MAN CITY 3 – 0 Stoke – PLAYER RATINGS
2 Jan
Hart - A complete passenger in the first half, he was barely busier after the break. Tipped one Whelan effort onto the post, but he won’t have too many easier afternoons - 6
Zabaleta – Defensively sound against the physicality of Jerome and then later the trickery of Etherington, and offered a decent attacking threat down the right. Bombed forward frequently, scoring the first and linking up very well with Milner - 7
Kompany - Strode forward on numerous occasions, displaying plenty of neat footwork and was an authoritative figure at the back whenever the visitors hoofed the ball forward - 7
Lescott – His aerial strength and powerful physical presence got him the nod over Nastasic and he coped well. Stoke barely threatened but whenever they did, Lescott was commanding against Jones and Jerome - 6
Clichy – As we have come to expect from the Frenchman, this was an all-energy, enthusiastic, solid without ever being flamboyant display. Sound at the back, showing great pace and strength on one occasion during the second to track and then dispossess Jerome, and was always an option on the left when we were attacking - 8
Barry – After excelling against Norwich, this was yet again another superb performance. Controlled the midfield, shielding the defence when necessary and offering a calm, delicate touch in midfield. Found Aguero a couple of times in the first half with searching passes and was a real candidate for man of the match - 8.5
Y. Touré - Strolled through much of the game such was Stoke’s limited threat, picking the ball up off our centre-backs and playing it simply to those around him. Could drive forward with more purpose on occasions when there is space in front of him but didn’t need to be at his best yesterday - 6.5
Milner - A real livewire on both flanks, closing down Stoke’s defenders with a sense of vigour and intent, and displaying an end product with his dangerous crosses into the box. Stayed wide for large periods which gave us a varied threat, linked well with Zabaleta and deserved a goal - 8
Silva – Some lovely touches, promising much with his control and teasing outside the box but found that final defence-splitting ball tough to find. Worked tirelessly and always wanted to be involved - 7
Aguero - Terrific enthusiasm and the sharpest of our attacking players. When he drops deep, controls the ball and turns to run at opposition defences, he’s enthralling to watch, gliding past defenders with ease thanks to his pace and low centre of gravity. Went close with a few efforts yesterday before just about slotting home his penalty. My man of the match - 8.5
Džeko - A mixed bag from the Bosnian. Some decent touches but then incredibly sluggish to get into the box. Needs to burst into the middle rather than be content with laying the ball off to someone else and then ambling forward. In the right place at the right time to tap home but not his best overall performance - 6
Subs
Tevez – A couple of neat touches but no real impact. After two games on the bench, he is likely to start against Watford at the weekend - 6
Sinclair – The tempo of the game had completely disappeared by the time he was introduced. One run down the left but no time to make any sort of impression - No time to mark
Razak – Brought on in injury time and the most memorable element of his appearance was the colour of his boots. Outlandishly bright - No time to mark
Wonderful from the boys yesterday, Lescott starting shows Mancini hasn’t forgot about him, contrary to what some people think.
Gareth Barry was outstanding and im starting to think we miss him as much as anyone when he doesnt play, his passing yesterday was of the highest quality and thats in addition to his innate reading of the game.
Milner has to be the man to replace Yaya but I have a little fear it may be garcia along side Barry with James out wide, like yesterday. As much as he played well there, I dont think he will produce it in that position week in week out, as we have seen in the past.
Dezko is a target man, and when he gets the ball outside the 18 yards, he should pass the ball and run into the box leveraging his height and physical attributes for incoming balls in the box directly.
As a person responsible for designing/implementing and running existing enterprise systems [which correlates more often than not to real life events], you are successful only and only if you follow the KISS rule (keep it simple stupid). It is true Yaya SIMPLY passed the balls to people around him, but that is what keeps the team ticking, years of experience have taught me that no good comes out of complexity but only simplicity.
Yaya was the center of team who kept the flow simple and easy and I do not see what he did wrong to get 6.5.
To some extent you are right about keeping it simple but my 2 main issues with that for a player of Yaya’s quality and importance to the team are this:
1) He is capable of much more, and in the past he has done some great things that required much more than him keeping it simple. Therefore him just passing it sideways means he is playing well within himself and so how can you realistically score him higher?
2) If everyone on the team just got the ball and kept it simple then we would hardly ever score, bits of quality whether it is beating a player or trying something different is needed to open up a team. Especially if they have 11 men behind the ball
Agreed.
We had other players on the pitch like Milner, Barry, Augero, Zab that were doing an excellent job. You have a true statement that it does not make sense for everyone to keep it simple, by the same token, it also does not make sense for everyone to have that sort of intricacy about their play. Complexity is an inherent part of any system and the key is to strike a balance between simplicity and complexity.
Yaya was not as intricate as say Barry yesterday, but I believe he deserves as much as Silva’s rating and definitely not as high as Barry. My impression of his ratings in the forum has been of some sort of bias toward him and I am simply voicing my opinion on his performance which may be viewed by others as irrational favoritism toward him.
VFAB definitely has a dislike for Toure, as he clearly voiced his opinion about him in the post match thoughts blog after the sunderland game. Although taken on face value, i personally feel 6.5 was fair, against Norwich the 5 seemed harsh though
I take your point but I guess once you’ve seen Yaya do his awesome trademark ‘barnstorming runs’ and blow the other team apart you just want to see it again and again. And when he doesn’t he can be mistaken for being a bit lazy.
Great team performance anyway, lets hope our midfield keeps ticking while the big man is away and a speedy recovery for Aguero. It would be great to have him back in time for the Arsenal game!
Nobody need worry about VFAB’s dislike of Yaya for a few weeks, he will switch effortlessly to target Javi Garcia and/or Aleks Kolarov (when he’s recovered from injury)the other two players who can do no right for him
I choose Javi as my tip
Aguero is unbelievable, so fun to watch. I don’t think there’s another player in the world that really reminds me of messi the way he does with his quickness and close control on the ball. We are so lucky he decided to come play for us, lets hope he stays for many more.