Borussia Dortmund 1 – 0 MAN CITY – PLAYER RATINGS
5 Dec
Hart - Not quite as busy as he was in the previous meeting between the sides but still required to make a number of saves to keep the scoreline presentable. Spread himself well and showed great athleticism and bravery. Shame his teammates couldn’t follow suit - 8
Maicon – Switched off occasionally in defence as has been the case too often recently and couldn’t provide that thrust going forward. His delivery into the box, usually so varied and menacing, was sadly lacking - 5.5
Kompany - Was reasonably solid without ever imposing himself on Dortmund’s attackers but was given the odd worrying moment by their pace and movement - 6
Lescott – Similar to his central defensive partner, he was largely comfortable and was powerful in the air but couldn’t help to keep a clean sheet. Will likely find himself on the bench for the derby on Sunday - 6
Nastasic – Shifted out to a unusual left back position but acquitted himself well for the most part. Looked comfortable on the ball but as expected with a centre-half playing out of position, he couldn’t offer any attacking threat – 6
Garcia – Continued his deeply concerning start to his City career. Slow, unable to make a tackle, offered no protection in front of the defence and watched the game pass him by. Otherwise excellent - 4
Barry – Not at his best as was only to be expected with this being his fourth game in quick succession but he did a useful job in the centre of midfield. Tried to get forward as much as possible but found himself having to cover Garcia far too often - 6
Sinclair - A bright spark in the opening twenty minutes or so but like so many, faded out of the game. Has that yard of pace which we generally lack as a team but couldn’t be released in areas which could hurt the Germans - 6
Nasri - His movement in the early exchanges, drifting from one flank to the other and occupying spaces between the midfield and attack, was excellent but as so often the case with Nasri, he produced little end product and had no impact as the game wore on - 6
Tévez - The only outfield player to impress. He looked busy throughout, holding play up well and linking nicely with those around him. Grew frustrated with Dzeko’s inadequacies and seemed brighter following Aguero’s introduction - 7
Džeko - Super sub, very average starter. Yet again failed to make any impression when given the chance to start. Every attack broke down at his feet, as he lacks the technical ability of those around him. Hopefully won’t be picked for the derby - 5
Subs
Aguero – Gave City a sense of purpose and drive but was unable to find the breakthrough - 6
Balotelli – A few decisions were harshly awarded against him and he ended up losing his temper and received a silly booking - 5
Zabaleta – Added the role of left wingback to his list of positions covered but didn’t make any impact on the game - 6
And here comes the comments about the rating and opinion of Garcia
As much as I dislike Tevez but his attitude and work-rate on the pitch is second to none. With this form and work-rate, Mancini should never bench him. As for Garcia, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, but they were not. As I said before, he was much like an elephant running among cheetahs. I think his being sluggish has more to do with match fitness as opposed to being a lousy player.
I really don’t see javi Garcia a 15.8 million pound player, the last two games he had played Mancini may as well have played me alongside Barry, his positional play isn’t great his tackling is non existent and his pace is similar to my grans who is aged 89, I honestly don’t see how he gets in our team and how he was actually capped for Spain astounds me any person watching these past two games would agree he just doesn’t cust the mustard ( unless of he is like Colin bell in training)
to be honest i think thats harsh…………….
…………….on your grandma
Posted prev but on wrong article. Bear in mind half of BD first team weren’t playing:-
Maicon – awful again. The bit where he tried to turn and nearly fell over in the second half on the near touch line was Sunday league stuff. Fat git. Zab should have come on for him with Nasri moved to the middle, or something.
Lescott – terrible in possession. Tonight showed why he’s been axed. So awkward on the ball it’s untrue – akin to how C3PO would look if he played football, probably.
Garcia – worst Mancini buy ever. Slow. Keeps giving the ball away. Slow to turn. And, er, did I say slow. Move to reserve centre back or back to Spain. Makes Barry look twice the player (no criticism of Barry who I think does a required careening job). Oh NDJ – where for art thou?
Ballotelli – if we are offered £15m for him in Jan I would snap their hand off. He assisted Auguerooooooooooooooooo for that goal but apart from that? Overhyped tool.
Hart – stop pulling those “zany” faces prior to kick off. Not funny. Not a good idea to be cocky when you’ve not won one game. Even if you were top of the group you would still come across as you are doing, which is, a cock. Couple of good saves though and best player in this awful campaign. Ok, this is a petty point but it is grating. As is the faux urban ghetto Ali Gi accent!
We are desperately lacking width (Dzeko would score 50% (clinically proven…) more goals with more crosses) apart from the girth of Maicon, Garcia and Tevez (who at least, as ever, worked his tripe off).
Adjectives on City – Slow; narrow; lacking urgency; slow; turgid; stodgy; energy sapping; lack of cohesion, passion and fight; slow. Boring to watch.
Sky panel got it spot on last night – apart from Hoddle where he said we do press and play with more tempo in the Prem – NO WE DON’T!!!
Unbelievably negative, bordering on obnoxious, and yes the things you highlighted about Hart were petty to say the least. The adjectives you used to describe city where you used 5 different words for the same thing, is something a red would do to be annoying. Try to make your view more balanced (and that doesnt just mean being positive), and then I will treat your opinion with some level of respect
Ha! Earn your respect?! Quite. Are you Don Corleone?
“Unbelievably negative, bordering on obnoxious” – presume you’re talking about last night’s performance by the players getting an obnoxious amount of money? You are aren’t you?
My points are spot on. Please tell me which ones are incorrect?
Balanced? How about ” Hart was our best player in the CL” vs the fact he comes cross as an “cocky get “who thinks has done it all yet can’t control his box and is hopeless on crosses. Balanced for you?
