Apart from Caicedo coming on for Robinho for the last three minutes, that's how we lined up. So I got the personnel right but the formation wrong here.
Given Another confident performance - faultless under the first half barrage and for the final ten minutes. A handful of good saves too. 7
Richards His best game yet at right back? Dealt with City alumnus Albert Riera comfortably, if not with El Niño when he moved into the left channel. Gave good support to Ireland in midfield, even if the delivery isn't quite there yet. 7
Dunne First league game since Wigan but very solid. Dealt with Torres pretty well (remember the 0-0 at CoMS last Christmas?) and made some crucial blocks when Liverpool pushed for a second. 8
Onuoha This could well be his best run of games for City. Yet more dependable heading and tackling, and almost recreated his goal in Denmark from Thursday night. 7
Bridge Didn't have a very easy time of it in the first half but markedly improved after the interval. Capable of some quality going forward too. Why didn't Liverpool try for him when they went for Dossena instead? 7
Ireland Another difficult away game met by a big Stevie Ireland performance. Despite being stationed on the right, he drifted inside, broke up play, kept possession well and should have scored in the first half. Hopelessly offside when he scored at 1-0. 8
Kompany Moved back into midfield on Thursday, the presence of de Jong allowed him to adopt more advanced positions than ever before as a City player. Using his size and ability to batter the opposition defence (his assisst for Bellamy was the best example), he resembled his fellow Belgian Marouane Fellaini, sans ludicrous afro. Should have been sent off for two yellows though. 8
de Jong Magnificent. His best game for City, and one of the individual perforamances of the season. Sitting in front of the back four, his harrying, passing and tackling but Javier Mascherano, captain of Argentina, in the shade. The keystone of our performance. 9
Zabaleta A new position today - left midfield - but he took to it with his usual effort and aggression. Never let Arbeloa get too far up the pitch, helped out Bridge when necessary (who better to double up than another full back?) and passed well. He's no Martin Petrov, but today that was for the best. 7
Robinho Best away performance for a while. He may not get on well with Craig Bellamy but they are an effective partnership for a team playing on the counter. Gave us the extra quality to keep the ball and create - should have come away with an assisst to Ireland too. 7
Bellamy More tireless running - never gave the Liverpool back four a moment's rest. His deflection was lucky, but probably deserved his goal. Has another trip to an old club next week to look forward to. 8
5 comments:
Sorry disagree. We were better than ok but not that good. A point to high for everyone (Except Ned who should have a point more - being our best defender, and Kompany was marginaly better than De Jong).
Without Gerrard and Alonso, we never stood a chance of winning this game
De Jong was good in the second half, but I find it difficult to give him, Kompany and Ireland all such high marks given how much we were dominated in the first half.
Dunne defended well, but his distribution is terrible. You have to wonder wether Hughes actually asks him to hoof it up the pitch each time or if it's just a reflex for him?
Thought Micah was at fault for the goal, again. His starting position was poor and he let the cross come in too easily. He's got to stop switching off during games. Sometimes I wonder if he's disappeared up his own arse to the extent that he thinks he doesn't need to pick people up properly because he'll get there anyway with his electric pace. Unfortunately that seems to have faded this year (too many late nights?) and he's getting found out all too often. Dunne was solid but as Harry said, his distribution is still shocking. I wouldn't mind if he lumped it into areas where there is a City player within a 20 yard radius but he's not even capable of that. De Jong looked awesome - suddenly the money we paid to take him early looks like a shrewd investment and he will only get better after hardly playing for four months. The thought of the Dippers winning the league makes me wince as much as the thought of the Rags winning it, so a pleasing result really. Could have taken all the points if Super Stevie had taken his chance in the first half! Onwards and upwards.
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