Pearson Takes Positives

The game ended 3-0 to the visitors, with Colombian striking sensation Radamel Falcao getting on the score sheet, but Pearson saw plenty of positives to take from the match which fell just one week before the opening weekend at Middlesbrough.

Matty James and Chris Wood both had excellent chances in the first half for City, and although they were unable to make the breakthrough on the day, the manager will be pleased that the majority of his squad played a part.

“Whenever you’re involved in pre-season, you want to keep as many players involved as you can,” Pearson told media after the match. “I’m not a big believer in picking and playing the XI early in pre-season.

“For us to have a successful season we need to have a squad ethic that enables you to deal with the ups and downs of a competitive division.

“We played 3-5-2 to start with, and then tried 4-2-3-1, and we’re used to that so it’s not a major problem. But whenever you’re experimenting with new formations you have to factor in that the players aren’t always going to get it spot on all the time.

“If I’m honest, we could have applied ourselves a little bit better in that we probably gave them (AS Monaco) a little bit too much respect.

“I would expect the players to have given them a harder time, especially in the first half – we have good situations that we didn’t get an end product from.

“It’s a disappointing result clearly, I would have liked us to make a bit more of a fist of it. Conceding from a set play early on didn’t make it the type of game I would have liked.

“I think the biggest observation as far as I’m concerned is that we didn’t do enough with the ball. We didn’t create enough opportunities and not enough dangerous situations in possession.

“I’m pretty clear in terms of how we go about the first day of the season, and for the most part this pre-season the players have applied themselves pretty well.”