Hamburg 1 - 0 City reaction

• Not too bad. The performance was patchy, certainly. We only had one shot on target. But given the quality of the opposition, the stage of our preparations, the weather etc, it was ok.

• We started very poorly. In a 4-4-2, Fernandes and Elano is simply not a credible partnership in central midfield. They are both good players, but just as Fernandes needs a player more commanding, more authoritative than Elano to play with him, so too does Elano need someone more sensible and more disciplined than Fernandes. Without Hamann or Johnson, our midfield lacks order.

• When Vassell moved onto the right wing we benefited from the extra man in midfield. Having got nowhere near the ball for the first twenty minutes, we were a bit more competitive in midfield. It also allowed Elano to play further up the pitch, which is obviously a good thing.

• It's not like we missed Vassell up front. His partnership with Caicedo was as effective as it was always going to be. Caicedo tried manfully when playing the lone frontman role; but the service was never really there. And when he got the ball, the Hamburg centre backs were too good to give him any space.

• Our best player was Micah Richards. His absence was as significant a cause in our 2008 decline as any other, so it was good to get 90 minutes out of him. I don't think he made a single mistake. Richard Dunne's performance was a microcosm of his performances in general: usually competent, occasionally brilliant, but with enough mistakes to irritate.
  

• I don't usually think this but: we really missed Garrido today. The argument for Ball seems to rest solely on his 'competence' versus Garrido's 'adventure', but when Ball is as error-prone as he was today we might as well take the better attacking option. He was repeatedly caught out at the back, whilst Martin Petrov was lonely and isolated out on the left. Petrov didn't look fully fit, but I'm sure he would have looked better with better support.

• The introduction of the young players was the best bit. Kelvin Etuhu on the right wing looked good: like Ishmael Miller but with a better first touch. Ched Evans managed to show up in the right place a few times - even once in our penalty area to end a Hamburg counter attack. Danny Sturridge didn't do that much, but at least looked active. I imagine at least one of these will be involved on Thursday.