Dynamo Kyiv 2 – 0 MAN CITY – PLAYER RATINGS
11 Mar
Hart - Possibly rushed off his line for the first goal, leaving little space for Kolarov’s defensive tackle, but was otherwise fine. Made a few, decent, late stops to keep us in the tie - 6
Richards - Tried to get forward as much as possible and was unlucky not to influence the game more, but was given a tough time at the back. One of the better performances - 7
Kompany - Not his usual commanding self at the back. At time, looked impressive when he was bringing the ball forward, but Shevchenko used his experience well and made life difficult for Vincent. Rash in a couple of tackles and was turned very easily by his man - 5
Lescott - Solid. Knows his limits and sticks to them. Covered well on occasions for Kolarov and was generally more assured than Kompany - 6.5
Kolarov - So poor defensively, it’s shocking. Ball watching for the first goal, where he let Shevchenko get the run on him, and was positionally lost throughout. Likes to get forward obviously, but no end product - 5
Zabaleta - Started in the holding role, moved out to the right wing and ended up at left back, but although he tried as hard as anyone, he lacked the creative ability yesterday. Saw a lot of the ball but didn’t do a great deal with it - 6
Y. Touré - I can’t put into words just what I think of him. I just find it incredulous that a player with such obvious quality is so consistently awful. No tempo, no bursts from midfield, no energy, no desire, no nothing. It’s a shame it wasn’t him instead of Kolo that will be banned - 3.5 (and that’s being kind)
Barry – Tries his hardest and covers a lot of ground, but in games like this, he must move the ball quicker. Our tempo was so laboured and although Gareth’s passing is accurate, it was without purpose. Deserves a reset against Reading after playing so much football recently - 6
Silva - Always looked to get on the ball and create, but his touch was strangely missing. Almost supplied Micah in the opening minutes, but was forced to drop deeper and deeper as the game went on. Will be the key in the return leg - 6.5
Balotelli - Contrary to popular opinion, I actually thought he did quite well in the first half. He was working hard for the team and showed flashes of magic on the ball. But then he turned up late for the second half, with Mancini claiming after the game he had suffered an allergy reaction to grass and his cheek was swelling. I remain baffled - 6
Džeko - In the first half, he was as poor as any City striker could have been. Unbelievably laboured, he looked disinterested, but improved in the second half. Couple of nice touches, but we need more from him - 5
Subs
Tévez - His arrival perked us up immediately, but then he drifted deeper and was careless in possession - 6
SWP - Couldn’t get into the game - No time to mark
As a non MCFC fan I watched this game and I thought wow what a waste of money and what a humdinger of a manager..
City were woeful, sub Tevez was only happy when the ball came to his feet and only tried to shoot when he should have passed. sometimes making shevchenko look like a world beater.. I think the problem is Mancini and some ego’s that are more than far fetched.. BARRY 6 lol is that because he is English.. he is a waste of space..
OZTHEMAN
>>> To quote yourself, “BARRY 6 lol is that because he is English.. he is a waste of space..”
Nope, not at all. 6 is the rating given because he had a decent game.
When a quality player performs below par there are only two reasons:
1- They are physically tired as it can be the case for some players who have been playing with no rest every 3 games for some extended time
2- For some convoluted reasons they think they are better than club and they are only entitled to big fat weekly cheque.
In the first case, you let them rest for a game or two and in the second case you drag their a.. on bench and let someone with more passion for the club to take the job., I am sure we have
Mancini is the one who needs to sort these out. This is absolutely unacceptable
Yaya fits into number two as he cannot fit into number one because he cant be tired beause he doesnt do any work when he does play!
Tiredness is an interesting issue.
Let’s say that the average Joe Bloggs Premiership footballer covers about 11km during an average game (I think the figure is there or there abouts), yet doing this every three or four days gets them a bit puffed out. So what? I know someone that has run 7 marathons in 7 consecutive days. By my calculations, that is 295 kilometres and 365 metres. This is about 13 times what Bloggs would ocver in roughly the same time.
So, the question is; if someone can do those distances on 7 consecutive days, why can’t a footballer do much smaller distances at greater intervals.
Admittedly, the fitness levels of a footballer are tremendous, but why then are we (that is to say fans, managers and many others) still moaning about fixture congestion. With greater fitness levels and the ability to rotate even within the 25 man squad, these ‘problems’ should be no issue whatsoever.
