’s 4-5-1, Touré’s mission was to replicate the scintillating domestic form that can have him punching holes in defences on a weekly basis. Yet what the Allianz Arena witnessed was the plodding, slumbering Touré who looks – and is – only half-interested.
When Robert Lewandowksi broke after 13 minutes from Touré’s section of the pitch, the 31-year-old decided against chasing and so allowed the forward to break towards the area before a desperate intervention from the City rearguard thwarted the Pole. Later, as Thomas Müller drew a breathtaking save from the excellent Joe Hart, Touré was spied half-trotting back rather than trying to break up the move.
But the Touré who can terrorise did make one appearance. Collecting possession near his area he raced 50 yards, scattering the home side before him, and slid the ball to the left to David Silva, whose clever ball for Edin Dzeko should have been hit first time at Neuer.
It was a collector’s item. Normal service was resumed when Vincent Kompany stopped an attack and fed Touré, who allowed Xabi Alonso to dispossess him easily. Clumsiness was again evident after the break when he dropped Alonso on to his backside to hand Bayern a free-kick in a menacing area in front of Hart’s goal. Any player can slip, as Touré did later in the second half, but to take an age to regain balance and look on as Bayern launched another attack was an abandonment of duties.
So far, even on the domestic stage, there has been scant sign of the performer of last year’s memorable season, who scored 24 goals in 49 appearances for City to make him the box-office attraction in a squad packed with stars. In four outings there have been no goals and there is a growing sense that Touré is back to the sleepwalker of two campaigns ago when his failure to consistently contribute was a prime factor in City’s dismal title defence under Roberto Mancini.
Last season ended in the farce of Touré and cake-gate. Precisely what the endgame was after claims that City had not celebrated his birthday enough has never been explained. One theory ran that Touré simply wanted more money. City are insistent this will not happen. He is already the club’s highest earner on around £220,000 a week. The salary is paid for him to come to the backyards of teams like Bayern and show precisely why he draws such a handsome paycheck. These are the occasions for big-time players to seal a big-game reputation. The return against Bayern comes on 25 November at the Etihad: another opportunity for him to prove the doubters wrong.

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