MANCHESTER, ENGLAND --
How has it come to this? When Manchester City were struggling with a little over half an hour remaining Tuesday night, their solution was to turn to a 36-year-old who was essentially pensioned off by their main rival for the Premier League title last season. The result was a 1-1 draw with Roma that leaves them with many more questions to be answered.
Frank Lampard, of course, is an unusually fresh and dynamic 36 year old (and this was a night on which a 38 year old, Francesco Totti, was also a key figure), and one who has scored four goals in his last three games, but still, did the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi spend a billion and a half dollars to be rescued by a player loaned from MLS?
That's no slight on Lampard, or on MLS. Lampard had an immediate impact, if for no other reason than that by replacing Edin Dzeko, he gave City an extra man in midfield. But it does raise serious questions about the lackadaisical nature of the rest of City's performance.
After all, this was a vital game for City. It's so early in the competition that there was perhaps a lack of any sense of menace in the build-up, but this was a game City couldn't afford to lose. Having conceded a last-minute winner to Bayern a fortnight ago, defeat would have left City trailing both its main rivals by six points, which in turn would have placed huge pressure both on the home game against Bayern and on the away match in Rome. Even this draw puts City in jeopardy, particularly given that Roma has already beaten CSKA Moscow, the fourth team in the group, 5-1; if goal-difference becomes an issue, City are playing catch-up.
City's start tonight could hardly have been better, Maicon needlessly pulling back Sergio Aguero in the box after four minutes to concede a penalty that the Argentinian converted. Perhaps scoring so soon lulled City; for the half hour or so that followed, their play lacked urgency. Roma, meanwhile, orchestrated by Miralem Pjanic, countered with intelligence and, through Gervinho and Alessandro Florenzi on the flanks, pace.
City had a warning just two minutes later. Francesco Totti, as elegant at 38 as he ever was, chipped the ball over City's rickety offside line for Maicon, charging forward from full-back, to smack the bouncing ball against the crossbar. But again and again spaces emerged, not only among the back four but also in the space in front of them. Fernando was signed to bolster that area but, in his absence, Fernandinho and Yaya Toure looked just as shaky as they had at times last season.
The equalizer could hardly have been simpler. Radja Nainggolan drifted into the space that either Fernandinho or Toure should have been occupying, which dragged Vincent Kompany forward. He had got nowhere near Nainggolan, though, when he turned the ball on first time for Totti, allowing him to run on to dink the ball over Joe Hart. That allowed Totti to take Ryan Giggs's record as the oldest-ever goalscorer in the Champions League. (City will rue the tweet sent out from its official account pregame teasingly pointing out that Totti had never scored against English opposition; Totti, had he been so minded, might have replied that this was his 90th European appearance; it was only City's 89th.)
It could have got worse before half-time as well, Maicon releasing Gervinho who hurtled by Martin Demichelis only for his shot to be pushed over by Hart. Hart then denied Pjanic from close range early in the second half, before the Bosnian slid a shot from range a fraction wide. Hart, restored to the side after his omission against Hull City on Saturday, had a good game, and perhaps made a statement with his play.
Lampard's arrival at least blocked up the worst of the holes and he might even have won it with a late long-ranger that flashed just wide, but Toure, in particular, had a frustrating night.
There are questions everywhere: about the sense of stagnation about City, about Manuel Pellegrini's persistence with two up front in Europe, about the reliance on Aguero, about the lack of understanding between the two center-backs and the two holding players, about a general tentativeness and diffidence in the performance.
In 2011, when City failed to get out of the group stage of the Champions League, the excuse was that they lacked the requisite experience. Four seasons on, having reached the last 16 only once, they are struggling get out of the group once again. It seems nothing much has changed.