Balanced? Or how about the fact I didn’t mention how bad Dzeko actually was, but rather focused on the fact he needs crosses. But, seeing as I’ve mentioned it, he was, er shit.
Balanced? I focused on 5 players – bit of balance for you.
Choose to respect it or not Blue “mafia don” Bullet, like the players last night, I couldn’t give a shit.
If im Don then your Rafa Benitez with your ‘its a FACT that Dzeko would score exactly 50% more goals if we crossed more’ Clinically proven apparently. ‘what i said is spot on’ is another beauty from someone who thinks what they say is way more important and accurate than what it is. The Hart stuff is so ridiculous im not gonna begin to comment on it. Your clearly red by the way, go to one of there blogs and debate with them raggy.
Don
I am far from a world class football manager but moving on and looking forward to the weekend our team should be : hart, vinnie, nastasic, richards. ( if fit) yaya, silva, nasri, barry, tevez, mario, Sergio given our injury problems and the rags defensive woes we should go 3:4:3 and play to attack from the outset hopefully taking the 3 points draws are simply not good enough at home.
Cheers Don. I’m surprised that as head of the family you could not detect the ever so subtle hint of sarcasm in the “clinically proven 50%” bit about Dzeko.
Moreover, “what I said is spot on” was indeed a beauty, as it again slipped under your mafioso radar – perhaps, think about this now, I was maybe playing up to your cruel jibe of being obnoxious??
Finally, you comment on my Hart comment by saying you’re not going to comment on it. Your powers are clearly fading and it’s time you handed the reigns over to the next in line.
Incidentally, you may not like this, but I am a blue; I’m not the only one who thinks Hart is coming across really poorly (but is clearly an excellent GK even though he plucks and dyes his eyebrows)……
Wow it must be a real struggle to watch City play every week for you with this level of venomous negativity. We aren’t playing at the top of our game and we should expect more from some of our players but we are champions and 2nd in the league. Give them a break.. How high has your level of expectation risen since 10 years ago man?
City fans are the best because despite the bashing we get about the money spent we all know where we come from at heart and know it is low to get overly arrogant from success. Lets leave that to the rags
It has been a struggle this season – name one performance this season where we have dominated the opponents. In fact, name one game other than West Brom away where we have played well.
Something isn’t right. It’s not just a three/seven/ten match run. It’s 3/4 months which means the problem is structural rather than temporary.
Not sure what the solution is (wingers to stretch play; rest YaYa; drop Kolorov…) but something does not smell right.
Yeah I hear you, something’s not quite right. I think other teams have sussed out our patient approach play now and pack the middle in and we struggle. That’s possibly why Mancini is trying to develop the 3-5-2 as a wider option but we don’t have any quality wingers or fast players for this system to really work at the moment?
FWs haven’t been banging the goals in but we’re not supplying them well enough. We need much more from Yaya and Nasri. With Silva man-marked we can still pass the ball around but we’re too tame, not bite no speed no element of surprise.
What i really don’t understand however, is why we’re still 2nd in the league and better than M*n U or Chelsea??? Level of Prem has gone dooooown.
The bright side is that nothing has been right with our rivals as well. At the end of day, what is important is to tally up the points and stay up and looking at the table, we have been just doing it. Mind you, I prefer to do it with more ease and fewer close calls.
I have been saying it all along that we truly need to strengthen on wings and work on our crosses because they are horrible.
If you were being sarcastic about Dzeko scoring 50% more goals, then the term ‘sarcastic’ would suggest that he wouldnt score anymore at all. Therefore, as a red your being derogatory about the blues again. Whether Hart is ‘cocky’ or not is not something i care about but in your last comment you said he is ‘an excellent goalkeeper’ but in your post previous to this you said ‘can’t control his box and is hopeless on crosses’this is contradictory. This is what i mean about balance, if he was that bad in those 2 areas, it would be difficult to also describe him as excellent.
Don- forever the head of the family
Cheers Don.
Painful this……..the sarcastic bit was “clinically proven”. Point beng is that a lot of Dzeko’s goals in Germany came due to wingers playing. His game is not suited to quick passing on the deck. However we don’t have any wingers (Sinclair……..) which means Dzeko’s supply line is choked off – not to mention meaning that we just play through the middle and teams can defend this/park the bus.
Hart is an excellent goalkeeper however he is poor in ONE area which is controlling his box/dealing with crosses. Same area/issue Donny boy. He was appalling on distrubition too (partic kicking) but has improved recenty. Point is, he’s not made it and would do well to cut out his “zany” antics until then, preferably cut it out completely. After all, that is one thing easy to do.
Im so proud to see one of my sons grow in such a short space of time. What your saying now actually opens sensible debate imo. Your first paragraph i think holds some truth, but where I dont agree with this, and lets be honest your not the only one to say it,is that teams parked the bus last season knowing we would attack through the middle yet we still showed the quality to get through. A quality winger, which to be fair we have tried to sign in each of the last 2 summers, would definitely help add another dimension and yes Dzeko probably would score more. With Hart, I dont believe him to be hopeless at all from crosses, I actually think the opposite to be honest, my guess would be you would like to see him catch more, but to be fair i cant remember too many clangers leading to goals from this aspect of his keeping. Where i think we are falling down compared to last is quite simply level of individual performance, mainly from yaya and the strikers.
no urgencey,no confidence,no belief in what were doing, to many players passing resposability by doing the simple 3 yard pass to the player next to them,in stead of picking the ball up and driving at players(dont expect them to every time they pick the ball up)like we was use to last yr,still unbeatern but god knows how,this sunday will turn our season around,a derby win is just what we need at the minute.CITY.
Cheers Don. My life is complete. Am I a ‘made’ man now?!
Your definitely close