Sunday, 1 February 2009

TLDORC January awards

Just four games in January (there were seven each in November and December). It was a mixed month too - two good wins in the middle bookended by two shameful defeats.

Nottingham Forest (h) 0-3 (thoughts)
Wigan (h) 1-0 (thoughts)
Newcastle (h) 2-1 (thoughts, ratings)
Stoke (a) 0-1 (thoughts, ratings)

Player of the Month

There were only two players in contention this month - Pablo Zabaleta (who won the December award) and Vincent Kompany. Zabaleta has impressed after moving from defence to midfield, as has Kompany having made the opposite journey. They both played poorly in the cup, before excelling in the two league wins. But it is for a slightly better performance against Stoke City, and his assumption of the captaincy in the absence of Richard Dunne, that makes Vincent Kompany the TLDORC January Player of the Month. He spent most of his first few months at City as a very impressive holding midfielder. But he has all the attributes to be a world class centre back, and looks as if he could spend the next ten years playing there for us. Moreover, he's a much more plausible future captain than Micah Richards.

Individual performance of the Month

Pablo Zabaleta against Wigan. His first game for City in central midfield and he bossed it: snapping into tackles, making sensible passes and scoring the game's only game with a fantastic strike. Alongside de Jong we have a very solid base to work from now.

Goal of the Month

Zabaleta against Wigan

1 comment:

ChrisR said...

Congratulations Vincent, you've finally won the big one you've been waiting for (the Thomas Cook what now?)