I’m not trying to argue here, by the way. I completely agree with Siamack’s points – especially the second one. I suppose my main point was that tiredness seems to be becoming an excuse for poor performances when, as highlighted in my above post, any issues can be avoided.
I totally agree with you that tiredness is becoming some sort of excuse even used by manager though there may be some truth in it. We have some young talented players that I am certain, if they are given a chance, their worst performance will not be as bad as what we noticed. But it seems our manager is blind to this. I have said it before and I say it again our youth deserve a chance esp now.
So ur telling me that Kompany who was marking Milevskiy was ripped apart by Shevchenko mate u need to watchthe match he dived in twice and cost us a goal. rewind he season and put in that waste of space Lescott and c were we would b Pathetic 1 bad game and Kompany Yaya and Mancini r all S***. Kompanys the reason were 3rd we have a crap defence othr then him Kolo Jolean r rubbish would prefer Boyata plays at least he can learn and get better. I’m not Koloravs biggest fan but Lescott was to blame for the 1st goal ball watching let Shev in between him and Hart. VK has been ijured recently he wasnt great at wigan and he werent good last nite but it p***** me off wen people suddenly start calling players Tevez has been crap but he threatened to leave so we cant upset him let the C*** go.
Siamack was rite theres only 2 reasons players play crap for Kompany its number 1 Tevez is a number 2
Josh, do you realise that this is a rating for this game only and not for the season as a whole? From your comment, it seems like you are suggesting I believe Kompany is crap, something which is certainly not the case. He was, in my opinion, poor in this game, but as the first sentence for him reads, “Not his usual commanding self”.
Over the course of the season, if you would care to read my other ratings, he has been outstanding, and by far our best defender. But I rate per game, not based on the whole season.
I Understand but dont understand how he could have been made difficult by a man Lescott was marking and Yayas 3.5 thats very very harsh considering Dzeko got a 5. and i made that comment regarding VK and JL because u overmarked Lescott no 1 can argue Kompany is one of the if not the best in the league but i think u need to take into account he was injured and was probably rushed back because of the lack of quality without him. I do apoligise to u i was abit rash in coming into defend VK.
I think Mancini got this match very wrong, I do like the guy but I thought he should have packed the midfield put Dzeko up front on his own and leave Silva/Tevez at home to rest for Reading and the return leg.
Now we face Reading with a demoralised bunch and we have already shown our “best” hand for the return leg.
Having scored 8 in their last two Euro matches I truly believe we should have tactically looked for a draw – comments?
We were not very good at all and it seems as though our away form has somehow suffered in relation to our home form’s improvement. The last really good away performance was last year at Newcastle and we have not won away since then. The trip to Kyiv was always going to be tough and not one player can be particularly proud of their performance, but once again Yaya Toure comes out of it as being the main reason behind this. The guy is an easy target due to his wages and the way he carries himself but on Thursday we also had the likes of Barry, Balotelli, Dzeko, Kompany, Silva and Tevez all playing well under par. But in my opinion it was Kolarov who contributed most to our downfall on a cold night in Ukraine. The guy seems to not only lack pace but also any kind of positional awareness to compensate for this. Then there is the question of what to do with him, play him at left back where it has become a key area for opposing teams to exploit, or play him in midfield where he doesn’t seem to know what he should be doing. I’m hoping he will come good but from what I’m seeing of him he should just be used as a substitute until the end of the season and use that time to study his game more. Boateng needs to play at left back even though I think his best position is in the middle but either way he has definately adapted to the english game better than Kolarov.
Yaya was our worst performer. Not because of his wages, but because of what happened on the night – he was the worst player in a City shirt. Why pass it back in the dying minutes when everyone is in the box so they can counter attack and get the ball in our corner?
Arse lost 3-1 and were played off the planet let alone the pitch. City get beaten 2-0 a worse result in European terms but competed well and were not outclassed.
Sometimes results go against you.
Keeping a clean sheet is now essential if we are to have any chance of winning through otherwise we need to score four and that aint gonna happen! Doing that AND scoring twice to take it to extra time would seem an outside bet at best. Still, it aint over yet so put away your OTT angst for a while will you and get behind the team. Two good performances and the sky will be boue and the sun will be shining.