By Craig Turnbull
3 Apr 2011 18:57:00
Nigel De Jong,Manchester City(Getty Images)
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Manchester City produced a stunning display to thrash Sunderland 5-0 at Eastlands on Sunday and Nigel De Jong believes it was down to a tinkering of tactics.
Adam Johnson opened the scoring before Carlos Tevez doubled their lead from the penalty spot. David Silva then added a third to secure the victory but City were not finished as substitute Patrick Vieira and Yaya Toure got Roberto Mancini’s men their fourth and fifth respectively.
The Italian has seldom tinkered with his formation this season opting to usually play with the one lone striker however for this match he selected two up front with Mario Balotelli partnering Tevez up front.
Dutch midfielder De Jong spoke to Sky Sports after the match aand when asked if the change in tactics made a difference, said: “Yeah I think so, I think you have seen today we had enough quality up front, but as Joleon Lescott said it was a collective performance, and I think we did that today; as long as we defend right then attackers players can go on.
“There is always work for me to do in the middle of midfield I appreciate the role, we are help the attacking players out and you could see that it worked out on Sunday.”
De Jong added that the goal for the Citizens is still to qualify for the Champions League and that there is still a long way to go in the season. With his side now sitting in third after this victory it will have certainly given Mancini’s men momentum heading into the crux of the season.
“I think a lot, the main goal was to qualify for the Champions League and that is still our main target,” De Jong continued.
“And with the three points today that gets us closer to that goal – that was the main target of our season and this has not change so it was a helpful three points.
“There is still several games to go anything can happen, but it was a great confidence boost for our team.”
Team-mate Lescott was given a torrid time by Asamoah Gyan in midweek when the two England clashed with Ghana.
But today it was the Englishman who was to come out on top against the Sunderland forward and stated that those sort of performances witnessed on Sunday don’t happen every week.
“It was a game we absolutely dominated from start to finish,” Lescott added.
“I don’t think you can ask that level of performance of every week, at this stage of the season it is nice to play well but it is more important to get results and obviously today we got the result as well as the performance.”
