MAN CITY 4 – 0 West Brom – PLAYER RATINGS
12 Apr
View From A Blue is delighted to offer an exclusive promotion for readers! Banc De Binary, the global leader in binary options trading, is offering a 100% sign-up bonus for us Blues. No fees, no commissions, and up to 500% profit in 1 trade. Start trading today or try a free $50,000 demo account. Claim your 100% sign-up bonus here!
Hart - Only forced into action a couple of times and made a pair of routine stops. Distribution, particularly in searching out Clichy down the left, was impressive - 6
Richards - Untested defensively and managed to provide a very useful attacking outlet down the right in the second half. Struggled in the first 45 minutes to time his runs, but was given more space later on and made an impact - 7
Kompany - One of his more comfortable 90 minutes, such was West Brom’s lack of ambition. Only faced with the sole threat of Long and our captain was dominant aerially. Managed to bring the ball forward on a couple of occasions - 7
Lescott - Beaten for pace once in the first half, but was otherwise solid. Powerful in the air and snuffed out any visiting threat with relative ease - 7
Clichy - Didn’t have a great deal of defending to do, which enabled him to move forward regularly. His immense closing down of the opposition was absolutely key in creating our fourth goal and was just rewards for his impressive performance - 7.5
De Jong - He was largely superfluous at times as West Brom decided to sit back in an attempt to limit our threat, but whenever called into action, De Jong did the job. He won tackles, distributed the ball effectively, if a touch slowly, and was the safety net that allowed our more creative players to influence proceedings - 7
Barry - Although it will be the attackers who take much of the acclaim, Barry was my man of the match. In the absence of Yaya Touré, and with De Jong sitting deep, the onus was on the England man to take the initiative and advance more than usual. He did this and more. His passing was crisp and incisive, whilst he mopped up everything in midfield. It was a return to the early season Barry - 8.5
Nasri - Having been awarded the club’s player of the month for March, he continued his improving form with a first class display. He’s often shirked responsibility in the past, but despite the presence of other creative outlets, Nasri really influenced the match. Driving from deep, he linked up well with others and showed a desire to get beyond West Brom’s defence - 8
Silva - Struggled in the first half, as he has done in recent months, with his final touch but grew into the game after the break and will hopefully take huge amounts of confidence from his delightful goal - 7
Tévez - His energy certainly added an element we have missed recently, as he dropped deep to pick up the ball and then spray passes around. Harried defenders constantly and will take heart from his finish. Still not at peak fitness, but this was a promising performance - 7.5
Aguero - Scored two and assisted two, and seemed to relish playing alongside plenty of similarly-minded players. Stretched the West Brom backline with his movement and took both goals superbly - 7.5
Subs
A. Johnson - One teasing cross was the sum of his efforts and although the tempo dropped towards the end, I would have liked to have seen Johnson have more of an impact - 6
Džeko - Controlled two clearances from Hart beautifully on his chest and that was about it - 6
Zabaleta - Shored things up down the right in the closing stages - No time to mark
With the price paid for Clichy, he has been one of our shrewdest signings. He has brought stability to our left back. It is interesting to watch that once Dezko came in there was not a single long ball from the wings into the box at all.
disagree with what you say about richards timing his runs in the first half, mancini kept instructing him to press right up against the back line, however i dont think this was a good tactic, if he came deeper to recieve the ball he could then run at the defence.