Hart A nasty shock for him and for us. After the best month of his career he made the mistake that cost us the match: straying mindlessly out of his box and seemingly not letting Kolo Touré know about it. Made a good second half save. 5
Richards Given Mancini's decision to deploy James Milner and Adam Johnson as outside-in wingers, I don't think we can afford to compromise on natural width from full-back. And so the decision to play two full-backs who can't cross is baffling. Richards didn't make a single successful pass in or into the final third. I'm not operating under the illusion that Pablo Zabaleta is Maicon, but he can pass and he can cross and that really ought to count for something. Richards defended well enough, but in games like this you expect some multi-functionality from your full-backs. 5
Kolo Touré Not as responsible as Hart for their goal, but he still could have done better - heading it out for a throw-in at the least, rather than standing inertly in Hart's way. Played well otherwise, including an impressive break into the box which might have resulted in a penalty had he beaten Paul Robinson to the ball. 5
Kompany Another good performance: comfortable in the air and completed all 36 of his attempted passes - none of the long-ball sloppiness that crept into his game last month. 6
Lescott What I wrote about Richards applies here, too. I have sympathy with Lescott in that he is not a natural full-back, and he did make two successful passes into the area. But put it like this: I would rather have had Wayne Bridge there today, who is enthusiastic about getting to the byline and causing a bit of disruption to the opposition. 6
Vieira Was never under too much pressure from the Blackburn midfield, allowing him to relax and pick his passes as he likes to. Also scored our equaliser, breaking forward and executing a left footed finish that was harder than it might have looked. 6
Yaya Touré Accomplished in central midfield - completing 61 of 64 attempted passes. I might have wanted to see him break into the box more as we attempted to impose ourselves on the game, I suppose. 6
Johnson Our most exciting player, again. His running at players is always good to watch and he came closest to finding us a goal a few times; particularly with that curling shot that went just beyond Paul Robinson and, unfortunately, his far post. Found Carlos Tévez with a nice pass or two. 7
Milner Tended to swap positions with Shaun Wright-Phillips. Delivery from wide positions was fairly patchy but no worse than that of SWP or Johnson. Ran into problems a few times. 6
SWP Unfortunately the bracket of games where we can afford the luxury of starting SWP is getting narrower and narrower. His starting ahead of David Silva was strange to the point of being worrying. His contribution in his 56 minutes on the pitch was close to nothing. See you in the Carling Cup in ten days time. 4
Tévez Possibly his best performance of the season. He was well involved, dropping deep, linking play and holding the ball up. His finishing isn't as good as it can be - he had a few half chances and snatched at them. 7
Richards Given Mancini's decision to deploy James Milner and Adam Johnson as outside-in wingers, I don't think we can afford to compromise on natural width from full-back. And so the decision to play two full-backs who can't cross is baffling. Richards didn't make a single successful pass in or into the final third. I'm not operating under the illusion that Pablo Zabaleta is Maicon, but he can pass and he can cross and that really ought to count for something. Richards defended well enough, but in games like this you expect some multi-functionality from your full-backs. 5
Kolo Touré Not as responsible as Hart for their goal, but he still could have done better - heading it out for a throw-in at the least, rather than standing inertly in Hart's way. Played well otherwise, including an impressive break into the box which might have resulted in a penalty had he beaten Paul Robinson to the ball. 5
Kompany Another good performance: comfortable in the air and completed all 36 of his attempted passes - none of the long-ball sloppiness that crept into his game last month. 6
Lescott What I wrote about Richards applies here, too. I have sympathy with Lescott in that he is not a natural full-back, and he did make two successful passes into the area. But put it like this: I would rather have had Wayne Bridge there today, who is enthusiastic about getting to the byline and causing a bit of disruption to the opposition. 6
Vieira Was never under too much pressure from the Blackburn midfield, allowing him to relax and pick his passes as he likes to. Also scored our equaliser, breaking forward and executing a left footed finish that was harder than it might have looked. 6
Yaya Touré Accomplished in central midfield - completing 61 of 64 attempted passes. I might have wanted to see him break into the box more as we attempted to impose ourselves on the game, I suppose. 6
Johnson Our most exciting player, again. His running at players is always good to watch and he came closest to finding us a goal a few times; particularly with that curling shot that went just beyond Paul Robinson and, unfortunately, his far post. Found Carlos Tévez with a nice pass or two. 7
Milner Tended to swap positions with Shaun Wright-Phillips. Delivery from wide positions was fairly patchy but no worse than that of SWP or Johnson. Ran into problems a few times. 6
SWP Unfortunately the bracket of games where we can afford the luxury of starting SWP is getting narrower and narrower. His starting ahead of David Silva was strange to the point of being worrying. His contribution in his 56 minutes on the pitch was close to nothing. See you in the Carling Cup in ten days time. 4
Tévez Possibly his best performance of the season. He was well involved, dropping deep, linking play and holding the ball up. His finishing isn't as good as it can be - he had a few half chances and snatched at them. 7
Subs:
Jô Had a long time - 34 minutes - up front with Carlos. Managed to get a few shots away, although never looked like a player who had entertained the idea that he might score a goal that day. 5
Barry Helped to raise the tempo with some sharp passing when he came on. 6
Silva Made a big difference in his brief cameo. Needs to start on Thursday night. n/a
5 comments:
Summed up pretty much perfectly IMHO. I really agree with you re: Micah and SWP , its baffling to say the very least why they are starting games when we clearly have better options.
I think Mancini's getting it wrong on rotation. He should be putting his best team out, starting quickly, getting a good lead, then taking the players who need a bit of a rest off & putting the also rans on for the last third.
He may have underestimated Blackburn after our demolition of Liverpool at home too.
Why was David Silva purchased if he can't beat out SWP for playing time?
At least we're above Tottenham !
"Tévez Possibly his best performance of the season. He was well involved, dropping deep, linking play and holding the ball up. His finishing isn't as good as it can be - he had a few half chances and snatched at them. 7"
Tevez vs. Liverpool was one of the performances of the season from any striker so far. Him consistently dropping dropping deep is a problem rather than a blessing for City; he's the only player in that line-up who can score goals regularly and - much in the same way that Rooney dropping deep for United in a 451 is to be avoided as much as possible - he should focus on leaving the creativity to those around him.
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